Advisor of the Month is an award in which staff on campus who have academic advising roles can give their advising peers recognition for their ability to go above and beyond in their roles and with students.

October’s Advisor of the Month is Wendy McKenney, Academic Advisor in Civil & Construction Engineering. Nominators shared that this advisor “does an amazing job of both challenging herself and rising to the challenge… Students are her top priority. While she is still able to prioritize her students, she has also recently worked on restructuring advising in her department. As part of restructuring, she has reached out to other departments to determine best practices and get ideas.”

“This advisor is not afraid to ask for questions or feedback, and has a genuine curiosity for understanding how she can be the best possible. She is always willing to go above and beyond for students, and for her fellow advisors.”

For her fellow advisors, this past month, she led a college in-service. A colleague shared, “I am so proud of her, because even though presenting in front of our group was outside her comfort zone, she took on the challenge, utilized her knowledge and strengths, and was able to communicate information about an extremely complex topic (trying to start a program on the Asia Campus) quickly and efficiently.”

From implementing a new permission code system, ensuring students are well-served during MAP season, sharing expertise on the Asia campus, to learning graduate advising—this advisor has done all of this in the midst of high department turnover and training of new staff.

As one of her nominators shared, “She has been a great example for what we all hope to do when things are

difficult… we all still want to be there for our students.”

Wendy shared the following about her advising:

“Deciding on a major and navigating the university system can be overwhelming for a student.  My role as an advisor is to guide and empower students as they move through their college experience.  I love helping them develop a plan and then cheering them on as they reach their academic, professional and personal goals!”

Do you need to meet with an advisor to help create a meaningful plan, navigate the university and graduate on time? See our advisors across campus on our website and schedule an appointment!