Category Archives: Education

Conference Contemplation [GLACUHO 2019)

24 Thursday Oct 2019

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Conference

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I wanted to spice up my professional development so I joined a regional housing organization’s committee structure. I have served on the Professional Foundations committee through GLACUHO and it all culminated in attending this year’s annual conference in East Lansing, Michigan. This was my second GLACUHO and the only conference where I was the entire delegation (big yikes). I took a chance and presented at the conference. I can confirm that I still have a deep discomfort with public speaking.

I really enjoyed my time at GLACUHO. I was able to see old colleagues and supervisors from a new context. I even was able to see several of my graduate school peers! It has been a little while since I have been to or presented at a conference. I forgot how much I missed learning from the many other professionals across the Great Lakes region. I am at a unique point of my life and career where I am not entirely sure that residence life or student affairs is for me any more. I want to and feel that I am capable of so much, but I simultaneously feel stuck in place. I like money and need (not want) more of it to live my best life. Seeing so many awesome professionals has not helped any of these feelings; in fact I feel more confused than before. Well…. onto the fun stuff!

In the sections below, I am going to tell you what session I attended, provide a brief summary of what the session was about, and then post a few takeaways. I won’t include my own presentation, because you can find that here.

Shane’s GLACUHO Summary

When Individual Rights vs.  University Values Collide

Presenters:

  • Chelsea Knarr, Kent State University
  • Richard Danals, Kent State University

Summary:

The presenters speak about a contentious rally on campus that made regional and national headlines. How do campus organizations respond when outside organizations want to come to campus and speak about divisive topics that invoke large counter rallies? Who pays for security? What were the key issues faced by the administration and what lessons did they learn?

Takeaways:

  • Even when facing a crisis there will still be plenty of time for multiple stakeholders to interpret and reinterpret existing policies in new and sometimes imaginative ways.
  • Sometimes your job is to be the bearer of bad news to multiple parties.
  • One of the key responses that I found the most interesting was that professional and student staff members were not required to be on campus during this time. The leadership asked that those who needed or wanted to not be on campus during that time simply let them know. As a professional who has been asked to “ensure that we have bodies available” I thought this was a good move. 

Unpacking Our “Profession”

Presenters:

  • Kyle Sabin, Michigan State University
  • Kim Christian, Michigan State University

Summary:

This session was a panel presentation from some Michigan State University faculty and staff to discuss professionalism within student affairs. The beginning started with identifying what the word “professional” meant in its most basic definition. I do not recall the exact definition, but I believe it was “a person who has obtained a certain level of competency within a selected field.” Professional has moved from this noun to an adjective and because now of its descriptive nature there is an expectation of what professionalism means. The panel discussed their marginalized identities and how the concept of professionalism has resulted in negative life experiences.

Takeaways:

  • It is important for our offices, departments, divisions to review dress codes and policies and make them more inclusive
  • Professionalism is rooted in whiteness; in oppression

Diversity Education Training: Where Are We, Where Do We Want to Go, and How Do We Get There?

Presenters:

  • Lloyd Graham, Indiana University Bloomington
  • Jackie Mayfield, Southern Illinois University Carbondale
  • Elijah Zagorski, Southern Illinois University Carbondale

Summary:

The Inclusion and Equity Committee completed a survey of GLACUHO institutions focusing on diversity education training. There were 67 responses; 51% of them from public institutions, 28% from  private (non faith-based), 20% from private (faith-based), and 1% from community college. The three main topics of the survey were: learning outcomes for diversity education training, type of training provided, and what assessment was conducted afterwards.

Takeaways:

  • A majority of these institutions indicated they did not have or were not sure if they had learning outcomes for diversity education training.
  • Most public and mid-size to large institutions had diversity offices complete training
  • Most smaller institutions would have their own professional staff complete training for student staff
  • 24/67 provided responses assessment that was done.
  • 10 of those 24 indicated that no assessment is done.
  • My takeaway: we have to do better. 

Not Another Training Montage: An RA Training Revamp with a One-Two Punch of Outcomes and Assessment

Presenters:

  • Joshua Maxwell, Bowling Green State University
  • Brittany Krisanda, Bowling Green State University

Summary:

After noticing that staff performance in certain areas were dropping, that staff were focusing too much on session titles, that there were so many campus partners who wanted full training sessions within training these professionals finally took the time to complete revamp their training planning. They developed a 10 step training road map and shared it at the GLACUHO conference.

