One month down

My first month as a Residence Life Coordinator (sans students) has flown by.  I have had a great experience so far, meeting people from all over campus and all over the community which has been amazing and I definitely feel like I am part of the family here which is a great feeling.  I finally have my own office too – no longer am I sharing it with two of my co-workers and I have been able to really settle in to this position.

We have also been able to settle into our apartment which is suuuuch a blessing.  My husband loves the apartment, the location, being near our friends – there really is not much for us to complain about!

I just finished the initial portion of my first big project – the University Parent Guide.  University Parent Media is this great company that develops campus/community guides for our student’s families and parents at no cost to the institution.  They contact local businesses and sell ad space which pays for the publishing of the guide (how wonderful!).  The only thing the institution has to do is gather photos and write editorial content and you are good to go.  So I just finished gathering the photos,  putting content together and organizing lists of potential vendors for UPM to contact.  We should get the first draft of it in a couple weeks and I’m pretty pumped – I think it is going to look great and be a great resource for our students and their families.  One of the best things about working with UPM is that they will publish the guide every year for 3 years (4000 copies every August) , it’s great.

I’ve also been working on RA Training which happens to be one of my very favorite things to do!  We’ve got a theme, intentional programs/teambuilding excersises and everything – you name it.  PLUS, the budget here is incredible.  I came from a place where I had to lobby for money from SGA to do programming in the halls to a place where they have trouble spending everything – it’s nuts.   I am really going to have to get used to having funding but aside from that, RA Training is going to be fantastic and I think the students are really going to love it!

There are many more projects and updates but I will have to write more later – Photos coming soon!

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The staff retreat

Before I started working at this new institution but after I had accepted the position, I began recieving emails from my new supervisor about coordinating a small Residence Life retreat during the summer.  My parents are affiliated with Hilton Hotels so I was able to pull some strings and set up a sweet resort for us to go at the beach.  The retreat was scheduled for just one night during my first week on the job.  Here is a break down of everyone who went:

• The three Residential Life Coordinators (RLC’s)
• Two Front Desk Managers (full-time professional position) (FDM’s)
• One Assistant Director of Housing
• One Director of Residence Life (my boss)

We hopped in the vans and headed down to the beach where we were going to teambuild, set goals and write a mission that will carry us through the upcoming year.  Four hours later, we make it to the hotel and get straight to business.  The first thing we do is write a new mission for the department and model it after the mission of the institution.  The institution has a strategic plan through 2011 so all of our goal setting and mission work was focused on that plan and what we can do to improve the lives of our students while working towards the goals of the strategic plan. 

We grab some lunch and then start working on some less-serious stuff like recognition styles.  There is a packet of recognition-style surveys and programs through Baudville (www.baudville.com) that lets you know how people like to be recognized and what their favorite things are.  Whether you like to be recognized in private or in public… stuff like that.  I LOVE RECOGNITION!  What student affairs professional doesn’t like to spread some recognition around?  Anyways, we did that and then began to talk about StrengthsQuest which is kind of like Myers-Briggs.  It was really informational and we all learned about what eachothers strengths were and how we will best work with eachother.  What a novel idea – learning eachothers strengths and how we can work with eachother.

We ended up going out for dinner, had some drinks and came back to play madgab watch this HILARIOUS comedy show that the staff had been raving about.  It was a fun day to say the least. 

The next day we packed up and then set goals for the department including development of the learning communities, beautification of the residence halls and developing an RA class.  WOW.  That is all I could think on the way home.  I was used to a very strict, and a very set-in-our-ways since 1891 environment to an insitution that invites change and is excited at new opportunities.  YAY!

Now, I am knocking on wood because I have been known to jinx things but everything is so far, so good.  My co-workers are amazing, my boss is fantastic and I am really excited about this.  We move into our apartment on Friday too – even better. 

