As a first year master’s student, one of the first things that struck me about our cohort is how diverse we are.  We all come from different backgrounds and have had different experiences with how we came to pursue a higher education degree.  Before this program, we worked in businesses, education, or were completing our undergrad degrees, to name a few.  As for me, I went from working as an accounting advisor to working in student development.  Seriously.  Big change in career path, huh?  It may be tough to see how my job before this translates to student affairs work, but after I reflected on what I learned from my previous career, I realized that there were more experiences I could integrate than I initially realized. 

Much like where I work now, my previous company was big on teaming and education.  All of our work centered on working with others and coaching new college graduates to success in their career.  Working with a diverse group of people taught me the importance of tailoring my training approach to the individual instead of sticking to a set plan for everyone.  What works for one person may not work for another.  And for some people, things may not make sense immediately.  Sometimes the concepts I taught clicked only after the person I worked with was able to apply them to a new project on a new team, and that’s ok too!

During my assistantship with NC State’s student centers, it has been great to draw on some of these past experiences to implement a student employment program.  Similar to my previous job, we emphasize teaming and development as the foundation for our program to help our student staff gain skills translatable to any future career.  Previous experience has been a good base to help me get started as I learn more about how to motivate and connect with students.

We all have lots to learn about working with students over the next few years but may not realize what we already have to bring to the table at our assistantships, internships, and the classroom.  Each of us has unique experiences from wherever we were before this that can already be applied, especially now that we are halfway through our first semester of classes.  (Go Chickering!) It will definitely be interesting to reflect back to see how much we have learned over the course of our time at NC State!