Takeaways:

  • Job Description Bullets > Learning Outcomes > Training Topics > Actual Sessions is a very simple and easy to follow method for transforming training.
  • Training Presentation Outlines sent to presenters that they need to fill out/return is a fantastic method of presenter accountability.
  • A Daily Wrap Up is a great way to give opportunities for questions.
  • A Morning Report where professional staff respond to all questions based on the evening’s assessment is something I am 100% going to add to my training.

Being the Squeaky Wheel: Advocating for Yourself & the Collective

Presenters:

  • Cassie Govert, IUPUI

Summary:

The presenter recognized that “there are many ways we’re taken advantage of in our roles” and that we are not always well trained on advocating for our selves or our students. The presented used the analogy of Residence Life as a Dumpster Fire. The presenter asked us to identify a topic from our home institution and as we went through each of the steps they identified we applied that knowledge to our own issue and discussed it with another person in the room.

Takeaways:

  • One must know thyself in order to advocate for oneself or others.
  • You are in the room for a reason.
  • There are multiple ways to advocate.

Sound the Alarm: Crisis Management – Before, During, and After

Presenters:

  • John Kendall, Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy

Summary:

An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, especially in crisis management. The Presenter for this session provided some research backed tips on crisis response by breaking down the responsibilities of crisis management into before, during, and after. Afterword, the presenter shared a compelling story about their own crisis that they handled.

Takeaways:

  • It is important to clearly identify who does what during an emergency before one takes place.
  • When a crisis begins one of the most important aspects is to begin gathering facts and identifying an effective way to communicate them between various response teams.
  • The before and after is important, but after a crisis it is important to review everything that happened and make necessary changes. Sometimes what we plan for isn’t what happens and we need a new plan for the next time.

MBAs in Residence Life: Why Get Another Master’s?

Presenters:

  • Jim Herman, Western Michigan University
  • Alex Peterson, Western Michigan University

Summary:

Both presenters are master’s level student affairs professionals from different backgrounds, but both of them are in the same MBA program. They discussed the MBA in general as well as the results of a brief survey that they conducted regarding MBAs and skills perception from Senior Student Affairs Officers. Recognizing that higher education is a business, the presenters spoke on the new context they were getting from their newfound skills and knowledge within their own work.

Takeaways:

  • According to ACUHO-i standards completion of an MBA may qualify candidates for a Director of Housing related position.
  • MBA professionals average salary is significantly higher than student affairs professionals.
  • A lot of the lessons and skills learned from an MBA is applicable to housing operations.
  • Excel is very important (I knew that, but this just reinforced it more).

 

Conference Contemplations [GLACUHO]

20 Monday Nov 2017

Posted by in Education, Higher Education, Student Affairs

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Conference

I recently had the pleasure of attending my first GLACUHO (Great Lakes Association of College and University Housing Officers) annual conference. I attended with seven other representatives from Southern Illinois University Carbondale over the course of three days, two of them filled with awesome presentations. As I have not been to a conference in a little while, my readers may have forgotten that I offer small summaries of information I gained at conferences through my blog series titled “Conference Contemplations.” We have been in hiatus for a little while because conferences are expensive. Feel free to skip around and read what interests you almost like a small online conference.

Job Searching: Should I Stay or Should I Go Now?
Presenters: Kristen Brewer & Aaron Copley-Spivey
This session started a little bit late due to a business meeting that ran over, but it meant that the content was made more concise. We started out the session with a series of prompts that forced the audience to reflect. My notes were a little bit jumbled and written in a lost form of scribbles so please bear with my translations. The prompts were directed at our current position and included the following:

-What are 3 frustrations you have with your current position?
-What are 5 enjoyments you have with your current position?
-Is your current environment negative or abusive?
-Have you attempted every action to make your position workable?
-Do you have more to give in this position or at this institution?
-Strategize your 5-10 year plan; where do you want to be?

