Run With The Pack--ASPSA Edition @runwiththepack--aspsaedition - Tumblr Blog

March Madness

Hello everyone! Can you believe Spring Break is here already? While most of the campus is quiet at this time, Case Academic Center is still bustling with activity. We recently hired a new associate director, Ashley Grigsby, who comes with a wealth of knowledge and experience, and is a great addition to our staff! Fall registration is also around the corner, which means our staff has been busy advising and helping our student-athletes select courses for next fall.

Spring semester is in full swing - winter sports are entering tournament play and spring sports are in the midst of their competitive schedules. Last week the football staff went to a team practice to watch as the football team prepares for their spring game on April 4th. It was great to be able to see our student-athletes in their element and to witness all the hard work they put into their sport each day.

The intern cohort recently attended a drive-in conference held at the University of South Carolina. As we are currently in the process of planning for the ASPSA Drive In Conference, it was great to be able to participate in and see how one all came together. We were able to spend some time with the USC intern class, who were more than willing to share helpful advice and tips for organizing and preparing for the drive-in. This experience definitely gave us a lot to think about when planning our own conference, and we are very excited for April 24th!

Stay tuned for more updates and as always - GO PACK!!!

Starting 2020 Strong!

Greetings all, I hope that everyone has had a great start to their new year! For ASPSA, 2020 has brought about a lot of projects, changes, and plenty of work. Our football staff is moving fast and working hard to stay on top of our tasks. Our former associate director transitioned to a position with the NFLPA, which cut down the football staff from 5 to 4 people. This change has led to increased responsibilities and workload for everybody. It has been fun to navigate this process, take on more student meetings, and participate more in the day-to-day of our football program. At the same time, the search for a new associate director has begun. We have been extremely fortunate to be able to be a part of that process, sitting in on multiple candidate interviews with the ASPSA staff. This experience has been extremely insightful. Observing other interviews by professionals in the field has helped to increase my own level of preparedness for my upcoming interview process as well. I am extremely fortunate to be able to be included in this process, to learn, and grow from the observations that took place.

Another major project that we have really started to dive into this semester is the NC State University 2020 ASPSA Drive-In Conference. The conference is set to be on April 24, 2020. A lot of planning goes into hosting a professional development conference. We have started to call up different companies and ask for donations, manage our budget, reach out to professionals in the area to call for presentation proposals, create program fliers, and even recently sent out the save the date to the entire N4A community. Working on a project such as this has been (and will continue to be) great experience with event planning as well as expanding our professional network. The drive-in planning committee has been meeting more frequently as we get closer to the conference date. Our theme this year “In a Season Full of Distractions: Unplug” is aimed at helping professionals in the field navigate working with students where we all are so connected with them through technology. We hope to help educate people on how to have students and professionals use technology more productively as well as how to know when the use of technology may not be the most ideal. I look forward to continuing to work on this process. Stay tuned to hear how everything goes!

A December to Remember!

Happy Holidays! It really is hard to believe that the fall semester has almost come to a close. So much has happened in the past few months! We have been extremely busy with football, as well as our secondary sports. Winter sports are now basically in full swing, so many of those student-athletes have started to travel and compete. It has been great to gain experience in advising these students through this process, especially as they navigate team events, while still balancing school work such as papers, tests, forum posts, and projects.

Even with the semester winding down as students have left for their holiday break, we are still working hard on a variety of different responsibilities. Finals tutoring is a huge aspect of support for all student-athletes. Our football academic support team, as well as the other academic coordinators in the office, worked hard to set up final exam tutoring for all of the students to help prepare them for their last round of tests. While this work was tedious, it was very reassuring to know that after it all of our students would be properly supported for their tests, which can often be strenuous. As exams have now finished, final grades have also started to roll in. We are extremely busy checking final grades and compiling this data for ourselves as well as coaches. When all the grades are in, we will compile a major final grade report for football that will be presented for the coaches to see where their student-athletes stand academically. We have also made sure that all of our student-athletes have been in communication with their professors if they have any final questions or assignments in any of their classes. It is an exciting time to see all the hard work that student-athletes have put in over the course of the semester hopefully pay off and get the grades they desire!

A lot of football recruiting has been happening over the last few weeks. Since the season ended, we have had 2 major weekend recruiting events where prospective student-athletes visit the campus and get a tour of our facilities, campus, and the Murphy Center. It was great to meet these young people, help answer their questions, and hopefully assist in their decision on picking their college destination. These events took a lot of planning and coordination with the football recruiting staff. It was great to get hands on experience with this process; I look forward to doing it more in the future.

Finally, preparing for the spring semester is upon us. Writing travel letters, creating schedules, requesting tutoring/mentoring, writing reports, and doing a variety of other prep work has been a focal point of the last few weeks. The spring semester will begin before we know it, but just like the student-athletes, everyone in ASPSA is also looking forward to a little holiday break with family and friends. We will check back in with everyone in 2020!

Busy busy October...

