Cafe Victoria

It’s been awhile since I had sometime to share some thoughts on student affairs and student services. I love sharing stuff, especially for my New Student Affairs Professional blog readers.  So I thought, why not share “a day in the life” moment. Here is some highlights from an email I sent to my Vice President of Student Services before I left for the weekend. You will find, that in our field of student affairs, we wearing many hats which makes for a far from boring job AND we could use another hour in the day, but hey, lunch breaks are meant to be spent not in meetings or at your desk but at your favorite spot on campus where no student can find ya

This week I’m presenting a workshop at the California Community College Student Affairs Association Professional 2011 Conference in Sacramento. As part of the Board of Directors, we started brainstorming topics and I couldn’t help but bring up my personal experience. As someone who recently changes jobs, I learned that I was the only in the hiring pool with an online professional portfolio. After I was hired, the student on the committee shared with me “it made a real difference that the committee could see examples of my work and read about experiences in student affairs  in an simple easy way”. So, I volunteered to lead a workshop on how to create your own online portfolio. Here is a few things I’ve learned:

• If you are not ready or have the time to develop an online portfolio, LinkedIn is a great place to start!
• The Education field is slowing starting to use social media for hiring, so I encourage to keep working on your resume and essay questions..ahh but guess what..you can also have those documents posted online!
• The bonus of starting an online portfolio is it gets you organized. You get to showcase examples of the work you are most proud of, show your resume, and develop new ideas all in one place, AND it forces you stay on top of it.

“Commit to Completion”    “Honors in Action”   “5 Start Chapter”

These were just a few statements I heard last weekend in Seattle when I attended the Phi Theta Kappa International Conference. Let me tell ya, I was hooked! After 9 years in the student affairs field, this was my first time truly understanding what and how Phi Theta Kappa works. The organizers of this conference did an awesome job sending a wave of emotion through 4000 community college honors students from across the US empowering these student leaders to finish their A.A. or A.S., believe that they too can finish their Bachelors Degrees and to most important, bring their fellow college students along with them.

I realized in California Community College Student Affairs programs, majority of Phi Theta Kappa programs come out of the President’s Office and then directed to go under Instruction. Which might effect the connection that Student Life has with Phi Theta Kappa because majority of the time, Student Life is established under Student Services. Now, after attending the Phi Theta Kappa conference, I have a way better understanding, can see the similarities, and know now how we can best advocate for each other.

I encourage new and seasoned student affairs professionals that are advising Student Government and Student Activities programs to make a strong effort to attend a Phi Theta Kappa regional or international conference, or even ask to have coffee with the current Phi Theta Kappa advisors and ask them about how they are doing with their “5 Start Chapter Status attempt”. Take some time to learn about the 5 Star Chapter Status and how it all works. You will be surprised how you are both providing student engagement and could support each other to reach that 5 Start chapter status each year.

I’m coming up on 5 months at my new job. The work is very similar to what I was doing before : advising student government, developing club policies, in charge of time place and manner. However, I cannot help but want to learn something new. Here are a few things I am working on that I think could be great ways to bridge the Student Life/Student Services and Instruction Connection:

-Attending the Phi Theta Kappa Honors Society International Conference as an observer
-Attend the Phi Theta Kappa Leadership Development Studies Instructor program this summer, with the intention to teach a leadership course as part of the Honors Program at Cañada.

I recently received the book “The Power of Receiving” by Amanda Owen. As I started reading, I came across a section that got me thinking about how much we give of ourselves doing this amazing Student Affairs work. May it be processing Financial Aid applications, to team building exercises on a retreat, to handling discipline in the middle of the night, to coordinating the next big event. You name it, we are doing it! In all that we do, we give of ourselves. And sometimes, at the end of the day, or week or semester it can feel exhausting. I’m going on my 10th year and some days I still feel out of balance. I’m getting there though

In Owen’s first chapter of her book called “Attracting your goal”, she asks the question, ‘Why receive?”. She then shares with the reader words that describe “Receptive states” or an in other words, moments you are receiving rather than giving. She also shared words that are “Active states”, usually times when you are “giving”.

