Kate Feeney, a graduate student at Iowa State University, contacted me earlier this week. For a class project, she was soliciting answers to the following question:

What does access to higher education mean to you?

I took the better part of a day to think about it before responding. What a great question — and something we talked about a lot in graduate school, but maybe haven’t given as much consideration to since graduating.  My response to Kate:

To me, college access is about making higher education accessible and affordable to people from diverse populations, including but not limited to ethnic, racial and socioeconomic differences. It does not mean providing college education to everyone; rather, it provides means for everyone who wants to pursue the opportunity. Access and success are often confused in higher education — access provides the opportunity; it’s up to students to build success.

How would you answer Kate’s question?

I have always enjoyed mentoring Student Affairs graduate students.   After all,  since my own experience at Central Connecticut State University was instrumental in my professional development, it only made sense to pay it forward whenever I could.   Tonight on Twitter, I happened to be lurking on the new  #saGrad chat.  There were some great conversations happening here, and like last year, I knew I wanted to pitch in again and help out if I could.

During the chat, I tweeted to Tina Horvath:

To which she replied:

This was my call to action!  So today, I am asking all my fellow #sachat professionals for help.  If you are interested in being a mentor for a Student Affairs Graduate Student to help with mock interviews, resume and cover letter reviews, negotiation strategies, and/or general mentoring meetings and conversation, please fill in your information here!

If you are an Student Affairs Graduate Student looking for an #sachat professional as a mentor to help with mock interviews, resume and cover letter reviews, and/or mentoring meetings and conversation, then fill in your information here!  I will pair you up based on your answers!

My hope is to make connections between the amazing student affairs professionals and graduate students on Twitter.  Brian LeDuc has done some great work to connect student affairs graduate students together and I would like help out in this small way.

What general advice do you have for Student Affairs Graduate Students? What do you wish you knew when you were a graduate student?

August 2010

Dear “SA Grad”:

Greetings!  As many of you begin (or return) to your graduate experiences, I’ve been meaning to share something that I’ve talked about on Twitter before, but never really had a chance to flush out.  I figured, why not do it today?

As you embark on this new academic year, I believe that your graduate training in technology will be inadequate.  For most of us in Higher Ed, we’ve been playing catchup for years, and frankly, I don’t know how much longer we can do it. (Higher education, generally is the slowest to adapt to rapid change.)  We need to shift this paradigm and move in a new direction, and it starts with you, our graduate students.

You need to find time to build your skill bases in emerging educational technology and social media integration into your Student Affairs work.  It is imperative that our Student Affairs Graduate Programs begin to infuse this important pedagogy into its curriculum to keep you up to date and competitive with other job seekers out there.  How can we, in good conscience, send you out into the workforce without these skills?

If I were a Student Affairs graduate student today (or frankly any type of Student Affairs professional), here are two things I would do to build my technology knowledge base:

1.  Sign up for a Twitter account and attend the weekly #sachat each Thursday at 1pm or 7pm EST this fall.
If you still are not on Twitter, now is the time to sign up and use it.  Not only is it the best free professional development tool out there, but if used properly, it can help land you a job!  Read my “Teaching Twitter to Colleagues” post for a step-by-step guide on getting set up and using it for the first week.  Put the #sachat in your calendar as a recurring appointment and join us for our weekly online student affairs conversation!

2.  Blogs: Read Them and Start Your Own
There are so many great blogs out there, rich with information and perspective.  Besides this SA Blog, some of the best technology information I have gotten has been from the following:
- Eric Stoller – Professional/Personal Blog | Inside Higher Ed Blog: Eric is one of the best Student Affairs & Technology bloggers out there. He’s been doing this since the mid 2000′s and is simply a great resource. (@EricStoller on Twitter)
- Dr. Rey Junco: Rey is a college professor (Lock Haven University, PA) and researcher who studies how social media use affects college students. (@ReyJunco on Twitter)
- General Technology and Social Media Blogs: Read Write Web | Mashable | EDUguru Add these to your RSS Readers if you haven’t already! (@rww @mashable @eduguru on Twitter)
- BreakDrink by Jeff Jackson: Jeff does some great work centralizing all the most current news and trends in student affairs! (@breakdrink on Twitter) He also does some great podcasting work!
- Kristendom Talks Tech: Thanks to a recommendation from Brenda Bethman, I’m a fan of Kristen Abell’s stuff as well.
- My blog is OK too “On the Go With Ed Cabellon” (@EdCabellon on Twitter)

