After teaching math for 11 years and being an adviser for 7 years at New Trier, Cindy Fialka has now taken on the role of adviser chair for the class of 2024. Eager to connect with students and support them on a broader scale, Fialka is enthusiastic about embracing this position.

“I wanted to take on this role because I felt like advisery was always the best part of my day, and this is kind of like you are an adviser, but for everybody,” Fialka says. “It’s on a bigger scale, and I wanted to make an impact in a different way.”

The position of senior adviser chair plays a vital role in overseeing and providing support to both students and senior adviseries. This role encompasses various responsibilities, including managing senior adviser room programming, assisting students in accessing resources within the building, and ensuring the enforcement of policies and procedures. Fialka also collaborates with classroom teachers and other staff members to facilitate the progress of students toward achieving their individual goals and success.

She has found that her schedule as an administrator is slightly different from what she was accustomed to as a teacher when she had the same group of students each day.

“There are lots of things that just come up or students that come to your office and that happens as a teacher also, but I think it’s a little more unscheduled and unplanned where you are sort of responding to a student’s needs in a different way,” Fialka says.

Fialka also admits that it is more difficult to connect with as many students in her new role, especially since she is handling a much larger group of students compared to a standard class size of  20-25 students.

“There are some kids in this office I know really well, but because I’m working with 500 kids, there are some kids I’ve never met before,” Fialka says. 

Fialka also understands the challenges of having to prioritize certain situations over others given that she is constantly faced with numerous issues concerning attendance, as well as more personal struggles of students.

“I think it’s just making sure that I’m helping the kids that need it the most first and that’s hard because everybody is struggling to some level that comes in here,” Fialka says. “We deal with some heavy things. And, you know, loss of parents, loss of siblings, all of that gets filtered through like student services. That’s what we are.”

While it was hard for her to walk away from her position as a math teacher, she is content with her decision as she wants to assist kids in whatever way possible.

“When I found out this role opened up, it was something that I cared about. I knew that I would give a lot of time and effort into helping kids, and I wanted to make that difference.”

Another motivating factor behind Fialka’s eagerness to take on this role was the profound influence of the adviser program on students’ mornings and the fact that there are very few similar programs in the country.

Fialka emphasizes her commitment in creating a welcoming environment for any student who comes to her office.

“The reason I got this role is to support students. That’s always what I care about,” Fialka says.
“I want to hear what you have to say. And I’m hoping that [students] realize through my actions that I do care what they’re saying with my follow-through.”