ALEX Advisor Hannah Stubley ’12 was recently featured on an episode of the Adventures in Advising Podcast from Buzzsprout. Matthew Plescia, also an ALEX advisor, served as guest host of the episode titled “Beyond the Unspoken Rules: Navigating the Invisible Map - Adventures in Advising.”
Stubley discussed her journey – from growing up in a small factory village in upstate New York, to her failed first attempt at college, to finding Hamilton and later earning a master’s degree in women’s gender and sexuality studies, and then returning to Hamilton as a holistic advisor.
After earning her associate’s degree, she applied to Hamilton and learned that it also has much to offer, including the open curriculum, which she describes as creating a “really cool learning environment within the class, because everyone within a particular classroom is taking that class because they want to, not because they’re required to.”
Stubley said her open curriculum experience has given her “a different lens, through which [she] approaches her advising, work, and life.”
Stubley and Plescia discussed what the job of ALEX advisors is and how they each approach it — “We’re here as holistic advisors to help students really connect and reflect on their whole college experience … inside … and outside of the classroom.” They also described how their work progresses throughout a student’s time on campus and how they also learn from students while building “collaborative and affirming relationships … while helping them navigate the college environment.”
Stubley also published a review of The Hidden Curriculum: First-Generation Students at Legacy Universities, by Rachel Gables, in the summer 2025 issue of The Learning Assistance Review, the peer-reviewed journal of the International College Learning Center Association.
Posted April 17, 2026
