Why buy the cow?

This blog post is inspired by this past week's #SAchat, which jumped on the oft-thought-taboo topic of leaving student affairs and higher education, but still utilizing student affairs skills. Or, as I'd like to call it, "taking your talents to South Beach" (and yes, some Lebron-leaving-Cleveland comparisons DID get thrown into the chat!).

As the chat went on, a question came up on whether Student Affairs preparatory programs (especially master's programs) should expose their students to opportunities outside the profession. Some participants said "No way, Jose" - this isn't the job of student affairs prep programs! Why would you go and get a student affairs degree unless you KNEW you wanted to do student affairs?? Others said, "Huh. That could be a good idea" - considering how wide and varied the field of higher education actually is, perhaps HESA programs should offer more exposure beyond just student affairs!

I want to pause this blog post here, and take a moment to tell you a story of a young junior in college. Bright-eyed and optimistic, this young lady double-majored in communication and English, with no real purpose in doing either, other than she loved reading and writing, and her parents and mentors said that communication would be a "really useful" degree (side note: it totally was.Yes, this person is me. DARN IT, I didn't mean to reveal that 'til later!). ANYWAY, when asked what I wanted to do after graduation, I would immediately panic. My first instinct has always been to be a teacher; after taking communication classes, I would often say something like "human resources" or another vague corporate-related title. But I had no real knowledge of what I wanted to do after graduation. In college, though, I had an incredible life outside the classroom - I was deeply involved in several student organizations, and besides just giving me some of the best friends I've made in life, these organizations also gave me a purpose for my time in school. So, imagine my SHOCK when one of my advisors (shout-out to you, Sonja!) told me the ultimate secret - what she did, as our organization's advisor, was a FULL-TIME JOB. She went to SCHOOL for it, and got a DEGREE! I was hooked. You mean, I thought, that I would get to work with college students... and stay in college... and plan programs... FOREVER? You can see the appeal, I'm sure. So my senior year, I applied to graduate schools, and by the end of the process I was offered a graduate assistantship at Florida State University.

The rest is not quite history. You see, there were SEVERAL times in graduate school when I questioned what I was doing, and whether or not student affairs was the right profession for me. I don't blame anyone for this - I consciously chose to pursue my master's degree with the level of experience I had as an undergrad. Part of this was because I was convinced that student affairs was the right path for me. I'll be honest, another part was that I didn't have any OTHER plans, and getting a "big-kid job" absolutely terrified me, so graduate school sounded pretty spectacular at the time. The economy was awful, so why not put off the job search for two more years? Not the best motivation, I know, but coupled with my deep-seeded interest in what I knew of higher education, it was enough to get me to graduate school.

Four years later, I still have moments where I question if this is the right profession for me. I now know that that's a completely normal question, one often asked by colleagues in this profession as well as many others. Here's what I wonder, though - could my initial lack of knowledge of the field been addressed before I went to graduate school?  While my mentors and advisors did their absolute best (and beyond) to get me ready for student affairs, was there another step I could have taken for me to test out whether I really wanted to go into higher education? Or, in other words, could I have tried the milk before I bought the whole cow?

(Make sure to read the fine print before you make that bovine purchase!)

As I reflect on this question, I think about other graduate and professional prep programs, like law school or medical school. I've often heard my friends who attended law school say, "You either love or you hate law school. There's no happy medium, there's no in between." The question is, though, how will you know if you love it before you spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on that J.D.? Same with medical school - you may not actually want to be a doctor, but how will you know that until you've spent hundreds of hours studying for the MCAT and, again, hundreds of thousands of dollars on getting your M.D.? How are we giving young people the opportunity to try out the "behind the scenes" of different professions before we ask them to commit to furthering their education? Is there a better way?

My good friend Amma Marfo has blogged about this question before, and posed the answer that perhaps a gap year after undergrad is something that the U.S. (and especially higher education) should culturally consider adopting in order to afford graduates the time to experience the profession for themselves. Similarly, Tim St. John suggests that in order to "grow the profession," we should actually be giving students a more realistic look at "what's behind the curtain" rather than selling that our work is all pizza, icebreakers, and rainbows (as so many like to stereotype student affairs).

Some opportunities like this already exist: NASPA offers an Undergraduate Fellows Program to provide undergrads an opportunity to practice before graduate school. Many institutions offer "create your own" internship experiences for undergrads; my office here at IU has begun what we hope will be a long-standing undergrad summer intern program (look for posts to come about this cool opportunity!). My alma mater, Texas A&M, actually dedicates a one-year, full-time professional position with Class Councils to anyone who wants to "try out" student affairs, no master's degree required.