I’ll take photos soon

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The first day

Today was my first day on the job and it was great.  First days are always awkward… no matter what.  You don’t know what to wear, you don’t want to be late and you certainly don’t want to make the wrong impressions.  First things first, although I will be living on campus – the apartment that we are supposed to move into is still being cleaned and painted so we are homeless at the moment.  My husband and I are staying with our friend who lives about 10 minutes across town for about another week until we can move.  He is a great friend but we are really REALLY looking forward to getting out of here.   Just another thing to juggle this week – no biggie. 

So in my last position, I was expected to dress up everyday (heels, suits… the whole shebang) and so because I would rather be over dressed than under dressed, I threw on the pumps and suited up for the first day.  One of the first things that was said to me was, “sandals are allowed and we like to be comfortable so relax!”   WHAT!?  My prayers have been answered and my first day was starting off well.

First days are usually full of meeting random people and trying hopelessly to remember everyones name.  I met everyone in Admissions, Career Development, and a couple people here and there in the library and Academic Advising.  One of my favorite people – the HR person, was great and so helpful.  I had the very important health insurance/retirement meeting and low and behold… the health insurance is AMAZING!!!  These people actually care.  I went around and met a couple students who were around campus for the summer and checked out my office space that is actually in the residence hall that I will be living and working in.  It’s great.  Then we headed to lunch which was again, fantastic - we all went out and had a great discussion about the tomato-situation and Clinton’s concession.

Overall, I really think I am going to love it here.  I also think I am going to learn a great deal about myself and about the field of student affairs and residence life.  Everyone has had at least one or two student development courses and the idea of “fully developing college students” is behind every action and is the purpose of department.  I really think that because I had such a challenging professional experience during the past two years,  I will appreciate the smaller things like wearing flip flops to work, half day fridays and even professional training a lot more.  Stay tuned!

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The day before the first day

Today is the day before I start my new job at a private, urban institution as a Residence Life Coordinator. To say that I am excited would be a major understatement. I am super pumped. I am also a little nervous about starting a new job from scratch. Thankfully, I am not replacing anyone – the department is just expanding so I won’t have to fill any shoes exactly but I am still going to be considered a newbie armed with questions and totally clueless about the workings of the institution.

I am also working on my Master’s Degree in College Student Development and this first semester at this new institutions is going to count towards my internship requirement because I am working professionally. Anyways, I figured a blog to highlight the ups and downs of the first year of my life on a new campus would be appropriate to share with my colleagues and professors and also a good venue to vent to the world should the need arise.

My first professional job was…(hum…) a good learning experience (that is the nicest way I can put it.) I was there for two years as an Area Coordinator and those were two of the hardest most frustrating years of my adult life. I’m a young adult but nevertheless, they were tough. I was in a town that was known for their close proximity to 4 super-walmarts, my apartment was filled with spiders the size of my hand and the supervision was interesting (also the best way to put that.) Thankfully, my students were AMAZING. I would have had a hard time making it two years if they were not so awesome and they are why I am in the field in the first place. Anyways, with little to no guidance on being a professional and working in student affairs, I made the best of what I had, which was nothing besides my students and one fabulous co-worker from the greatest state in the union (you know who you are). Getting off campus for my graduate course work made things a little easier and I loved what I was learning but with a very intense, micro-managing boss and little support from the department, I soon started checking for job openings. Although this sounds completely miserable, there were a lot of happy things that happened to me while I was there. I got a dog, finished two years of master’s work and got married to the love of my life. These are huge life changing things and all very happy things that might not have happened (well, the dog part at least) if I had not worked there so that worked out happily…thankfully.

Originally, I had planned on staying at that institution for one more year until I got my degree but when this position was posted, I knew I wanted to give it a shot. Now here I am, three months later, in a wonderful city starting a new promising job in Residence Life. I’ll keep this updated with highs and lows and everything in between as often as possible. Photos are coming soon too – feel free to comment and share your experiences!

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