Summer 2014 Reflection
This was my first semester as a graduate student with Penn State. I knew I wanted to pursue Higher Education, but I was unsure if I wanted to be an on campus or online student. So this was going to be my trial run semester of balancing work and classes on campus. I chose to enroll in 2 courses, College Teaching and Online Innovations in Learning and Future of Education. College Teaching felt like a good course for me to take since initially I was a Secondary Education major in college and I felt it was a good idea to keep my teaching skills up to date and keep that door open for my future. As far as the Online Innovations course, it sounded very interesting and since I work for World Campus, I figured it I might learn something that could assist me with my role there. These course were only for the first 6 weeks of summer with classes being about 3 hours long each. Balancing that, along with working 40 hours a week was going to be hard work, but in the end worth it.
In my HI ED 546, College Teaching, course we focused on many different aspects of what university faculty members are involved in. We worked on creating example learning objectives for our future students, understanding the different aspects of a lesson plan, and learning different learning styles. While I enjoyed making presentations and reviewing teaching methods, I think overall the most influential part of this course was creating my Teaching Philosophy. It helped me to realize that I truly want to work with students, possibly one day as an instructor. The course really covered a lot of different topics and I was somewhat upset that we didn't get a chance to spend too much time on each. While we had 12 class meetings, similar to the amount a traditional semester would have, it felt like we didn't dive deeper into these topics to really learn proper teaching methods and processes. If I do become further interested in being an instructor one day, I think I would benefit from taking another course or two on the subject.
In the Online Innovations in Learning and Future of Education course, we discussed a wide range of topics that dealt with possible advancements in the world of online learning. We focused on learning about Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs), flipped classrooms, digital badges, open resources, and more. While I truly enjoyed all the topics that we learned about, I find that I doubt the success rate of some of these subjects, even as an employee at World Campus. I can see the benefit in college students participating in these innovations, especially digital badges as it gives the students something to earn and collect as proof of completion. Something more than just a skill for their resume or a course for their transcript, but something to really show future employers that they have different skills. However I don't see these being easily adopted into the classrooms, that are rooted in such deep traditions and are use to what they have been doing for decades. This was most evident to me when I would transition from this course with a high tech studio into a course that still used an overhead projector (sometimes with a burnt out bulb). Such contrasts really showed that some higher education institutions and faculty members are going to stick to their traditions.
While this semester was a lot of work to handle, I think it was overall a great start to my degree program! It was very interesting for me to see how these two courses fit together with one another. While I was learning how to be a professor, the topics that were covered in my online innovations course were things that I could potentially use as a professor. We discussed how badges might be a more useful assessment for an instructor than an exam or a MOOC could help students better prepare for a course. I think overall it really showed me that many topics in higher education were going to continue to fit together and by making those connections, I was truly discovering the goal of the entire degree.
In my HI ED 546, College Teaching, course we focused on many different aspects of what university faculty members are involved in. We worked on creating example learning objectives for our future students, understanding the different aspects of a lesson plan, and learning different learning styles. While I enjoyed making presentations and reviewing teaching methods, I think overall the most influential part of this course was creating my Teaching Philosophy. It helped me to realize that I truly want to work with students, possibly one day as an instructor. The course really covered a lot of different topics and I was somewhat upset that we didn't get a chance to spend too much time on each. While we had 12 class meetings, similar to the amount a traditional semester would have, it felt like we didn't dive deeper into these topics to really learn proper teaching methods and processes. If I do become further interested in being an instructor one day, I think I would benefit from taking another course or two on the subject.
In the Online Innovations in Learning and Future of Education course, we discussed a wide range of topics that dealt with possible advancements in the world of online learning. We focused on learning about Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs), flipped classrooms, digital badges, open resources, and more. While I truly enjoyed all the topics that we learned about, I find that I doubt the success rate of some of these subjects, even as an employee at World Campus. I can see the benefit in college students participating in these innovations, especially digital badges as it gives the students something to earn and collect as proof of completion. Something more than just a skill for their resume or a course for their transcript, but something to really show future employers that they have different skills. However I don't see these being easily adopted into the classrooms, that are rooted in such deep traditions and are use to what they have been doing for decades. This was most evident to me when I would transition from this course with a high tech studio into a course that still used an overhead projector (sometimes with a burnt out bulb). Such contrasts really showed that some higher education institutions and faculty members are going to stick to their traditions.
