Honors Advising & You: A Chat with Your Advising Team

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With course selection coming up soon, students will be making their advising appointments. Director of Advising LizAnette Pérez-LeBoeuf and Assistant Director of Advising Nancy Chomitz sat down to prepare students for the upcoming semester!

With course selection coming up, how should students prepare for and expect at their advising appointments?

• First-Years:

Pérez-LeBoeuf: Your experience and what you need to do to prepare will depend on what year you are in. If you are in your first-year, sign up for First-Year Group Advising, as this session’s focus is to prepare you for Spring 2025 registration.

Chomitz: We highly recommend aiming for at least one Honors course in the spring. Either an English writing course, an Honors gen-ed, or even Ideas that Change the World are great options for your second semester. 

We also encourage students to begin putting courses in their shopping carts ahead of time! With so many options, registering can be intimidating, but we’re here to help it’s going to be okay! Join us for our Shopping Cart Party on Friday, November 15, 11-3 in the Events Hall.

• Sophomores:

Pérez-LeBoeuf: We strongly encourage sophomores to make their one-on-one appointments! One of the great changes we made this year was adding your tracking sheets to CHC PATHS, so you can see the sheet from your last appointment. It’s a great reference point to start with because, whenever possible, we plan through graduation. Let’s say you had an advising appointment last spring that got canceled for some reason, or maybe you attended the appointment, and your plans changed — those changes won’t be reflected on the tracking sheet, right? When students come to an advising appointment, the advisor can make sure they’re on track!

Don't forget to book an appointment with your CHC advisor to make sure you're on track!

Also, there are multiple ways to satisfy Honors requirements, which can be very confusing for students. That’s why it’s so important to attend an appointment, review the tracking sheet, and take the time to discuss any new plans with your Honors advisor. You can also download the sheet and share it with your major advisor. It’s a great way for the people on your team to communicate and ensure that you’re getting the best guidance.

• Juniors:

Pérez-LeBoeuf: Once you reach junior year, you’re starting to plan your Honors Thesis. You begin to think about which classes interest you, and which faculty members you might want to work with. We encourage students to attend the thesis workshops as part of the planning process. These workshops build on each other; they’re not the same workshop with different students. You should also talk to your advisor about the registration process and how to approach a faculty member.

Chomitz: Also, if students are unsure about what to do next, we are a great resource along the way. We can serve as a sounding board to talk about the thesis and can connect them to resources like the CHC Writing Coach, the CHC Librarian, or the Office of Undergraduate Research and Studies (OURS). At the end of the day, it’s up to the student and the faculty member, but we can help kickstart the process.

We like to challenge your understanding of what research is. Writing a symphony is just as much research as working in a wet lab. We want folks to unpack their understanding of what research can be and what they want it to be. As long as you have a faculty member on board, the Honors Thesis can truly be whatever you want it to be.

We want to provide resources to assist with everything and to be supportive in general!

• Seniors:

Pérez-LeBoeuf: During senior year, we advocate for students by helping them communicate with their faculty. Senior year also involves many conversations about internships and career planning. I really like the way Nancy framed it:

If you don’t know where to go, Academic Advising is always the best place to start, because our job is to provide resources.

Chomitz: Enjoy! Take advantage of every opportunity. Take a Five College class. Take glassblowing. Take Arabic. Take that class you’ve always wanted to take.

Why should students come to advising?

Pérez-LeBoeuf: We call our approach holistic advising. We don’t just focus on the requirements you have to fulfill; they just happen to exist. Instead, we focus on you as a whole person. We take a multipronged approach to advising. Our goal is to ensure that, once you graduate, you enter a space where you are happy and able to thrive. 

We discuss any challenges you may face and connect you with the resources you need to be well.

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CHC advisors are excited to offer support and resources to help you succeed in your academic journey at CHC!

Oftentimes, what students are missing is the guidance of professionals who can help make things easier. While you can look at a class and say, 'That's Honors, let me fit it in here,' what you might not realize is that you can do an independent study with anyone in the world. If you’re already interested in something unique that can only be done in Guam, you might not know that you have access to that opportunity. You may also not be aware that you have access to research funds or additional scholarships. These are the types of conversations that happen in an advising appointment. I always try to help students make well-informed decisions. Nine times out of ten, students who come into my office wanting to drop Honors have been misinformed. Our curriculum is very nuanced, and not everything is on the website. Once we go through it, they often decide they still want to pursue Honors. They just initially felt it was more daunting than it actually is. 

Chomitz: I think that answers the original question. The Honors requirements are nuanced and can be very fulfilling and fruitful. An advisor can help with that because our main job is to ensure that we understand them really well!  

To learn more about Honors advising and setting up an appointment, visit the Honors advising webpage. Advisors are here to help you!