This week higher education celebrates Global Advising Week from April 27 – May 3, in recognition of the formation of NACADA: The Global Community for Academic Advising. Formally chartered on May 2, 1979, NACADA exists to advance student success through academic advising in higher education. Since NACADA’s inception, academic advisors have created inclusive spaces for students to discuss their holistic goals and educational purposes.
Now a global professional community of practice, NACADA leaders ground advising in key competencies, shared values, standards of practice, and a teaching mindset that unites the field. Whether they serve as faculty advisors, full-time primary-role advisors, or champions of the cause, NetVUE members should celebrate advising this week—for all the ways that it provides unique opportunities to deepen students’ vocational learning.
The Merits of Integrating Vocation into Advising
At many institutions, students are often required to meet with advisors before they can register, making advising the only endeavor across the academy that engages students in conversations every term. Other vocational initiatives, such as residence life programming or student retreats, can effectively reach subgroups of students, but academic advising reaches all students.
Comprehensive outreach through advising ensures all students achieve key vocational milestones. If advisors define what they want students to know, do, or value in the context of vocation, they can design standardized prompts or advising activities. For example, if institutions value high-impact vocational encounters with one’s neighbor (e.g., internships, service-learning, study away), advisors can ask students about their engagement and refer students without these experiences to campus partners like career centers and programs that support international students. Using a simple rating scale, advisors can also evaluate the narrative students use to describe these experiences during advising, allowing institutions to measure students’ understanding of vocational concepts.
Institutions committed to vocation know that such reflection and mentoring practices are not optional but essential. Integrating these practices into advising is fundamental for students to be able to access these resources. First-generation students often do not know how to find these kinds of opportunities, and student athletes or working adult learners may not have extra time to engage in them. Minoritized students benefit from the vocational validation of advisors because they often experience diminished belonging or may be less confident in their abilities. Without meaningful advising, low-income students may anxiously over-emphasize the importance of labor market demands—or their future earning potential—and minimize suitable alternative careers or activities that advance the common good.
Beyond ensuring access to vocational exploration, advisors can also invite students to construct and tell a coherent story of their undergraduate education. By doing so, students integrate and appreciate their experiences—no longer perceiving general education courses as a checklist to get out of the way but instead as an interdisciplinary journey they will enjoy. This in turn allows them to describe in their own words the vocational purpose or logic of the general education program. Advisors can also ask students how they will use their time during college and their future degrees to enhance the sustainability of their communities, reminding students that co-curricular activities are not simply resume-building activities, but also opportunities to engage in and with their community. Many scholars associate motivation with transparent conversations about the relevance of learning. Through advising, graduates can reflect on their college journey and see the vocational thread that ties everything together. Without this reflection and integration, the coherence of our students’ learning and our institutional missions may not be visible to them.
Reflecting on Advising Practices
Integrating vocation into advising requires intentionality. The complexity and importance of vocation-infused advising should encourage NetVUE members to pause and reflect during Global Advising Week. To examine and evaluate your practices, consider these questions:
What do you aspire to teach students about vocation when you engage in advising?
Like other endeavors in the academy, academic advising has curricula, pedagogies, and student learning outcomes. (For more on this topic, see NACADA’s pocket guide on assessment.) Advising approaches often vary based on students’ needs and the context of their institutions. Many institutions create vocational learning outcomes focused on students’ educational goals, applied learning, ethical integrity, civic engagement, and renewal or well-being. To understand the shared vision, values, and mission of advising in your context, browse the resources provided by your institution. If these documents do not exist, collaborate with others to articulate these commitments. Once you have identified your goals, share these objectives with students in flipped advising curriculum or first-year seminars, so that they come to advising prepared, allowing more time for you to discuss vocation.
How have you removed barriers that may have arisen through institutional perspectives, policies, practices, or procedures?
Excellent vocational advisors advance access, inclusion, and diversity. If you aren’t sure where to start, consider your institutional data. Review disaggregated gateway course completion rates to identify disparities across student subgroups, such as first-generation students. If students complete foundational courses at lower rates and cannot progress in their chosen major, advisors can collaborate with professors to redesign courses and advising practices. Consider campus climate survey results, as well.
Listen to students during advising to understand the vocational engagement obstacles they encounter. Some students may share that they declined internships because public transportation was not accessible or that they avoided studying abroad because scholarships did not exist. Some colleges also fund faculty-mentored research exclusively through national grants that prohibit the participation of international students, hindering their vocational development. You can celebrate advising week by identifying these barriers and collaborating with others to redesign vocational applied learning.
How do you edify and encourage the vocation of the other advisors at your institution?
From academic concerns to well-being referrals, academic advising is a team sport. It requires coordinated care and collaboration, and we should recognize others for their dedication to vocationally enriching advising, whether they work as primary-role advisors or colleagues in your department or division. Write a note of gratitude or post something on social media using hashtags such as #ThankAnAdvisor or #TogetherWeAdvise. When we validate our colleagues’ gifts, talents, and strengths, we summon and sustain their callings.
What wisdom do you have to share with other institutions about how to embed vocational teaching in academic advising?
From blog posts to conference presentations and other publications, NetVUE values your voice. Since NetVUE started offering grants, more than 50 institutions have reimagined advising to include vocation exploration and engagement. If you work at one of these institutions, what can you write or share about your vocational advising experiences?
As you look ahead, what are your vocational advising goals for the coming academic year?
Ongoing evaluation honors the complexity of advising and drives continuous improvement. If you had a magic wand, what would you wish for to advance vocational learning while advising? Ponder the possibilities. Most institutions have academic advising councils or governing groups that oversee the delivery and design of advising. From flipped advising curriculum delivered in first-year seminars to vocationally focused publications and technology, advising is complex. Get involved and share ideas as a community. If you would like to engage in deeper self-assessment, review the guidelines published by the Council for the Advancement of Standards or NACADA’s Excellence in Academic Advising Self-Study process.
Whatever you do, I invite you celebrate Global Academic Advising Week in ways that help you deepen the vocational aspects of advising in your life!
Billie Streufert serves as an academic advisor at Dordt University, a faculty member in NACADA’s eTutorial program, and the associate editor of NCDA’s Career Convergence Web Magazine. She’s fueled by (besides coffee) the belief that the world is a better place when everyone has access to meaningful work and study. She enjoys collaborating with her colleagues to foster vocational exploration and engagement. As a first-generation graduate from a working-class family in rural Iowa, she aspires to give back to others like those who supported her.