While this semester was a lot of work to handle, I think it was overall a great start to my degree program! It was very interesting for me to see how these two courses fit together with one another. While I was learning how to be a professor, the topics that were covered in my online innovations course were things that I could potentially use as a professor. We discussed how badges might be a more useful assessment for an instructor than an exam or a MOOC could help students better prepare for a course. I think overall it really showed me that many topics in higher education were going to continue to fit together and by making those connections, I was truly discovering the goal of the entire degree.
Fall 2014 Reflection
This was my first official semester in the Master of Education in Higher Education program with World Campus. I was so excited to officially begin my program. With the program being so new, there weren't many classes to chose from this semester, so that lifted the stress of choosing my courses! The first course I enrolled in was HI ED 490, Master's Professional Seminar, which was going to help me build the foundation for the rest of the program and my career in higher education. The other course that I chose was HI ED 801, Foundations of Institutional Research. While I enjoyed math and research studies as an undergraduate, I was a little nervous about this course since I hadn't worked on many research projects since. My semester was set and I was looking forward to it!
Throughout the semester, I really enjoyed the Master's Professional Seminar more and more. We focused on different aspects of careers in higher education and really thought about whether or not this was the right field for us. I think one of the greatest parts about this course was that we were not only learning from the course materials and the professor, but also from the experiences that my other classmates would share with us about. My classmates were from, not only all different institutions, but different types of colleges and universities, administrative and student support offices, states, and countries. The variety of experiences were truly something I looked forward to reading about every week. However, the most important part of this course was that it created the groundwork for the rest of my diploma. With the topics we covered and the insights we discovered about ourselves, I was able to decide what emphasis area I wanted to pursue and what other courses I would be interested in enrolling in. You can read more about my thoughts and reflection on HI 490 here.
While I enjoyed the seminar course immensely, the Foundations of Institutional Research course was a little bit more a struggle. From the start I regretted not taking a statistics course since my sophomore year of my undergraduate degree. Thankfully the course started out slow and there were many different resources that I could use to keep up with my classmates. We focused a lot on how to understand research studies and what they truly mean for an institution, which at first I didn't think that I would use that much since my future careers focused more on working with students. However as the semester progressed, I realized that the information we were covering related to my job more than I realized it would. In admissions we worked with a lot of data to ensure each step of the recruitment and application review processes are running smoothly. We also use research to ensure we are on track with our goals and are keeping up with our competition. The more I was able to make these comparisons with the course and work, the more I started to realize the importance that institutional research will play in any student support office that I will work in in the future. I think this really pushed me to work harder and focus more on learning how to read and participate in institutional studies and research reports.
Ultimately at the end of the course, while we learned some really interesting information, it was very apparent that the Institutional Research emphasis area was not for me.
Throughout the semester, I really enjoyed the Master's Professional Seminar more and more. We focused on different aspects of careers in higher education and really thought about whether or not this was the right field for us. I think one of the greatest parts about this course was that we were not only learning from the course materials and the professor, but also from the experiences that my other classmates would share with us about. My classmates were from, not only all different institutions, but different types of colleges and universities, administrative and student support offices, states, and countries. The variety of experiences were truly something I looked forward to reading about every week. However, the most important part of this course was that it created the groundwork for the rest of my diploma. With the topics we covered and the insights we discovered about ourselves, I was able to decide what emphasis area I wanted to pursue and what other courses I would be interested in enrolling in. You can read more about my thoughts and reflection on HI 490 here.
While I enjoyed the seminar course immensely, the Foundations of Institutional Research course was a little bit more a struggle. From the start I regretted not taking a statistics course since my sophomore year of my undergraduate degree. Thankfully the course started out slow and there were many different resources that I could use to keep up with my classmates. We focused a lot on how to understand research studies and what they truly mean for an institution, which at first I didn't think that I would use that much since my future careers focused more on working with students. However as the semester progressed, I realized that the information we were covering related to my job more than I realized it would. In admissions we worked with a lot of data to ensure each step of the recruitment and application review processes are running smoothly. We also use research to ensure we are on track with our goals and are keeping up with our competition. The more I was able to make these comparisons with the course and work, the more I started to realize the importance that institutional research will play in any student support office that I will work in in the future. I think this really pushed me to work harder and focus more on learning how to read and participate in institutional studies and research reports.
Ultimately at the end of the course, while we learned some really interesting information, it was very apparent that the Institutional Research emphasis area was not for me.
