Kristen Foster remarks on receiving the Excellence in Faculty Advising Award
April 23, 2008
Thank you all very much. I am honored to have been recognized for something that I love to do. I am also honored to follow Julius Ruff in this award. I have tremendous respect for his ability to find some balance between teaching, scholarship, committee work, and his own advising.
I love teaching, and my research keeps me engaged in the discipline of history which I love as well, but the greatest privilege we have, I have, is to be part of a process that sends students on their journeys beyond Marquette with as much wisdom and confidence as any young person might have at their age.
College has always been an invitation to experiment, to learn, and to develop a meaningful approach to life. Yet today, perhaps more than ever, freshmen arrive concerned about professional training. Students are so consumed by what they are going to be, that there is little time to think about who they are or what kind of person they want to be. Parental pressure, peer pressure, and societal pressure all weigh heavily upon young people as they try to navigate new relationships, uncertain living arrangements, and a host of educational choices. Surely this is a daunting time for them.
As an advisor, I try to convince these students that my office is a place where they can come to talk about things that are confusing, exciting, frustrating, fascinating, or frightening. Then they can begin to understand that choices exist and, most importantly, that they must listen to their hearts. College is an immense and important transition from often comfortable and secure surroundings for many of them to adulthood. If I advise well, it is my hope that I can help these young women and men realize that the ultimate responsibility for their choices and their futures lies not with parents, professors, me, or some neatly outlined course of study; but with them and with their ability to trust themselves. This is, I believe, at the heart of good advising.
It means the world to me that some of my own advisees and students have felt the love that I bring this endeavor. I am humbled that you took the time to do this, Aimee and Jason—I thank you both. And I thank all of you for sharing this with me. Some days I wake up in the morning, and I cannot believe we get paid to do this. Thank you.