I also would recommend starting your own blog, not only as a tool to share, but as a great way to reflect on your experiences!  Once you create your blog, add it our growing directory of Student Affairs blogs!

I wish you all the best as you start the new academic year.  I hope you will join our online community and be active and engaged with us!  We are here to help in anyway we can.

Sincerely,

Ed Cabellon
Director, Rondileau Campus Center
Bridgwater State University (MA)

What advice would you give new and returning Student Affairs graduate students regarding their technology training? What sources of online information would you recommend? Any other tech blogs by women you would like to recommend?

Social media as a job search tool? Sure I’d heard about it but didn’t really put much faith into it beyond employer/employee fact checking and social background research.  By the time we had a position moving through our HR process in January I’d been contributing to studentbranding.com for a several months so I knew the networking expectations for both employers and candidates in the non-higher education arena.  As such, I figured I didn’t have anything to lose by sharing news of our process on twitter.

While I had been engaged in the #sachat community not much came of this tweet (note no #sachat hashtag) until we progressed as a community into discussions on job searches, of course triggered by Ed Cabellon.  Here is a sequence of tweets than ensued over the course of sixteen minutes.

As promised, when our position was finally approved right before #NASPA10 I sent a tweet sharing the news and our process from that point forward.  I didn’t have a live link yet so several people requested the job description as a result of these tweets:

Several members of the #sachat and twitter community requested a job description after these tweets.  Anyone who expressed interest in the position or had asked questions about the job, university and location via twitter was on the radar for us.  As we progressed through the search, all search committee members, including me, unfollowed all of the twitter candidates to maintain the integrity of our process.  Communication with candidates became more formal and traditional – email and phone – but by that point the networking had reaped its rewards.

Twitter can change the search process

While unexpected, twitter and the #sachat community fundamentally changed the search process by decreasing the size of an already small profession.  Certainly candidates still had to successfully navigate the gauntlet of our search process but our knowledge of them through social media outlets was very informative.

As an employer our engagement on twitter, whether individually or through our office account, helped us put information in the public domain that we wanted to share about the future direction of our office and our work environment.  Knowing that I was being followed by several candidates didn’t change how I interacted on twitter but it did reassure me that when we got to the point of fit questions that these candidates were probably better informed about us than those who were not accessing our information.

As a candidate you need to think through how you use twitter and what degree of access you want to provide.  It can be hugely beneficial for employers to triangulate your professional perspective and network connections.  On the other hand it can also be detrimental, particularly related to candidate authenticity and consistency in different settings if your interviews and application materials don’t align well with your presence in social media.

Social media expertise will be a required job criteria for all future searches

Our job description listed social media expertise as a preferred requirement.  It became a more prominent factor in our search every step of the way as our discussions to balance expertise and needs within our office became more focused.  In our next search social media engagement will be a required component.

In response to:

You may be asking:

Based on our candidate pool and how they identified their skill set as it related to our job description I would disagree that most people in gen-y have them in some form.  Facebook doesn’t cut it anymore.  That is now below the minimum – fan pages, connections, etc. Different institutions will measure social media skills differently based upon their needs and the expertise currently on staff. We were looking for someone who had the interest in and ability to give us traction in areas where we knew we needed to be engaged but were spinning our wheels – Facebook a bit, twitter, and blogs. (Again social media served as only two of thirteen criteria in our search process.)  In particular, we were looking for a solid knowledge base of how to use twitter and, ideally, high quality engagement in the student affairs community and #sachat in particular.