Spring 2015 Reflection
This semester I took HI ED 545 Foundations in Higher Education and Student Affairs. This course focused a lot on the trends that exist in higher education and the policies they institute. Throughout this entire course we had two major assignments to work on. One was an institutional snapshot, taking a deeper look into another university to see how they are run versus one that we may be more familiar with. I chose to study University of Central Florida because that was initially the school I was going to attend for my graduate studies before my job progressed with World Campus. It was a very eye opening experience for someone like me, who has only ever experienced the Penn State way. I think the most eye opening part of this project was to discover that administration roles in higher education are not ones that I want to have in the future. The decisions that need to be made by leadership or the balancing of all the financial responsibilities that an institution requires are too much pressure for me to feel ever fully trained to make them.
The other projected that we spent most of the semester on revolved around the generations of higher education according to Geiger and what our predictions were for the future. We spent the semester learning about how the generations were separated previously according to Geiger and the history of how higher education became the system we know today. The biggest part of the assignment was to predict what we thought was going to happen in the future of higher education. This was the most interesting assignment yet since I was able to choose an educational trend I was interested in and learn more about it. I chose to write about online education and how this growing trend is only going to rise in the future. This paper not only had a huge impact on my school work and everything we had been learning in the class, but also the work I was doing as an Admissions Counselor at World Campus. Learning about the importance of offering online course to the student populations that need it really helped me to find meaning in my job and feel more passionate about working towards my degree to allow me to help more students.
I think this was the most academically challenging course due to the assignments and all that was required of us. I think it was set up great having pieces of the paper due throughout the semester, so that was a nice way to prevent procrastination. The research required for each paper was very demanding and the papers were rather lengthy due to all the research that was required. I hadn't written a paper like this in a few years, so it was definitely a little rough adjusting back to the life of papers and APA formatting! In the end though, I was very thankful to go through this relatively early in the program so that I was prepared for future classes.
Three semesters down, three more to go!
The other projected that we spent most of the semester on revolved around the generations of higher education according to Geiger and what our predictions were for the future. We spent the semester learning about how the generations were separated previously according to Geiger and the history of how higher education became the system we know today. The biggest part of the assignment was to predict what we thought was going to happen in the future of higher education. This was the most interesting assignment yet since I was able to choose an educational trend I was interested in and learn more about it. I chose to write about online education and how this growing trend is only going to rise in the future. This paper not only had a huge impact on my school work and everything we had been learning in the class, but also the work I was doing as an Admissions Counselor at World Campus. Learning about the importance of offering online course to the student populations that need it really helped me to find meaning in my job and feel more passionate about working towards my degree to allow me to help more students.
I think this was the most academically challenging course due to the assignments and all that was required of us. I think it was set up great having pieces of the paper due throughout the semester, so that was a nice way to prevent procrastination. The research required for each paper was very demanding and the papers were rather lengthy due to all the research that was required. I hadn't written a paper like this in a few years, so it was definitely a little rough adjusting back to the life of papers and APA formatting! In the end though, I was very thankful to go through this relatively early in the program so that I was prepared for future classes.
Three semesters down, three more to go!
Summer 2015 Reflection
The first class I chose to take was HI ED 560, Legal Issues in Higher Education. I was so excited for this course, I kept trying to schedule it before it was actually being offered through World Campus! The idea of blending something as interesting as legal cases with something I was already so passionate about was something I was really looking forward to. The course turned out to be better than I expected. We learned about all different types of legal issues that a student may run into while in school, including misbehavior, fraudulent work, and discrimination. Something that I really discovered an interest in was discrimination against students with disabilities and the legal issues revolving around their rights.After thinking about it, it doesn't surprise me that I discovered a passion for these issues since my previous degree was in rehabilitation. Anyway, I chose to focus on this student population during this course since they interested me so much, but also because the current student population that I work with, online students, don't often have conduct issues since they reside of campus. Choosing to look outside of online student issues was very rewarding in my opinion. I may not always be working with online students, but regardless of what institution I work at or what office I work in, there will always be the chance that I will work with a student with a disability. Having a more well rounded understanding of student populations will help me to succeed in my future careers. I was also surprised about the different legal issues that institutions have experienced with students and the trouble students have gotten themselves into. I hung out with the "good" kids in college who had to work multiple days a week to help pay their tuition bills, so we didn't have much time to get in trouble. I think this sheltered experience was the cause of the surprise, but ultimately I hope to never have to be the one deciding the punishment or repercussions for students who have conduct issues. With understanding how important a college education is to anyone these days, it would be a difficult choice to take that away from a student, unless of course their conduct issue is on an extreme level of misbehavior.
