The associate director in Eastern Michigan University’s University Advising and Career Development Center has won an advising award.
Molly Weir, a licensed profession counselor in the state of Michigan, was nominated and selected for the Advising Administrator award by the Michigan Academic Advising Association (MIACADA).
“I’m really honored that people would think to nominate me,” she said.
Molly Thornbladh, an Academic Advisor at the UACDC, helped nominate Weir. She said Weir deserves the award because of her commitment and dedication to advising and students at EMU.
“She consistently goes out of her way to provide the best direction and service to her staff, peers and students,” Thornbladh said.
Weir has worked in higher education for over 25 years. She has worked at EMU for 14 years and previously worked at Central Michigan University and a small college in Rochester, N.Y.
Besides advising, Weir has also worked in admissions and programming, and has taught a Fundamentals of Public Speaking Course at EMU and CMU. She said the other positions she has held “lead to advising.”
She earned a Bachelor of Applied Arts in Interpersonal and Public Communication and a Master of Arts in Counseling and Development at CMU. She earned another MA in Communication at EMU.
“If at the end of the day you make [students] feel better about that transition, about starting at a four-year institution — and it’s a pivotal time in their life —it’s very meaningful,” Weir said.
This year she has started advising at the Honors College three days a week.
“The Honors College has grown so much in the last few years that they said, ‘We need help. We need more staff.’ I was chosen to help out,” she said.
Sophomore Lauren Renou, undergraduate fellow in the Honors College, said Weir is an “amazing addition to our school.”
“My favorite thing about her is how much she cares about students at EMU,” Renou said.
Weir also trains and supervises four graduate students who are studying to be advisors.
“You see them grow and mature and develop from when they first start the position to when they feel really comfortable in the role and I really enjoy that,” she said.
She said every advising session is different and that it depends on what is happening in the student’s life, what his or her goals are and his or her reason for seeing an adviser.
“A new student advising session for a freshman is different from a new student advising session with a transfer student who might have a bunch of credits already, which might be different from a student that just found out that they’re on probation and they're in panic mode,” she said.
Weir has held leadership positions in MIACADA, including the position of president, and the National Association of Academic Advising.
Freshman Lauren Clem, undergraduate fellow in the Honors College, said in her letter of recommendation, that Weir “embodies everything a successful academic advisor should strive to be.”
“She devotes herself to the furtherance of student progress and accomplishment,” Clem said in the letter. “She finds fulfillment is assisting and encouraging her colleagues.”
MIACADA awards a primary adviser, a graduate student, an advising administrator and a pacesetter award.
