Higher Ed Geeky Office Décor

 

Offices are where we spend a lot of our time working. We have meetings and events to go to, but I know I spend a lot of quality time in my office. I have important, meaningful interactions with students in my office and get valuable projects done in there.

Especially since my current office is my first one I have ever had, I wanted to make sure it was a space that felt genuine to me, safe for students to speak with me, and helped convey who I was to anyone who entered. Leaving the walls blank never crossed my mind.

Below are a few photos showing a full view of my office.

This shelf gets most of the attention from student and staff when they visit my office. I can't help myself collecting the Funk POP figures from all of my different geekdoms. I have more stuff than what is seen here showcased in my apartment. It started to get crowded on there! Whether it is my Fallout bobble-head, my Lost figure, or my Doctor Who stuff, people who come in can instantly have a connection over a shared interest.

I collect pennants from any campus I spend some quality time on. I love visiting colleges wherever I go, and I look forward to having walls full of pennants celebrating the journeys I've been on and the institutions I've seen.

I have segments dedicated to both my undergraduate institution (University of Delaware) and graduate school (Rutgers University - New Brunswick). Both places hold a special place in my heart. I've connected with students from New Jersey through my Rutgers stuff on display.

One of my favorite items, which was a gift from my amazing partner, is the Spider-Man cover art featuring a "Crisis on Campus".

I really enjoy seeing how people have their offices decorated, so I'm going to feature a new professional's space each week starting with mine.

Feel free to reach out to me if you'd like to share some photos of your office and how you authentically connect with people who come to visit through what you have displayed.

Thanks for stopping by!

The Power of Student Government in Shaping the Campus Community

* This post was originally featured on The Student Affairs Hub.

College students have long used the campus environment to work towards positive social change. The very nature of a university encourages this sort of intellectual discourse, and a common way for students to get involved in making a difference on campus is through student government. It allows for students to debate important campus topics, and provides a platform for the institution to directly hear the needs of the student body.

The beauty of student government is that it is typically accessible to all students. New incoming students can be encouraged to find a voice within this organization, meet fellow students, and start making their legacy known at their institution (Trust me, they'll thank you for the legacy stuff come graduation time).

I found out about the power of student government far too late into my undergraduate career. In my final year, I was passionate about getting hydration stations installed on campus, to provide cold, clean and filtered water in a sustainable way that would reduce the use of plastic water bottles while encouraging healthier habits in students. I realized a way to start to make this change possible was to lobby the student government to accept a stance of advocating for these to become a part of the community. Once they accepted, within months there were a few of these stations popping up around campus. This felt so inspiring to accomplish in such a short amount of time!

Perhaps they were already planning on doing this, but at the very least, through my efforts, the student body representatives let their voice be heard and for the future, the administration would know that students wanted to have the hydration stations and would feel more accountable to do so.

Especially for new, incoming students, building confidence, connections, and communication skills are all pretty valuable goals for student affairs professionals. So I encourage you to empower your students to get involved in student government. Even more importantly, I encourage you to bring students to the table and let them be heard when it comes to decision making. They'll have some important insights and they are the ones who it will affect, so I think it is only fair to hear them out. At the very least, they'll benefit from the experience.

Reflections on My Chat with ACPA President Gavin Henning

I recently interviewed ACPA President Gavin Henning for The Student Affairs Spectacular Podcast which went out as a quick bonus episode in addition to our usual offerings. It was a great opportunity that I am grateful to have had.

Gavin has been making himself very accessible recently, which is very refreshing in my opinion. Usually, someone in his position would seem to be very out of reach, but Gavin has been giving much of time to do interviews, Twitter chats, and even the podcast! I hope that student affairs folks have been engaging with all of this great content, since it allows for the veil to be lifted on how someone gets to be ACPA President in the first place, and humanizes the whole organization. Accessibility and transparency are big for me, and I appreciate when leadership embodies these values.

