Update from Shackouls Honors College - Kelsey Jones

Activities:

- Represent Honors College at Orientation events
- Meet with members of the Honors Council to plan events for Convocation
- Assist in advising of Honors College students
- Read suggested material to assist me in understanding foundational beliefs of SHC

Experience:

Since my last update, I have continued to have a plethora of great experiences working with Shackouls Honors College. I continued to represent the Honors College at Orientation events alongside, Roxie, the summer student worker, member of Honors Council, and a Presidential Scholar. I have quite enjoyed getting to work alongside Roxie as I believe she exemplifies the sort of driven, academically motivated student that the Honors College strives to serve. I feel that I have learned the most about how the mission of the Honors College works to serve and assist it's students through hearing about Roxie's experiences. I have gotten to understand first-hand how the Honors College personalizes their work with each student and helps them to achieve their individual goals through tailoring their academic path, providing them with unique educational experiences, and assisting them in recognizing their own passions through unique study abroad and research opportunities. Learning exactly what the Honors College can provide for their students has been one of the most beneficial experiences of my practicum so far.

Additionally, I have gotten the opportunity to meet with other members of the Honors Council who are working hard through the summer to plan and implement Honors College initiatives as well as their own remarkable endeavors. I was able to have a meeting with Mallory Self, an Honors Council member, who is in charge of planning the events for the week of Convocation in the fall. Getting to collaborate with her and see how self-sufficient and self-motivated the student leaders in the Honors College are was genuinely amazing. I was also able to meet with Jamie Aron who is the brains behind the Honors College sponsored Womens Empowerment Leadership conference that will be held this week on-campus. This is another stunning example of not only how inspired the students in the Honors College are, but also of how supportive of their ambitions the Honors College is. I am looking forward to helping with the WE Lead conference as much as possible.

This week, Dean Snyder also gave me some reading material about the Residential College system at Yale and I was able to see the motivation behind the kind of community the Honors College strives to create in Griffis and North. Reading this article helped me to recognize my own role conflict in my practicum experience. The book describes role conflict in a student affairs position as being when "professionals are torn by conflicting job demands, differences of opinion with supervisors, or having to to things they do not want to do or are not very comfortable doing". The conflict I have experienced in my practicum has been between my role as a practicum student in the Honors College and the Residence Director in the building the Honors College offices are located in. I don't see this conflict to be negative, per say, more so just  factual part of the dual roles I have been playing this summer. I have gotten to see first hand when the opinions and goals of the Honors College have not exactly blended well with the way Housing and Residence Life  operates at Mississippi State. This has proven to be difficult to bridge as I can now see both sides of the story. For example, through reading the article about Residential Colleges I can see why the Honors College feels strongly about only housing Honors students in their residence hall community. However, from a housing employee perspective, I can see where having non-Honors students who still need housing and not being able to put them in an open room because it's reserved for Honors could cause some conflict. It has been difficult to see where both sides are coming from (though for the most part these are just hypothetical issues) and not really being able to see where a compromise could be met. I feel that playing this dual role in my practicum experience has taught me a great lesson in the importance of collaboration and communication between departments.