Rachel Ross: Week 6 with HCDC (maybe five...who knows!?)

Rachel Ross: Week 6 with HCDC

Activity:

1.    One hour of supervision

Experience:

Since the majority of my hours are done, the next few weeks will look very similar activity-wise. I only met with my supervisor this week for our one hour of supervision. Though it was simply an hour, I feel like I gained so much from that conversation. There were two main themes throughout our conversation: my performance as a practicum student and advise for the future.

Last week, I finalized a long document of programming options for the addition of Safe Zone to use in the HCDC office in the future. My supervisor looked it over and he was very surprised. He was expecting approximately 4-5 activities that could be used throughout the next year, and I provided him with more information than he ever expected. He was so impressed and appreciative of my hard work, which is great to hear as the practicum student. Sometimes you never know if you are doing a good enough job, and he took this time to really talk me up. Knowing how much my supervisor appreciated having me in the office this summer really made all the hard work worth it.

He also gave me enormous amounts of advice that could be applicable to any situation. My supervisor truly has a gift for doing what he does, and his advice was just what I needed at the time. He gave me advice about how to keep personal lives separate from professional lives; he gave me insight about being a supervisor and connecting with students and student leaders. He gave me advice, and I could not have appreciated it more.

To relate this interaction back to this week's reading, chapter three focused on ethics and specifically touched on using social networking. When my supervisor was giving me advice on how to be a good supervisor, social media was brought up. He mentioned how he is very selective of who views his social media accounts, especially when it comes to students. He did explain how he will allow his mentees to view his social media sites, so as to better connect with them. However, he is very careful, due to all the ethical dilemmas that can result from inappropriate use of social networking. This was really important to me, especially being a supervisor in a time where social media is so popular. I hope to set boundaries with my student leaders and explain to them my philosophy when it comes to social networking, in order to prevent myself from getting caught in ethically binding situations. 

Though this week only consisted of one hour, it was probably the most uplifting and insightful one-hour of supervision I have had yet.