Just as I struggled through my first institutional research course during my second semester, I expected no different for this course. HI ED 840, Assessing Student Outcomes and Evaluating Academic Programs, provided a more in-depth look at the accreditation process and how it relates to programs that colleges offer and studying the students outcomes in each part of their program. Once again, I knew that learning how to judge student success and outcomes with data was going to be a crucial part of my future. I was more interested in learning how to read the reports that actually run the studies and research myself. The assignments for this class were challenging not only for myself, but for other classmates too, so it was someone comforting that I wasn't the only one. I think, again, if I had taken a statistics course more recently, I might have felt a bit more confident. In the end I found that I understood research studies more after this course and was able to understand how authors were able to determine whether their studies were significant or not towards the question or topic they were researching. Although I survived this class, I think this is something that I will have to continue working to improve on. I was to make sure that I can stay a useful and knowledgeable part of any office I work in, so understanding the results of institutional research is going to be important.
Just as I struggled through my first institutional research course during my second semester, I expected no different for this course. HI ED 840, Assessing Student Outcomes and Evaluating Academic Programs, provided a more in-depth look at the accreditation process and how it relates to programs that colleges offer and studying the students outcomes in each part of their program. Once again, I knew that learning how to judge student success and outcomes with data was going to be a crucial part of my future. I was more interested in learning how to read the reports that actually run the studies and research myself. The assignments for this class were challenging not only for myself, but for other classmates too, so it was someone comforting that I wasn't the only one. I think, again, if I had taken a statistics course more recently, I might have felt a bit more confident. In the end I found that I understood research studies more after this course and was able to understand how authors were able to determine whether their studies were significant or not towards the question or topic they were researching. Although I survived this class, I think this is something that I will have to continue working to improve on. I was to make sure that I can stay a useful and knowledgeable part of any office I work in, so understanding the results of institutional research is going to be important.
Fall 2015 Reflection
I found this semester that I truly enjoy challenging myself and making sure that I work hard for my degree! I decided to enroll in one course while also pursuing a part time internship and full time job.
The course I enrolled in was my final required course, HI ED 556, Higher Education Students and Clientele. With my feelings of needing to be more well rounded in my knowledge of student populations, I was ready to learn about many different types of students! From the start, I was surprised about the different types of student populations that there were and some that I hadn't even thought of. I think this was another one of those courses that half the information I gained from this course was due to the discussions with my classmates. Again, they came from all different institutions and backgrounds and had interactions with students who may not be prevalent here at Penn State University Park. So their experiences really helped to further develop what we had been reading about each week. As a class we moved through each week with a new student population and learned about different ways to support them. I really don't know if I will ever encounter every specific type of student that we talked about, but I feel more prepared if I ever do!
I chose to do an internship as an elective course for a few reasons. The first reason was I didn't want to turn down this opportunity with Career Services. I had previously worked in their office at the end of my undergraduate degree and learned so much, but felt like there was more I could do. As soon as the office contacted me to tell me that they had an opening for another intern, I immediately started figuring out how to make it work with my schedule. The other main reason was I felt that the best learning experiences I have ever had have been during an internship or real life experiences. Being able to apply the theories and policies I was learning in my classes to work, in many different offices, was truly my way of making sure I was getting the most out of my degree. Overall I really enjoyed this experience and the opportunities awarded to me. I was so proud of myself for planning a successful fair along with all the other responsibilities I had. You can read more about my experience in my weekly journals here and my final reflection paper here.
Not only did I pursue this course and an internship during this semester, I also decided that I wanted to participate in a four week program to earn my Graduate Student Online Teaching Certificate. This was a free professional development program that only graduate students could participate in, so I didn't want to pass it up while I only had a little bit of time left in my program. The certificate had 4 lessons focusing on different aspects of teaching and I was able to draw upon what I learned in my College Teaching class to further develop my skills. Most of my classmates were Graduate Assistants who were truly preparing to teach in a semester or two, so their contributions to the class about their concerns really allowed the class to focus on skills and topics that would be necessary to teach.
With exhaustion, I finally finished this semester with a successful internship, a well written final paper in my course, and an additional teaching certificate. At this point it is starting to sink in that all I have left to do is to complete the Capstone course to wrap up my degree. It seems as though time has flown through each of my semesters and I almost feel as if I'm not ready for the Capstone course.