I think more organizations should take a cue from ACPA and their recent efforts. You can engage a community a lot more by being free and open with communication versus having everything tightly controlled and infrequent. ACPA has been my professional home of choice for the past few years as I've entered the field, and while I think no one is perfect, they've done a lot of great work recently that I know has benefited the field.

While I don't think I'll be pursuing the ACPA presidency any time soon, it is nice to know more of Gavin's story and that if you work hard and commit to something, good things will come out of it. Things like that are reassuring to hear for a young professional like myself.

Check out some of the other interviews Gavin has done with some fine colleagues, Kimberly White and Brian Proffer (also both are past guests of the podcast!).

Thanks for stopping by!

Thoughts on the Movie "Admission"

So I finally watched Admission the other day, as it had long been sitting in my watch list but it never found its way to Netflix, Hulu, or Amazon Prime (as far as I could tell), so I rented it from iTunes with a gift card I had. I had high hopes for the movie and felt intrigued (as I often am) about it since it was all about higher ed. I always find myself interested in how movies and television shows depict college, and this movie was just another recent movie on the list to check out. With all that considered, I felt the need to write down my thoughts on the movie since it seems especially relevant to me and my intended audience for this site.

Unfortunately, Admission is a mixed bag for me. It felt original and fresh in some ways, but frustrating in others. Part of both the good and bad with this is that the story doesn't give you what you expect. There are twists and turns but some of them feel unnecessarily forced. The plot feels very jerking in the sense that it seems to be going somewhere and then just stops, and then goes somewhere else, and then stops. There is a lot going on in the story that all does get resolved, but I'd say it doesn't get resolved terribly well.

The basic premise is that Tina Fey plays an admissions staff member at Princeton University and has her world turned upside down by an old college acquaintance, played by Paul Rudd, who reaches out to her about a special student of his. Much of the story is revealed in the trailer, and the whole experience is enjoyable but as a dramatic comedy, it doesn't go far enough in on either of these to either just be fun or deep.

Admission does feel like it has something to say about higher education and their admission processes but it gets lost amongst the jumble of everything else for me. The whole final product feels like it must have been tinkered with too much with edits and notes from too many people to where the message gets too mixed up in the end. The best takeaway I gathered after I watched Admission is that colleges should try to take a chance on students that have potential and would benefit from the higher education experience, rather than those students who have been given every opportunity already and college is just another road mark to them.

I'd be interested to hear other's thoughts on the movie if they've watched it.

Thanks for stopping by!

How Running a Successful Orientation Can Impact Student Retention

* This was originally posted on The OOHLALA Blog.

With summer upon us, it is the season of New Student Orientation for colleges and universities across the country. Incoming students, fresh out of high school, are becoming acclimated to what will (hopefully) be their home away from home for the next several years. Orientation programs come in all shapes and sizes, and there will always be different form of programs that fit better for every institution. Nevertheless, the overall importance of a proper New Student Orientation program cannot be understated. It is the first chance to engage new students in the culture, expectations, and resources your institution has to offer, and the impact of your efforts, is increased retention and student success as a result of their preparation and knowledge that they are supported as students at your institution.

Here are 3 specific ways New Student Orientation programs impact student retention and success (and what you can do to maximize this potential).

1. Encourages Social Involvement

A great part of orientation is the fact that it is the first time a big batch of incoming students are all coming together ahead of the start of the semester. There may have been disparate open houses and other chances before, but all of these students are committed to your institution and are all together. This changes how they interact with you and how they interact with each other. It's important to get the students to connect with their fellow peers rather than having you being the main conduit for their interactions and questions. The bonds that students make at orientation can be their saving graces in those first few weeks as they are still figuring everything out and wanting to meet new people. If they feel alone, isolated, and like no one cares, then they are far more likely to check out of the whole college experience altogether. More possibilities for social involvement at orientation are chances for incoming students to interactwith current students. This could be through icebreakers with their Orientation Leaders, student panels, or engaging with student clubs at a fair type portion of the day where all the organizations table and speak to their offerings.

