Stark Recreation Center MUW: Nazim Chaker (Week 2)

Activities:

•    Drove around the Mississippi University for Women area in Columbus informing them about the Stark Rec Center offering swimming lessons

•    Updated any new reservations or events for the week in the event management data system

•    Updated weekly event reminders for the student staff in the rec center

•    Coordinated MSMS camp recreation event with school coordinator

•    Presented at the professional staffs monthly meeting about new outdoor recreation program for fall semester.

•    Setup logistics and facilities for upcoming Columbus swim meet

•    Facilitated large annual Columbus swim meet

Experience:

The second week of my practicum experience has been great. I have been given so many opportunities to explore the functional area of campus recreation.  One of my examples is updating weekly events and reminders for the recreation center. This has been very cool for me to operate. For a campus like MUW the community uses the facilities as many times a week. This gives me good experiences in the daily operations of a facility management standpoint.

The second week I was also given the task to coordinate one of the largest camps that MUW host every summer. I was solely responsible for making sure that this camp had everything set for the camps daily rec time for three hours. It does not sound super difficult but when there is a high volume of high school students in a heavy risk zone everything needs to be prepared correctly. For example, we need to know if they plan on swimming or not because there needs to be enough lifeguards on call.

I was also given a project to work on. Stark recreation center plans on building their outdoor recreation program back up and they wanted me to research an activity that students could participate in for the upcoming fall semester. They wanted to be a retreat weekend type of event. I researched paintball facilities in the surrounding area that seemed like reasonable places. I ended up presenting to the professional staff at their monthly meeting and they loved the presentation. They decided that they would go with that for their fall outdoor retreat. It was fun to coordinate that and see something I was apart of be implemented into the department.

Reading Application:

After reading chapter 9 I knew that it would best apply to what I have been experiencing at MUW. Crisis management is something that every student affairs professional needs to be familiar with. A risk or crisis can happen in any realm of student affairs. In campus recreation there are many different types of risks that can occur and potentially lead to a crisis situation. For instance, I mentioned the MSMS camp I had to help coordinate. It seems like a simple task, kids come play and then it is over, but there are so many crisis situations that could occur just from a simple recreation time. I mentioned there was swimming time allowed for the students. If we would have not known the amount of students that were coming we could have not called in enough guards. So we partially used the crisis management cycle when planning this event. We first set up prevention and mitigation by seeing all who would be using the facility. We then set up planning for the “what if” situations. Then what the response would look like if a student were injured. There has not been a major situation happen at MUW like death, but if something like that occurred that could really hurt a university. It is already a bad situation but it can ruin a department if they can find them responsible

Theory Application:

I think Chickering’s Seven Vectors apply to me the most for this practicum experience. I identified with four of the seven vectors such as developing competence, developing interpersonal mature relationships, establishing identity, and developing purpose. When it comes to developing competences I am developing my intellectual knowledge of campus recreation by being engaged with that environment weekly. Having time to analyze and comprehend a new department is good for me personally. I am also developing mature interpersonal relationships with my director and assistant director. I am learning how to work in an environment that might not think like other departments I have worked for in the past and how I respond to what they say. I am also discovering a new identity in the focus of campus recreation. I have spent so much time in hosing that I feel like I am learning more about myself and what I what to do in the future. Then lastly I feel like I am developing more of purpose. I know I have always wanted to work on a college campus but the more I am around a recreation center it really feels like that is where I am supposed to be.

References:

Amey, M., & Reesor, L. (2009). In Beginning your journey: A guide for new professionals in student affairs. Washington, D.C.: National Association of Student Personnel Administration.  

Chickering, A. (2015). Seven vectors: An overview. Retrieved from https://www.cabrini.edu/communications/ProfDev/cardevChickering.html