The course I enrolled in was my final required course, HI ED 556, Higher Education Students and Clientele. With my feelings of needing to be more well rounded in my knowledge of student populations, I was ready to learn about many different types of students! From the start, I was surprised about the different types of student populations that there were and some that I hadn't even thought of. I think this was another one of those courses that half the information I gained from this course was due to the discussions with my classmates. Again, they came from all different institutions and backgrounds and had interactions with students who may not be prevalent here at Penn State University Park. So their experiences really helped to further develop what we had been reading about each week. As a class we moved through each week with a new student population and learned about different ways to support them. I really don't know if I will ever encounter every specific type of student that we talked about, but I feel more prepared if I ever do!
I chose to do an internship as an elective course for a few reasons. The first reason was I didn't want to turn down this opportunity with Career Services. I had previously worked in their office at the end of my undergraduate degree and learned so much, but felt like there was more I could do. As soon as the office contacted me to tell me that they had an opening for another intern, I immediately started figuring out how to make it work with my schedule. The other main reason was I felt that the best learning experiences I have ever had have been during an internship or real life experiences. Being able to apply the theories and policies I was learning in my classes to work, in many different offices, was truly my way of making sure I was getting the most out of my degree. Overall I really enjoyed this experience and the opportunities awarded to me. I was so proud of myself for planning a successful fair along with all the other responsibilities I had. You can read more about my experience in my weekly journals here and my final reflection paper here.
Not only did I pursue this course and an internship during this semester, I also decided that I wanted to participate in a four week program to earn my Graduate Student Online Teaching Certificate. This was a free professional development program that only graduate students could participate in, so I didn't want to pass it up while I only had a little bit of time left in my program. The certificate had 4 lessons focusing on different aspects of teaching and I was able to draw upon what I learned in my College Teaching class to further develop my skills. Most of my classmates were Graduate Assistants who were truly preparing to teach in a semester or two, so their contributions to the class about their concerns really allowed the class to focus on skills and topics that would be necessary to teach.
With exhaustion, I finally finished this semester with a successful internship, a well written final paper in my course, and an additional teaching certificate. At this point it is starting to sink in that all I have left to do is to complete the Capstone course to wrap up my degree. It seems as though time has flown through each of my semesters and I almost feel as if I'm not ready for the Capstone course.
Spring 2016 Reflection
This last semester really flew by. I talked to a lot of my classmates who seemed to have felt the same way when they were going through their capstone course, so I was well prepared for the anxiety and nerves, but also the excitement of being done and the proud feel of all that I have accomplished in these past two years. Working on the capstone paper was a really great opportunity to continue working on something I was interested in, but also something I was so proud to have submitted in the first place. Being able to conduct more research about the future of online learning and higher education in general was fascinating. It of course also continued to help me at work when I was talking to future online students and helping them feel secure in their choice of school.
It was also rewarding getting a chance to review all my old assignments that I had worked so hard on since May of 2014. All the research and the thought that was written into my assignments showed how much I gained from this program. Not only in knowledge but skill as well, my writing got better and the connections I was able to make between my courses got stronger as time went on. My reflection on my entire experience with the Master of Education in Higher Education program can be found below.
It was also rewarding getting a chance to review all my old assignments that I had worked so hard on since May of 2014. All the research and the thought that was written into my assignments showed how much I gained from this program. Not only in knowledge but skill as well, my writing got better and the connections I was able to make between my courses got stronger as time went on. My reflection on my entire experience with the Master of Education in Higher Education program can be found below.
Overall Program Reflection
As with any student enrolling in a graduate level programs, my goal for this degree was to get a better understanding of the field I wanted to work in as well as to open up my career opportunities with an additional degree. I know that many higher level titles at colleges and universities prefer, if not require, a master’s degree. It would have been a major impact on my future, if I had chosen not to complete my graduate degree. The other goal I had during this entire program, was to graduate by May of 2016. When I initially decided that I wanted to earn my graduate degree, I had applied to a few other schools including the University of Central Florida and University of Arizona State. Those programs were residential programs with cohorts and I would have graduated from either of those schools by May 2016. At the time, I was not fully employed by Penn State, so there were less financial benefits to impact my decision. Once I became a full time Admissions Counselor, things changed drastically for me. It no longer made sense to give up a job in the industry I wanted with very good educational benefits. So I decided to pursue my degree through Penn State, but wanted to stick with the same graduation date. It was my goal to not let my employment impact my education. These were the two major goals I had in mind when I applied to and started this program. Once I was a student, I of course wanted to accomplish all that I could by learning more about all different higher education institutions and their students, since my only experience from this point was with World Campus. I know that many other schools have different student populations as well as different academic profiles. So getting a better grasp on those topics was a major accomplishment from completing this program.