Very few candidates provided social media information on their resume or in their cover letter (the best approach for me – hyperlinked to your profile in a PDF resume).  Even some of the candidates we knew were on twitter didn’t identify that knowledge in their application materials.  If you are engaged in the #sachat community your knowledge base sets you apart from the general student affairs community and you need to market that knowledge.  Again, different institutions will measure social media skills differently based upon their needs and the expertise currently on staff but why make the hunt for that information difficult and allow employers to make inaccurate assumptions about your skill set?

In January I never would have guessed the impact social media would have on our search process.  I’m a believer now though.  Without getting into further details of our search I’d be glad to discuss your process as it relates to my perspective on social media and the role it can play in a successful search process for you.

What do you think?  Make it a good day.

Mike Severy is the Director of Student Involvement and Leadership at UNC Pembroke.  You can connect with Mike via Twitter.

Congratulations to those who are earning master’s and doctoral degrees this spring! I applaud you. (Go to the ceremony. Hoods are cool.)

If you’re just getting started in a program or you’re already well under way, know that both are huge accomplishments in themselves. Your hood is patiently waiting.

As I progressed through my master’s and doctoral work, I was kept afloat by 1) Anne Lamott and 2) advice from wise colleagues and mentors.

Lamott is the author of Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life (1994). The title story is a guide for school and life. It goes like this:

“Thirty years ago my older brother, who was ten years old at the time, was trying to get a report on birds written that he’d had three months to write. [It] was due the next day. We were out at our cabin in Bolinas, and he was at the kitchen table close to tears, surrounded by binder paper and pencils and unopened books on birds, immobilized by the hugeness of the task ahead. Then my father sat down beside him, put his arm around my brother’s shoulder, and said, ‘Bird by bird, buddy. Just take it bird by bird.’”

Class by class, page by page, and sometimes even word by word. That’s how I got through my academic programs. To be sure, it wasn’t always a burden. In fact, there were periods when I was so jazzed by my research that my productivity soared. Other times the impossibility of it all seemed almost paralyzing. Bird by bird.

Like Lamott, students ahead of me in my programs and faculty mentors also were invaluable. Their advice?

1) Choose a research topic that you really love because the honeymoon doesn’t last long, and you’ll need something to sustain you through the difficult times. I studied Native American involvement in the women’s club movement. This topic still makes me giddy. (What does it have to do with higher education? Everything. But that’s a story for another day.)

2) Use every paper and project in your classes to explore a facet of your research topic. A paper on today’s tribal colleges provided me with unexpected resources for my dissertation. Start generating your literature review from Day One.

3) Take advantage of the times when you are really in the groove, when eating seems like an unnecessary distraction from your work. These times are critical, and they are fleeting.

What advice can others give? What kept you (keeps you) going? How did it feel to finish? For the Ed.D.s and Ph.D.s out there, in what ways does your doctorate matter?

I thought about giving up many times. Life’s unexpected challenges don’t stop to accommodate classes and papers. But, if you’ll excuse an overused metaphor, academic work is a marathon, not a sprint. We take it step by step. And when we cross the finish line at commencement, the feeling is indescribable.

You’ll want to experience it for yourself. We’ll all celebrate.

Two weeks ago, the Student Affairs Collaborative #SAchat talked about advice and best practices for those graduate students searching for jobs this spring.  With all the great advice that was given, I wanted to help these folks in another way, by featuring some of them in a blog post!  Below are those who have put themselves out there and I recommend you take a look if you are hiring this year!  I asked them to send me their name, picture, any links about them, and to answer the question, “You need to hire me because…” Here’s what I received:

Constanza (Connie) Cabello

You need to hire me because… I am ready for new challenges and excited to continue my career in Student Affairs! My interest in Student Affairs began when I was an undergrad at UConn. I worked in the Involvement Office as a Student Organizations Peer Advisor and enjoyed the experience of coaching my fellow students. I will graduate from Central Connecticut State University in May with my Masters in Counseling: Student Development in Higher Education.  I am a currently a Graduate Intern and have gained valuable experience in both Student Activities and Student Center Operations. I am passionate about student success and find this work rewarding. I feel fortunate to have a career that allows me to be creative and learn something new every day. I enjoy working in a fast paced environment and with a diverse group of people. I am open to new experiences and am willing to move almost anywhere if the job is right for me, and if I am right for the job! Fun facts: I love eating, shopping, traveling, and all Boston area sports!

