I worry sometimes that others may see me as a student affairs professional poser. After all, I work in Alumni Affairs. It's no secret that my passion (go ahead and roll your eyes, I said passion) lies in working with students. But these students are future alumni and I can only hope that they have as great an experience as an alumnus as I'm having, so why not encourage them early? I'm thankful that in my current position I have the honor and responsibility of supervising the hiring of and daily tasks of three student assistants. One is a current undergraduate sorority woman and we've built a relationship over the past couple years so that she trusts me enough to come to me with her Greek life-related issues and questions. I feel incredibly honored that I've built a relationship with a student like this and it only feeds my desire to work in this field even more.
So, I'm on Twitter as much as I can be, soaking up all of the great #sachat nuggets. I follow several blogs in my RSS feeds. I have an #sagrow mentor (thanks Chris Blackburn, you rock!) thanks to Ed Cabellon, who also rocks. I connect with student affairs staff on campus here as much as possible and volunteer for everything they'll let me be involved in. I'm pretty well obsessed with student affairs recently. Ironically though, my classes are boring the heck out of me this quarter!
I'm currently taking Leading High Performance Organizations, and Managing Campus Operations. The program itself is a little disorganized (what's the due date for this first project again??!!) and the professors I've had for the most part haven't seemed very engaged. Not only that, I'm more interested in my electives for my concentration - how much longer until I can take Critical Issues in Student Affairs or Safety & Crisis Management or Diversity in Higher Ed...? Oh yeah, at the end... sad face.
To make matters complicated, we MAY be moving soon if my husband gets stationed elsewhere. Right now, it's possible that we may be moving to Virginia. On the one hand, I'd be happy to return to a state I love, but I would be sad to leave my current position. I really like who I work with, I have a sweet office with a window, and the work that I do is pretty enjoyable. I feel like I'm part of a community even though I never attended this school and that's a pretty unique feeling that I'm sure other higher ed professionals can attest to. Though one day I'd like to move up and branch out, I feel like I'm in a good place for me right now in my life and I'm worried that I may have to fix something that's not even broken...
Wednesday, April 13, 2011
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
My Higher Ed Story
Ok, so this is my first ever blog post. Be gentle. I'm used to reading others' blogs and essentially being a blog stalker (quick, add that to Urban Dictionary!) but I realized that I have some stuff to say too so I might as well put myself in the conversation.
A few years ago, let's say 2008-ish, I came the realization that I missed the university scene and wanted to work in higher education, but I knew I didn't want to be a teacher. Enter my new obsession with GreekChat.com. After re-immersing myself in all things fraternity and sorority, I realized that I could make a living advising organizations at a college - total light bulb moment. You mean, I can get paid for my Greek geekdom, get to stick around academia without teaching, AND get to work with students every day? Sign me up! One problem, apparently a bachelor's degree in English isn't quite enough to do that job.
So... fast forward to May 2009, when I moved to Daytona Beach with my then fiance. I began looking online at university HR sites for available positions and found a communications job in an alumni relations office and it sounded like the perfect fit for me. So, late one night, I tweaked my resume and cover letter for this specific position and submitted it online. By noon the next day, I had an interview, and a month later I had a nameplate and business cards with my name on them.
In September 2010, I began taking online courses through Drexel University to obtain a Masters of Science in Higher Education Administration, focusing on Student Development and Affairs. As of March 14, I'll have two quarters, or 4 classes, under my belt and hope to maintain my 4.0 GPA. In the process, I stumbled upon the #sachat hashtag on Twitter and thankfully have met some people that have given me some beyond awesome advice on the student affairs profession and it just makes me even more excited to get in there and start.
I've been working at Embry-Riddle now for going on 2 years and I've loved almost every minute of it. Though it's not in student affairs, I do get to work with students fairly regularly. I help advise the Student Alumni Association. I help plan events for the graduating seniors. I supervise our three student assistants. All the while, I'm also learning customer service skills on the side of a higher education professional. On top of that, I've learned a lot about website maintenance and social media site maintenance since those are two key areas I'm in charge of here. I've also made friends with the folks over in Student Activities and they've asked me to volunteer for various things (since I offered): I was asked to help with the phone interviews for the hiring of a new Greek Life Director, I served on the Student Activities Awards selection committee, I facilitated at the Greek New Member Orientation last year on being a Greek alumna, and I am the faculty/staff advisor to the chapter of Lambda Chi Alpha fraternity here at ERAU. All of these are great student affairs experiences that I can take with me...when I move.
And this is where I'm at. My husband has recently been told we'll be stationed at Ft. Eustis, VA this summer. I'm excited, since we got our second choice of station (my first choice) and that I'll be returning to VA. There are several great universities up in that area that I would be lucky to be an employee of and I can only hope that they can see past my degree that's only in progress, to my higher education experience, though limited, and my passion for student affairs.
A few years ago, let's say 2008-ish, I came the realization that I missed the university scene and wanted to work in higher education, but I knew I didn't want to be a teacher. Enter my new obsession with GreekChat.com. After re-immersing myself in all things fraternity and sorority, I realized that I could make a living advising organizations at a college - total light bulb moment. You mean, I can get paid for my Greek geekdom, get to stick around academia without teaching, AND get to work with students every day? Sign me up! One problem, apparently a bachelor's degree in English isn't quite enough to do that job.
So... fast forward to May 2009, when I moved to Daytona Beach with my then fiance. I began looking online at university HR sites for available positions and found a communications job in an alumni relations office and it sounded like the perfect fit for me. So, late one night, I tweaked my resume and cover letter for this specific position and submitted it online. By noon the next day, I had an interview, and a month later I had a nameplate and business cards with my name on them.
In September 2010, I began taking online courses through Drexel University to obtain a Masters of Science in Higher Education Administration, focusing on Student Development and Affairs. As of March 14, I'll have two quarters, or 4 classes, under my belt and hope to maintain my 4.0 GPA. In the process, I stumbled upon the #sachat hashtag on Twitter and thankfully have met some people that have given me some beyond awesome advice on the student affairs profession and it just makes me even more excited to get in there and start.
I've been working at Embry-Riddle now for going on 2 years and I've loved almost every minute of it. Though it's not in student affairs, I do get to work with students fairly regularly. I help advise the Student Alumni Association. I help plan events for the graduating seniors. I supervise our three student assistants. All the while, I'm also learning customer service skills on the side of a higher education professional. On top of that, I've learned a lot about website maintenance and social media site maintenance since those are two key areas I'm in charge of here. I've also made friends with the folks over in Student Activities and they've asked me to volunteer for various things (since I offered): I was asked to help with the phone interviews for the hiring of a new Greek Life Director, I served on the Student Activities Awards selection committee, I facilitated at the Greek New Member Orientation last year on being a Greek alumna, and I am the faculty/staff advisor to the chapter of Lambda Chi Alpha fraternity here at ERAU. All of these are great student affairs experiences that I can take with me...when I move.
And this is where I'm at. My husband has recently been told we'll be stationed at Ft. Eustis, VA this summer. I'm excited, since we got our second choice of station (my first choice) and that I'll be returning to VA. There are several great universities up in that area that I would be lucky to be an employee of and I can only hope that they can see past my degree that's only in progress, to my higher education experience, though limited, and my passion for student affairs.
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