BY RAY DELGADO

Elizabeth Bernhardt is on a mission against a mantra.

Too many times has the director of the Stanford Language Center heard the words, "I plan to take a year off to work and then go to law school" out of the mouths of students she has taught and mentored over the years.

Sophomore Alda Balthrop-Lewis, left, is one of many students who have been mentored by Elizabeth Bernhardt, recently appointed dean of the Lower Row. Bernhardt is also director of the Language Center. Photo: L.A. Cicero

She's determined to get students to challenge their predetermined life paths, and her latest step in doing so was to accept the newly created position of dean of the Lower Row when it was offered to her last June.

"It is important for students to not think narrowly but broadly, and I've talked to a lot of students who are on the right philosophic path but haven't explored different ways of walking that path," Bernhardt said. "There are lots of students interested in social justice, and they think the only path is law school when they could think of things like social work. I'd like them to think broadly about different academic areas that would help them achieve their philosophic goal."

Bernhardt's style as a mentor and her popularity among the students who have taken her Sophomore College class were part of the reason why Vice Provost for Student Affairs Gene Awakuni offered her the position. Bernhardt assumed the position at the beginning of Autumn Quarter, which is when she also moved into the old Humanities Center Annex on Alvarado Row and Campus Drive East as her official residence.

"We wanted someone who could easily relate to students and make 579 Alvarado a place where students would feel comfortable going to for academic programs and social activities or just hanging out," Awakuni said. "Elizabeth is perfect for the job. Students have tremendous respect for the time and energy she devotes to her classes and the effort she puts into advising and counseling students on their academic pursuits and career interests."

Awakuni said the position was created because the university wanted to give Lower Row students more opportunities to be involved with the university and because there was a need to stay connected to sophomores.

"We felt it was important to provide greater support to sophomores who comprised 40 percent of the row," Awakuni said. "After so much support is provided for students in the freshman year, sophomores often get lost. We wanted to help those students who might need it but wouldn't know where to turn otherwise."

Although Bernhardt has poured considerable energy into nurturing the university's massive Language Center since she arrived in 1995 to establish and lead it, her desire for a closer relationship with students prompted her to sign on as a teacher in Sophomore College in 1999 and informally mentor countless other students in the meantime.

Elizabeth Bernhardt, a German studies professor and director of the Stanford Language Center, moved into the renovated Humanities Center Annex on Alvarado Row after she was tapped for the new position of Dean of the Lower Row. As part of her duties, Bernhardt reviewed all the transcripts of the 250-plus sophomores who live in Lower Row housing and sent them personalized e-mails to ask if they needed help with declaring a major. All but one reacted positively to her offer. Photo: L.A. Cicero

She also has a hard time saying no when it comes to working with students, which led her to accept Awakuni's offer of the new position.

As Bernhardt understood it, her marching orders were to help reconnect the 600 students living in the 19 houses that make up the Lower Row to the university in whatever way the students did or didn't want. She wanted to help the 250-plus sophomores living on the row declare a major; to help juniors focus on prestigious scholarships, their honors thesis and graduate school; and to be a sounding board for seniors on what they planned to do after graduation.

She was mindful of the Lower Row's reputation as a housing magnet for students who wanted to be as independent from the university as possible, and so she was careful to make sure that students knew that she wasn't going to be the new university cop-on-the-block when she moved into the neighborhood at the beginning of Autumn Quarter.

Bernhardt hosted individual dinner parties for each of the houses in her backyard within a few months of moving in, complete with personalized cakes that had the house's name on them. Although some were skeptical, most students attended the dinners and had a chance to tell Bernhardt what they were hoping to get from her. She also spelled out her vision of what the relationship should include, emphasizing that she saw herself primarily as a student adviser and also as a conduit to the university.

"Students who live on the row think of themselves as being 'loosely tethered' to the university. They live on the row because they want the university out of their faces," Bernhardt said. "I wanted to make sure they knew that I was there for them for whatever they needed. The house is their house."

Bernhardt's work in her new position didn't stop after her last meet-and-greet with the various houses. She spent much of January reviewing transcripts of the sophomores living on the Lower Row and writing personalized e-mails to each of them to ask if they needed any advice in declaring a major.

She sent out nearly 250 e-mails and only heard one complaint from a student who was offended that she had reviewed her transcript. Most of the other students she heard from reacted positively to her inquiry, and some took her up on her offer of advice.

She plans to send similar e-mails to seniors living on the row in the spring to check in with them about their post-graduation plans and offer herself up as a sounding board. She's also in the early stages of planning an event during graduation week that will include parents.

As for juniors living on the row, Bernhardt has planned a series of casual discussions on subjects like graduate school, crafting an honors thesis and applying for prestigious scholarships like the Rhodes or Marshall.

Seven students showed up for a recent discussion on whether or not to attend graduate school and heard an impassioned plea from Bernhardt to consider graduate school as an option.

"My experience in graduate school was the best time of my life," Bernhardt said. "No one interfered with me as I did what I was interested in doing. It was so different from the undergraduate experience where you had to write papers just to write papers."

One student, sophomore Stephanie Adamowicz, admitted to Bernhardt and the other students at the discussion that she felt uncertain of her own potential to be a good graduate school student after she heard a presentation from students during a Sophomore College program.

"The people who were speaking were so intimidating and accomplished," Adamowicz said. "I just didn't see myself following the same path at all."

Bernhardt reassured Adamowicz that graduate school was not as intimidating as she thought and emphasized that it could be a good place for young adults to explore other career options and interests.

Once again, Bernhardt had managed to convince Adamowicz to examine her options, something she had done when the sophomore took her Resistance Writings In Nazi Germany class in Sophomore College last year. Adamowicz had intended to declare economics as her major. But delving into the two-week class made her change her mind, and she now plans to major in the interdisciplinary program in History, Literature and Arts.

"I was looking at history from a different perspective than I was used to," Adamowicz said. "History was the component of the class that I enjoyed the most and I decided to make it my major."

Bernhardt has a list of stories similar to Adamowicz's in the five years that she has taught the Resistance Writings class. And although she never purposely sets out to derail the 20-year life plan that many Stanford students arrive with, she sees it as part of her job as an advisor to challenge those plans.

"If I can get students to think more broadly and think about what they could also be considering for a career, it's been worth it," Bernhardt said.