New Maroon Camp Practicum Post #2- Brad Ward

NEW MAROON CAMP SUMMER 2015

Activities

•  Finalized the schedule for pre-camp training
•  Determined key speakers for pre-camp training
•  Started working on the regular camp schedule

Reflections on Practice

This week at New Maroon Camp was not a very busy week for me! I was not able to be in the office a lot but the time that I got to spend in there was very beneficial. We pretty much summed up all of the pre-camp schedule for the counselors of New Maroon Camp. It will be a long two training days for them but we have made sure that it will be worth it by giving them long breaks and some great campus speakers to listen to during their first full day of training.

Other than pre-camp scheduling, I have not been able to work on a lot of actual camp programs yet. I am patiently waiting for July when I get to put in two to three hours per day in the office instead of going when I get breaks between class and in the afternoons. That being said, I feel like July will be my most beneficial month because I will be able to be even more hands on with the staff and really start racking up my hours.

Overall, I have still been very successful in establishing relationships with the staff of New Maroon Camp. I feel like we already have a close bond that will help us build and facilitate camp in the most efficient and fun ways possible. I am excited to attend camp and experience how it changes students’ lives in college right from the start. It really is such a unique program and like I have stated before, I feel like I am extremely lucky to have this opportunity. Now only two more days until the actual work begins! COME ON JULY!!!!

Application to Readings

In chapter two of Beginning Your Journey: A Guide for New Professionals in Student Affairs, it talks a lot about the different environments, missions, socialization rituals, and strategies of different departments in student affairs all over the country. When reading this, I could not help but think about how I feel that New Maroon Camp is so unique. It has without a doubt one of the best environments on campus, which is all led by the students who were hand picked to make NMC flourish into an MSU tradition. Environment is essential to the growth and development of students. With a bad environment it is hard to rally students to participate. New Maroon Camp does not have that problem. They have already tripled their student participation from last year and continue to grow daily. That coincides with their mission, which is to help students grow and feel supported at MSU before they even take a class on campus. That may be a mission of almost every college campus, but the way New Maroon approaches it is special. Students will create a family that will last them the rest of their days at MSU and hopefully even afterwards. Lastly, in terms of socialization and strategies, camp is a ritual in itself. Getting to be around MSU students in a camp atmosphere seems to be a beneficial way of welcoming students into the Bulldog family. Those students will be apart of a class that will always remember the particular things that they accomplished at NMC and there on afterwards (Amey & Reesor, 2009).

As chapter two concludes with discussing leadership, I feel that it is important to recognize the leadership that MSU students are exhibiting to prepare for this camp. NMC is primarily designed by students for the benefit of other students. Not only are the campers who are coming into camp benefiting from the experience, but the counselors are as well because they get to polish their leadership skills and learn qualities about themselves that they might have never known existed (Amey & Reesor, 2009).

Reflection of Theory

One theory that I decided to focus on this week was the NASPA/ACPA Professional Competencies Areas for Student Affairs Professionals regarding student learning and development. I focused on this because we are primarily focusing on building programs that will impact students in a positive way at a very early stage of college. This is the first real interaction that these people will get with Mississippi State as students. While we are developing a camp for students, we are making it a point to be organized so that we can be clear on what our intentions are as a staff and as mentors. I think it is important to look at these practices now and use them to build upon the future of New Maroon Camp. I will also use these experiences that I have gained from helping students develop in order to help develop myself as a professional (ACPA & NASPA, 2010).

As we go along in the summer, we will be developing more criteria for future camps. This experience will let me put my mark on camp to hopefully benefit students for years after I leave state. With the help of the experienced directors and counselors, we can help to build an environment that is inclusive for everyone involved. I really enjoyed reading through this particular section of the professional competencies because I feel like I have already been using some of the sections directly in my position at NMC even though I have not even been there for even a month yet.

References

ACPA & NASPA (2010). Professional Competency Areas for Student Affairs Practitioners.

Amey, M., & Reesor, L. (2009). Words of wisdom. In Beginning your journey: A guide for new professionals in student affairs (3rd Ed.). (pp. 15-38). Washington, DC: National Association of Student Personnel Administrators.