October 2019

Hello everyone, Happy fall Break! It’s hard to believe that it’s already the middle of October and halfway through the first semester! Things are moving fast over here in Case Academic Center. The middle of semester means that midterms are upon us and registration is here! These past few weeks we have been advising and helping student-athletes choose their courses for the spring 2020 semester. It has been a great experience thus far seeing our student-athletes, especially the freshmen, continue to grow both academically and athletically.

Growth has definitely been a recurring theme this semester for us as assistant academic coordinators. We teach USC 103, an introductory course to university education for student- athletes, every Wednesday. In class we work on building success strategies as well as teaching the skills and necessary knowledge the students will need to navigate the academic and personal challenges of transitioning from high school to college.

We also have professional development sessions that we call “staffings.” These are bi-weekly meetings where we develop and learn new skills we can implement in our roles. It’s great to work in an environment that encourages us to try new things and helps us develop as new professionals in the field.

Until next time - GO PACK!

2019-2020 ASPSA Intern Class

Hello! A little more than a month into the fall 2019 semester, everything sure has been moving fast. My name is Matt Taiman, and I am one of the new assistant academic coordinators (AAC) for football in the 2019-2020 school year at NC State University. Prior to my arrival at NC State in the late summer months, I worked at Virginia Military Institute with their lacrosse, women’s soccer, baseball, and track/field student-athletes. McHale Perkins is the other new AAC in the office. McHale comes from the University of South Florida, where she worked specifically with the student-athletes in the men’s and women’s basketball programs. We are both extremely excited to be here!

Since we started, we have been constantly busy! We have worked with Summer Start students, as well as the select football athletes who were taking summer II courses. It was great to get to know some of the new incoming freshmen and work with them. McHale and I have gained experience with scheduling, professional development on campus, tutors and mentors, attendance, reporting, and many other aspects of the academic advising. It has been awesome to get to know the ASPSA staff and learn from the professionals in the office who have been in the field for a long time. Fast forward to now, the football team is 3-2, we are a month into the semester, and have gotten to know the entire team! We both hold numerous weekly meetings with a good variety of football student-athletes, as well as student-athletes from our secondary sports, which includes swimming/diving, men’s soccer, women’s golf, wrestling and men’s tennis. Supporting the student-athletes has been a lot of fun and is definitely the driving force behind our work. Stay tuned to keep up with our experiences as the year flies by!

The Final Goodbye

(Deanna, Erin, and Sierra at our final celebration in Raleigh)

Wow! Can you believe that we have made it to the last day of our internship? The time has certainly flown by and it feels like we just started. We have learned so much this year and have grown both personally and professionally. I think we can all say that we are so thankful for the support that the ASPSA staff has given us over the past year and because of them we are so excited and ready for our next step! As we get ready to leave we wanted to share our top ten moments of the 2018-2019 intern year with you!

10. Attended the Welcome Back Pack Dinner and the Wolfies - The Welcome Back Pack dinner takes place in the fall to welcome all student-athletes back to campus. This year we got to hear from keynote speaker Mallory Wegman! The Wolfies takes place at the end of the spring semester to honor the achievements, both athletically and academically of our student-athletes over the past year. We love attending these events and supporting our student-athletes!

9. Grad Breakfast and Scholar Athlete Game - At the end of the fall and spring semester ASPSA hosts a graduation breakfast for all of the graduating student athletes and their families and friends. We were able to attend this event celebrate with the graduating student athletes. ASPSA also honors scholar athletes at a football and basketball game. We had the opportunity to attend these games and celebrate our student athletes. Celebrating our student-athletes accomplishments has been one of our favorite experiences!

8. Football Staff Transitions: This year the football staff went through a transition period. During this transition, Deanna and I were able to jump in and take on a lot of responsibilities as we were a three person team for a period of time. Although this was challenging, we learned a lot from this experience and were better prepared for the rest of the internship because of it! We were so thankful to welcome two new academic coordinators to the football staff and have loved working as a five person team to support the football student-athletes!

7. Traveling with Men’s Basketball - Sierra had the opportunity to travel with men’s basketball this year. She travelled to Miami, Atlantic City, Notre Dame, and Louisville. What an awesome experience to travel with the team and be able to support her students while they play on the road!

6. South Carolina Drive-In Conference - All three of us interns and the ASEP Assistant, Patrick, travelled to the University of South Carolina for their drive-in conference. We left Raleigh at 4:30am to make the trip down to Columbia. We had such a great time learning about different ways we could better support our student-athletes and networking with others in the field. We also were able to bring back new ideas as we were preparing to our host our own conference in May!

5. Staff Training - As an intern class we planned a training for all of ASPSA focused on creating a positive work environment. We tied in everyone’s strengths from StrenghtsQuest and even had the staff complete the human knot! We were able to practice our facilitation and presentation skills as well as work together to create a meaningful training!

4. Staff Retreat - In the early fall, we participated in a staff retreat. At the retreat is when we first learned about each other's strengths and had the opportunity to get to know our coworkers better! We also did a QPR training to help us to be able to recognize the warning signs of suicide.

3. Mock Interviews - In March we completed mock interviews with members of the ASPSA staff. Although these were intimidating at first, we learned so much throughout this experience and are more prepared for interviews! We also were able to meet one on one and as a group to go over feedback from the mock interview process.

