Around here, it seems like I am literally 1 of 4 people interested in pursuing Student Affairs in graduate study and as a career. I honestly feel like I spend most of my time trying to explain to people what I am passionate about doing with my life (not to mention, convincing them that this is can actually be a career... gotta love Cal Poly, land of the Engineers who doubt that being a Business Major can actually lead to a job one day haha <3).
One of the things I am so thankful for with this NUFP opportunity, is how much it as connected me to a great community of other students just like me, going through the exact same process. For once, I don't need to explain myself or my career interests because they already have the same passions! And you know me, I love my social media. Facebook has been an incredible resource for really connecting with other NUFP fellows.
With the understanding that we're all in the same boat right now, everyone seems really genuinely supportive of each other. And reading through all the casual group discussions about different issues in higher education keeps me motivated because it is exciting to see that other people out there are already so intellectual about this field. With so many people with different backgrounds and experiences all talking in one place, it inspires me to challenge the limits of my knowledge about current issues in higher education and to just be open minded to always learning more and expanding my view.
It took a lot but one day, I mustered up the courage to share the link to my blog on the NUFP group page. I think I was pretty nervous about it because part of me was intimidated by how smart all the other fellows seemed. Would they think my thoughts on Student Affairs aren't legit? Am I fool for thinking I could be successful in this field? Would they just brush it off and not care? Would anyone even click on it??
Pretty soon after, Ivana messaged me saying:
I hope you don't mind, but I saw on your blog that you had an ACUHO-I internship, and noticed that it was in Canada because of your pictures. I would love to hear more about that experience. I had a NUFP internship at the University of Kansas last summer and it was such an awesome experience. But I bet seeing student affairs in another country was really cool.
And with that, it was like the gates of heaven opened up and I realized just how exciting it was to be a part of the supportive NUFP community. Here was a real person genuinely interested in my experiences that also had her own story to tell that I could learn from. We messaged back and forth and I was seriously in awe of how eloquent she was about Student Affairs. I was like... oh man! These are the type of people applying to grad school too? I need to step up my game! haha
The other day, I saw a post on one of our NUFP group pages from Ryan asking about ACUHO-I Internships. asdjfl;asdjfkl! I was incredibly excited to share my experiences to help someone out with the process that I was going through last year. The crazy thing was that literally as I was typing out my response to Ryan's message, Ivana facebook chatted me asking about grad school interviews at IU! (It was such a cool moment that ya, I printscreened it... hahaha)
So thank you NUFP Fellows 2011-2012 for being a great community. And I look forward to meeting you all in person out in the field one day... maybe at grad school interviews next month??? Ahhh!!!
