The first few weeks of high school can be daunting to a new coming freshman. Not knowing where your classes are, being unaware of important school events and having to figure out how to manage important school resources are typical struggles for any new student, and for that reason George Mason has Mustang Advisory.
The Mustang Advisory Program is a platform run by appointed senior and junior Mustang Ambassadors who educate groups of freshmen at Mason about the various programs and opportunities offered at Mason. As current students, the Mustang Ambassadors have the advantage of being able to give general high school advice through firsthand experience.
“Our goal with the new program was [and] is to enable freshmen and upperclassmen to bond to a far greater extent, while also providing a way for freshmen students to gather important information and wisdom from a source to which we believe they are more likely to listen to other high school students, rather than teachers or mere online videos.”
Mustang Advisory has existed at Mason for many years, but the program was “ineffective” in the past, as Curtin calls it. Advisory was shorter, and was merely used for announcements and reminders about upcoming school events.
This year the program is more structured and requires students to attend advisory every Tuesday for the full duration of Mustang Block. Both Curtin and Director of Counseling and co-adviser Ilana Reyes hope that the new program will be more productive in providing freshmen with information necessary for high school as well as offering the chance to form lasting friendships.
Bonding time in advisory! #bettertogether #teamfccps #9thgradeadvisory #humanknot pic.twitter.com/V6VerXWZqc
— Mustang Counselors (@GMHSCounselors) September 19, 2017
Discussing #Bullied film #MustangAdvisory w/Visna. Bystander effect, offensive lang never ok, even if “joking”. #bullyingpreventionmonth pic.twitter.com/7Dx1FohhJh
— Kevin Clark (@Clarkulus) October 11, 2017
“The purpose is to allow ninth graders to immediately feel connected… Coming into high school can be overwhelming with new rules and new people, and we figured if we could make it easier in a small group setting like Advisory, that would be a good place to start.” Reyes said.
Reyes also believes that Mustang Advisory is a great way for students to do activities that are not done during the school day due to shortage of time.
“There [are] a lot of really cool things that we want to do with students, but don’t have the time,” Reyes said. “In a couple of weeks, we’ll do a program on Naviance for college and career exploration. We want to help you guys be the most successful ninth graders possible, and that was the point of Advisory.”
Freshmen have varying opinions on Mustang Advisory every year.
While student responses are mixed, the year is still young and the Mustang Advisors have a number of activities and bonding activities up their sleeves. The club members are hopeful that the messages resonate better with freshmen coming from upperclassmen rather than teachers, and even inspire them to apply to be Mustang Ambassadors when they become of age.