2. Intern Celebration Lunch - On our second to last day the ASPSA staff hosted a celebration lunch for all of us. We got to join in community, eat a delicious meal, and share some of our favorite memories of this past year. It was awesome to have one last celebration with the staff before we leave to start our next adventure.

1.Hosting the Drive-In Conference - Hosting the drive-in conference was our biggest task that we completed together as an intern class. We began planning in the early fall for the conference that was held in May. This year’s theme was Finding the Balance between “student” and “athlete.” Academic Support professionals from around the region joined us at the conference. We were also very lucky to have Dr. Michelle Joshua, director of Sports Psychology at NC State as our keynote speaker! We are so thankful for the drive-in committee as well as the sponsors who helped make the conference a success! We learned a lot through the planning process and this experience definitely brought us closer as an intern class!

We hope you enjoyed reading our top ten moments of 2018-2019! We have had so many great experiences this year, it was incredibly difficult to choose just ten. Although today is the last day of our internship, we are all looking forward to being together again as we head to the N4A conference in Orlando, Florida in June to network and learn with other academic support professionals! Thanks for following along on our journey this year, we are all excited for what is to come next!

- The 2018-2019 Intern Class

The Final Stretch

Wow, May already? Time has certainly flown by since our last blog post. We have been quite busy these past couple of months. We attended the South Carolina drive-in conference, completed our mock interviews, survived spring registration, and hosted the 17th annual ASPSA Drive-In Conference.

A couple of days after our last blog post, we made the three and a half hour trek to the University of South Carolina to attend their drive-in conference. Their conference theme was “Spring Forward: Expanding Your Impact.” We had an amazing time networking with other professionals in our field and learned new ways to positively impact our student-athletes at NC State. This experience also gave us ideas on how to successfully host our own drive-in conference in May.

Before jumping straight into fall registration, we and our students were able to take a well deserved hiatus during spring break. Self-care is extremely important in our office and we were all able to use this time to recharge. Some of us stayed low-key and relaxed, while others went on vacation and explored new places!

While coming back from breaks are never easy, we were happy to see our students smiling faces and excited to kick registration into high gear. Registration is always a busy time in this office. Erin and I are especially busy helping register 100+ football student-athletes along with assisting Olympic sport student-athletes. Luckily, this wasn’t our first rodeo and we felt much more organized and prepared for this round of registration.

In addition to preparing our students for registration, we were also preparing for our mock interviews with the ASPSA staff. Nerves were definitely flowing as we were determined to prove we have been absorbing everything they have taught us thus far. We felt a great sense of accomplishment after successfully completing our interviews and receiving constructive feedback from our co-workers. Although the mock interview process can be intimidating and nerve-wracking, we are appreciative for the opportunity. We now feel more confident and prepared for future interviews which are not far down the road.

With the mock interviews behind us, a huge portion of our focus went towards finalizing plans for the annual ASPSA Drive-In Conference. Organizing the drive-in conference was no easy task; it took a long time, tons of committee meetings, excellent communication, and a group of interns who worked well together. After months of planning, it was finally “drive-in day.” Our conference took place on May 3rd in Vaughn Towers and focused on student-athlete identity and helping student-athletes balance their dual roles. The turnout was great and we were proud to see our hard work pay off!

(Sierra, Erin, & I at Vaughn Towers for the drive-in conference)

Although our drive-in conference has come and gone, our work isn’t over just yet! The spring semester is quickly coming to a close and final exams, projects, and papers are wrapping up. We continue to encourage and support our student-athletes as they finish the home stretch of the 2018-2019 school year. We will have to start saying goodbye to students who have impacted our lives just as much as we have impacted theirs. While the goodbyes will be sad, we are proud of what they have accomplished this year and promise to come back and visit. We also get the privilege of celebrating with our seniors who are graduating by attending the ASPSA Graduation Breakfast the morning of graduation.

Stay tuned for our last blog post and our final goodbye!

Deanna

February 2019

Where has the time gone? We are already in the heart of the second semester here at ASPSA and things are rolling! We recently had our Scholar- Athlete Game where scholar-athletes were recognized on the court during halftime of the NC State basketball game for earning a term grade point average of 3.0 or higher during the fall 2018 semester. NC State’s Top Ten Scholar-Athletes were also recognized individually. In order for a student-athlete to be honored as one of our “Top Ten,” they must have completed five full time semesters at NC State and have one of the highest total GPAs among all student-athletes. We like to celebrate the success of our students because they work so hard each and every day!

We have also been rapidly planning for our annual drive-in conference, which brings light to issues and best practices in academic support. The theme of this year’s conference is “Finding the Balance,” and it will focus on helping students develop a strong sense of identity while managing the dual roles of “student” and “athlete.” The conference will take place on May 3rd from 9-3pm. I never knew there was so much that goes into planning a conference. Each of us is in charge of various tasks such as food, budget, presentation, facilities, sponsorship, etc. I think we are doing a great job and I can’t wait to see how it all comes together!