2. Builds Student Pride

An important component of New Student Orientation is welcoming the incoming students into your community. This includes getting students excited about being a part of it and partaking in the traditions of your campus and institution. Incorporating your mascot, branded swag (shirts, hats, prizes, etc.) and having students participate in a tradition such as learning the student slang or signing a class banner (Don't have a tradition? It's never too early to start!). Even at the very least, just having a fun, engaging, positive, and friendly atmosphere for students is the least you can do to get students excited about attending your school. They could have chosen any number of other places to go, and they should feel like they can't wait to get the school year started!

3. Provides Support

Something more practical and functional to accomplish during New Student Orientation is to make students (and families) feel like they are supported and guided through the process of getting into and through college successfully. It can be a very confusing and stressful experience to get acclimated to the large bureaucracies that many campuses have become. We shouldn't assume students and families (especially those that have never gone to college before) can just figure it all out on their own. We need to make everything as simple and efficient as possible while also letting everyone know how to reach out if they need some more help. Orientation can be an overload of information for everyone involved, so the most basic thing we can do is make sure that students and families feel like they are cared for and supported by our staff. That goes a long way since we can't anticipate every single need that could ever arise, and we shouldn't just dump information on everyone to try to solve all the questions ahead of time.

I believe New Student Orientation is one of the most important functional areas in student affairs since it brings together every other area to help shepherd in students and make them feel valued, excited, and supported. The tone that is set and the investments made at orientation can pay dividends later in huge ways. I encourage you to continue to tinker and improve your New Student Orientation programs and make sure as many students attend as possible. Your students and your institution will thank you for it.

Thanks for stopping by!

Recap of #SDCC15 "Geeks in Higher Ed" Panel

"College should be more like Comic Con..."

I had the distinct pleasure to attend the fifth annual geekEd panel at San Diego Comic Con this year. I've seen similar presentations that have been done by some of these professionals at ACPA, but this was an excellent showing by this group and featured many professionals I have never heard speak before.

The panel was moderated by Brian MacDonald and consisted of Brian Arao, Alfred Day, Michelle Kittel, Patricia Nguyen, Liz Krulder, and Emily Sandoval. It was really great to especially hear from Liz about her experience as a student at Fresno State University who worked on developing their first "Geek Week" type event for their campus. All of the panelists came from different institutions and organizations, which itself brought a diversity of perspectives. The panelists also had very different backgrounds and outlooks on what made engaging the nerd/geek community so important and how the mediums of comics, video games, and entertainment can be used to start important discussions of current events.

A few of the big, actionable takeaways I had were about making the college environment a place where students (and staff) feel safe to be themselves and be unabashedly into whatever they love. This could mean allowing for geeky decorations in your office, encouraging and celebrating clubs of all sorts for students to find their niche, and making being smart cool. So much bullying and unfortunate discouragement happens before students get to college, but we can make our campuses a welcoming place for all so that in this pivotal time for students to find themselves, they can figure out who that really is without any of the baggage they picked up beforehand.

I've created a resource page for the folks that presented, which will be continually evolving to include new books, videos, and articles that are relevant, as well as contact info to connect with some of the awesome geeky professionals out there doing good work in this space.

Thanks for stopping by!

Going to #SDCC2015? Come Geek Out With Me!

For any and all going to San Diego Comic Con this year, I'm helping promote and cover a panel consisting of some awesome student affairs colleagues from across the country talking about the geek community within education.

Check out the program page here for more information, but I'll be there snapping photos, taking notes, and will also be at the convention for the rest of the time too, so expect some coverage of my experience (a first for me!) right here the week after the convention.

Hope to see some friendly faces there!

Thanks for stopping by!

Why Graduation Isn't The End, It's the Beginning

* This article was originally posted on The Student Affairs Hub.