How many times to you see yourself doing the following “Active states/Giving” at work?
*Talking   *Multitasking  *Doing  *Building  *Judging
*Evaluating  *Informing  *Shaping  *Hiding  *Performing
(Owen, A. 2010, Penguin group, pg.31)

Now, ask yourself, how often to I experience “Receptive states/Receiving” at work?
*Meditating  *Allowing  *Listening  * Welcoming  *Letting go  *Watching
*Letting be  *Noticing  *Relaxing  *Accepting  *Embracing
(Owen, A. 2010, Penguin group, pg. 30)

Interesting, I’m now realizing that if I don’t allow some time to receive from my work in Student Affairs, I will miss out on the joy of it.

~On a side note, I think this process of thinking can work in any career field, including parenthood

Do you accept your students friend request? Often a easy question for some of us and not so easy for others. My advice for new advisors has always been “accept your students’ friend request after they have moved on, graduated, or transferred”. A week ago, I started using my professional Facebook page, separate from my personal one, so that I could have access to my student government’s Facebook site. I also wanted to try out what it would be like having my current students as friends on Facebook.
So far, here is what I have learned:
-If you accept one student’s request, you kind of have to accept all of them.
-You have to watch how much you read into what they post.
-Try to focus on the status updates that are related to student government, clubs, and student life.
-Be careful how much you feel responsible for what you do see on Facebook. As I can tell, it is not part of our job to keep track of our students behavior on Facebook. The only time I see it relevant is when the behavior or comment is about something or someone in student government, or club, and it can effect the team dynamic.
-Don’t expect your students or make it a rule they have to be friends with everyone in student government on their personal Facebook page. In the working world, we are not expected to have all our co-workers as friends on our Facebook page.

Well, I’ve made it through my first month at my new job. In away, it feels more like my first month on a new campus. I’m excited that I get to do similar work in student affairs but this time I have a whole new campus to learn. And boy do I have a learning curve! The best part is now I feel more mature, and seen as an expert at student life. The campus has been very welcoming and very willing to show me as I learn how their software works, campus policies, etc. I really appreciate the chance to start over and try new things. I get to bring in ideas that I know have worked in the past and I also get to develop new ways of doing things. I am looking into building more partnerships with TRIO, EOPS and MESA students. I’m hoping they we can team up and use Student Life as a place for their leadership component and training needs. I maybe a veteran in the field, but this month I felt like a brand new advisor!

Lessons in Student Affairs
In the field of Student Affairs/ Student Services, one question you must always ask yourself is how important is it for you to change campuses? Or if changing campuses is not critical right now, how about changing departments? The reason why I bring up this question is this week will be my last at Napa Valley College. Since I finished my Masters, I’ve been asking myself how important is it that I stay at Napa and is that what I want when I look back 10 years or even 20 years from now. And in the end, that question was a huge motivator for me to look outside of Napa for work and the 1 hour commute one way I have now

I knew in my heart that I wanted to experience more than Napa and that was okay. I encourage you too to think about that as you look ahead or even ponder the thought. Change can also help you refuel your passion for Student Affairs and daily energy it takes to work along side and advise college students. I’m going to miss a lot of people. I will miss the beautiful Napa Valley and my drives through the miles and miles of vines. I will miss the diverse students and their out of the blue ideas and positive energy. The best part though, is that when I look back, I will always have the experience of working at Napa Valley College.

With the full moon in the distance, I started the week accepting the position of Coordinator of Student Activities at Cañada College in Redwood City. It’s funny what a full moon can do. It has been nearly 9 years that I have been working at Napa Valley College. I waited until I told my students before I mentioned it to the rest of the campus. When you work in student affairs, you learn over the years how important your relationship is with the students you advise. In away, it is a sign of respect to tell your student government president and office staff before you make an announcement in their meeting or to the rest of the campus. Over the next few weeks I’ll share about the new opportunity and what it will mean for my family and me. But for now, I want to enjoy my last 2 weeks at Napa and the students I advise right now.

For many of us, the next few weeks are filled with graduations, transfer celebrations and student government elections. As one group of students leave us, another group will be arriving into our offices and classrooms before we know it. However, it is important to reflect on what we learned this past year. For me, the biggest lesson I’ve learned is “Not one student is special, but what they do can be special”. It is important that when students bring us challenges, new ideas, and positive changes, that we focus on how our response would help or hurt future students. At first, we might want to say “this is one student”, but the truth is, that student is not special and that is okay. Just keep in mind that how we respond is not special but putting future students in perspective.