Key support
Adela Penagos works in Cambridge, but her thoughts are never far from Mexico. The new director of Harvard’s Advising Programs Office (APO) grew up in Cordóba, Veracruz, and still has most of her relatives and many friends there. When flooding from Hurricane Karl left thousands of the town’s residents displaced in mid-September, Penagos worried, but also took comfort in the knowledge that her community is tight-knit. “People have lived there for generations,” she says. “They support each other in good times and bad.” At Harvard, Penagos helps create a support system that’s there for students in good times and bad. Formed in 2006 as a result of Harvard’s curricular review, the APO coordinates academic advising programs for all undergraduates—from peer advisers and proctors who help freshmen make the adjustment to college life, to concentration advisers who guide students through their chosen areas of study. “The goal of the advising structure is to maximize...