The transition to university comes with a hardship of academic struggles. It is fair to say that AUI recognizes the issue and offers help. To illustrate, the university organizes a newcomer’s orientation at every beginning of the semester and assigns a student mentor to help newly admitted students adapt.
However, AUI seems to lack an essential part of the approach to students: social life. In other words, AUI does not account for students’ human side and does not offer an entity or an organization to advise and orient in the transition to adult life. Consequently, students find themselves educating and teaching one another about independence, money management, human relationships, etc.. and more importantly, help one another recognize mistakes that can be easily avoidable in the long run.
L’podcast with Admin A is an example of such a platform. It is a weekly podcast that occurs every Wednesday on Instagram Live around a previously chosen topic that the host tries to advise students on.
Who is Admin A?
Nobody knows and that’s what matters. Anonymity gives Admin A advantage over other platforms. It offers a safe space where current and previous students at AUI can share their thoughts, feelings, and stories while staying anonymous.
I am pretty sure that many would have a feeling of unease if they encounter their counselor anywhere other than where the sessions are held, especially when surrounded by their friends. When someone does not know who I am, they feel more comfortable sharing
Admin A
Having a platform like l’podcast with admin A, made of students for students is certainly unique, in a sense that one would be tackling topics as serious as sexual harassment and bullying, sharing advice and powerful testimonials from people in all walks of all, while still being informal and comfortable with one another one.
Take, for example, Counseling. Admin A is a firm believer that said service needs to be revised. To illustrate, in order to book an appointment, you would need to send a formal email, wait for a reply that takes too long, only to be put on the waiting list. If you manage to score an appointment, you are part of the lucky ones and then again the session would not be of any result because of the formality of it all. “Oh, and there is only one counselor for around 2000 students which is something we would prefer to balance out ourselves, but it is simply not our job.”, he further explains.
Admin A does not claim, however, to be a counselor nor a trained specialist, but trusts in a community capable of offering support and assistance to one another before it is even needed, and which l’podcast facilitates.
Such a melting pot of cultures, mindsets, and identities is definitely in need of institutionalized support groups and listening cells that humanize AUIers and put them in the center of attention and prioritized, even if anonymity would be lost.
The initiative should not always come from students
Admin A
Who is Admin A, then? We still do not know. What is of importance is that Admin A is a student like me and you, who is trying to give back to the community and help fellow students learn and enjoy themselves wisely throughout their precious years at AUI.
Admin A