When I think of higher education and my future, I see myself in a few different roles. I would like to continue to work in Residential Life, but I also want to be a professor. I consider myself an educator, and my “classroom” a unique setting of both the residential hall and campus. As a Community Director, I live and work in the Residential Halls, and also respond to crisis situations. I work with students from educational programming, behavior/conduct, checking in on their mental health, helping students get connected to resources, and community building.
I would say some goals I have is:
- Find professional development opportunities to also further develop my own education on teaching/best practices.
- Learn more about different ways to teach/work with students
- Think about ways that I can educate/develop positive student growth/support on campus and the residential hall.
I think that I have time to work on all three; but it is important for me to remember to set small tasks for myself and not huge lofty tasks that are not manageable. I think that I want to learn more about how I can bring pedagogy to our students in the residential communities and work with faculty/staff to create a partnership with them to support our students from all sides of campus. I think that this connection is missing as we all are focused on our own areas and may not always have the time to keep up with each other. I think that we can do great things together, and we could start by building a connection with each other to create a committee or project together to support our students.