Graduation is a huge life milestone that is a mix of so many emotions for college students: excitement, fear, accomplishment, sadness, and anticipation all come to mind. It can feel like the end of something, which it is, but it is also the beginning of an era of endless possibilities for students. Once you have the time, knowledge, income, and courage to do so, life after college can be even more full than one's life at their institution. The world awaits all the recent graduates to do whatever they so choose, and it's something students should work hard to take full advantage of.

As higher education faculty and staff members, here are three key pointers to give to your students in order to encourage their personal growth and their thirst for learning after college."Keep on Being a Student"

There are numerous ways to keep on learning in the classroom like you're used to. You can keep taking one off classes at institutions near you, you can take classes online with established colleges and universities, or you can take advantage of the plethora of other web-based learning tools. Everything from Lynda.com, udemy, Codecademy, or even YouTube can help you learn new skills, master new software or tools, or even just learn some fun trivia. A lot of things can be found for free too, which is even more awesome!

 

"Travel the Country (and the World!)"

Whether for business or for pleasure, traveling around to new places can be an amazing learning experience. Even just going to visit a friend in a new city locally can help you understand more about what makes us all different and what makes us all the same. You can take in local sights, museums, fairs, festivals, and shows to build a list of cool and unique experiences to the fabric of your life. It's hard to capture the immense importance of traveling, but it's such a great way to become more acutely aware of the world that you just can't replicate. I encourage you to get out as much as you reasonably can so you can learn and grow as a person (and have some fun in the process!).

"Read!"

Since graduating and being done with college for the foreseeable future, it's been nice to have the time to read for pleasure. Some of you may not want to see another book for a while, but trust me that it is a tried and true (and often cheap) avenue to better yourself. There are classic works, new writing by cool current authors, and even several comic books (I'm personally a big fan) that can convey some deep concepts that enlighten you to morals about life. I've always heard that it doesn't matter what you read, it's that you read. So by all means, it can be that you read a lot of articles online about any number of things, just make sure you're keeping current on the world and reading something every once in a while for pleasure. You'll thank yourself later for it.

If you follow these tips in whatever way makes sense for you, you'll grow, learn, and be active mentally (and physically) which will help you better achieve any other goals in your life or career that you might have.

 

Go forth and do good, Class of 2015!

 

Reflections from My First Year as a #SAPro

I've been waiting a while to write this post. I hope it is helpful to some people out there as a snapshot into my life for the past year. I feel it is important to reflect often, and I've had a lot of feelings about my work that I've wanted to share. I appreciate your thoughtful consideration and openness to what I'm about to share.

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I started working at my institution on July 1 of last year. I just finished my first full academic year as a full-time professional at a small, private university, which is unlike any other place I've been at, in a state (albeit where I was born and have visited many times) where I have never lived, away from any friends I know and was mostly left to my own devices to find my own path. It's been a weird, wild journey, and I've learned a lot from the experience. While there have been some things that I wish I had known before I started working and living here, I'm grateful for where my path has lead me.

To put my year in context, we started out without a permanent central office for our department and also without a dedicated director to supervise us. We never got any of these things resolved during the academic year (still haven't), so we made it work without them for the entire time. This was unfortunate and frustrating but we still did our work to support our students as best we could. I can understand that there are several different variables beyond me that played into this situation becoming reality, but it still felt like we weren't valued enough to be a priority. There still are no discussions now about how the search for a possible supervisor is going to occur. We have an interim supervisor still overseeing us but they can't focus on us in the same way a dedicated departmental director could.

The culture here is also very relaxed, almost too much for my tastes. I like that about it but there seems to be a lack of urgency to get things done quickly or to go beyond the bare minimum. Communication is lacking, the infrastructure and procedures for our work feel out of date, and resources are very limited. Students enroll and withdraw from their coursework and the residence halls consistently, making things even more difficult (higher education in Maine is struggling with this). The Student Life team is tiny here and seems to be low on the totem pole of institutional support. While we aren't a required part of the student experience (they are coming there for their degree after all) we are increasingly what makes it meaningful and memorable for our students.

