Advising By Advision

 Social Entrepreneurship: In this class my mind first  drifts to the thought of building a business. Maybe through building networks of people. Maybe through creating a product or item coveted by the masses. Or maybe some intersection of each. However none of this was mentioned in our studies thus far. 

Social Entrepreneurship as a class has been based on reading people - reading ourselves in personality and habit while categorizing both, then finding out how to properly evaluate...anything I guess. We evaluate in "SWOT" fashion: It is an acronym for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. We observe this method to resolve any specific issue or singularity pertaining to a person, group, or situation. 

My class was given the responsibility to evaluate our school and decide what needs to change. Most have identified communications to be the issue. I considered the same but chose to advocate for reform in our advisory system. According to former Lincoln Park attendee LM, arch nemesis of mine, there was no advisory at all in terms of dedicated time. Though they had an advisor, interaction was minimal. In this sense GCE has done well to devote themselves to community engagement, as per the values they claim.  

The current advisory system in GCE is based around the thought that each grade has separate needs to be taken care of. Thus grades are grouped together to fulfil those class specific needs. A good example of this would be the upperclassmen, as juniors will be sorting out college information and seniors will be applying to colleges while creating senior capstones. It is structured so that one class will have multiple teachers to help instruct and facilitate meaningful work time. The majority of our advisory time thus far has been creating a common app account to apply for college and now brainstorming ideas for a capstone. The intentions have merit and I understand the need for specialized classes though as a senior, the reality feels different. I believe that advisory during my earlier years at GCE was superior. We were placed in smaller, interclass, groups with one teacher as our main advisor. I felt because of this I was able to make bonds with others throughout the school and have a person to talk to in the staff. It wasn't very stress inducing, a commonly known space for interaction and/or work time. 

To prove the worth of the old advisory format and suggest a solution: I will look to reference Maslow’s hierarchy of needs and conduct a SWOT analysis based on sourced information. The hierarchy of needs explains on scale the importance of human needs. As it states our needs are listed in this way: 1. Phycological needs, 2. Safety, 3. Love/ Belonging, 4. Esteem,  and 5. Self-Actualization. I believe the old advisory promoted number 1, 3, and 4 as it helped me as a new student feel apart of the community instantly and felt accepted by those around me. I believe the current advisory doesn't directly fulfil any of these needs. One could argue for safety as you do need to secure a future for yourself but then you are given an ultimatum to decide for your current needs or your future ones.   

As for a SWOT analysis I interviewed four people: 1. Another student in my class, 2. A student from another class that experienced both versions of advisory, 3. The main staff member to sort out schedules, and 4. Another staff member that knows how advisory works but does not participate. 

I chose to pick these specific people for the various possible answers I could get. Someone from my class to see if my opinion is shared with others in the class. Someone from another class and grade to see if they felt the difference in advisory styles or if its an isolated opinion. Someone who is responsible for knowing if changes to have interclass advisory back is possible. And finally, 4. Someone who can give an objective opinion on the situation. From these four interviews I pulled apart the words to fit the format of a SWOT analysis. Here is the culmination of  said efforts: 

"SWOT Analysis" CDH, 2022

From this analysis and my argument for reform I have a few suggestions but not a full solution. We should change the advisory schedule so that we can have several days being interclass and several monoclass. This would keep time for class specific needs to be met but also promotes opportunity for interclass relationships to flourish. I think during our time as individual classes we should stay in one big group with several teachers to help but have individual teachers for small, multiclass, groups. 

This was just supposed to be a project but I do intend to work with my teacher who creates the schedule to find a way to work this kind of advisory back in to the school. It was important for me when first joining the school and I know it would be helpful for future students. Thank you for reading and I hope you have a good day, night, or whenever you are reading this. 

-CDH