Working with Wiki: Maximizing Information Sharing and Collaboration in Housing and Residence Life
Presenter(s): Eric Musselman
I have an entire section of my website dedicated to technology. I must attend anything relating to technology at any conference. This session was ultimately about trust because Wiki is just a tool that the presenter has used at their institution to collaborate with each member of their team and across the board. Wiki allows everyone to see and have access to all of the things that is happening in the department, which makes it very easy for a team to work together on a document, task, or project without being constrained to ownership and sharing difficulties that OneDrive or Google Drive can produce. Yes, there is a feature that makes it so that information that is not yet announced or contains information that should not be shared can be accessed only by certain users, but Wiki puts transparency on the forefront of thought and makes departments confront whether they to be or seem transparent.

Specific ways Wiki has been used include:
-curating large projects such as move in year to year for updates
-Emergency or department procedures, when they were last updated, and who is responsible for updating them
-facilities information such as furniture and room dimensions, colors, and ordering information
-Embedded forms
-meeting agendas and one-on-one tracking viewable only be those two persons
-task delegation and tracking

There is a lot more available as well, but I have a lot of other great content to write about too!

Creating Your Professional Brand
Presenter(s): Tiffany Gonzales & Justin Schuch
I operate this website and have a lot of work to do so I felt this was also a mandatory session for me. This session came with a handout (I love handouts)! The handout demonstrates most of the content of this session so let me tell you a little about what is on there.

One of the most important things in building a brand, however, is you. Who are you and what do you represent? What do you value? Do you have goals? How does your brand align with them? Where are your strengths? Areas of improvement? In order to create a brand one must know thyself!

“Create Your Brand Card” A nifty acronym to help you build a brand.
-Consistency: Create a coherent brand voice and tone in all verbal an visual communication across media platforms.
-Authenticity: Emphasize a true attribute.
-Relevance: Base the branding on an insight into you and your potential clients.
-Differentiation: Create a unique visual and verbal presence.

Ditch the Draft: Creating Student Centered Selection Processes
Presenter(s): Shandee Ewert & Marci Walton
This was the session I was most looking forward to attending as I am the chair of our recruitment and selection committee this for this year. I left the session with a lot of notes and ideas based on the points the presenters made, but also the comments from those in the audience. I am looking forward to attempting to implement some of this information into our ongoing selection process. One common item between the processes at the presenters’ institution is that there is one for new hires and one for returning staff. My current institution only recently began to use a process to determine if staff were going to be offered a contract for the next academic year.

The presenters talked about group discernment as a method for decision making. In group discernment there are 5 tenets:
-Ready to move
-Open to Sharing
-Compromise
-Quest for Union
-Collective Decision Making
Fairly simply to understand these five pillars combine in order to promote the best decision for the entire whole rather than the individual interests or interests of those we represent (i.e. specific buildings/areas).

If you aren’t going to score it then don’t ask for it.

This is the one statement that stood out to me throughout the presentation. Often times we collect applications an ask for information that is ultimately never used and this is disrespectful to the time and effort student applicants put into the process. If you have questions in your application, how do you score them? What does this score me? In addition to scores for the rubric, both presenters utilize a bias reduction training for their student staff, who often assist in conducting the many interviews for new staff. There was a lot said during this session and I am hopeful to have the opportunity to use even a fraction of it.

Can we Protest: How your right to demonstrate intersects with your expectation as a professional
Presenter(s): Alison Sinadinos
Political activism has been a part of my life since the early 2010s. I recall being in Washington D.C.  during the Occupy movement and talking with several of the protesters who had set up homes in the area. Furthermore, since entering the profession there have been many movements, especially by students protesting white nationalists, police brutality, and even an institution. This session is important because we are political persons interested in exercising our freedom of speech, but may pause due to employment concerns.

The presenter convened a panel of professionals to discuss this matter, but a large portion of the discussion focused on student staff members rather than ourselves as professionals. In many cases (and at many institutions) the right of a student staff member to exercise their free speech was supported. There were occasional limitations, such as ensuring that a person did not flaunt or use their position within Housing when engaging in protests. There was some discussion, using a case at Miami University of Ohio where a departmental policy did not allow graduate students to engage in protests. After some legal conversations it was clarified that graduate students did have the right to engage in protests.

I Want to Be In the Room Where It Happens: Building Political Capital as a Young Professional
Presenter(s): Stacy Oliver-Sikorsky & Rexann Wharton
I was really looking forward to this session due to my training as a political scientist at Hiram College. This session included what I think is really important information for graduate students and entry level professionals regarding transitions (#schlossberg). Students and graduate students are often able to sit on committees, boards, and given seats at the table that are exclusively for them. They are recruited and in some cases groomed to be on these committees and given the opportunity to influence decisions. Entry level professionals (and in some cases  graduate assistants) must demonstrate that they are really good at their job before they will be given these same opportunities. It can take years.