If these offices, organizations, and institutions have recognized the importance of giving undergraduates the opportunity of a "trial period" before asking them to buy the proverbial cow, why can't the whole profession? Why can't we, as higher education and student affairs professionals, make a commitment to better informing those interested in our work by giving them opportunities to practice? After all, ours is a profession that prides itself on tying what we learn in the classroom to the practical experiences that we have.

To bring this back to the #SAchat discussion, what I'm proposing is that, instead of stigmatizing those who leave the profession as "quitters," instead of blaming the 60% of new professionals who burn out and drop out within 5 years for not managing work-life balance better, let's as a profession take on the responsibility of giving interested parties a better understanding of what our work actually entails before requiring them to make a commitment to it. Let's offer more undergraduate internships and entry-level (meaning no master's required) jobs so that we can openly show "what's behind the curtain" to interested parties rather than requiring that you buy the cow before you taste the milk. After all, as a profession deeply concerned with transparency and authenticity, wouldn't it behoove us to practice as we preach and to be more transparent with what student affairs and higher education actually entail?

At the end of the day, I think these opportunities for pre-graduate-degree-practice would only be a win. Not only would those who commit to graduate school have a MUCH better mental picture of the commitment they are undertaking, but they would truly feel "pulled to something they love," as Amma so eloquently wrote in another blog post (as opposed to realizing 5 years down the road that student affairs just ISN'T for them). Even more, rather than wondering which of our fresh-out-of-grad-school new professionals will be part of the 60% to burn out in 5 years, supervisors and mangers in the field would have a crop of pro's who not only made the conscious commitment to go into student affairs, but who also have a year or more of professional experience prior to graduate school, as well as any assistantship experience gained during graduate programs.

In the end, I don't think it's a bad thing in any way, shape, or form to leave student affairs. I don't think it should be stigmatized, nor do I think it should be a taboo subject. Rather, I encourage us as a field to consider ways to address the cause before the symptoms start, and give interested parties a taste of the amazing things that we get to do as student affairs professionals before we ask them to make the graduate school commitment.

How do you conference?

Good morning, all! As teased in my previous post, I really wanted to make a point to talk about a new concept in my life—that of the conference personality. I recently experienced my first professional conference alongside several fellow graduate students and new professionals, and I noticed pretty early on that each of us had a different way of experiencing the conference; each of our personalities and purposes for attending affected the way in which we interacted with the people and presentations around us.

This post will serve to talk about several of the different species of conference-goers I have identified, and I’d love to hear more varieties from you readers. How do YOU conference?

AWAY WE GO!

1. The Social Butterfly:

Ah, the Social Butterfly. We all know this conference attendee and have seen them in action. Brave and tireless, the Butterfly may or may not attend different presentations throughout the day, but by gosh, they are making EVERY MINUTE COUNT by making connections with the people around them. Once the sun goes down, it’s game over—the Social Butterfly has dinner plans, after-dinner plans, meet-ups, Alumni reunions, receptions, and after-reception receptions to attend. They go and go ‘til the wee hours of the morning, skip the earliest morning sessions to catch up on sleep, and are ready and raring to go get coffee with new and old friends by 11 a.m.

I attended NASPA with a couple of social butterflies, and let me tell you, I wish I had their stamina! Of course, the Butterfly makes a point to save up their energy for the networking they’re doing, but in a room full of people, the Butterfly refuses to know a stranger. For those of you that have taken StrengthsQuest, the Social Butterfly is often a “Woo”—Winning Others Over. By the end of the conference, the Butterfly has 50 new business cards, 100 new Twitter followers, and was the belle of the ball. Even if you’re not a butterfly, it’s great to have friends who are, because they can help you along in your networking if you’re a little leery of crowds (like I am!). All hail the Social Butterfly!

2. Interested and Intentional

The Interested and Intention (I&I) conference-goer is a sight to see. They set their sights on a high purpose for conference attendance: learning! The I&I purposefully selects each presentation to fit their interests and hopes to truly be engaged in the sessions. They go to at least 2 or 3 of the keynote speeches and take notes, listening and having an inner dialogue with the content. They are at the conference to truly make the most out of the information presented.

This is not to say that the I&I isn’t social! Oh no, quite the contrary. The I&I is intentional in their social time as well—they plan ahead for the conference, making contact with old friends to meet up and with colleagues for suggestions on who to meet with and what to talk about.

