I was delighted to be invited as a keynote speaker for the 2007 NACADA conference in Baltimore Maryland. The conference theme, Advisors as Navigators: From Orientation to Graduation and Beyond, was very inspiring. I was stimulated by the deep commitment conveyed by it and I found myself delighted with the task of preparing my speech. I recap the themes and issues (and some stories) that I shared during my conference speech and the follow-up session. Because I rarely use a completely written text, I am somewhat disadvantaged in trying to recapture the speech verbatim. Nevertheless, I offer my observations in hopes that advisors will continue to find them useful in enhancing their lives and those of others in 2008.

University stakeholders recognize the importance of exposing all students to academic advising as a means to enhance their engagement with the institution. Living-learning communities are of particular promise. In this study, conducted at a midwestern land grant university in the 2004–05 academic year, advisees in living-learning communities reported significantly higher engagement in their educational experiences than advisees with access only to a central advising office, and the differences in levels of engagement with advisors were significant as other predictors of engagement were taken into account.

Relative Emphasis: practice, research, theory

The acknowledgment that advisees are learners and advisors are teachers may be the most powerful philosophical change in advising in 30 years. This article builds generally on the growing momentum to view academic advising as an extension of student learning, and specifically as an expansion of “Advising as Learning” in which Hemwall and Trachte (2005) argued that “learning as an organizing paradigm has profound implications” (p. 75). I develop this idea by applying Fink's (2003) learning paradigm to advising. The synergy in this paradigm can be harnessed to create advising that causes change in the advisee. Fink's method for developing opportunities for significant learning requires forethought and careful design when applied to the academic advising process.

Relative Emphasis: theory, practice, research

Study abroad participation is increasing. National and institutional resources are being devoted to internationalization. Assessments stress the importance of learning outcomes among study abroad participants. The confluence of these influences led the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, to gather data on graduation rates of study abroad participants and compare them to those of non-participants. We analyzed the data and the patterns that emerge among subsets of the students by college of enrollment and for students of color. The data suggest that study abroad participation may not harm graduation rates and that it is highly correlated with high graduation rates among under-prepared and at-risk undergraduates as well as students of color. We highlight the implications of the study for academic advisors.

Relative Emphasis: practice, research, theory

Academic advising has emerged as a distinct interdisciplinary field and profession, but the description of its role has recently relied on analogies and metaphors. While helpful in clarifying practice, their continual use obscures the uniqueness of academic advising and masks the importance of the scholarship that underlies its practice. We use the development of archaeology as a distinct profession and scholarly field to highlight critical developments in academic advising and draw examples of key aspects in the professionalization of academic advising from The Pennsylvania State University. The scholar-practitioner model must be nurtured for all who engage in academic advising and for a distinct scholarly identity to be established within higher education. Efforts must proceed at national and local levels.

Relative Emphasis: theory, practice, research

The current study is the fourth in a series on various components of advisor-advisee communication. In the latest study, the influence of a variety of communication variables on the graduate advisor–advisee interpersonal relationship is examined. Graduate students' perceptions of their graduate advisors' use of humor as it relates to other communication variables (nonverbal immediacy, social support, mentoring, and relationship satisfaction) were investigated. Results revealed a positive, statistically significant relationship between an advisee's perception of his or her advisor's use of humor and that advisee's perception of the advisor's nonverbal immediacy, social support, and mentoring as well as the relationship satisfaction reported by the advisee.

Relative Emphasis: theory, research, practice