Switching gears to my primary responsibility which is men’s basketball, the guys have been keeping me extremely busy. In January, I traveled with the team to away games at Notre Dame and Louisville. This was such a good experience for me as an intern. I held a team study hall to ensure the guys were still getting assignments completed. I feel I was able to gain first hand experience of what it is like to be an academic advisor and I even had some pretty good seats at the games!

With only three months left as an intern here at ASPSA, I hope to continue to learn as much as I can and make the most out of my time left!

GO PACK!!

Meet the 2018-2019 Interns!

Happy October!! Can you believe we have almost finished our first full month of the fall semester? It is hard to believe how fast time is passing here at ASPSA and with that being said we figured it was about time to introduce ourselves, the ASPSA interns for 2018-2019! We are so excited to be here and to share our experiences with you all over the next year! We have already learned so much since we joined ASPSA in June and we cannot wait to learn more over these next few months. With classes being in full swing, we are getting the opportunity to dip our toes into a lot of different areas within ASPSA as we are beginning our journey here. Make sure you keep following us throughout the year to hear more about our experiences, all that we are learning, and the ways in which ASPSA is continuing to grow and change. We can’t wait to share this experience with you!

Deanna

Hi everyone! My name is Deanna Cardamone and I am one of the interns working with football this academic year. I was born in upstate NY but have been living in Raleigh the majority of my life. Definitely consider myself to be southern at this point. I received my Bachelor’s degree in Psychology from East Carolina University and then received my Master’s degree in College Counseling and Student Development from NC State. While completing my master’s at NC State, I worked at ASPSA as a mentor and a graduate assistant. Quickly I realized how much I enjoy working with this student population and could see myself in an academic coordinator position. I am very excited to continue my professional journey here at NC State. Go Pack!!

Erin

Hi there! My name is Erin McGovern and I am one of the football interns for the 2018-2019 school year. I am originally from New Hampshire, but earned my Bachelor’s degree from Roanoke College in Salem, VA in Biology. While at Roanoke, I was a student athlete on the track and field team. It was here that I realized my passion for working with students as I served as a peer mentor for students on academic probation. After graduating from Roanoke, I went on to pursue my master’s degree in Higher Education and Student Affairs at Virginia Tech. My graduate school experience gave me the opportunity to experience many different areas of higher education including: orientation, academic advising, college prep programs, housing, and my personal favorite, working with student athletes. I am so excited to be here at ASPSA and to learn and grow over these next few months as I continue to pursue a career I am passionate about!

Sierra

Hello! My name is Sierra Solomon and I am the basketball intern for the 2018-2019 school year. I was born and raised in Raleigh, North Carolina. I developed a love for sports at very young age. I was fortunate enough to earn a full athletic scholarship to play Division-I basketball at North Carolina Central University (NCCU). During my time at NCCU, I earned my bachelor’s degree in Mass Communication. I chose my major because I wanted to be a sports broadcaster. After graduation, my plans quickly changed and I decided to continue my education at my alma mater, where I pursued my master’s in Athletic Administration. During my first year of graduate school, I served as a teaching assistant for my department. It wasn’t until my second year of graduate school that I got involved in the athletic department at NCCU. After serving as an intern with student-athlete development, I realized I had a passion for working in college athletics and in particular working with student-athletes. I am very eager to continue my journey as a young professional in this field. I am so excited to be apart of ASPSA, and I plan to learn as much as I can from everyone!

Halftime Report

As Taylor mentioned in the November blog, we interns are six months into our internship here at ASPSA and we’ve officially completed our first semester of academic advising!!! Our students have been working hard all semester both in the classroom and on the court/field! As most students are finishing up their final exams and looking forward to a well-deserved break from school, we have a number of student-athletes looking forward to starting the next chapter in their lives! As academic advisors, day in and day out we see our student-athletes work hard towards their goal of earning a degree, which is why we loved celebrating this huge accomplishment with them! On graduation day, we hosted a Student-Athlete Graduation Breakfast so that staff, administration, family, and friends could all come together to celebrate this huge accomplishment!

At the Graduation Breakfast, Geoffrey Carter of men’s swimming and diving and Alexia Zevnik of women’s swimming and diving served as the emcees for this year's graduation breakfast. Tony Adams of football was this year’s keynote speaker delivering a lighthearted and meaningful speech on his time as a student-athlete here at NC State. Along with Tony’s speech, each student-athlete was individually recognized and received their student-athlete sash to proudly wear at their individual graduation ceremonies later that day. The event ended with all of the student-athletes, along with Dr. Debbie Yow, singing the NC State fight song!

Along with the Graduation Breakfast, at the end of each semester, ASPSA has an eligibility review session. During the eligibility review, the faculty academic committee, compliance office, and ASPSA all come together to review each student-athlete for their certification for the next semester. The last time ASPSA had an eligibility review was at the end of the Summer II session and we interns were just getting our feet wet in the world of continuing eligibility. Throughout the semester, we’ve been working hard at understanding all the rules and regulations regarding NCAA eligibility and it was refreshing to finally put it all together!

Happy New Year!

