Advisory appreciation

Advisory appreciation

Lauren Kashefi

Staff Writer

Advisory is like my school family with reunions three days a week and discussions about anything we want. Advisory helps outline what is going on around school with everything from Shabbatons, class meetings, SATs, and what direction to head towards in the future.

Freshman year is the transition from middle school to high school, and I really think advisory is a vital part of this transition. Your advisor becomes someone you can go to about anything: school, friends, parents, sports, and more. Knowing you have that connection to a teacher and at least a few fellow advisees really helps freshmen feel more comfortable and helps them settle into high school more easily.

Once sophomore year comes and we are finally settled and ready to focus on school, the Tiferet decision creeps up on us. Some students have already decided whether or not they are going, but for all the maybes, advisory is the place where the discussions come up and they end up helping make the decision that can shape the rest of their academic life at Milken. For the sophomores that don’t go on Tiferet, advisory becomes even more close-knit because of the increased personal relationships with advisors and the few classmates that haven’t left for Israel

Junior year is when advisory becomes the place to complain and stress out to everyone in advisory about everything going on around school. We tell each other how we have so much work to do, the lack of sleep we get, and how stressed we are for all the tests we have…including the SATs. As my advisor listens to this with a smirk on his face, we come up with solutions about how to balance out all of our work and a few hours for sleep. Some days, advisory becomes a place to talk about whatever we feel like, whether it’s Justin Bieber, sports, or our advisor’s gross beard that needs to be shaved. Advisory turns into a breath of fresh air that eases up the day for 20 minutes.

As senior year approaches, “Advisory turns into our safe place, secluded from the pressure of college. It’s where we can go crazy, laugh and just yell,” says Lindsey Davidson ’11. Since college is the most intimidating part of high school, it comes up during senior advisory regularly. Different locations, people, campuses and weather of different schools are constantly talked about during the final year.

Overall, we all love and need our short advisory time; it helps us with everything from talking about teachers we don’t like, getting our schedules in order, and putting that smile on our face.


(Picture courtesy of Lauren Kashefi.)