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For Richard Showman, losing one of his biology students to another department has become a perfect example of advising at its best.
Showman, the winner of this year's Ada B. Thomas Outstanding Faculty Advisor Award, takes the time to get to know and understand his advisees--their likes and dislikes, their personalities, even their boyfriends and girlfriends and their exes--and he knew that this student, who was working toward medical school but who had dropped chemistry twice, was not happy. When he asked her why, the tears started to flow.
"She said, 'The truth is I don't want to be a doctor, but my mother and father want me to be a doctor. I want to be an English major,'" said Showman, an associate professor in the Department of Biological Sciences who has been advising students since his first year at Carolina 25 years ago.
Showman didn't sign her advisement form that day and sent her home to talk to her parents about what they really wanted her to do. The next day, she returned with a big smile.
"They never did want her to be a doctor," Showman said. "They thought she wanted her to be a doctor, and they were backing her up. They were thrilled when she said she wanted to be an English major. That was the last I ever saw of her. She was off to the English department. That was, to me, a perfect advisement, a perfect mentoring relationship."
Mentoring is the tougher side of advising, and Showman sometimes has to be blunt with students about their choices. Another of his advisees, a 4.0 student whose family was first generation American, also was committed to medical school, but knowing the student, Showman believed his skills and strengths pointed to a different career.
"'You're going to get into medical school,' I told him. 'You're doing everything right. But if you last your first year, I'll be amazed because you're going to hate it,'" Showman said. "But I advised him the rest of the way through, and off he went to medical school."
Two months into his first year, the student stopped by his office.
"He said, 'You were right. I can do it, but I don't enjoy the subject matter. I'm going to go to work. I think I want to be a business major,'" Showman said. "I said, 'That's exactly where you belong. You're a people person, but you're a people person as in a negotiator who sits across the table and gets things done and makes people interact and work together.'"
Showman estimated that 80 percent of his advisees know where they're headed and don't need much guidance. It's the other 20 percent who are having trouble that really need help, like the two students above, of whom he is most proud. He might see them three or four times a semester, and his door is always open.
"It's 24 hours a day, seven days a week," Showman said. "I give them my home phone number, and they can call me whenever they need to."
Seeing his students achieve success, whether in biology or another field, is Showman's goal. "If I can get one-third of my students over 25 or 30 years to go out and be very successful in their fields, that is what's important," he said. "Having that kind of rapport with students keeps me alive."
7/07
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Advising is more than signing a list for courses for Richard Showman, biology. It's getting to know his students, and getting them to trust and communicate with him.