As I mentioned earlier I completed this program while also working full time as an Admissions Counselor with Penn State World Campus. This was probably the biggest challenge I had during this program since there was so much I needed to balance. I am part of our recruitment team with World Campus so I frequently traveled for education fairs and other events for recruitment purposes. Traveling and balancing deadlines for multiple classes was something of a challenge at first, but I soon grew use to it. With the help of an academic planner, I was able to keep everything organized and prioritize based on deadlines. I also found it useful to upload all my materials into my Google Drive, so that I was able to work on assignments no matter what office, state, or event I was at! The other challenge that I really struggled through was the two institutional research classes that I needed to take as part of the curriculum. As I progressed through the courses, I realized that it is an important subject for anyone working in higher education to understand. However with my interests being geared towards working with students, I didn’t find the same drive to learn in these classes as I did the others. Overcoming this challenge was much harder than organizing my schedule. I did my best to focus on how this would help any interaction I could potentially have with a student in a future role I had. I also realized that it could help me to better understand how to help students, I can look at research to understand student success and needs. While I was able to make these connections I still struggled a bit with the content and the assignments. I did my best to take advantage of the resources I had, including the library, professor contact information and discussion boards to get the help I needed. I think this might be where many students falter because admitting you don’t understand or you need help can be embarrassing at times, but I couldn’t be happier that I did. I was able to complete the courses with a better understand and enjoyed them more than I thought I would.
When I started this degree I was working as a part time Admissions Counselor for World Campus without much responsibility outside of answering phone calls and emails. As I progressed through this program, I also progressed through job levels within the Admissions office. I slowly moved my way from part time to level one all the way to level three and gained many new responsibilities and projects. I started to grow in my leadership experiences from the new functions I held in the office. My understanding and understanding of leadership and leaders developed not only from these experiences by also from my courses. Within higher education, leadership focuses on being able to lead the university or college towards a successful future with a focus on what is best for the student. Students are trusting their institutions with their future - they trust the school to offer the right classes, involvement opportunities, and support services. These resources are always changing to help the new generation of students prepare for the new generation of the workforce. A proper leader is ensuring the school is heading in the right direction by using all resources available, including institutional research, to ensure this is the right direction. They are also focused on providing the best possible support to the students, and accounting for all student needs that are associated with the many different student populations that are attending that institution. A leader is also one who listens to the needs and requests of the staff within the institution to ensure they are fully prepared and willing to help all students and their requests. Essentially the best leaders in higher education are providing all that the students, staff, faculty and institution needs to have a successful future in the growing field of education.
The degree outcomes that were laid before me when I started this program further reinforced that I was in the right program. The first outcome was to improve my academic literacies and habits of mind. This focused on reading and writing skills, along with critical thinking. Every course I enrolled in helped with this outcome since I was challenged more and more with each course. The further I got into the program, the more that was expected of me. More in depth reading assignments and longer papers were required. I started to feel more and more comfortable tackling such assignments and writing high quality papers that showed my improvements. The next outcome focused on social learning and communication. This outcome I was a little more worried about since I would be online and had limited access to my classmates. I knew that as an Admissions Counselor we always told prospective students that there were discussion boards and emails that could be sent to classmates, however I never experienced this in the place on in class discussions. I was also concerned when I noticed that not all of my classes required a lot of discussion hours. I only had one group project, which actually turned out to be a great thing because I moved through this program with this group of students. I got to know them well and started feeling more comfortable with interacting with them from a distance. I actually connected with them at a professional level as well as I learned that many of my classmates were also fellow Penn State employees. I met many of them at professional development events and conferences, so we formed a nice cohort of students working through this together. As I felt more comfortable with working with my classmates online, I feel that I truly started to learn more as well. The concepts we learned in the class were useful to learn from, but the stories that my classmates could share really reinforced those concepts. The final outcome was to improve my practical and professional capabilities. Part of this outcome consisted of being able to draw upon the theories and policies were were learning when faced with everyday situation and challenges within higher education. From the first day, I was working towards this outcome because I was working in the field. Everything I learned about working with students, applying policies, and understanding data was applied each day towards the interactions I was having with my colleagues. Later in the program I was awarded the opportunity to work closely with our central Admissions office to review student data and information in search for areas of improvement. Being able to understand the information that our data analyst prepared for us was only possible from the courses in this program. The research requirements also helped prepare me for this course.