Meghan Harr

You need to hire me because… I’m responsible, knowledgeable, and dedicated to student activities and residence life.  In my current work, I manage all facets of advising the university programming board (known here as the Student Activities Council) including budgeting, contracts, event management, officer transition and training, and more.  Additionally, I serve as an area coordinator for a hall of 150 residents, primarily first year students, and supervise the hall staff, advise on hall programming, and serve as an administrative hearing office for conduct incidents in my building.

Michael Baumhardt

You need to hire me because…I am a motivated individual with progressive experience in many functional areas of higher education and student affairs including campus activities, orientation and first year programs, fraternity and sorority life, and leadership development.  I believe my passion for interacting with students, combined with my commitment to the integration of co-curricular involvement will enable me to make a valuable contribution to the growth and success of your institution.  I feel that my experiences in higher education and student affairs have provided me with valuable insight and abilities that I am ready and prepared to demonstrate at your institution.

Julia Duhan

You need to hire me because… I am committed to helping students. Through a compassionate and empathetic approach, I will encourage students to do more and to be more. I hope to help them make the connection between who they want to be and what the want to be. New to the student affairs game, I am hungry for experience.

Emily Clare Sharples

You need to hire me because…I’ve grown up around higher education. Some of my earliest memories are of going to my local community college with my father, and wanting to learn about the processes of education. I am passionate about learning, aiding students in their endeavors to learn, working with students of all calibers/diverse backgrounds/socio-economic statuses, and making my experience in higher education as incredible as I’ve always felt it could be. I am ready and willing to take on challenges unforeseen, and especially the unforeseeable, and cannot wait to start my career in higher education.

Stephen “Gavin” Weiser

You need to hire me because… I am the person you want in your organization. Whether it is my background in facilitation, or social justice and diversity programs I am a key component to any setting. I have a extremely varied background and utilize this internalized diversity in order to most effectively work with students. I have worked with students ranging from young teenagers, undergraduate students, graduate students as well as students at-risk. I have a commitment to service and an ability to create positive change around me. I am a passionate and dedicated individual and I want to make your organization better.

Daphne Everhart

You need to hire me because… I have extensive programming experience that translates well to success in many areas of student affairs.  Additionally, my positivity and enthusiasm make me a great addition to any team oriented office.  While my primary professional experience lies in student activities, I’m also interested in pursuing a career in first year experience, Greek Life, leadership, and volunteerism/service learning.  When I’m not working with UGA’s programming board, I enjoy spending time with my wheaten terrier puppy, traveling, and working out.

Lauren Hopkins

You need to hire me because… I am passionate about the fraternal values movement and love to have fun!

Christy Tanton

You need to hire me because… like many people in the field, I chose Student Affairs for the opportunities it allowed me to make an impact on students. Through my graduate education I have learned the many ways in which Student Affairs professionals can learn the balance between challenge and support, with the ultimate goal of students reaching their full potential. I am not naive in thinking that every student I come in contact with is going to develop and grow to their fullest potential, but I can promise I will commit to each student with the hope and determination that they can. I believe in the power of self authorship and it is my career goal to be good company for students journey. My resume speaks to my qualities, but I believe what sets me apart is my 110% work ethic, my unwavering passion for students, and the ability to know when to push and when to support.

Shannon Healy

You should hire me because… of my broad range of experiences in student affairs. From welcoming incoming first-year students during Orientation to helping seniors polish their resume for graduation in Career Services, I’ve worked with just about every age and type of student on campus. I’m energized by people and love to motivate them in return.

