Medill and SESP are adding new advisors to their academic advising teams. After experiencing understaffing earlier in the year, Medill is bringing in Anika Patel and Jasmyne Dias, while SESP is bringing in Ian Williams.

Anika Patel 

Patel’s NU journey began in the summer of 2021 after she finished her graduate program at Miami University in Ohio. With a degree in student affairs and higher education, she came to NU as a career advisor for the Medill graduate program. In this position, she primarily worked in career development programming and employer engagement. In winter 2022, Patel made the transition from advising MSJ to BSJ students due to the staff shortage.

“I wanted to help students navigate the college process and be a supportive figure for students,” Patel said. 

With parents who didn’t grow up in the U.S., Patel said she often felt she lacked basic knowledge about navigating the college experience, which left her no choice but to figure things out on her own. This led her to heavily rely on advisors throughout her college career. 

Patel focused on sociology in her undergraduate years. She said learning about society, education and education inequality has helped her advocate for students, create an even playing field for students and teach students how to succeed on their own. 

Although she does not have a background in journalism, Patel said she is excited to work with  journalism students and the variety of interests within Medill. 

“Medill students are super dedicated and driven,” Patel said. “I think it’s fun to see each student have such a unique path.” 

Jasmyne Dias

Dias started her career in advising upon joining Medill’s undergraduate advising team on Feb. 1. She is currently earning her master’s in higher education at Loyola University Chicago. 

As the first person in her family to earn a bachelor’s degree, Dias said she naturally found herself in tutoring and advising roles growing up. She said even in her undergraduate years, she enjoyed helping her friends sort through curricula when registering for classes.

“It’s important to me for people to get where they want to be and then to have a support that fulfills something of access or inclusion for them, and a place of knowledge and growth,” Dias said. 

Even without a formal background in journalism, Dias said she understands the impact of the industry and wants to do her part to help students achieve their goals. 

She said growing up in a small town, journalists were the first people to expose her to other cultures and helped her find a sense of identity. 

“My main thing is that I get to work with some of the most talented students in the world,” Dias said. “You all get to do a great job of changing the world through your voices, through the way that you speak, through the news that you put out, and it plays a critical and important role.”

Ian Williams 

Although Williams started as an SESP academic advisor last November, he is not a new face to Northwestern’s staff. For the last five and a half years, he worked as an advisor for the Northwestern Academy for Chicago Public Schools, where he supported first-generation, low-income students across CPS high schools through the college admission process. 

The transition to becoming an undergraduate academic advisor felt like a “natural move,” Williams said. Even though his new position does not specifically focus on FGLI students, he said he continues to keep that framework in mind.

Williams said his mentality is to work with “the whole student” and emphasizes that paths in life are rarely linear. 

“When I think about my experience in college, some of the people I often give credit for being that last push, outside of my family and friends, are all of my advisors,” Williams said. 

Email: [email protected]

Twitter: @joanne_n_h

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