The SARI requirements were one of the more challenging aspects of this degree due just due to my lack of experience with research. However by completing the CITI certificate and the SARI workshops, I feel much more comfortable with understanding research studies and the impact of their results. I don’t believe that I am quite ready to lead my own study, but with more practice, it might be a possibility. The CITI certificate allowed me to better understand the basics of performing studies in the educational field. It taught me the proper procedures and how to avoid misconduct, but also how to find the proper research for my classes and work that I used in my future classes. Ensuring only the best research is cited and used in my papers and my professional work is a principle I will continue to carry out throughout my entire career. The research workshops I participated in were also very useful. One of the most useful and interesting workshops I attended was Interviewing Veterans of Suffering from Combat Trauma: Findings, Ethical Dilemmas, and Research as Social Interaction. Military and veteran students are a rising population within higher education for a multitude of reasons and understanding their needs and how to properly interact with them is very important. Using the recommended protocols that I learned in all of the workshops will continue to be used in my future when interacting with students and attempting to help them in any role I have.
My career goals were constantly changing and improving during this program. I was introduced to new topics and fields within higher education that I hadn’t explored before. When I started the degree I initially believed that I wanted to be an academic adviser. I based this off the experiences I had while working in the advising office at Penn State Abington. I had such great conversations with students about their degrees and ultimate goals, but what I liked most was being their “fixer.” It was great to be the person that they came to when they were having issues and to feel their trust in you to help them. Having the opportunity to build such a nice relationship with the student and to feel useful was a great thing in my opinion. However as I started to gain knowledge and experience, I figured there were other positions within higher education that could make me feel as successful and useful as an advising position. I enjoyed my work in Orientation and Career Services and started to think more about the positions that could be in those offices. My years in Admissions have also been enjoyable and I feel that I have really made the difference in the lives of many new World Campus students. My career goal at this point, the end of a great 2 years, is to continue working towards a job that leaves me with that feeling everyday. I’m starting to explore options in not only other offices at Penn State, but other institutions throughout the country. Having this degree has really opened up options for me and I’m excited for the options that are out there a now available to me with a graduate degree.
As I mentioned earlier I completed this program while also working full time as an Admissions Counselor with Penn State World Campus. This was probably the biggest challenge I had during this program since there was so much I needed to balance. I am part of our recruitment team with World Campus so I frequently traveled for education fairs and other events for recruitment purposes. Traveling and balancing deadlines for multiple classes was something of a challenge at first, but I soon grew use to it. With the help of an academic planner, I was able to keep everything organized and prioritize based on deadlines. I also found it useful to upload all my materials into my Google Drive, so that I was able to work on assignments no matter what office, state, or event I was at! The other challenge that I really struggled through was the two institutional research classes that I needed to take as part of the curriculum. As I progressed through the courses, I realized that it is an important subject for anyone working in higher education to understand. However with my interests being geared towards working with students, I didn’t find the same drive to learn in these classes as I did the others. Overcoming this challenge was much harder than organizing my schedule. I did my best to focus on how this would help any interaction I could potentially have with a student in a future role I had. I also realized that it could help me to better understand how to help students, I can look at research to understand student success and needs. While I was able to make these connections I still struggled a bit with the content and the assignments. I did my best to take advantage of the resources I had, including the library, professor contact information and discussion boards to get the help I needed. I think this might be where many students falter because admitting you don’t understand or you need help can be embarrassing at times, but I couldn’t be happier that I did. I was able to complete the courses with a better understand and enjoyed them more than I thought I would.
When I started this degree I was working as a part time Admissions Counselor for World Campus without much responsibility outside of answering phone calls and emails. As I progressed through this program, I also progressed through job levels within the Admissions office. I slowly moved my way from part time to level one all the way to level three and gained many new responsibilities and projects. I started to grow in my leadership experiences from the new functions I held in the office. My understanding and understanding of leadership and leaders developed not only from these experiences by also from my courses. Within higher education, leadership focuses on being able to lead the university or college towards a successful future with a focus on what is best for the student. Students are trusting their institutions with their future - they trust the school to offer the right classes, involvement opportunities, and support services. These resources are always changing to help the new generation of students prepare for the new generation of the workforce. A proper leader is ensuring the school is heading in the right direction by using all resources available, including institutional research, to ensure this is the right direction. They are also focused on providing the best possible support to the students, and accounting for all student needs that are associated with the many different student populations that are attending that institution. A leader is also one who listens to the needs and requests of the staff within the institution to ensure they are fully prepared and willing to help all students and their requests. Essentially the best leaders in higher education are providing all that the students, staff, faculty and institution needs to have a successful future in the growing field of education.