-Kaitlyn

“No Doubt November”

Time is really flying by here in ASPSA! Can you believe that Bri, Kaitlyn, and I have been here for 6 months already?! We certainly cannot, but it is so true that time flies when you’re having fun. As we have moved through the month of November, we have been focusing on tying up loose ends with spring registration, transitioning into final exam and assignment mode, and have even begun thinking about our next steps in the field! It seems unreal that we are at this point in the internship but this month has been all about having fun as well as developing confidence in our abilities and in our roles. At this point in the year, there are many moving parts, and with that territory comes a lot of room for error, especially as new professionals. We are not immune and each of us has made mistakes not only this month, but throughout this experience. With this being said, this month we have each really worked to alleviate some of our hiccups and missteps, as well as block out some of the doubts we have faced.

Though each of us have different experiences, I’m sure that we can all agree that we have made some mistakes while juggling registration, finals mentoring, and our daily routine. As students come into our offices, we each have multiple tasks that need to be accomplished with looming deadlines around the corner, and sometimes things fall through the cracks. For me, personally, I know that I have made some minor errors that range from forgetting to cancel a tutor appointment due to a game or forgetting to update a grade in our running documents called AURs. We each have faced situations with students, tutors, and co-workers that could have been handled differently as well. As we reflected upon what we would or could have changed in those moments, we all realized that mistakes happen in this field and what we learned from these experiences will allow us to grow as new professionals.

As we moved through the month, the three of us have relied upon each other and the ASPSA staff for advice, encouragement, and a good laugh to get us through these uh-oh moments. We have each developed coping mechanisms for when the going gets tough and learned not to doubt our capabilities. This month has been one of reflection and thinking ahead for how we might apply lessons learned from difficult situations and mistakes in the future. We also learned the importance of reminding ourselves of our previous training, experiences, and our passion for what we do in those tough moments to become stronger professionals in the field.

Here’s to a month of eliminating doubt, learning and growing through our mistakes, and charging forward to the second half of our experience here at ASPSA! See you all next month!

October: “Fall”ing into a Routine

Autumn is my favorite time of year for a lot of reasons: pumpkin everything (pumpkin spice latte, anyone?), fall fashion and weather (it’s been unseasonably warm here), football season ( NC State #gopack, and my alma mater #godawgs are doing well this season), and my birthday month (I’m looking forward to Taylor’s brownies) to name a few. Personally, Autumn marks a time of reflection and transition. As I reflect on these past few months, as an ASPSA intern, I feel that I have “fall”en into a productive routine and I’m sure that Kaitlyn and Taylor would agree. My daily routine consists of a combination of some (or all) of the following: student meetings, compiling and reading student progress reports and tutor reports, co-teaching USC 103 (a transition course for for freshman student-athletes), adjusting academic support plans, supervising Football Study Hall, meeting with primary and secondary supervisors to discuss student updates, and assisting Jody with managing Spotter (a cool new app that helps us track student-athletes’ class attendance). Additionally, Kaitlyn and I spent almost every weekend in September assisting with recruiting before each home football game. As I mentioned in the intro blog, I previously worked with high school seniors as a College Adviser, so I really enjoy football recruiting events because it gives me the opportunity to talk to prospective students and their families about all that NC State has to offer as an institution and all that ASPSA has to offer to to ensure their academic success. I’ve also used these past few months to adjust my self-care routine. I define self-care as taking the time to re-invest in myself so that I feel mentally, emotionally, and physically healthy; in the words of Audre Lorde, “caring for myself is not self-indulgence, it is self-preservation.” As helping professionals, we give a lot of ourselves away to ensure that our students are set up for success and often times it’s easy to neglect taking care of ourselves. One of the ways that I practice self-care at work is by intentionally setting aside time on days that I work late for Football Study Hall to leave the office and go for a walk at Lake Johnson (a beautiful trail near campus) or take a fitness class at my gym. I asked Kaitlyn and Taylor how they intentionally practice self-care at work and here are their responses:

Kaitlyn: For me, self-care involves stepping back from all my daily distractions and taking some time to do something that mentally, physically or emotionally benefits me. As Bri said earlier, with our profession we are always making sure our students are set up for success, which often means we might unintentionally forget to focus on our successes. Personally, I have a goal to make it to the gym at least 5 times per week for an hour session. In addition to making it into the gym each week, I try to call or FaceTime my friends and family on the weeknights that I am not working late night Football Study Hall. When I make it to the gym and connect with my family and friends, I consider that week to be successful.

Taylor: Self-care for me involves disconnecting from the world for a little bit. It has been a habit for me to leave my phone in a different room and to stop checking e-mails after a certain time. “Signing off” for this little bit of time, whether it be while I am at the gym or indulging in my guilty pleasure of the Gilmore Girls, allows me to recharge and stop my mind from going a million miles per hour. My self-care routine has fluctuated over the past couple of months but shutting down and signing off has been a consistent mechanism to slow myself down. I look forward to continuing to allow for this “alone” and disconnected time throughout this year and my career to help me stay recharged, energized, and healthy in this profession!

