Advisory at Riverdale is due for a change. Over the recent years, the administration has played with many different variations of an ideal advisory system, focussed on creating a group-oriented support system in which students could feel safe engaging in conversations with their advisor(s) and advisees. Some of these different advisory systems over the years have had some success, while others have not. Riverdale is currently in the process of rethinking its advisory system following widespread feedback from students and teachers about its current issues. During a first semester mini-course this year, Kari Ostrem, Head of School, as well as Meg Johnson, Dean of the Class of 2025, co-led a mini-course called Design Thinking with a group of students, who dove into the issues with the current advisory system, in order to find ways to make advisory more structured and meaningful for students.
The advisory system at Riverdale intends to provide students with an academic and personal support system, however recently it has faced criticism for its lack of structure and uniformity across different advisor groups. Students in the mini-course conducted interviews to identify students' preferences on whether advisory should be a time for structure or up to the student to choose. In the end, the preferences of students were divided. The best of both worlds is “a structured choice,” as Ms. Johnson describes it. And Ms. Ostrem built upon this, stating that “it’s easy to [just] relax and not do something.” However, when there is a clear structure, the advisory space feels “more meaningful and purposeful” and helps connect the students within that advisory.
What sparked this sudden push for a new advisory system going into the 2024-2025 school year? During this school year in particular, the major changes to the administration, including Ms. Ostrem as the new head of school and Mr. Velez as the new head of the Upper School, the gate has opened even wider for new changes to be made. Ms. Ostrem and Ms. Johnson’s idea of integrating students into this process, rather than keeping reform of the advisory system strictly a task among the administration allowed for a first hand perspective to address these issues and make a change. In addition, Ms. Ostrem described the students of the mini course as a “special group,” which allowed her to catch a glimpse at what some of the students were like, as well as overall student life at Riverdale.
Following the interviewing and data-gathering process, the students were tasked with a collaborative group project, in which each group came up with a creative idea or structure for what advisory should look like next year. In this process, each group designed a presentation that underwent many stages of revisions and constructive criticism, so that they were well-prepared to eventually present to the administrative board. Ms. Johnson highlighted that the “students in the mini-course did well with defining their problem first, propos[ing] ideas, then get[ting] feedback.” This collaborative process really allowed the students to push themselves to adhere to constructive feedback, both positive and negative, in order to send a powerful message on why advisory needs to change, and what ways we are able to make this change. 10th-grader Gabrielle Arron participated in this mini-course, and stated that she “really enjoyed collaborating in a group of students from different grades working towards a common goal.” The cross-grade collaboration in this mini-course allowed for students to compare and contrast their everyday issues at Riverdale in order to create a universal goal of an advisory system that would encompass the needs of the entire upper school student body. Ms. Ostrem praised the students’ independence during this redesign process, expressing that “students are experts in their own experience.” Therefore when working together to make a real change that will benefit their everyday life at school, the administration at schools, especially RCS “will listen to students express their opinions.”
All in all, while the final product of the Design Thinking mini-course is not set in stone just yet, the mini-course truly emphasizes what Riverdale holds itself most true to; students having the ability to carve their own path here at school and beyond. This mini-course in particular made a lasting impact on the future of advisory for years to come. Through trial and error, praise and criticism, the Design Thinking mini-course proved that a real change can’t just happen. A change, especially one that goes through higher-powered decision-makers can only be made with patience, perseverance, and most importantly, collaboration.