The degree outcomes that were laid before me when I started this program further reinforced that I was in the right program. The first outcome was to improve my academic literacies and habits of mind. This focused on reading and writing skills, along with critical thinking. Every course I enrolled in helped with this outcome since I was challenged more and more with each course. The further I got into the program, the more that was expected of me. More in depth reading assignments and longer papers were required. I started to feel more and more comfortable tackling such assignments and writing high quality papers that showed my improvements. The next outcome focused on social learning and communication. This outcome I was a little more worried about since I would be online and had limited access to my classmates. I knew that as an Admissions Counselor we always told prospective students that there were discussion boards and emails that could be sent to classmates, however I never experienced this in the place on in class discussions. I was also concerned when I noticed that not all of my classes required a lot of discussion hours. I only had one group project, which actually turned out to be a great thing because I moved through this program with this group of students. I got to know them well and started feeling more comfortable with interacting with them from a distance. I actually connected with them at a professional level as well as I learned that many of my classmates were also fellow Penn State employees. I met many of them at professional development events and conferences, so we formed a nice cohort of students working through this together. As I felt more comfortable with working with my classmates online, I feel that I truly started to learn more as well. The concepts we learned in the class were useful to learn from, but the stories that my classmates could share really reinforced those concepts. The final outcome was to improve my practical and professional capabilities. Part of this outcome consisted of being able to draw upon the theories and policies were were learning when faced with everyday situation and challenges within higher education. From the first day, I was working towards this outcome because I was working in the field. Everything I learned about working with students, applying policies, and understanding data was applied each day towards the interactions I was having with my colleagues. Later in the program I was awarded the opportunity to work closely with our central Admissions office to review student data and information in search for areas of improvement. Being able to understand the information that our data analyst prepared for us was only possible from the courses in this program. The research requirements also helped prepare me for this course.
The SARI requirements were one of the more challenging aspects of this degree due just due to my lack of experience with research. However by completing the CITI certificate and the SARI workshops, I feel much more comfortable with understanding research studies and the impact of their results. I don’t believe that I am quite ready to lead my own study, but with more practice, it might be a possibility. The CITI certificate allowed me to better understand the basics of performing studies in the educational field. It taught me the proper procedures and how to avoid misconduct, but also how to find the proper research for my classes and work that I used in my future classes. Ensuring only the best research is cited and used in my papers and my professional work is a principle I will continue to carry out throughout my entire career. The research workshops I participated in were also very useful. One of the most useful and interesting workshops I attended was Interviewing Veterans of Suffering from Combat Trauma: Findings, Ethical Dilemmas, and Research as Social Interaction. Military and veteran students are a rising population within higher education for a multitude of reasons and understanding their needs and how to properly interact with them is very important. Using the recommended protocols that I learned in all of the workshops will continue to be used in my future when interacting with students and attempting to help them in any role I have.
My career goals were constantly changing and improving during this program. I was introduced to new topics and fields within higher education that I hadn’t explored before. When I started the degree I initially believed that I wanted to be an academic adviser. I based this off the experiences I had while working in the advising office at Penn State Abington. I had such great conversations with students about their degrees and ultimate goals, but what I liked most was being their “fixer.” It was great to be the person that they came to when they were having issues and to feel their trust in you to help them. Having the opportunity to build such a nice relationship with the student and to feel useful was a great thing in my opinion. However as I started to gain knowledge and experience, I figured there were other positions within higher education that could make me feel as successful and useful as an advising position. I enjoyed my work in Orientation and Career Services and started to think more about the positions that could be in those offices. My years in Admissions have also been enjoyable and I feel that I have really made the difference in the lives of many new World Campus students. My career goal at this point, the end of a great 2 years, is to continue working towards a job that leaves me with that feeling everyday. I’m starting to explore options in not only other offices at Penn State, but other institutions throughout the country. Having this degree has really opened up options for me and I’m excited for the options that are out there a now available to me with a graduate degree.