Ever since I had the opportunity to work as the Vice President of the inaugural team of Peer Advisers at Penn State Abington, I have been interested in higher education student affairs. I worked very closely with the advisers in the center to learn about all the services they provide. I think that the advisers at Penn State Abington are the individuals who influenced me the most. It was their willingness to help and educate me that gave me the courage and insight that I needed to pursue my professional goal of becoming an academic adviser and hopefully one day the Director of Academic Advising so that I am able to both advise students and advise faculty. These goals are fueled by my want to help all students continue their academic careers because a college degree is something that should be possible to all people. During my undergraduate career, I came across many students who were forced to extend the amount of time it took to obtain their degree, didn’t realize the importance of out of the classroom experience or had to switch advisers multiple times to find an adviser who had the time to help them. While I know these situations don’t happen to every student, I want to make sure they don’t happen to any student.
I have been involved in higher education since my sophomore year of college, when I was the Vice President of Penn State Abington’s Peer Advisers. As a peer adviser I would meet with students in the advising office and answer any questions they may have had about their academic paths through their four undergraduate years. My responsibilities as the Vice President were to supervise the other peer advisers, plan events to market our services to the campus and also to organize bi-monthly meetings for the peer advising team. Working with the students and advisers at Penn State Abington allowed me to realize that my interests did not match what I was attending school for. I decided to major in Rehabilitation and Human Services and got the opportunity to learn about the numerous ways that I can help people. During my junior year I worked as a Change-of-Campus Transition Leader. This job allowed me to work with students all during their first year of college at a new campus or university entirely. This opportunity was very unique since it was an orientation for students who had already been in college for a minimum of two years. They already understood about the college academic life however they needed to learn what the social aspects of college were like at this new campus. In March of my senior year I was awarded the opportunity to work as an Orientation Leader for the first year of Penn State’s updated New Student Orientation. During training I was taught all the possible resources that students had available to them, situations they are most likely to end up in during their first year of college, and how to answer their questions while emphasizing personal responsibility and Penn State’s code of conduct. Finally during my senior year, I was the Programming and Events full time intern at Penn State’s Career Services. In this office, I helped plan any event that the building hosted, like career fairs and graduate school fairs. I helped with organizing the supplies we needed, organizing the venue, and running the event. I had the opportunity to individually plan an event for first year students to attend and learn about the services our building offers, which had the highest attendance rate of any event had ever held in the building. I also helped with employer relations by being the middle person between student groups and employers who want to meet with them.
Currently, I work as an Admissions Counselor with Penn State World Campus. I serve as the first point of contact when students decide they want to attend World Campus. I discuss academic degrees and certificates, career opportunities, application procedures, and any other questions students have about starting college. I mostly work with adult learners and military students, the audience that World Campus aims to help most. Working in this office has given me the opportunity to help the underrepresented students in a college setting and also understand the online university setting and how many students benefit from that availability.
All my involvement in higher education has helped me learn through experience and that is how I have gained my strengths and knowledge. I understand how to work with new, transfer, and returning students from the start of their college career when they need to apply to school to the end of it when they are looking for jobs. However I don’t have much knowledge of previous research, theories, and influential people in the field, which is a weakness when working in the higher education field. That is why I think that studying higher education in the Master of Education in Higher Education program will bring me closer to my goals. I believe that knowledge of previous and current research is very important when implementing policies and programs in higher education. It is easier to make changes in any industry, especially higher education, when you already know what works and what doesn’t. I know that universities and colleges change constantly and to be able to understand how to make the best changes is a skill that all higher education professionals need.
I have been involved in higher education since my sophomore year of college, when I was the Vice President of Penn State Abington’s Peer Advisers. As a peer adviser I would meet with students in the advising office and answer any questions they may have had about their academic paths through their four undergraduate years. My responsibilities as the Vice President were to supervise the other peer advisers, plan events to market our services to the campus and also to organize bi-monthly meetings for the peer advising team. Working with the students and advisers at Penn State Abington allowed me to realize that my interests did not match what I was attending school for. I decided to major in Rehabilitation and Human Services and got the opportunity to learn about the numerous ways that I can help people. During my junior year I worked as a Change-of-Campus Transition Leader. This job allowed me to work with students all during their first year of college at a new campus or university entirely. This opportunity was very unique since it was an orientation for students who had already been in college for a minimum of two years. They already understood about the college academic life however they needed to learn what the social aspects of college were like at this new campus. In March of my senior year I was awarded the opportunity to work as an Orientation Leader for the first year of Penn State’s updated New Student Orientation. During training I was taught all the possible resources that students had available to them, situations they are most likely to end up in during their first year of college, and how to answer their questions while emphasizing personal responsibility and Penn State’s code of conduct. Finally during my senior year, I was the Programming and Events full time intern at Penn State’s Career Services. In this office, I helped plan any event that the building hosted, like career fairs and graduate school fairs. I helped with organizing the supplies we needed, organizing the venue, and running the event. I had the opportunity to individually plan an event for first year students to attend and learn about the services our building offers, which had the highest attendance rate of any event had ever held in the building. I also helped with employer relations by being the middle person between student groups and employers who want to meet with them.
Currently, I work as an Admissions Counselor with Penn State World Campus. I serve as the first point of contact when students decide they want to attend World Campus. I discuss academic degrees and certificates, career opportunities, application procedures, and any other questions students have about starting college. I mostly work with adult learners and military students, the audience that World Campus aims to help most. Working in this office has given me the opportunity to help the underrepresented students in a college setting and also understand the online university setting and how many students benefit from that availability.
All my involvement in higher education has helped me learn through experience and that is how I have gained my strengths and knowledge. I understand how to work with new, transfer, and returning students from the start of their college career when they need to apply to school to the end of it when they are looking for jobs. However I don’t have much knowledge of previous research, theories, and influential people in the field, which is a weakness when working in the higher education field. That is why I think that studying higher education in the Master of Education in Higher Education program will bring me closer to my goals. I believe that knowledge of previous and current research is very important when implementing policies and programs in higher education. It is easier to make changes in any industry, especially higher education, when you already know what works and what doesn’t. I know that universities and colleges change constantly and to be able to understand how to make the best changes is a skill that all higher education professionals need.