Lorriz Anne (Lori) Alvarado

You should hire me because … I approach my work with whole-hearted passion, determined focus, and excited wonderment. Like many others in student affairs, I’ve chosen this career because I love it and want to help students. But what sets me apart from them is the intrinsic satisfaction and energy I get when I know I’m working toward improving myself, my work, my college, and the institution of higher education. Although I will soon be done with graduate school (for now), I believe that we are all still students; there are tons of information and resources out there to utilize and better inform our work (e.g. SA Blog).  The sheer idea of being a professional excites me because I have the potential to contribute to the work being done on your campus and ultimately to affect your students’ lives. Combining my love for helping students with my uncanny skills in dedicating all of my attention and energy for long periods of time, I can guarantee that when I set goals for myself, I am determined to put my hopes and full energy into making my work the best it could possibly be.  You may believe my passion and enthusiasm is temporary because I’m a new professional, but I hope you realize that I am more than that. I believe that you should hire me because I am exactly what you need: beyond having the required work experience, I am someone new with a lot of energy, a unique perspective, excited to learn more, and dedicated and passionate about this career field.

Rebecca (Becca) Fick

You need to hire me because … I am deeply committed to engaging students and providing them opportunities to grow. One of my students wrote this during an affirmation, “She plans for the details that others would likely overlook.” I embed learning outcomes and development theories in all of my work, and find meaningful ways to share these ideals with other students and staff. My experiences outside and within student affairs have encouraged me to create meaning in all that I do, and above all to do good. Beyond the theory, I can demonstrate my experience through practice and evidence: I have presented at institutional, regional, and state conferences, interned through the National Orientation Directors Association, held a graduate assistantship for two years, completed two additional 150-hour internships, and served as an elected member of the Ohio College Personnel Association.  If  there is an opportunity for me to contribute to your student’s development and support your staff, you need to hire me.

Zack Ford

You need to hire me because… I’m incredibly passionate about social justice, I’m an organized multitasker who gets the job done and then thoroughly assesses it, and I’m a social media and technology junkie! (See http://zackfordblogs.com)

Jon Tingley

URL: http://campustalkblog.com/about-jon/
Resumé: http://web.me.com/jontingley
You should hire me because… I have a wide range of Student Affairs experience and after completing my degree this May, I will have worked in Student Affairs for 5 years. I started out in student government and administration as Senator, LGBTQ Issues Director and Vice President of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee’s Student Association. I then moved to working for Client Services and Security for our Student Union. This position gave me a feel for what it’s like to manage and secure a facility’s day to day operations. During this time, I also assisted in opening UWM’s First Year Center. I was brought on to help craft UWM’s first year experience and manage transitioning student mentors. Shortly after moving on from Client Services, I started working at our Union Recreation Center as a Program Coordinator. This is where I have the bulk of my experience in staff management, program development and staff development/training. I’ve decided that I want to pursue a Graduate Assistantship in Residence Life, so this semester I took a Residential Programs internship with our University Housing Department. I also write a column for our student newspaper that deals with student health and for Campustalkblog.com, a Student Activities blog. Overall, I believe my experience and dedication to the field make me an excellent candidate.

Laura Rogalski

You should hire me because… I am an experienced, excited and energetic young professional who is truly looking forward to working in the field of College Unions. My graduate work experience in itself is a testament to my thirst for knowledge and passion for Student Affairs. Being lucky enough to have had the ability to gain work experience in a number of areas, I would bring your College Union, and your institution, the leadership and student-centered development practices of an experienced professional. While I may not have all of my experience working directly within a College Union, the experiences I have had and the skills that I have gained from them are highly transferrable: staff development, supervisory skills, communication, advising, counseling, marketing, leadership development, budgeting, etc.   I am the future of the College Union field. My passion for this field of work is of the highest importance to me as I would not want to begin a career doing something I did not love. Nothing gives me greater joy than seeing a student develop and become more confident in their abilities and the knowledge that I helped, even the smallest amount, to make that development possible. In conclusion, you should hire me simply because I bring the best of myself to my work and I do my best to bring out the same in those around me. A career in the field of College Unions is not work to me…it is an exciting life experience.

