-Attend new Residence Directors trainings
-Attend Weekly RLT committee meetings
-Shadow Facilities Maintenance Staff
-Meet with supervisor
Experience:
Now that my practicum experience is beginning to wrap up, I
feel a little bitter sweet about it all. Sweet in the fact that I experienced
more than I thought I would and made a lot of connections that I feel will last
for years to come. I feel bitter knowing that I will have to leave these people
and later have to find an internship site that’s as fun and informative. This
prior week I left the RD retreat feeling revitalized. I would suggest this type
of bonding activity for any office on a college campus because this type of
interpersonal interaction just brings people closer together. Monday, I worked
with Facilities and Maintenance Staff for Housing and Residence Life. I have to
say this was one of the more intimidating experiences I’ve had on campus in a
while. In the beginning, I felt like an outside, which I was. Later, two
gentlemen named Donnie and Mr. John got a call to fix one of the RD’s shelves.
We loaded up in an MSU truck and headed out to get some materials to make a new
shelf. While riding, we did the normal chit chat type of talking and eventually
Mr. John stopped and said, “Hey, I want you to be honest with me. Are you an
undercover boss?” I have not laughed so hard in a long time, but I realized
this was what the stand off was all about. It looks weird that a student will
only be around for one day to see what Facilities and Maintenance does on a
daily basis. After we had a good laugh, everyone relaxed a bit and I explained
my purpose for being there.
I was able to see how fix-it tickets were submitted, who was
responsible for fixing what, and even helped to construct a shelf from scratch.
It was a welcomed relief from reading and doing classwork. In short, my
facilities experience was awesome. Friday, I arrived on my practicum site to
view the fire extinguisher and sprinkler tutorial. Here the fire chief and
housing facilities explained how to put out a fire with a fire extinguisher and
turn off a sprinkler with a special tool. When I say explained how to do these
things, the fire chief lit a controlled fire and allowed each person to put it
out with a fire extinguisher. This week in Housing was very hands on… no pun
intended?
I’ve already mentioned the connections I have made with
certain people in housing and the “Seek out and Develop Relationships” portion
really sticks out to me. I am a friendly person when it comes to socializing
with people, but I’ve always had trouble branching out and making that first
contact. However, an RD recently told me it is 2% what you know and 98% who you
know. In student affairs, the students make the career. From this point on, I
will do my best to make an effort to connect with those around me, so that it
will be easier for me to connect with the students I will potentially serve one
day.
Shawn,
ReplyDeleteIt sounds like the housing experience was a really valuable one to you, it certainly has been for me. Housing provides a ton of different options and seems to always be adding other areas of emphasis. Its funny because I find that you either love housing or you hate housing. There usually isn't a happy medium that is found in between. However, housing does give you a lot of great experiences, and even though you do not have prior housing experience you were still able to make some connections that will prove to be very helpful to you in the future. I would like to challenge you to look into housing as a viable option. You are a great people person, and are pretty organized. That is half of the battle in any student affairs department, but a definite fight that we go through in housing. You might be able to make serious headway in a housing department. Who Knows..maybe you'll even be a housing professional.
Best,
Jacob Haun