I attended NASPA with an I&I, and I was SO impressed by the manifold things that she got out of the conference. Not only did she intentionally select the sessions she attended to support the work she does, she also contacted old advisors to see if any of their former colleagues were attending NASPA, and if she could set up breakfast, lunch, or coffee dates with them. In doing so, she got the opportunity to sit down with a group of senior student affairs officers—Vice Presidents, Deans, etc.—and pick their brains for an hour or two. She made a point to be intentional about her conference experience, and it paid off. All hail the I&I!

3. The Grab Bag

Last but not least, a type of conference-goer I’d like to describe is what I’m calling “The Grab Bag.” The Grab Bag is exactly that—they attend conferences for a variety of purposes and a potpourri of experiences. Absolutely they’re at the conference for professional development! Absolutely they’d like to make time to meet up with old friends and colleagues! Absolutely they want to meet up with new acquaintances! Absolutely they want to explore the city in which the conference is held! For the Grab Bag, a conference is, in and of itself, a variety of meaningful and fun experiences, and the Grab Bag tries to make the most out of all of them.

I know this conference-goer well… it’s me! Especially because NASPA was the first professional conference I attended, I wanted to make sure to experience each part of the conference week to see what I liked best. Now that I’ve experienced all of them, I know that I want to KEEP doing that! I arrived in Philadelphia a few days early to sightsee; I made sure to attend presentations and keynotes that would most encourage my professional development; I set aside time to have one-on-one breakfast and lunch dates with old friends and new. And I am VERY satisfied with my conference experience.

A Word of Caution

No matter your conference type, Butterfly, I&I, Grab Bag, or Other, the true key to attending any conference is to Know. Your. Limits. Personally, I know I’m not a night person. Once 10:00 p.m. rolls around, my rapier wit and sparkling charm start fading fast, and I’ve known this for a while. So I made it a point to do all of my networking and spending time with friends during the day. Sure, it meant that I skipped a few rounds of concurrent sessions, but ultimately I made some great connections with other conference attendees, so it was all worth it. I knew that I couldn’t hang every night with my Social Butterfly friends who were awake ‘til 1 or 2 a.m., so I made a point to save up my energy ‘til the last night of the conference when I knew we’d be out for a while.

Know how easily you get tired, know how you deal with tiredness.

If you’re attending the conference with friends or colleagues, be mindful of their conference personality, their limits, and how they deal with stress.

Most of all, know what you want out of a day—to network, to learn, to sight-see, to have a happy medium of all of them. Prioritize, prioritize, prioritize. Know your conference personality!

This list isn’t comprehensive, by any means, but it’s definitely a good start to what I know will be a LONG life of conference attendance and observations. I think I’m going to make it a point to try to identify sub-species of each of these types of conference-goers, and maybe find some new species along the way!

I Heard it Through the Grapevine: My First Professional Conference

Greetings, all! I realize that this post is a bit delayed (the conference in question having ended two weeks ago), but I have been on a MARATHON catch up mission over the past two weeks, and so (unfortunately) have not had time to blog. (More on the catching-up thing later.)ANYWAY, I would still like to say what I have to say about my first professional conference… so away we go!

Two weeks ago today, I had just completed my first stint at a national profession-specific conference. Within higher education and student affairs, we have two main all-encompassing professional organizations, ACPA and NASPA. I’m a member of NASPA, which stands for the National Association of Student Personnel Administrators, and we just had our big annual conference in the grand city of Philadelphia, PA.

Let me tell you, it was a GREAT experience. As the title suggests, attending NASPA was my first professional conference experience, and I went in with a LOT of expectations and rumors as to what it would be like… many of which differed from what the conference was ACTUALLY like. So this post is going to be dedicated to breaking down my time at NASPA, and what it’s like to be a professional at a professional conference. (Who’s grown up now? ME! Kind of.)

EXPECTATIONS… and ANTICIPATION

Through the grad student grapevine in my program, I had heard many different stories concerning professional conferences—how they run, how to balance your time when attending, how to meet people, etc. My program hosted a small-scale ethics conference in February, and from that experience I had a few expectations as well. Going into NASPA, here’s what I expected:

-I was going to be tired by the end. Really tired.

-It was going to be REALLY easy to meet people; so easy that it would be strange if I left the conference without several new acquaintances.

-I needed to be on my A-game. Professionals would be everywhere… professionals who could eventually give me a job in a year. And they would be watching. So I needed to be dressed for success, on my best behavior, and generally prepped for some major networking opportunities.

-I wasn’t really sure how the session aspect of NASPA would go (you know, the presentations. The actual professional development part of the whole conference thing). I didn’t get a chance to attend a presentation during the conference my program hosted, so I wasn’t sure how many I wanted to attend per day, whether or not I would need to take notes, etc.

