Cassleman Named Among Top Advisors in the Nation

-by Beverly Makhani

Read an expanded story originally published in WSU News for faculty and staff. The two other national awardees, Jane Parker, associate director of the Center for Advising and Career Development, a University College unit, and Mark Brownell, professional advisor in the College of Sciences, are also part of that story.

 

When Honors College Assistant Dean Jessica Cassleman and two other WSU advisors were recognized as this year’s most outstanding on campus, they were pleased at the nod from their peers.  Now, word has arrived that they have been named among the best in the entire nation.

“My first reaction was to say ‘This is BIG!,’ but quickly my thoughts went to my mother who taught me about service and giving to others,” says Cassleman.

“This award confirms to me that our responsibility is to give to others.  Advising is not only the compilation of check marks in front of each course completed.  It is dealing with each student as an individual, listening to their heart, their soul, their uniqueness.  It is compassion and understanding, and being a leader, a guide, a mentor, and at times the strong parent, the demanding teacher, the fair judge.  All in all, advising is empowering others to do the best, pushing but not breaking.”

Cassleman and the others in January received Outstanding Academic Advisor awards for 2009 from the WSU Academic Advising Association (ACADA).  Respectively, their awards were in the categories of faculty who teach as well as advise, administrators who advise, and advisors for whom that is their primary role.  The local chapter nominated the three for national award consideration.

In April, the National Academic Advising Association (NACADA) sent word to WSU ACADA officers that Cassleman received its top honor, the Outstanding Advising Award, in the faculty category.  The others received Outstanding Advisor Certificate of Merit awards in the administrator and primary role categories.  All are for year 2010.

“It is incredible recognition,” says Lisa Laughter, WSU ACADA president.  “These great people have been acknowledged to be among the best at the national level in a huge organization.  This is an exciting time.”

A Legacy of Teaching, Serving Others

Jessica Cassleman came to Pullman in 1982 when she left her Big 10 women’s track coaching position at the University of Illinois to become the track coach of the PAC-10 WSU team for the next seven years.  In 1989 with small children at home, she left coaching because of its travel demands and joined the (then) Honors Program.  She also did the unimaginable.

“I will never be a teacher!,” she says she insisted as a child.  “My Mom’s whole family was made up of teachers, and I wanted to do something different.  Now, looking back, maybe it was simply my destiny.”  In 1990, she was teaching, and advising, Honors students.

She is the youngest of the three children born in Santiago, Chile, to her father, a mechanical engineer, and her mother, the owner/director of a private school.  She spoke only Spanish until she went to school at age 5 when she starting learning English; in middle school, she started studying French.

“Then I wanted to be an ambassador.”  Yet at the University of Chile, the degree she earned was in education.  Her graduate studies were at Illinois and WSU.  She continues to seek knowledge—but these days about topics related to her job.

“I am a good advisor because I take the time to learn,” says Cassleman.  “My students come to me for all kinds of things, not just academics.  I make a point to know as much as I can about athletics, international programs, admissions, scholarships, and curricula and majors across campus, for example, so I can address students’ concerns and needs.”

That knowledge also comes in handy when she’s on the road recruiting new students and visiting community college and high school counselors, or having informed discussions with parents, alumni, employers, and friends of the Honors College.

In addition to teaching one or two classes each year for 20 years and advising about 300 Honors students annually, Cassleman is advisor to the Honors Student Advisory Council and to Honors’ peer mentoring and student ambassador programs.  She has served on numerous committees and campus projects, but has devoted more time recently to creating a new course for Honors freshmen.

“I care for people and students deeply, for their success and their academic, social, and overall wellbeing.  I like to talk to them in person, one-to-one, not in emails.  I try to see the total person, help them recognize where their skills and talents and passions are.  I want them to push to do the best they can and to see their limits and be happy with their achievements.”

Cassleman, like WSU’s other national award recipients, mentors, guides, and encourages students.  All were deeply touched to receive both the local and the national advising awards.  Cassleman will be honored at the NACADA annual conference in October in Orlando, Florida.

“It’s interesting, you know, to be told you are ‘outstanding,’” says Cassleman.  “I feel like I have so much more to learn and do.  Maybe I should take my own advice and take a moment to just enjoy what I’ve done so far.”