Update from the Mississippi State University Welcome Center- Bryan Kelley

Activities:
-Editing and Revising Maroon VIP Handbook
-Weekly Supervision
-Staff Meeting

Experience:
This past week has been interesting to say the least. As Residence Director Training is coming to a close in the next couple of days, the pressure to prepare for incoming Resident Advisers and to prepare for a building opening has increased substantially. With that being said, it has been difficult to log many hours for my practicum site. With that being said, I did have the opportunity to get some work in for the Welcome Center.

Over the hours I have been able to devote to the practicum, I have almost completed the entire revision process on the Maroon VIP Handbook. This has been a tedious and time consuming process. That is not necessarily a bad thing, but rather something that is needed in order to complete and present a quality product. I feel like I have read the handbook completely through at least three times. Each and every time I find another change to make in order to make the book more readable and useful for the incoming Maroon VIPs in the fall. Changes range from including information in manner that is intuitive and easily processed. For example, there is a comprehensive list of buildings and their descriptions included in the handbook. Before the list was just simple text. I have taken the time to collect just under 100 pictures of buildings from across campus to include in the handbook. The thought process was to allow the students to have an idea of what the building looks like in order to draw better memory associations with the information we are presenting them with. Other than that, I am consolidating different tours while adding more information to others.

Throughout this past week, I have noticed an issue that I typically have not experienced in the past. This issue is simply an excessive work load. I completely understand the fact that I'm in graduate school, but there has not been a point up to this point in this program that I literally felt like there was not enough time to complete all the tasks that I need to complete. I've realized that I'm simply experiencing an excessive work load. The summer was understood to be difficult and time demanding, but between Residence Life Training, six hours of classes remaining, and remaining practicum hours, it has almost become overwhelming. I find myself coming back to my apartment in the evenings and sitting down to do some kind of homework or other work related activity only to have enough time to get ready for bed before falling asleep. With all that being said, I feel like I am learning a valuable lesson in regards to what my personal limit is as far as how much work I can do and how much life I can do at the same time. This experience is going to prove incredibly useful when I eventually get a professional profession in the student affairs field! Overall, a long but productive week!