Brent Varner - Student Support Services - Week 3

Activities

·      Ran errands for the department.

·      Participated in the information booth for Student Support Services during orientation.

·      Participated in leading academic advising during orientation.

Experience

This is the third week of my practicum experience. During the first week, I was really just learning the ropes, so to speak. I got a lot of hands on experience during my second week. This third week has been quite wonderful. I truly feel like I am apart of the Student Support Services family. Throughout the week, I have been getting things ready for the transition of offices starting Monday. This meant doing more manual type labor such as moving tables, chairs, etc. I was happy to do it though. The actual moving of computers and phones will be on Monday morning, since Susan’s last day was Friday, June 27, 2014.

While I have participated in several academic advising sessions in the past few weeks, this week was my first time to participate in the Student Support Services informational booth during an orientation session. We were set up on the bottom floor of the union next to the Starbucks. It was nice since there was quite a bit of foot traffic. Over the first 2 weeks, I learned a lot about the office of Student Support Services. I was able to confidently showcase this to anyone who was interested when walking by. Manning this booth was also quite informational in and of itself. I was able to pick up on more details of the official procedure for registering for services from the office. Other things were important as well. For example, I learned what the difference is between a 504 and an IEP. I really enjoyed getting to share my knowledge with the incoming freshmen.

Finally, it was time for my favorite part of my practicum experience for the week. That is to advise the undeclared majors at orientation on Fridays. It felt good to have faculty and staff in the room ask me questions that I could answer! As a part of this advising process, I will sometime have to call in an override to the command center at the registrar’s office. I really enjoy having the direct impact on students that I get from doing these academic advising sessions.