Alumna returns to SIUE in advising role
SIUE alumna Brandi Hudson spent time in the health education field, but her love for students and SIUE brought her back to her alma mater roughly four years ago as an academic adviser for the College of Arts and Sciences.
Photo courtesy of Brandi Hudson
“I’m from this area. I actually graduated from SIUE, of course, I had an interest and a love for [the university], so I applied here [and at] surrounding universities and community colleges, but I would say this would be my first pick or was my first pick,” Hudson said.
Though she is now in the CAS advising sector, she originally applied for an adviser position in the School of Nursing because of her health education background.
“I had an interest in [the] health education field and instead of that department I was selected for biological sciences department, which was still like an area of health and science and started advising there and then eventually it evolved to CAS,” Hudson said.
She said her past experiences helped her land the advising position at SIUE.
“Before I was a health educator and a project coordinator for [a] health education program so I had experience doing presentations and speaking with the public about different health topics,” Hudson said. “So that aspect I was comfortable working with folks one on one or whether it be in a group sessions. So that kind of intertwines with advising.”
What she most enjoys about advising undergraduate students is watching them achieve goals they set for themselves.
“In our area we see them, we see freshman, sophomores, juniors and seniors. Once they get to us and they’re in their declared major we’re helping them specifically with their major and then me being a natural science and math adviser, we also have advised those that are the pre professional students that want to go on to medical, dental and all the other professional schools,” Hudson said. “So it’s really nice to see them actually graduate and go on to the med schools, the dental schools and achieve those goals that they wanted to do ever since undergraduate years.”
However, seeing students struggle with achieving their goals can be challenging, according to Hudson, though offering support is the best way to handle such a situation.
“I would say you definitely offer the academic advisement or refer them to whatever additional resources that they may need to get through whatever situation that they’re going through,” Hudson said, “and to me I would just say present the information, be a resource for them and do the best that you can with assisting them.”
Filed Under: General CAS Stories
