Identifying Student Leaders

Hours: 8:00am - 12:00pm

Revised student work schedule and brought it to Brenda in Residence life. Created an Agenda for Tuesday meeting with the Volunteer & Service-learning Center and orientation to plan and design the division of responsibility for the Orientation Day of Service. Ray Lorigo stopped by with a student, and I listened in on how the advisement process works in conjunction with orientation; the order of things, and how to answer questions when students say, "do i have to go to orientation?" and "i just want to do what i have to do to get this degree as quick as possible" . Also, I identified a student that is and has been extremely active on the Class of 2013 facebook group in answer new student questions with accurate information. I sent her a facebook message and asked her to be an "Honorary Assistant Orientation Leader" to recognize her early initiative as a student leader. Also worked on some assessment stuff applicable to both the VSLC and orientation: mostly related to how to Sum categorical data in a useful way. Above is my graph from SPSS summarizing our Community Partner Survey Data from Spring 2006 - Spring 2008 about How interactions with BSC have influenced the organization.

Reaching out to the student on facebook was an initiative I borrowed from Kevin Prentiss at SwiftKick. They address head on a lot of the questions about how to incorporate social media into college life, since it's a natural extension. I'm really happy that Bob gave me the go ahead..some people take strong stances either for or against using social media, but it's nice to figure out where some boundaries are, and have a supervisor that is open to using the technology to our advantage instead of being afraid of it.

It's not only important to identify student leaders, but also to connect them with campus. I hope that we have offered that to the new student who's basically doing a good part of our job in the Class of 2013 facebook group. She should be recognized for her efforts, and rewarded. I took a chance on the advice about monitoring the incoming class's FB group to find out what the students are talking about and who the leaders are, and i hope that it pays off and S. feels connected to campus. we'll see.

Both Flavors of Assessment

Hours:8:00am - 12:00pm

Finalized time card system for tracking OL hours, sent an e-mail to all OL's letting them know what to do. Took care of some more payroll paperwork, visiting Foundation Accounts in Cleveland Hall and Brenda Marshall in res life (saw Kevin wogenrich there. small world). Finalized my "Core Team"; the OL's I will be directly supervising, then began my outreach to them by e-mail a "bio sheet" asked for basic biographical information as well as some leadership questions. Spoke with L.W. about his interest in the SPA program, and learned how Bob tracks EVERYTHING the happens with orientation in quantifiable terms - weekly numbers for every thing your could possibly imagine at his finger tips. incredible.

I've decided that I'm definitely ready to begin working with students. I understand the preparation and administrative side of things, but I'm actually really excited to start having staff meetings, collaborating on projects, and talk about programming, and build skills with students and orientation leaders.

My strategy for team building is getting buy-in; i'm asking the team members to choose our team name, and set group goals and personal goals for the summer and doing little things often, rather than rare grand gestures. I'm utilizing a qualitative leadership assessment tool authored by Tim Milburn of studentlinc (see right) I also plan on really incorporating his "Seasons of Leadership" resource (technically called "Core Leadership Training Lessons") at my fall GA in student activities in the Fall. Although, now that i think about it, since OL's are leaders too, i wonder if they go through an accelerated "Seasons of leadership" cycle...

First Impressions

Hours: 8:00am - 12:00pm

Created time sheets for Orientation Leaders to log hours in both the Residence Life Office and Orientation Office. Trish, Bob, and I stuffed envelopes with transfer orientation materials. Met the NODA intern from Indiana University, Kim Kushner. We chatted a little bit about our programs and career aspirations/goals with stuffing envelopes. I sat in on a "make-up orientation" Bob conducted with two tansfer students. The first Orientation Leader (OL) came in to do some office hours, so she (Jordan) will be testing the time card/hour tracking system that is still forming.

We haven't really done a formal GA/intern training yet because Katie, the third intern hasn't started yet, so I feel a little lost around the office. I have confidence that my learning curve is steep, and that after the NYLEC conference on Monday of next week and the formal training scheduled for Tuesday and Wednesday morning of next week, I'll start to feel much more settled in.

Transfer students have seperate needs that first year students. Part of the reason for putting a hold on their account for registration until they complete a mandatory orientation, even if it's only 30 minutes long, is twofold. (1) Seperate colleges have seperate systems for registering for and taking classes,as well as distinct cultures. Orientation serves as an introduction to the particular student services that are relevant to those students for meeting their individual needs. (2) Whether the students are pursuing a second bachelors degree or transferring institutions in pursuit of their first degree, it's important for them to make a personal connection with the new campus for the purposes of retention. Especially at BSC where students primarily commute - making an initial personal connection with campus is key.

Collaboration and Efficiency

Hours: 8:00am - 12:00pm

General acclamation to the office setting. Figured out a workspace and set a stable schedule for the remainder of the summer and filled out payroll paperwork. Created a framework for tracking Orientation Leader work hours in both Residence Life (3hrs/week required) and the Orientation office (2hrs/week required). Joined an in-progress discussion with Fred and Janelle from Residence Life as well as Dr. Kenyon aimed at combining Orientation Leader and Residence Assistant training.

The important part of the day was the meeting with Dr. Kenyon and residence life staff to discuss how orientation leaders and resident assistants can share training, especially because some of the topics overlap and a significant number of the individuals overlap. The challenge is that the content is not exactly the same because the audiences are different. The interactions that each student leader will have with the first year student take place in a unique context (residential vs. non-residential), and so the focus of implementing each training topic is unique. While this is inconvenient for speakers like Dr. Kenyon, who want to speak to both groups about implementing a Civil & Caring community, the efficiency in the short run does not outway the efficiency in the long run. Additionally, the student leaders will benefit from a presentation that is more tailored to them.

Collaboration is always a goal for student affairs. As academic are the primary mission of the college/university, and the role of student affairs is to support the academic mission, collaboration is necessary. In this case, we have good intentions to collaborate, and absolutely see the usefulness in collaborating, but the struggle is where do res.life and orientation leader training meet? They definitely overlap in terms of skills, topic areas, and concepts, but how do we get the focus and timelines to meet while giving enough attention to the specifics of each area?