Some methods of gaining capital:
-Excel at your job
-Don’t expect extra in your first year
-Learn how opportunities are awarded
-Ask for supervisory assistance/permission before signing up for additional work
-Build external relationships

Rumor Has It: Myths and More from the Mid-Level
Presenter(s): Shandee Ewert & Marci Walton
Myths of the Mid-Level include:

  • You will have more time
    • Entry level after hours work is more visible than mid-level
  • Significantly More Decision Making Power
    • Politics are more intense
    • You spend more time preparing your boss to make decisions
  • More Disposable Income
    • Live-on may have more take-home cash at end of day
    • Consider rent, utilities, internet, groceries/meals
  • You no Longer need Professional Development
    • Relationship building is new pro devo
    • No one tells you when you need to learn
  • Supervision will be Easier
    • Varying levels of buy in/experience in supervisees
    • Longer duration of relationship
  • You will receive extensive training
    • Nope, nope, nope
    • Practice on providing options to supervisees
      • There was an earlier mid-level roundtable that came up with the phrase “solution based bitching” for additional reference
  • You will have colleagues in similar positions to you
    • Not everyone levels like you, so don’t burn bridges
  • Your Contributions will be Visible and Recognized
    • You will be the villain more often
    • You are the gatekeeper and often have to say no
  • You no Longer Understand Student Needs
    • You now have a larger perspective to account for
    • Build trust; help them learn that there are things they do not know
  • Good Entry-Level = Good Mid-Level
    • Necessary skills to develop are administrative skills, campus politic navigation, supervision, relationship building, and facilitation/articulation of your ideas/vision

Professional disAbility: A round table on working/ living in Reslife with health issues & disabilities
Presenter(s): Michelle Cecil
I joined this roundtable as an advocate and it was one of my most candid sessions of GLACUHO. The attendees demonstrated vulnerability and talked about their experiences thus far. One of the first important takeaways of this session is the exhaustion they feel when they not only need to muster the courage to disclose but to educate about their health issue or disability simultaneously. This conversation does not just occur with the professionals’ supervisor though. It sometimes occurs with student supervisees as well.

Privacy also emerged as an important concern because a persons basic instinct has not necessarily been to preserve others persons privacy. When student staff or even supervisors ask why a person is gone all the time or “are you really that sick?” It can become frustrating for those who need to utilize that time. Student affairs is not a field that has shown it is able to let those with time off be off, but this can prove more inconvenient and inappropriate for those living with health issues and disabilities. One of the last items we discussed that is tied to using time off is the potential need for medical specialists. An appointment with a specialist needs to be made two to three months in advance and requires insurance. If a professional has to relocate to another staff, there is  chance they will not have insurance until they arrive on campus. What if it is a person’s dream job but the nearest specialist is two hours away? The #sasearch becomes more complicated and becomes a matter of a persons health.

E-portfolios, blogs, and websites! Oh my!

21 Thursday Apr 2016

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So… You want to build an e-portfolio, blog, or a website? There are ample different reasons why one may want to create one of these (perhaps extra credit for a capstone level course?). This post is a combination of reflection, instruction, and resource curation. I have built this website/e-portfolio and will draw upon my own experience to highlight tips, tricks, and hardships. I will do my best to inform you about options and not just use my own experience. So here it goes!

Why?

Why do you want an e-portfolio, blog, or website? Before playing around with WordPress or Google Sites one should know what their ultimate goal is. Is the goal to demonstrate growth and learning over the course of a program? To show employers a set of skills that would be beneficial to their organization?  It can even be as simple as publishing stories, thoughts, and reflections unrelated to the any of these options.

Find your “why” before you move on.

What do I show the world?

What is a website if there is nothing on it? If the “why” is determined then the “what” is evident. For example, my fellow Kent State peers, for a bonus Case Studies assignment, must include the following:

  • Homepage
  • About Me
  • Resume
  • Plan of study Overview
  • Philosophy of Student Affairs (an assignment!)*
  • Professional Development Plan (An assignment!)*
  • “Artifacts” such as our syllabi and examples of our work.

If you are not a Kent Stater thinking about bonus points, craft your own philosophy for your field or self.