Most of the office is also participating in a Step to it Walking Challenge where we compete with other teams on campus to walk the most steps. In ASPSA, we have two teams: Kicking ASPSA Again (Taylor and I are on this team) and Stroll So Hard (Kaitlyn’s the lone intern on this team). This extra motivation (and competition) also helps to remind me to take a few extra minutes to recharge myself throughout the day! I’m grateful that I work in an office that values my personal and holistic well-being and it has definitely set the standard for my expectations for work environments as I move forward on my professional journey.

As I mentioned earlier, Autumn also marks a time of transition. Organizationally, ASPSA has experienced growth with the addition of our new Associate Director, Tommy Jones! Tommy joins us from the University of Michigan. He will be the lead academic coordinator for Men’s Basketball and we are excited about all of the skills and experience that he brings to ASPSA! This is also a time of transition for the student-athletes as they prepare for the next semester (it seems like the Fall semester just started). Registration for the Spring 2018 semester is approaching, so we’ve been spending a lot of time helping students choose their courses for next year. Although I work primarily with freshmen Football players, I also assist Megan with supporting the Men’s and Women’s swimming and diving teams. Having such a diverse caseload of students provides me with a lot of variety during registration because each student has different class scheduling needs based on an array of factors such as their major, practice schedules, and career goals. Additionally, assisting with registration has also helped me to be intentional about considering NCAA continuing eligibility requirements when discussing academic plans with students, such as maintaining full-time status and fulfillment of percentage of degree requirements. Building relationships with students is what I love most about this job, so I’ve enjoyed utilizing what I’ve learned about students’ goals, interests, strengths, and areas of growth to help them build a personalized academic plan that will meet all of their needs. The ability to build positive rapport with students is crucial for success in this field, and it is especially integral in our role because ASPSA is a student-centered office. I find it empowering to work alongside colleagues who are consistently considering the best interests of the students that we serve.

As the semester progresses, I’m looking forward to seeing students reap the rewards of their hard work! I’m also personally looking forward to gaining more insightful and valuable experience as an ASPSA intern! Stay tuned for the journey!

Happy Fall Y’all!

-Bri

September: One Pack One Goal

Hi All!

My name is Kaitlyn Barrett and my primary responsibility for the 2017-2018 academic year is to work with football! Along with my primary responsibilities, I also have secondary responsibilities working with baseball, women’s soccer, volleyball and men’s golf! Since our introduction, ASPSA has gone through a few changes; we’ve hired a third learning specialist, Richard Winters! Not only have we hired Richard, but we’ve been going through a hiring process for a new men’s basketball Associate Director! One of the great things about this year long internship is being able to have a hands on experience in a number of different things, including the hiring process for this new position! Bri, Taylor and I were fortunate enough to be able to participate in the staff interviews for this position, giving us an opportunity to get a first-hand look at what we might experience at the end of our internship as we start interviewing for full-time positions! We had a lot of great candidates interview for this position, so stay tuned for next month’s blog as we introduce our new men’s basketball Associate Director!

The fall semester is in full swing, and Case has been bustling with students. The students have been busy, and so have we Assistant Academic Coordinators. At the beginning of August, we had the opportunity of expanding our professional development by attending the Advisor Academy. The advisor academy is a two-day workshop focused on helping advisors that are new to the career field and to NC State University. During this two-day workshop, we learned how to utilize various online resources, what would be considered a successful advising appointment, and how to refer students to various on campus resources, such as the Career Development Center. Finally, at the end of the workshop, we got to sit in on a mock advising session, which was great because the following week we started directing advising appointments of our own! Along with having weekly advising meetings with our student-athletes, we’ve been busy updating AURs, monitoring structured study halls, and trying to attend as many Pack sporting events as we can!

Until next time!

-Kaitlyn

Meet the Players- ASPSA Intern Class of 2017

Hey everyone!

It is about that time. The 2017-2018 school year is quickly approaching and that means...A NEW ASPSA INTERN CLASS! We are very excited to be here and can’t wait to share our experiences, laughs, and journey with you over the course of this year. We have been working hard here around Case since June 19 and have been really hitting the ground running. It is hard to believe that we have been here for just over a month, but we can already tell you all that we have been learning a ton. Between training and some hands-on experience with our students and primary and secondary supervisors over the course of Summer Session II, we have been able to test our skills with academic update reports (AURs), with preparing for fall schedules, and with some rapport-building with our students. Our days have been filled with checking students in for their tutoring/mentoring sessions, learning about eligibility and advising, helping our students in Summer START, and learning about some of our responsibilities and sports for the upcoming year. We have really been enjoying our time getting to know everyone around the office, and we can’t wait to see what this experience has in store for us! But, before we gear up for the big game that is the fall semester, here’s a little more about us, your favorite players:

Taylor-

Hey guys!

