Joshua Thompson - Office of Institutional Diversity and Inclusion - Week 5

Activities

• Met with supervisor for final evaluation and feedback
• Consulted staff on potential programs for impending summit
• Met with staff and received advice and feedback on the world of work 
• Discussed future marketing strategies for impending summit
• Distributed flyers to neighboring institution for promotion of event

Experience

This was my last week of working at the Office of Institutional Diversity and Inclusion for my practicum site in Summer, 2014. Throughout the duration of the summer I would have to say that I accomplished the majority of my initial goals going into this office. Even though this site is atypical for the student affairs profession, I originally chose this site  to receive an experience of an office that sits pretty high at Mississippi State's organizational chart, and to learn how it is that this office affects minority students on campus.

I quickly learned that the environment of this office was much different from the typical "Student Affairs" happy go lucky setting with students coming in and out at all times. The Office of Institutional Diversity has a more "hands off" approach in how they go about conducting business. One of the main functions that this office is responsible for is the coordinating and implementation of the Men of Color summit, which is an annual conference geared towards minority student success. The bulk of my practicum experience come from helping to co-coordinate this impending event. I thought it was pretty interesting that an office that typically deals with the recruitment of minority faculty and staff also had initiatives such as this that are geared to the success of students. This is one of the major reasons for my choosing to complete my practicum experience with this office. 

I mentioned last week that I was able to "find myself as a professional within my practicum site. In addition to that, I was able to further uncover the area that I would like to work once in my desired profession. My site supervisor and his staff were very open to giving me insight as to how things worked and how to always uphold a good "presentation of self". I am very thankful to the good people at the Office of Institutional Diversity and Inclusion for everything that they have done for me during my time in their office. It is my hope to continue to grow and learn more about myself both professionally and personally. 

-JT