If you are create a e-portfolio for future employment, it may be good to have demonstrations of your work as well. For example, I curate my presentations from class and work on my website.

*Note: See Embedded under Resume in this post for tips on making your assignments more visible.

Where do I store all this stuff?

I personally recommend using programs such as One Drive, Google Drive, or Drop Box. On many of these sites you can have immediate access to your content from any computer if you needed to update it or post it. Being mobile can be pretty important, especially if you are a travel blogger.

For example, I use Google Drive because I am most familiar with it. I created an e Portfolio folder where I upload nearly all of my content such as a PDF copy of my resume (which has an auto-update feature), allows me to create links to copies of this material, and I can control the privacy (ex: only people with the link can see).

I do not recommend using an organizational account’s built in shared drive features though. For example, I attempted to use One Drive to share documents with persons, but the default setting was to only allow those who had an organizational account to view it. If the site is for external viewers this would be very unhelpful…

Selecting a platform

There are so many options for how to build your e-portfolio, website, or blog. Here are some examples: wordpress.com; google.sites; wikispaces.com; weebly.com; wix.com; shutterfly.com; squarespace.com; and more. Most of these options have the ability to create a “free” website; these typically have an ending such as  “yoursite.wordpress.com.”

This may be the time to decide if you want to purchase your own domain. I think that I paid about $25 for two years of service for http://www.studentaffairsshane.com so they are not particularly expensive. I would recommend considering a domain purchase if you intend to use the website regularly and after its original purpose (in the case of you who are here to get extra credit!).

Confession: I use WordPress.com and do not know very much about some of the other platforms. However, there are ample forums, videos, and people out there who can help if you have a problem or cannot figure something out. It took me at least three hours to figure out how to create the tabs at the top of my website because WordPress calls them “menus” instead.

IMPORTANT

Once you have selected a platform mess around with it first. I originally started on another site, but switched to WordPress because I was frustrated by the other one. I could not figure out how to do anything. I was stubborn and did not follow any of my own advice and look for answers, but I have learned the error of my ways.

Let’s Talk about Content

Mission, Vision, and Values

Kent State readers have created this in some fashion or form via assignments for class such as our philosophy of student affairs, but it is also pretty important to be concise. For my Everything eLearning course I was required to create a Mission, Vision, and Values that were concise and easy to understand. I chose to make them pretty pictures because a website that is entirely text is TERRIBLY BORING. Also, I am linking some content from this course to this post if you are interested in concisely telling people what you’re all about.

Rubric for the assignment here.

Mission, Vision & Values Statements  by Sasha Thackaberry

Resume

If you are job searching you definitely want your resume on your site, but what is the best way to do it?

Visual Resumes

Visual resumes are graphic representations of your experience and can be done in a wide variety of ways. The example below is one from Phil Rathosky, a 2015 graduate from the Kent State Higher Education Administration and Student Personnel graduate program.

Here is a link to Phil Rathosky’s visual resume (Pages 4-6 from his portfolio). And don’t forget to check him out on LinkedIn!

Here is a link to a visual resume by Paul Gordon Brown

PDF Links

It is really easy to “link” things on most platforms. If you check out my own resume page you will see that I have a hyperlink that will lead you to a PDF copy of my resume stored on Google Drive. This is the simplest way to ensure information is on your page, but what if you want people to actually “see” your resume on the webpage?

Embedded

Scribd is a tool where users can upload documents such as papers, resumes, etc. and then embed them on web pages. It will create a box that will display your paper as a visitor to your site is looking at it. This is great for a resume, because it reduces a visitor’s (or employer’s) work by one click. Depending on your platform, this option may be built in.

Presentations

Do you give presentations for class? How about work? Wouldn’t it be great if all of those presentations that show how awesome you are were in one place? Guess what? They can be! Utilizing Slideshare makes it easy to to curate all of your presentations. Just upload them and create a separate pages for each presentation organizing them all under the same menu or tab.
Keep in mind that putting your presentations on the internet makes them viewable by people from across the world and that people will view them. My conference presentation has over 300 views on Slideshare, for instance.

To blog or not to blog?

As you can tell I attempt to blog. I choose topics relevant to my interests in student affairs or just interesting in general and write my thoughts about them and their implications. I am probably not the best example of what I blogger ought to be, but I am dedicated to blogging even if it takes me a while to find my voice.

