Smith - Week 2 - Holmes Cultural Diversity Center

Activities:

- Worked orientation table once again at both parent and student orientations with staff members and students

- Continued gathering information and resident hall programming ideas for the PAWS Program by searching other institutions websites

- Met with Ra'Sheda Forbes (Associate Director) to create learning contract and discuss progress and programming ideas for PAWS Program

- Helped review new design of HCDC website to ensure easy navigation and that all beneficial information possible will be available for students on the new website

Reflection:

Between orientation and trying to implement plans to restructure the office, this wee has been extremely busy. There were times when I had to drop what I was doing to go work orientation sessions that I was not scheduled to work because Cedric and others had meeting they had to attend and students did not show up to work. Working the orientation booth alone was quite challenging at times. It helped me with my patience when dealing with students and parents. It also helped me understand that students come first. Even though I was in the middle of doing some work for the office, it was more important for me to be out at orientation working with the students and parents. If students are not involved with the office, it does not matter how good the programs and events we have planned. We would have no one to run or attend the event if we do not reach out to the students. In the realm of Student Affairs, students are our first responsibility. This past week has really shown me that.

Working on the new website design has also shown me that the students are at the focus of everything we do. We wanted to make sure that a student could come to our website and find the information they were looking for easily. We also had to make sure we had the right kind of information that student may be looking for when they come to our website. After looking through numerous university websites, I found that some are actually quite difficult to navigate and find the information I was looking for. It can be quite frustrating. I can easily see students giving up on their search for information. That is something we do not want to happen with our website. This has really shown me that something as simple as website navigation is something to consider when dealing with students.