A couple of weeks ago, I had the opportunity to attend my first tweet up ever, a #SAchat SxSW tweet up in Austin held at one of Rudy’s BBQ’s locations. While I didn’t get the opportunity to have lengthy conversations with everyone there, I did have a lot of fun and enjoyed meeting people that I have connected with via Twitter.

While at the tweet up, Ed Cabellon asked me to say a couple of words about my experience. Being the introvert that I am, I reflected on that question more when I went back home and I came up with some variables as to why I thought it was a successful tweet up:

Good People + Good Food + Good Conversations + Good atmosphere = A Good Tweet Up

So there you have it. It’s really simple isn’t it? So, if you are ever try to plan a tweet up, I think those are the variables that you need to consider. The good people variable is easy. Making sure you’re at a place that can provide the other variables is easier said than done. What are some other variables to consider?

Pete Pereira (@PetePereira) is the Coordinator for Campus Activities at Texas State University-San Marcos and he’s always game for a tweet up.

About a month ago @KevinCleary, @JoeGinese, and I had a conversation about how Jesuit education and philosophies shaped each of us personally and professionally. In case you may not know who the Jesuits are, here’s a quick overview: The Society of Jesus (also know as the Jesuits) are a Catholic religious order and are known and respected for several fields, including education. Here’s a link to a wikipedia page with more information about them.

Now, I hope this doesn’t come off as proselytizing because I’m actually not religious even though I’m a product of Catholic education (K – Undergrad) so it’s definitely has shaped who I am.  We each mentioned a different concept that I thought I’d share with you because I believe that they apply to our work:

Ad maiorem Dei gloriam (my Jesuit shout out in our conversation)

This is the Jesuit motto which means “For the great glory of God”. For me, it means about doing my best always and thinking about the bigger picture that my every action has on this world as well as others.

I like to believe that Student Affairs professionals do the work that they do because it is very selfless work which concentrates on helping others. Also, a lot of professionals got into the field because of the impact it had on them and they want others to experience the same.

Magis (@KevinCleary’s shout out)

It literally means “the more”. It’s meant to think about doing more for one’s faith as well as for others. It’s about always striving to do good work and never being content. Kevin mentioned in a tweet that started the whole conversation “I have found that I work best with people who embrace the value of ‘Magis’ – Always striving for more!”

Cura personalis (@JoeGinese’s shout out)

It basically translates to “caring for the entire person” and we as Student Affairs professionals always talk about taking a holistic approach with our students and how the college experience should be about not just the classroom experience.

How have experiences outside of your higher education graduate program influenced you? I’d love to hear your thoughts.

Pete Pereira (@PetePereira) is Coordinator for Campus Activities at Texas State University-San Marcos.

With the Student Affairs job searching season getting ready to pick up, I thought I’d share some thoughts based on my experiences for those of you in a Dual Career couple search.

1) Open and honest communication is very important.

When you and your partner are ready to conduct a search, you need to have open and honest communication about how the process is going for both of you all of the time. Talk about what type of positions you are interested in, geographic preferences, institutional preferences, and any other criteria you typically use when conducting a search.

2) Develop a game plan.

After the both of you talk about criteria, develop a game plan and then look at openings. Discuss what are your priorities/goals during the search. For example: Is it important that you both secure position or just that one of you advance your career?

Another important topic to discuss is whether or not you will both apply for the same positions. We did apply for a couple of positions at The Placement Exchange and we knew not to take it personally if one impressed an employer more than the other. In hindsight, I wish I hadn’t because I think it made some employers feel awkward.

3) Select geographic locations that offer several employers – unless both of you are willing to have either long commutes or a distance relationship.

During our last search, we made it a priority to look at areas that had several institutions within a reasonable distance so that we did not have to bank on getting positions at the same institution. I think it really helped us to: a) not compete for the same positions, b) feel less pressure to work at the same institution, and c) just have more options for employment.

I think work commute is something that I underestimated because we had always either lived on campus or within close proximity to campus. So, I went from a 15 min bike ride to a 90 min drive. Not fun.

4) There is going to a lot of sacrificing.

Like any dual career couple there is a strong possibility that both people are going to have to make sacrifices. The amount of sacrificing will depend on you priorities/goals for the search.

Another thing to consider if you have kids (like I do) is balancing schedules for on campus interviews or interviews at a placement fair if you decide to bring your kids with you.

5) Review Benefits

Some institutions offer domestic partnership benefits which will ultimately save you money and stretch out your salary if you are in a domestic partnership relationship. Also, another good reason to look is because benefits will differ amongst institutions. This will then impact salary negotiations if you both secure positions.