Message

Do you have a brand, theme, or interest? Similar to finding your “why” for building a website it is important to know what you want to say and to create a clear, consistent message. My current blogging scope of student affairs is far too large, but I am in the process of discovery and finding my niche. Ideally, you know what you want to write, but if you are like me and are constantly in a process of self-discovery then it is okay to use your site/blog as a way to find your voice.

Consistency

I fully admit that I do not model this in no way, shape, or form, but ideally a blog should be published regularly. I know that I have no room to talk, but I recommend publishing weekly. It will keep you engaged with the site as well as your readers (maybe you will even have a following).

Content

When I say blogging, I do not necessarily mean that you identify a topic, perform research, check facts, and then write five pages APA. Although some of your content can be scholarly and contribute to a field, it can also be fun or reflective. For example, I try to attend conferences regularly and have developed “Conference Contemplations” as a way to reflect on my own learning after getting some professional development.

Some other ideas include interviewing awesome people and posting summaries of interviews, creating and posting infographics, telling stories, and much more!

WordPress Specific Stuff

So, I created a brief video to highlight how easy it is to create/edit pages and blogs in WordPress.com. Please view the video here. As of 9:27 AM EST, it was processing the video and may take a couple minutes, but check back later. If you have any issues, please let me know via the below contact info.

Thanks for reading! If you have any specific questions – feel free to reach out to me via email at studentaffairsshane@gmail.com or Tweet me @ShaneYoung15

It’s a Grad School Life: A Chat with ACPA President Gavin Henning

21 Monday Sep 2015

Posted by in Education, Higher Education, Student Affairs

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After my morning coffee on Wednesday September 9th I had the opportunity to test out Google Hangout with American College Personnel Association president, Gavin Henning. Gavin and I spoke for about 28 minutes about some topics that I thought were relevant to graduate students. Gavin had a great many of insights that he shared and I wanted to share these with the world!

Gavin and I talked about three main topics: Future Trends in Higher Education and Grad Students, Grad Students and Professional Organization Involvement, and the Job Search and Marketing.

Future Trends in Higher Education and Grad Students

Gavin sees several trends for the future of higher education. In the next five years, he believes the financial aid process will become easier. Lamar Alexander, chair of the U.S.  Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions is working to do just that Gavin says. And it seems like it is happening. Below you will see several Tweets regarding potential changes to the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) that support Gavin’s hypothesis.

Gavin, however, did note that he does not believe that there will be a deregulation of Higher Education overall “because the current Congress, actually a lot of folks are concerned about the cost of higher education and the return on investment on taxpayer dollars. I think there will be the continued push for accountability, but I’m not sure how that process is going to look.”

Gavin is unsure of what its eventual impact will be, but believes that technology will continue to be a trend in higher education. We already do quite a lot with technology, Gavin admits. “Right now we’re able to identify students who may be at risk based on their coursework, incoming GPA and variables”, but points that there is more to come. [Students] can customize their phones and Spotify accounts; everything that they do they customize in the way they want” and higher education will need to do this. What’s the catch? We need to be able to do this without a significant stress on human resources.

Connected to the trend regarding accountability, higher education is going to need to demonstrate the return on investment for student services. There have been instances of student affairs being dismantled and relabeled as a student service under the supervision of Business and Finance. In connection with the increasing push towards accountability there needs to be an equally effective push to assessment and ensuring that student affairs can demonstrate our positive effect on retention, graduation, and persistence.

Gavin Henning also has some ideas on how graduate programs and students can begin preparing for that future he described. Odds are that graduate programs may be more likely to use the ACPA/NASPA Professional Competencies, which have been recently updated, to craft their curriculum and as competencies for the programs. “When I look back at my grad program that I was in 91-93 and all the content that I learned then is not applicable today. The theories I learned are not applicable today” Gavin admits. In the New England College program, Gavin focuses on developing skills such as critical and reflective thinking, problem solving, and team skills with his students by using content as a vehicle.

Overall, President Henning is very positive about the future of higher education and student affairs. There are some challenges ahead and the field may need to make some changes, but we are heading in the right direction.

