By Emily Pollard, Reporter
The honors advisors at Pace are so much more than people you go to for class advice. They are friends and collaborators that honors students can trust with anything they need. This week I had the opportunity to sit down with the Honors College’s very own advisor for the Dyson art majors: Emma Klainberg. As an advisor, Emma helps with registration and guides her cohort through all four years of college, whether they are seeking career advice, or just need to rant.
Emma graduated from Binghamton University in upstate New York and then went to the Teachers College at Columbia University for graduate school. She was an advisor for Seidenberg at Pace in 2019, moved to Virginia during Covid, and found herself back at Pace in October of 2023.
She was very involved on both of her campuses and was a part of multiple clubs and organizations during college. She was an orientation advisor, admissions intern, receptionist in the student government office, and the president of A Capella.
“I will always have a super strong bias toward getting involved in student engagement, clubs, and organizations because that is literally how I found my career path,” Emma said.
She also encourages using the club fair in the fall, the Corq app, and the Setter Sync website to find clubs and organizations that interest you to be a part of. Although showing up to a new place can be overwhelming and scary, you usually aren’t the only one that is new, and everyone before you once felt that exact same way. It is incredibly important to find people and places that make you feel happy and fulfilled, without feeling too overwhelmed. Clubs can also help you gain experience that you might not be able to find as easily anywhere else.
Even as an upperclassman, there will always be things to learn, and the advisors are committed to meeting students where they are. There are things constantly changing about a student’s path no matter where they are in their college experience.
The advisors are here for anything and everything, even if it just means pointing you in the right direction. They are dedicated to making the Honors College feel like a family and a collaborative space where students and advisors feel more like partners than teachers.
“I think what’s unique about [Pace’s Honors College] is the open-door policy and the central location,” Emma said, “It really is a partnership and a family.”
As much as it’s important to get involved on campus, it’s also crucial to do things outside of Pace. Since Emma grew up in Long Island and has been in the city for a while, I asked her what her main recommendations for food and fun around New York City were. She suggests the Bryant Park winter village, Trader Joes, Dekalb Market, Chelsea Market, City Fields for a Mets game, Central Park, and Prospect Park.
She also stresses that it is only a short train ride away to get to Long Island and Westchester, if someone is looking for a weekend getaway.
The honors advisors at Pace are the main reason why the Honors College feels like such a great place to be. They are always here for their students, so take advantage of that!