My name is Taylor Mercado and I am this year’s men’s basketball intern. I am originally from Long Island, New York but have been in NC for about 9 years now. I graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2013 with a double-major in political science and public policy. While I was just down the road, I spent a lot of my time in undergrad as an orientation leader, an admissions ambassador, and as a football ambassador, working with recruits as they visited during home games. I didn’t even realize it then but I was slowly falling in love with working with students and helping them make the best of their college experiences. I loved telling people about my institution and my experience, and wanted every student I met to love college as much as I did. I decided to continue pushing first-generation college students like myself to see their potential and what college could do for them as a college adviser with the Carolina College Advising Corps in Charlotte, NC. From there, I knew that I wanted to make education a career and my decision to attend NC State to pursue a master’s in higher education administration was a no-brainer! In my second year of my master’s program, I became a mentor and did my graduate school practicum here at ASPSA, working closely with Emily and Lauren with the Learning Enhancement Program. My experience working primarily with first-year football student-athletes and with the ASPSA staff made it very clear that I wanted to work with student-athletes as a career. The staff allowed me to get my feet wet in the field by mentoring student-athletes, co-teaching one of the USC courses, and having a mini-caseload of swimming/diving student-athletes. I really feel like my time here at Case has helped me me find my niche and passion, and I am thrilled to be continuing as an assistant academic coordinator here and can’t wait to have new experiences throughout the year. GO PACK!

Bri-

Hey y’all! My name is Bri and I am one of the football interns. A native Georgia Peach, I am from Thomson, GA, which is a small town right outside of Augusta, GA. I am a two-time graduate of the University of Georgia, which makes me a “Double Dawg!” I earned my Bachelor of Education degree in health and physical education from UGA in 2013. As a Health and PE major, I enjoyed not only exploring the intersections of sports and education, but also realizing that I could use my role as an educator to create social change. After graduating, I worked for two years as a Georgia College Advising Corps College Adviser at an urban high school in Augusta, GA. In this role, I had the privilege to continue promoting educational access and equity by assisting first-generation, low-income, underrepresented students on their journey to college. Although it was fulfilling knowing that I helped many students actualize and accomplish their goals, it was also frustrating to recognize how systemic issues prevented many students from getting to college and from persisting through college. As a result, I returned to UGA to pursue my Master of Education degree in college student affairs administration. One of the highlights of my experience as a graduate student was working as an Athletic Academic Mentor for UGA’s Athletic Department. As a mentor, I enjoyed helping student-athletes tap into their potential and capitalize on skills that would lead to their success both inside and outside of the classroom. I always knew that I wanted to pursue a career that combined my appreciation for sports and my passion for helping others, and a career in student-athlete academic support services would mean that I could continue holistically supporting diverse student groups while also serving as a champion for college access and persistence. Thus, after graduating with my masters degree from UGA, my job search led me to North Carolina State University’s Academic Support Program for Student Athletes.

I know that this year as an ASPSA intern will bring as much challenge as it will growth. However, I am excited to continue exploring ways in which I can use my role as an educator to continue promoting educational access and college persistence for student-athletes.

Kaitlyn-

Hi all!

My name is Kaitlyn Barrett, and I am the other football intern! I am from Monticello, Illinois, a small town near Champaign, IL. A former student-athlete, I played softball for Northern Illinois University and earned my bachelor’s degree in Kinesiology. After earning my bachelor’s degree and finishing up my athletic eligibility, I stayed at NIU to get a master’s degree in Sport Management. While earning my master’s degree, I was a Graduate Assistant in the Kinesiology department, teaching and overseeing the exercise gerontology clinical class. In addition to being a GA in the Kinesiology department, I also was an intern for NIU’s Student-Athlete Academic Success Services (SAASS) department. While interning at SAASS, I had the pleasure of working with a case load of student-athletes, assisting with their tutorial program and developed a passion for this career field.

I am beyond excited to watch my passion and knowledge within this career field grow over the course of this next year at NC State! I know that the ASPSA team is one of the best in the business, and can’t wait to learn all that I can while also making new connections with a great group of individuals! Keep checking in with Bri, Taylor and I as we learn to navigate NC State, ASPSA and the world of academic advising! Can’t wait to share this upcoming year with all of you! Go PACK!

#welcomeback internclassof2017

Team13...Out!

A few months ago, Alyssa, Olivia, and I started calling ourselves “Team13.” This hasn’t been verified but from our calculations, we are the 13th intern class to complete the ASPSA internship. Well, Team13...turn that tassle, we made it! It seems like it was only yesterday that I was writing our first introductory blog. Many, many, MANY study halls, staff meetings and trainings, student meetings, eligibility reviews, coaches meetings, recruit visits, two graduation breakfasts, evaluations, two mock interviews, run clubs (for some of us), and one drive-in conference later, our journey with ASPSA has come to an end. We have unquestionably learned and grown, personally and professionally for the better, over the past 11 months. While the journey was stressful at times, the countless laughs I shared with not only Team13 but the ASPSA staff made our time here fun.

Thank you, thank you, thank you to everyone at ASPSA. You taught us so much in such a short amount of time. Thank you to the football staff - I’m going to miss our football family. You all somehow made even coming to study halls on Sundays fun. Thank you to Team13. No one understands the intern life like a fellow intern and I wouldn’t have made it without you both. I’m going to miss our daily life chats, but I’m so excited to see where you both go from here!

