The NUFP Fellows Community!

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!!!

just checked the weather...

i'm pretty sure that all 3 grad schools i applied to will not have this kind of weather in the middle of winter. 

but as amazing as this paradise is, i really am excited to experience something different. i don't want to just be a "california girl" my whole life and have that be all i know.

there's so much more to the world & i'm excited to discover that with these next steps in my life. enjoying the last few months here & excited to see what the future holds!

social media

[the other day]: i came across an incredible infographic comparing the millenial generation to the ones before us. not surprisingly, one of the defining features of our generation is how much technology is a part of our lifestyle. this is one of those things you just take as common knowledge, but when  i really stop to think about it, technology... more specifically social media... literally somewhat rules my life!

[for example]: at dinner time, my dad was watching the news on tv, they were showing a cute video of how a baby stuck its hand in the president's mouth and my dad had a smile and his face and said "hey, look at that!" my immediate response was "dad, i totally saw that on my tumblr blog like 8 hours ago."

[realization]: as simple and lighthearted as this moment was, i started to think back on all these little instances where i would actually inform my parents of important news-related things because i saw them online on social media sites like tumblr, facebook, or even yahoo news.

[point is]: everyday, i realize more and more just how much social media and the internet in general is so much a part of how i live my life. the concept of constantly having the ability to be connected to the world truly defines how much of an amazing time we are living in.  

[role in student affairs]: a huge takeaway from my acuho-i internship this summer was our focus on recognizing social media was an incredibly valuable form of communication to our residents. pretty much everyone has a facebook so with intentional and consistent updating, it really did wonders for making communication more feasible on both ends. as i enter this field, i see that i do have a strong interest in developing the use of social media to enhance the student experience and connection to university administration. 

"lol"

at first, i was feeling anxious about this last grad school application i am working on right now. part of me feels like this school is my #1 choice at the moment so i think that creates a little added pressure as i sit here and try to type out essay responses that somehow express everything about who i am. 

basically, i was feeling stressed. then i realized that every time i would read over something i just typed, for some reason, the voice in my head was reading with an english accent!!! 

that's the point where i literally laughed out loud. why in the world am i re-reading everything in an english accent?? and not even out loud, but just in my mind! 

i think it's healthy to have ridiculous moments like this once in a while. it reminds me to just relax and enjoy this process. lol :)

thankful

thankful.

for not only great news...
but also an army of supporters to share this exciting time with.

my NUFP mentor: SARAH!

so i haven't posted about my NUFP mentor yet because i think i just don't know where to start! so maybe i'll do like a series of posts about her. haha

every day, i grow more happy to be a part of NUFP.

&& i am so incredibly thankful to have the perfect mentor.

we have a great balance of professional and personal aspects to our talks. most importantly, i feel like i can just be myself around sarah. she is so supportive about my entire process of working towards being a future student affairs professional. from talking about how the residents from tenaya are grown up now (the residence hall she was my supervisor in last year), to reviewing my personal statements for grad school applications... i am so thankful for this NUFP mentor/mentee relationship and i can't wait to see how much it will grow even more!

one example of how awesome she is: before my take it slo a capella singing group holiday show, sarah texted me she was feeling sick and wouldn't be able to go. but only a super supportive mentor would come anyways!

just ask

 

Last year, during a community service event with my sorority Chi Delta Theta, I noticed that one of the attendees was Mr. Cornel Morton, the Cal Poly Vice President of Student Affairs. I quickly ran over to my friends and excitedly whispered, "You guys! He has my future dream job!"

I thought about the value of being proactive that I learned from my mom so I decided to have a seat next to Cornel and just introduce myself to him. He was very friendly and we started to talk about my interest in Student Affairs. 

I ended up following up with him through a simple e-mail. All I did was ask if he would be available to meet sometime to further discuss his experiences. Since then, we have met several times and just having discussions with someone with his kind of experience and wisdom creates space for me to simply think more deeply about the student affairs field and what my role could be in it one day.

Eventually, I had another "just ask" moment and I have been talking to him about the possibility of shadow/informal intern experience with him. My hope is have exposure to what it means to be a high-level student affairs professional. I am excited to see where this goes next quarter.

// So I leave you with this thought, if you have an idea... why not just ask? The worse thing someone would do is say no. But if they say yes... well, that just opens the door to incredible potential. And all it took to get it started was for you to just ask.