An email from Upper School Director Dr. Reid Cottingham in December 2023 set the wheels in motion. It announced that Pingry was creating a position that would be responsible for strengthening the Upper School advisory program and Peer Leadership program. The individual would start in July 2024, but while the position is new, the concept is not.

Seventy-five years earlier, Pingry named a Director of Guidance to oversee advisors and advising, and Guidance remained in that role until 2001. For a little over two decades, Division Directors and Deans oversaw the advisory program, and now it has a new direction under a new leader: Alan Van Antwerp, Dean of Student Life for Advising and Peer Leadership, in his second year at the helm. He is also continuing to teach and direct in the Performing Arts Department.

“I am deeply passionate about the value of peer leadership,” he says, “but more than that, I saw that the values that drama teaches—empathy, listening, being authentic—are what good advising needs. My overarching goals for the program are that every student has an adult when they need one, who will have their back, that there will be cohorts of students to rely on [each other] as friends, and that they will feel a sense of belonging.”

Mr. Van Antwerp’s leadership of advisory has brought significant enhancements, which is exactly what Dr. Cottingham had in mind. “I created the position because advisory is one of the most important elements of Upper School life, and advising is one of the most important jobs that our faculty do. I wanted more time and attention devoted to that part of the Upper School program to make sure that our advisory program remains a central focus and central priority for us, and having one person overseeing its functioning ensures this. Alan makes sure that the program remains thriving and robust.”

Thriving it is, but thriving has not always been the case. For decades, the strength of advisory has been that it’s a touchpoint for faculty and students to connect, and for an advisor to know an advisee as a person (every student entering the Upper School is assigned an advisor through a placement process, and they remain with that advisor for Grades 9 and 10). But there have been bumps over the years, such as lack of time and training for advising, and teachers have not always been sure what they were supposed to do during advisory time. Mr. Van Antwerp is now addressing those issues.

In recent years, along with sitting together during Morning Meeting and special assemblies, teachers and their advisees met once each week for 25 minutes, a policy that was modified for the 2024-25 school year with the addition of daily advisory meetings—every morning for five minutes, regardless of a special schedule or anything else happening on a certain day. The reason behind the change is to strengthen the sense of community within each group, and to make sure that teachers do not go a week without seeing their advisees. Advisory continues to meet for 25 minutes each week, during Community Time, and groups still sit together for assemblies.

Then, Mr. Van Antwerp created an advisory curriculum that provides an activity for every week of the school year, ranging from logistics, such as course selection, to fun, de-stress, community-building activities, such as trivia or Holiday in the Hallways. “There’s a goal for the week for what each advisory should be doing, such as education before an assembly,” he explains. “I try to let the advisors feel agency over it, so if there’s a history teacher who feels like they have a good approach for assembly preparation, they can do that as long as they are following the goal for the week.” He also wrote a mission statement for advisory, centered around building safe and strong connections that will help prepare students for challenges within and outside Pingry, and his Sunday evening emails contain discussion points that coincide with each grade’s theme.*

During his first year in the position, Mr. Antwerp’s plans focused mostly on preparation for assemblies and guest speakers. However, after researching CSEE’s Advisory Handbook, which recommended a four-way split between logistics, assembly preparation, advisory curriculum (those four themes), and fun/de-stress activities, he reconfigured the programming for 2025-26 to alternate between those activities. “It’s a more balanced approach that gives advisors more flexibility, but also gives students a break in the cadence.”

What have been his other resources for developing the program? Along with research about other schools, three so far: Independent School Management’s (Re)Build program; the Stanley King Institute (to incorporate deep listening); and most recently in October 2025, a workshop offered by The Institute for Social & Emotional Learning. His main takeaway from the workshop is affirmation. “We do a good job. Some content was more for me, in terms of building the curriculum, but I’m going to keep looking for ways for advisors to grow—how to be more in touch with students’ well-being and wellness, and how to build respect and trust.”

Something else on Mr. Van Antwerp’s wish list, if funding were available: informal advisory trips that could consist of lunch, golf, bowling, a museum, a Broadway show…something to enable the groups to be in community outside of the school building. He also plans to reevaluate the advisory transition from Grade 10 to Grade 11, when students change advisors.

With all of these changes and plans that have been taking place since 2024, Mr. Van Antwerp says the advisors are grateful. “It’s a heavy lift for a shared responsibility, and now teachers have a clear point person for the programming—someone whose sole job is to think about advisory, about how we form connections, teach soft skills, and ensure that students feel connected to one another. The best compliment I’ve gotten consistently is that I’m a resource for faculty. They’re grateful to have a plan.”

* Themes:
Grade 9—getting acclimated to Pingry

Grade 10—Reflective Intelligence (based on training from the Center for Reflective Intelligence)—how to find purpose in life

Grade 11—well-being, such as sleep schedules and how to balance SEL and academics

Grade 12—legacy, leadership, and impact (the students’ roles as leaders; reflecting on their Upper School years; learning about the role of alumni and the alumni community)

Pictured:
Top: Upper School students
Bottom: Alan Van Antwerp, Dean of Student Life for Advising and Peer Leadership


Read about Responsive Classroom in the Lower School, another example of student and teacher connection.


Contact: Greg Waxberg ’96, Assistant Director of Communications, Writer/Editor