The Road So Far
I thought it was only appropriate to use a Supernatural reference in the title of my very first blog post here on good old tumblr! However, this as this is my student affairs blog and not the fandom blog I’ve been running since I was 15, THIS post is actually about my student affairs journey so far.
I’ve taken a bit of a roundabout path to my current position. I am finishing up my master’s in student affairs at Ball State University, and I will soon be starting my first job in student affairs at Purdue University. I actually began my educational journey as an English education major and even got a job teaching 8th grade English. I had some doubts about teaching before I got into the workforce, but I thought I would be happy once I had my own classroom and could do things my way. I quickly realized I enjoyed the mentorship aspect of teaching much more than the actual teaching part, and I definitely wanted to work with older students. I then did an Americorps partner program for a year called the College Advising Corps, which places college and career near-peer advisers in high-need schools, primarily serving students who are low-income, first-generation, and/or underrepresented. My supervisor at that job really pushed me to consider a student affairs career path, and I even ended up attending her alma mater for graduate school!
Now that I am almost at the end of my graduate work, I look back on the past year and can’t believe how much I have learned in such a short time. Because Ball State has an accelerated program, I am getting in and out in just three semesters. On one hand, I think that’s great because I can start my career and move on with my life, but on the other hand, I feel like my time here with the other students in the cohort and my professors has been all too short, especially considering we had no in-person classes this year due to the pandemic. One thing that has stuck out to me is how important work towards equity and justice truly is. I was excited to do some of that work when I was an adviser with CAC, and after all the reading and reflecting I have done this year to see how this work is conducted in the higher education space. It is very important to me to continue to advocate for both myself and students in my future workplace. Considering I am just starting out, that feels a little intimidating, but I know I need to implement this knowledge in my everyday work so it just becomes routine. In just a few short weeks, I will be starting my job in the Office of Admissions at Purdue. I am so excited to take what I’ve learned out into the real world.