Even with all of this, I'm mostly glad that I'm here. I shared some thoughts relevant to this before, and especially after my job search, which was emotionally difficult for me, I am happy that I found full-time employment in my field very soon after graduation. The pay is fair, the benefits are good, and I am not stressed out by my job (unless I get into a negative mindset and get frustrated about all the quirks). I know I'm learning a lot and I've been given some great opportunities here to help with New Student Orientation very closely as well as sit on numerous search committees hiring full-time colleagues.

I write all of this to try to give a candid picture of my experience. I've had students cry in my office, parents and students genuinely thank me for helping them, I've had late nights, early mornings, long days, and programs not succeed how I wanted them to. I didn't get to do all that I hoped for in my first year, and a lot happened that I couldn't expect, good and bad. All I can say is that life is funny that way sometimes, and I encourage folks to always make sure you are very thoughtful in your decision-making. If I had ended up somewhere else, far from my partner, that was like where I am now, I probably be in a much worse emotional state. Since I have her and my family close by, I'm much better off.

I hope this didn't come off as airing dirty laundry. I don't intend it to seem that way. I didn't know what I didn't know about what was to come here. Some of it I couldn't possibly know. I just have had an experience here that isn't what I want for myself going forward. I don't seek to make any definitive qualitative statements about my institution. I just know it isn't for me. That's been a very helpful point of growth for me to learn that. I'm sharing my truth and I hope some others can perhaps normalize what I've gone through, since I don't have much to compare my experience to, and perhaps give advice.

Thank you for taking time to read. I appreciate any and all comments.

The Secret to Helping Your Students Find Themselves

* This post was edited from one originally posted on The Student Affairs Hub.

I wasn't the most adventurous person when I was growing up. I only ever really went to the places I knew and ate the foods I knew I liked. While this tendency will always be a part of who I am, I've started to make intentional attempts to travel more, try more, and just get out of my comfort zone more.

You know that line about where the magic happens? Yeah, that's what I'm talking about here.

I have gone to more cities in our great country, started blogging, and have put myself out into the professional world meeting colleagues and forming connections, which as a proud introvert, is hard for me at times. I might mumble and grumble going against my nature, but afterwards, I'm always glad I made the effort to get out of my shell. I'm even planning my first trip outside of the country with my partner! I never would have thought I'd want to do a lot of these things or even have the opportunity to do them. I'm grateful for the growth these different opportunities in my life have given me and I know that students have the potential to experience the same learning.

As a student at college (or someone who works with them), there are ample opportunities to find ways to get out and experience more new things. That could be because someone is just in a new area while you're at college, it could be joining a new club or organization, applying for a job (on-campus or off), it could mean going on an alternative break trip to do service, or going away to study for a semester abroad. All of these hold value for engaging in an experience that, even if it is not exactly what was hoped for, students will get out of their comfort zone and learning new things about themselves, and the world around them.

So, making someone take risks, face fears, and embrace discomfort is easier said than done but the importance and value of the experience far outweigh whatever reticence a student might have. What we have to do as student affairs professionals is nudge our students to the zone of proximal development as it applies here, or in other words, where challenge and support are primed for growth and learning for students. They don't feel too safe or too challenged, but the discomfort is enough to allow for them to learn something new. For example, a student could learn a lot by traveling to a new city in the US with a group of fellow students, but it could be too much for them at once to perhaps travel alone to a new country.

Students will also simply listen to their trusted mentors on taking risks and finding their identity outside of their comfort zones. Our faith in them and our knowledge of the benefits of the aforementioned experiences help urge a student to go for it. I know when I was an undergraduate student, I never would have thought to apply to be an RA (which was far out of my comfort zone) but a few recommendations to do so from professional staff members helped send me other the edge and give it a shot. Five years later, here I am having found a career I love and I owe it all to the encouragement of others.

I urge you to urge your students to get out and experience new things. I'm sure they'll thank you for it.

Thanks for stopping by!