If you are a part of a dual career couple, please leave any suggestions or questions in the comments section and I will follow up with them. You can also hit me up on Twitter (@PetePereira) if you would like to have a private conversation.

Pete Pereira is Coordinator for Campus Activities at Texas State University-San Marcos.

Recently, I’ve noticed the trend topic of self care showing up more on places such as Twitter, here on the SA Blog, and The Huffington Post. People are talking about their adventures in working out, changing their diet (like myself), etc.

I think those articles, Facebook updates, and Tweets are great and I know have personally helped motivate me in my attempts to live a healthier life. However, there’s one glaring topic that I have not seen as much of: healthy sleeping habits (again, guilty as charged). The Huffington Post has started a campaign called “The Freshmen 8” in which they are encouraging first year students to make sure that they get their eight hours of sleep per day. Dr. Michael J. Breus writes:

“Sleep deprivation leads to poor concentration, inability to focus, decreased coordination… in college terms, lower grades and potentially less-than-peak athletic performance. Not necessarily the way you want to start, spend or end your college career.”

So, doesn’t the same hold for us? While most student affairs professionals are the poster children for over-achieving: working long hours with usually the least amount of resources allocated within an institution. On top of our daily grueling schedules, we also work on presentations for conferences, participate on professional committees, write articles/blogs, do podcasts, consult, and/or work on an additional terminal degree…and I’m not even getting into our personal commitments (our families, friends, hobbies, etc). There is literally not enough time in the day if your a student affairs proessfional.

We talk about balancing with our students but are we role modeling that behavior? I bet most folks would say yes that they are since balance is really a subjective topic and will be different for everyone. With that said, I am putting out this challenge: make sure you get at least 8 hours of sleep yourself so that you can achieve whatever goals you have, whether it’s a one specific to that day or one that’s a life-long goal. For me, that means I’m going to have to break some bad habits that I have formed which are mostly around being glued to my iPhone or other devices every second that I am awake.

With the benefits you get from being well-rested, maybe your productivity will go up. Maybe you won’t need so much caffeine to keep you concentrated and coordinated. I’m going to start a log to see if I notice any changes in my day and I’ll make sure to do a follow blog in a month or two to share with everyone. I hope you’ll join me and post any changes you notice.

Note: If you would like to read Dr. Michael J. Breus’ article, you can find it here: http://huff.to/akPUa0

Pete Pereira is Coordinator of Campus Activities at Texas State University – San Marcos

Recently, I finally got around to listening to one of my favorite podcasts, Freakonomics Radio. A couple of weeks ago, they came out with an installment called “How Is a Bad Radio Station Like the Public School System?” (Click here for their blog entry about it). It focuses on customization and highlights a pilot program called The School of One being done by the NYC Board of Education. It’s a pretty cool pilot program that they have launched, and it focuses on providing students with a customized style of education, like (as discussed in the podcast) Pandora radio.

It got me thinking about Higher Education. Our in-class curriculum methods are just as outdated (I know there are professors out there that are more modern and being innovative) as K-12. However, if you step outside the box of a second, Higher Education does provide students with different ways to learn and the main people behind it are us, the Student Affairs Professionals.

We provide students the opportunity to learn in a variety of ways that leads students to develop transferrable skills, explore of their identity, and many other learning outcomes. We are the ones pushing to integrate tools such as social media in Higher Education. Since it is summertime, this is a great time to think about concepts like this. Here are some things to think about:

Dynamic Learning Outcomes: We tend to know (consciously or subconsciously) what outcomes we want students achieve during our daily interactions with them. However, in this day and age, students tend to know what they want and are much more consumer driven. I know this is typically a characteristic labeled on millennials but, based on my experiences working at an institution with non-traditional students, they are just as consumer driven.

We need to ask them, what do you hope to get out of this? Our learning outcomes should be dynamic instead of static. This will help you to also re-adjust outcomes if you misjudged the first time around.

Flexible teaching style: What if our style is not working for that particular student(s)? Our methods for engaging our students must be flexible so that we can adapt our skills to how our student(s) best learn. This will benefit both you and those that you are work with.

Open and Constant feedback: In order to achieve my first two points, you need to have open feedback with your students and it needs to constantly happen. Receiving feedback will help you to adjust your methods so that the process works for both you and your students. I think it can also help you to make sure your students understand your outcomes. Having an engaging talk about this topic may help your students to embrace the outcomes versus insisting that they need to change.

So, keep up the good work my fellow colleagues and continue to find ways to both innovatively engage and educate college students. Having students collaborate with us in their learning will reap lots of rewards.