Grad Students and Professional Organization Involvement

ACPA Logo

Networking and professional development are the two main reasons that Gavin believes graduate students should become involved in professional organizations. Gavin recalled his initial involvement in ACPA stating “When I think back to my involvement in ACPA, I got involved in order to meet assessment professionals. This was at the beginning of the assessment movement. Now I feel like I know everyone in assessment because I got connected to a few people who were connected to others.” Through his engagement with professional organizations Gavin has met many close personal and professional friends. By being involved we are making connections with people who have similar interests of know persons with similar interests. Later in the interview Gavin mentions how it can help with the job search too, so stay tuned for my next section of this post on the Search!

When it comes to professional development there is no better way to obtain and develop skills than through practical application, right? That’s what Gavin has done in his years as a professional and he is still learning today. Right now, because of the ACPA 2016 Montréal conference Gavin is learning more about First Nation people, international travel for Trans identified persons, and undocumented students and professionals. In his work as a commission chair, Gavin has developed skills in motivating volunteers, and coordinating difficult schedules (five time zones!).

Ultimately, President Henning recommends that graduate students and their mentors or supervisors have the conversation about professional development and plan for how to become involved. The supervisors have a lot of knowledge just waiting to be shared with someone, but maybe they need a catalyst- an eager graduate student asking “What opportunities exist here?” And do not forget the impact of technology too! On the ACPA website, there are ample resources for professionals across the country that can be used to find other ways to become involved, even if it is just as a volunteer at a national conference.

Job Search and Marketing

job search image

Brandi Hoffman, a colleague of mine and another student in my program, gets credit for this question, but I was intensely curious about being split between different interests when job searching. I know that I have passions for a lot of different function areas (See the header image on my website? That’s a VERY narrow list) and I always struggle wondering if I have to pick one when I do my upcoming search. Gavin was 100% supporting of applying for multiple functional areas, but with one caveat: you have to have passion! “If you’re passionate about Residence Life it will show through when you apply for Residence Life jobs. But if you’re not passionate about Academic Advising and you apply to Academic Advising jobs- it won’t come through” Gavin explains.

I knew some of what Gavin was going to say due to having a collateral assignment in Career Services last year, but he spoke about the need of new professionals and graduate students to customize their application materials.  Gavin’s advises to make sure that each cover letter and resume is designed to complement the type of position one is applying for. Even deeper, he would recommend adding another level of customization based on the institution. If you have experience in an area, such as living learning communities, and the institution has a focus on those then it would be a good way to demonstrate that you would be a good fit. If the institution has different strengths- try to find ways to demonstrate that you have similar or complementary abilities and skills.

Gavin had recently spoken to his graduate students about the job search so it was fresh on his mind! He advises that graduate students find ways to differentiate themselves from other candidates. Blogging, being active on Twitter, doing an extra practicum, or helping with a research project, and otherwise creating content that can be shared with the world and potential employers.

Other advice that Gavin has for those about to or already engaged in the job search included being willing to go out of your geographic comfort zone. Narrowing your search area too much can be negative because you could experience a lot of competition in a densely college populated area or missing out on great opportunities elsewhere. He advises us to remember that our first job is not the one we are going to have for the rest of our lives, but maybe three to five years at the most. Once the first job is over, there is nothing to bar a professional from returning to their roots.

It is also possible that we may not find a job, but we should not let that defeat us. Gavin details his frustrations in his job search in his blog post From Serendipity to Intentionality in Student Learning, but he had a backup plan. He was going to work at J. Crew as a manger and there is nothing wrong with that. If his goal was to get into higher education, he would have to have found ways to continue his skill development in the meantime to ensure success in his next search process. What does that look like? Well, involvement in professional development organizations is one way or even taking additional classes.

The last piece of the job search puzzle is networking! Knowing someone may not get guarantee you an interview or a job, but the more people you know, the more you can learn about a job that you are interested in. Having these connections will help getting to know the institution one is applying for a lot easier than any Google search. Networking now also helps prepare for the future. Gavin’s recommendation for moving into the mid and senior level position is connected to who you know and who might recommend you to their hiring manager or supervisor when a job becomes available. I personally think these are good things to keep in mind for the future!

Overall I had a lot of fun speaking with Gavin Henning about lots of topics that graduate students might be interested. It was a wonderful opportunity for me professionally to help spread the wise words awesome and successful student affairs professionals! You can definitely look forward to me interview more student affairs professionals and sharing their insights! Thanks for reading!

A full transcript of my interview with Gavin can be found here.