Center for Student Activities: Stephane Tchang (Week 7)

Activities:

• Create marketing materials for potential Dawg Daze marketing strategies
• Attend and assist with the College Ready program, Are You Smarter Than Faculty Trivia Night 
• Provide an overview of the different formulated marketing strategies to promote Dawg Daze

Experience:

This past week was my last week in the Center for Student Activities. Throughout the week, I worked on creating a few marketing pieces that my supervisors in the Center for Student Activities could utilize to promote the Dawg Daze events taking place a couple weeks from today. Then, I also helped with the College Ready program as a score keeper and no phone usage policy enforcer. 

With the marketing pieces, I wanted to make sure my practicum supervisors would be able to see something tangible and realistic that their office could take and implement, as well as have a template for any future initiatives related to marketing. While working on the marketing materials, I came to realize that marketing overall in student affairs is always being reshaped and reimagined. A question I found myself answering was how was I going to reach out to students who are growing in a highly digital and technological world. In response to that, I came to the conclusion that nothing beats making students feel welcomed and at home. As such, my recommendation to my supervisors was to create a marketing strategy in which the overall message was to welcome the students to their new home at Mississippi State. This resulted in the creation of a welcome letter and post card, along with a set calendar of the events and a few pages of the listed events that occurred each day throughout Dawg Daze. 

With the College Ready event, I was able to get a glimpse into what hosting an activity as a student activities professional looked like. A lot of work is necessary in communicating with different parties to ensure everyone is on the same page about how the program will happen, as well as continually communicating with the dining services workers to ensure the venue of the event flowed smoothly. Being in residence life and advising student leaders, I was accustomed to student leaders planning and implementing everything. However, as I soon realized by helping with the College Ready event, sometimes the student activities professionals will be the ones planning and implementing the activity themselves. 

Theory Application:

Given everything I worked on throughout this past week, I came to the realization that King and Kitchener's Reflective Judgment Model was apparent. In stage 5, King and Kitchener describe knowledge as "contextual and subjective," with the rationale being derived from interpreting evidence (Guthrie & Love, 1999). When I was deciding on the best marketing strategies and operated on the premise that many students entering college come from a highly technological generation, I assumed the knowledge I had was contextual in the manner that technology is apparent in my own every day life, and as such, it meant students entering college are also immersed in a heavy, technological environment. As such, I interpreted that to mean that students would better receive marketing strategies that were more personalized and home-like because it is a rarity to receive something that isn't in an electronic format.

Reading Application:

This past week, I read chapter 7 of Beginning Your Journey: A Guide for New Professionals in Student Affairs, in which the author talked about the necessity to balance your personal and professional lives (Amey & Reesor, 2009). Although I am glad the author tried to cover an issue many student affairs professionals struggle with, I found the chapter to still be disheartening because in reality, there are many expectations placed on us as student affairs professionals. I've yet to be a full-time student affairs professional, but I am currently overwhelmed by the responsibilities and expectations set forth by my academics and graduate assistantship. With my time and energy being devoted to ensure I am fulfilling both my job and academic responsibilities, I am often left feeling depleted of energy, burned out, and ready to call it quits. I barely have any time to recuperate and invest in my own personal well-being. However, I often find myself telling myself that I am almost there. Others have made it before me, so why can't I? As I push myself, I am hoping that there will be a brighter light at the end of the tunnel. With this semester in particular, juggling my practicum, graduate assistantship, and academic course work has proved to be extremely strenuous. I want to ensure the quality of the work I put forth reflects the best I can provide, but sometimes, I know I sacrifice my own personal well-being to make sure I at least meet the minimum expectations set forth by my academics and assistantship. The book also discusses the importance of finding and establishing support systems. Luckily for me, I've been able to find support through my student affairs cohort. Many, if not most, of us struggle with this exact same issue, and so we are able to truly understand each other and offer as much support for each other as possible. However, outside of this avenue, I am truly lacking any real established support. In turn, I hope that when I graduate from this program, I become a student affairs professional who will assist and intentionally foster a supportive relationship with students who are pursuing their pathway into student affairs.

References:

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

Guthrie, V. L. & Love, P. G. (1999). King and Kitchener's reflective judgment model, New Direction for Student Services, 88, 41 - 51.