To the next intern class, GOOD LUCK! You’re joining a great team and the student-athletes you will work with are awesome. The internship will fly by so make sure you enjoy every moment, even when it feels like your to-do list is a mile long!

As always, Go Pack!!!

Jenna

P.S. Interns, if any of you enjoy running please join the ASPSA Thursday run club. It’s great, really! Bryce, you’re welcome for the plug.

How to Speak Gen Z

April was a busy month for the three interns! With finals right around the corner, we started the month working on finals tutor request for our respective sports. On April 24th, we were able to attend the Wolfies, which is an end of the year banquet for all student-athletes. During the Wolfies, many of our ASPSA family members were involved in presenting and receiving awards. Maulies presented the top 10 Caterpillar scholar-athletes, and Katie presented the male and female ACC Scholar Athlete of the Year awards. Men’s swimming and diving won the Chancellor’s Cup for the highest GPA for male sports, and women’s volleyball won the Chancellor’s Cup for the highest GPA for female sports.

Most of the month of April was spent preparing for ASPSA’s 15th Annual Drive-In Conference. This year’s theme was How to Speak Gen Z: Advising and Supporting the Next Generation of Student-Athletes. Putting on the drive-in conference is our last huge project before the end of our internship. There were definitely some bumps in the road leading up to the day of the conference, but with the help of the committee members and a few sleepless nights, we were able to pull off the conference without a hitch!

Before the Conference: After the Conference:

Our agenda started with an NCAA Update by Jason Greco, the Director of Compliance at NC State. We then had three rounds of breakout sessions. Below is a list of our breakout presentations:

Cool Gen Zs use Google Extensions and Apps to Zoom through Classes

Advising Assessments Made Simple

The 4 M’s of Motivation: Keys to Motivating Student-Athletes

Connecting Outside of the Student-Athlete Identity

Communicating with the Modern Student-Athlete

Understanding Generational Differences and Implications for Academic Advising

I was unable to attend any of the breakout sessions, but I heard they were amazing! Next our attendees headed to lunch, which was donated by Jimmy V’s (a huge thank you to Muriel for helping with this connection!) Since lunch was donated, we had enough money in our budget to purchase Howling Cow ice cream for dessert. In case you aren’t familiar with NC State, Howling Cow is ice cream made here on campus. I may be biased, but I think it is the best ice cream around.

Dr. Tracey Ray was our keynote speaker for the conference. She is the Assistant Vice Provost for Student Diversity at NC State and she spoke to the group about embracing diversity, because Generation Z is going to be the most diverse group of students we will have worked with. She also discussed communication and how to best communicate with student from Generation Z.

We ended the day with a student-athlete panel. We had two student-athletes from football, one from volleyball, one from women’s soccer, and a women’s diver that participated in the panel. The panel discussed the transition from high school to college, challenges of student-athletes, technology use in studying, communication in general and with parents, motivation, and pressures they face. The theme, started by Dr. Tracey Ray, that was made apparent during the panel was: Instead of being a melting pot, where all the flavors mix together and become one flavor, Generation Z is more of a tossed salad; each ingredient remains in their original form but comes together to make the salad.

Below are some other picture from the day:

Thank you to our sponsors, committee members, students, presenters, and ASPSA staff who helped make the 15th drive-in conference a success!

- Olivia Scarborough

March Madness ASPSA Style!

To the rest of the world, March Madness is all about basketball and brackets, but here at ASPSA, March Madness refers to registration, mock interviews, and staff trainings! This second go-around with registration, there was much less anxiety (at least on my part) and much more conscious competence when it comes to the questions and tasks that come along with pre-registration advising. This spring semester, many of my students applied to matriculate into the college of their choice. This added an additional challenge and responsibility, but one we took on together! It was so rewarding seeing the smile on their face knowing that their hard work is paying off and that they are progressing on their journey to graduation.

In addition to registration and our daily responsibilities, the intern projects are in full swing this month. This internship does a great job preparing us interns for “life after ASPSA.” Not only do we attend a training full of valuable advice on the upcoming job search, but we also get to participate in a life-like mock interview conducted by eight of our coworkers. We were told, “This will be the hardest interview you will ever have to do.” Being interviewed by people you know and work with on a daily basis is definitely nerve-racking, but if we can get through this we will come out on the other end ready to conquer this upcoming job search!

We also presented a training to the entire staff at ASPSA on emotional intelligence. A huge part of being in academic support is building relationships with not only your students, but your coworkers as well. One of the most amazing parts about being part of the ASPSA family is the amount of collaboration that takes place throughout the office. It’s important to be able to recognize and understand the emotions in yourself and in others and to use those skills to build meaningful work relationships.

Our crowning accomplishment of putting on a drive-in conference for academic support professionals in the area is only a month away! We have some great presentation topics and presenters this year and we are looking forward to a great turnout. It’s really incredible to see the process starting to come together and I can’t wait to see the final product.

Stay tuned to find out how everything comes together for the 15th Annual ASPSA Drive-In Conference!

As always, GO PACK!

Alyssa

Trending Blogs

Recently Viewed Blogs

Run With The Pack--ASPSA Edition