Best wishes to these and all the those searching for positions this year!  If the #SACHAT and #STUDENTAFFAIRS community and I can help in anyway, please don’t hesitate to ask!

Preparing to be a professional in Higher Education Student Affairs is an exciting time. You’ve almost completed your graduate work, and are ready to start your job search.

What should you be doing to prepare for your big jump?

Before starting your job search, ask
yourself:
- What did I like most/least about my graduate experience?
- Do I like working one on one with people or would I rather work with groups?
- Am I a good self-manager?
- Where do I want to live for the next few years?
- What I am looking for in a supervisor?
- What I am good at and what challenges me?

These are the questions that will revolve around your job interviews. Have a good grasp of this information, with some great examples and stories to back them up.

Realize that your best resources are the people already in the positions that you aspire to fill.
Utilize them throughout the entire process. They will be more than happy to help you, because, believe it or not, you cannot do this all on your own!  Find a mentor or two to help you with the process and share your goals with others to allow them to cheer you on!  Is there anyone on Twitter that you may have connected with that could help?

When you Google yourself, what comes up?
Now, more than ever, it is important to take control of your personal brand and online identity.  Have you created a LinkedIn Profile? What kind of pictures have been tagged in Facebook? Are your Tweets representative of who you are both personally and professionally?  Create a Google Profile to tie all of these things together!

JUMPING FROM GRAD STUDENT TO PROFESSIONAL

There are some basic points of information that second year Graduate Students should be thinking about:

Your first year as a professional, work load wise, will be more than you think.
With no more classes, you’ll be expected to take on a lot your first year. Think of it as a test of your limits as you enter the Higher Education work force. Plus, your new supervisor will want to know what you can handle, and so will you! Don’t think things will slow down for you after grad school!

Earning “respect” as a Professional is different than a Graduate Student
Depending on your Internship/Assistantship/Fellowship, you’ve probably made some close knit connections with some students. While you may want to continue this trend, many New Professionals make the mistake of “being liked” to earn the respect of their new students. As a New Professional, your work effort and productivity will have to suffice. Building connections and relationships are not out of the question, but the extent with how deep you build them must always be placed in check.

Finding / Being a Mentor
As part of you job search, a goal should be to find a mentor in your current adviser or in your department/division (e.g. Dean of Students, Assistant Vice President, etc.). This person will help keep you on track as you begin your professional career. Having monthly meetings with this mentor to set and track goals will be extremely helpful.

On the other hand, you will most likely be sought after AS a Mentor. Be cautious who you take on as mentees, as this is huge time commitment.  In your first year, you may want to limit this until you figure out your work systems and gain an understanding on how your new job really works.

Financial Planning
You finally can eat things OTHER than Mac and Cheese! But with more money, ultimately come more bills and responsibilities. Once you secure your first job, within the first few weeks:

- Meet with your Retirement/Benefits specialist. Aggressivelysave as much money as you can in your retirement while you are still young. Don’t worry, if you need to change this process, you can do it easily.

- Establish and stick to a budget and debt repayment schedule. It is important as you begin to repay any loans or credit card debt you incurred during Graduate School (or Undergrad). Also, as you move to your new destination, thinking about first/last months rent on your new apartment, plus any other moving expenses you will need can be stressful. The best thing you can do is prepare as best you can.

Taking care of YOU!
What do you do now to take care of yourself? Gym? Going out on weekends with friends? Family? Whatever it is, is important to continue doing it and adding more time as you become a professional. If “YOU
Time” isn’t scheduled now, start creating that habit, as it will be the best thing you can do for your overall well being, both personally and professionally.

What other advice would you give our second year graduate students?  Is there anything that I have not listed here or things you would challenge? Good luck to you all as you embark on your last semester in Graduate School!