Most of all, I wasn’t sure what to expect for a conference in Philadelphia. I had never been to Philly before, and my friends with whom I attended the conference and I had set aside a day and a half to explore the city. I also knew that our hotel was directly across the street from the Convention Center. But how would the flow of the city interact with the conference? Where would we eat lunch and dinner? Would the Philadelphians be okay with 5,000 student affairs professionals invading their space? How would we navigate the city? Would we brave public transportation? And—perhaps most importantly—where could I find a good Philly cheesesteak?!?

THE REALITY, or HOW I LEARNED TO STOP WORRYING AND LOVE NASPA

The actual NASPA experience, as I’ve told you, was GREAT. Not only was I able to meet some amazing fellow student affairs professionals, I also got a great big healthy dose of professional development, which has recently been lacking in my life.

To answer your most burning question, YES, PHILADELPHIA WAS AWESOME. It’s an amazing city, full of history and interesting people and places and funky facts and some of the best food I’ve eaten in a while. As I said, we took a few days to explore the city before NASPA started so that we could concentrate on the conference when it actually began, and I fell in love with the City of Brotherly Love. Here were my very favorite things about Philly:

1. Reading Terminal Market—located right next to the Philadelphia Convention Center, this railroad terminal-turned-market has THE BEST FOOD EVER, all in one convenient location. I could have eaten at Reading for every meal and had different food every time I went. It was inexpensive, too! I can’t sing Reading’s praises enough… especially the fresh-made cinnamon rolls. TO. DIE. FOR.

2. HISTORY! Listen, this could be a post in itself, so I’ll just remind you of the most important thing: Philadelphia is the cradle of American society. The Declaration of Independence and Constitution were both created and signed there. It was the home of many Founding Fathers AND Mothers, including Betsy Ross, one of my favorite historic figures. If you go, you must see: The Liberty Bell. Independence Hall. Basically ALL of Old City. The MASONIC TEMPLE (Freemasons are awesome). City Hall (and get a local to tell you about the Curse of William Penn!). Philly is a city chock-full of history, and I consider the things I experienced there an essential part of my conference experience.

3. The tourist stuff: Now, I know that most city locals HATE tourists, but I make it a point to do the things that touring companies recommend. After all, the sites wouldn’t be famous if there wasn’t something interesting about them, right? So, of course, for Philadelphia the tourist destinations include a lot of the historic things I mentioned above. But it also includes things like:The Love Statue in JFK Plaza. The Avenue of the Americas. The Philadelphia Musem of Art, including THE ROCKY STATUE (the museum is where Rocky runs up the steps. Did I run the steps? You bet your boots). CHEESESTEAK*. Chinatown. And more.

*I did the Geno’s vs. Pat’s challenge. I preferred Geno’s, but the final decision was split. But here’s the kicker—apparently most Philly natives prefer a more hole-in-the-wall cheesesteak place, not these two famous joints. Definitely go to Pat’s and Geno’s for the experience—and make sure you order correctly—but then make sure to take time to listen to the locals’ advice on where to get the best cheesesteak.

All of this leads up to one of the major lessons I learned: Experience the city where the conference is held. For me, being in our host city was half the fun of the conference. Next year, I’ll make sure to set aside time to explore Phoenix (NASPA 2012!), because seeing our host city through the eyes of its inhabitants made my conference experience that much more meaningful.

The second NASPA lesson I learned is one that I hadn’t expected to learn, but that helped me retain my sanity up through the end of the six days when I could barely keep my eyes open long enough to board the plane back to Atlanta: everyone has a Conference Personality, and knowing your CP is the key to getting the most out of your conference experience.

You see, I figured out that those expectations I had going into NASPA were given to me by a wide variety of people—fellow grads and professionals, and a little from my own personal experience—and, as such, didn’t necessarily all apply to me. To use the slang, the most important thing I took away from my conference experience was to do me. (You know, “you just do you, and I’mma do me”? No? Okay. Now you know.) I had to live NASPA my own way, not the way of the people I was with… and I could still get as much (if not more) out of the conference by doing that.

In the end, my conference experience came down to KNOWING MYSELF, which is my first piece of advice for the first-time conference go-er. Know your limitations, know your excitements, and know what you want to get out of the conference. Participate, don’t anticipate. And most importantly, make sure that you are taking part in the whole reason why professional conferences exist: professional development.

Continuing to grow as a professional in my field, in any field, is ESSENTIAL—without taking time to grow, how can I help the students I work with to do the same? And what an opportunity to professionally develop, alongside 5,000 fellow student affairs enthusiasts, all of whom I can learn something new from!

NASPA 2011 was unforgettable, and I can’t wait to experience my next professional conference.