Time flies.

Whoa nelly. It's almost October. I know most of my blog posts revolve around the "OMG I can't believe it's..." & this time, it's not too different. I am so happy with where I am in life, but it's hard for me to grasp that just a year ago I was in such a different place & in less than a year, I'll undergo even more changes. It's true, I'm in my second year of grad school and in May, I'll have my master's degree and will (hopefully) have a job secured for the 2013-2014 school year. With all of these changes, constant go-go-go & the potentially overwhelming expectations, I can still say I'm happy with life. I enjoy living in Cleveland, I'm so thankful for my assistantship & internship, I have good, supportive people in my life & I am comfortable (mostly) with my goals for the future. As comes with the turf, I am nervous about where life will take me but I will continue under the mantra "Everything happens for a reason." Outside of the "time flies" mentality, even after a year+, I still strive for positive thoughts. Sometimes people, situations, events & even traffic try & bring me down I will continue to do my best to put that aside. I will never say that it's easy & it's a conscious decision I have to make everyday, but it's a decision that betters me in the end. Sometimes, it is so easy to wallow in self-pity but I know that in the end, if I turn off the wallowing & turn on the encouraging thoughts, I will be in a much better state. Enough of that rambling! I hope to have more exciting thoughts, events, ideas here soon & maybe I'll actually blog about them :)Soon, I do want to get feedback on my resume & job search process so I know I have to be prepared for that! Take it easy, all :) E

And just like that...

The spring semester has started once again. It was really strange to go to class on a Monday night and get back in the swing of things. I'm nervous about this upcoming semester's schedule as I have more responsibility with work and internships-- but I know that it will all work out :)

A quick rundown:
Still at CIA loving Student Life & Housing!
Starting at Case Western Reserve University (tomorrow!) at my internship in the Career Center
Taking 3 classes at the BEAU-tiful Kent State

I'm looking forward to my Career Development and Guidance course and employing that knowledge at my internship. Not quite as excited about Law & Higher Education, but I'm sure I'll manage!

I know this semester will go very quickly as I'm pretty sure there is something planned either at work, school or social life every week. Even though I know sometime in the next 15 weeks I'll probably want to pull out my hair, I feel so blessed to be at this point in life that I have a job, school and people I love all around me. You may think it sounds sappy, but I believe positivity and recognition of blessings goes a loooooong way in being motivated and productive.

Also, even though there may not be many (or any) who read this blog, I will say to you (or myself) that it helps to write out goals, plans and reflect on blessings and the good pieces that fit into life.

Maybe one day I'll take blogging more seriously, but for now it serves as a reminder that I feel as if I'm in a good place now and am looking forward to what the future holds!

Emily

Home Stretch

As is a common sentiment, I can't believe the fall semester is wrapping up as we speak. Two weeks of a class, a week of finals and POOF, I'm done. I will be a quarter of the way to my master's degree.

In other news, I'm excited to start planning activities and events for next semester! Already looking forward to bowling at Corner Alley in downtown Cleveland & hopefully taking the students to the brand new Cleveland Aquarium! Also hoping to squeeze in a trip to see the Cleveland Indians & maybe even go ice skating? There are so many fun & exciting things to do in Cleveland that it can be difficult to pinpoint just 2-3 activities for students to do.

Anyone have any other programming ideas for students? Especially in the Cleveland area? I want to try and get students engaged and connected with the community around them!

In other news, I'm starting to get myself prepared for the holiday break & the start of spring semester. In January, I'll be back at CIA plus working as an intern in the Career Center at Case Western and taking classes in Kent! It looks like it's going to be a busy but rewarding semester. What would I do if I wasn't busy? Answer: nothing!!

Time to finish up some work for the day! Tonight, I'm working with students to make holiday cards for the Veterans Affairs Medical Center here in Cleveland!

Emily

Utilizing Social Media in Student Affairs

Hello all!

For those of you that attended the OCPA Careers in Student Affairs Conference Saturday, November 5 at Denison University-- first, thank you for attending! Second, hope you were one that attended my session: Utilizing Social Media in Student Affairs. As promised, I am posting the slides from my presentation! Hopefully you will find these helpful in the future and please feel free to reference back to them whenever you need. If you have any other questions about the topic, my presentation, etc., please let me know! I would love to continue the discussion about social media!

Thanks!
E

Conferences

I can't believe it's the end of week 10! I'm all into numbers, so I'm 2/3 of the way through the semester, which is 1/2 of my first year of grad school & 1/4 of my grad program! ;)

The world that I'm starting to be exposed to is the world of CONFERENCES. I'll be attending my first conference on Saturday AND presenting. I was very cautious at first, presenting at my very first conference, but if not now, when?! Plus I'm presenting on something I love, social media, so I will have no problem filling my 45-minute time slot!

After OCPA Careers in Student Affairs (this Saturday), I'll be moving to new proposals for NEOHO & OCPA. Both are in January and of course both proposals are due next week. Once again though, I'm submitting proposals on subjects I'm passionate about which makes the process much better.

Since Student Affairs is my life, I'll also mention my first internship fair is tomorrow and I'm looking forward to learning about new opportunities. I'm hoping I can find a practicum within career services, enrollment management, or advising but in general, not so particular. I would love any experience, honestly, so I'm not feeling overly picky. I'm also looking for something away from KSU. As much as I love my alma mater, I know I need a new context outside of a comprehensive research university.

Those are my rantings for the night. I'm hoping to post my OCPA presentation after Saturday, so if you're interested in student affairs and/or social media, check back :)

Emily

Week 9?!!?

I decided to be a little productive during my break in class and post a short blog.

Strangely, I liked learning about Student Development Theory. Usually I'm adverse to theory, but the practicality of student development makes everything seem a lot easier to understand. There may be a lot of them, but I can see the connections in my workplace very easily. That's how I know I'm off to a good start in the field of higher education.

I definitely thought I had more time, but alas class is back. I'll do my best to add more later, but just know student affairs consumes my life, my thoughts and my actions :)

E

Back at it

It's October. I blogged last in January. Not a good sign.

Quick update:
Graduated from Kent State with my bachelor of arts in communication studies.
Started my graduate program (also at KSU) in Higher Education Administration & Student Personnel. With this, I have an assistantship at the Cleveland Institute of Art working in Student Life & Housing with Orientation & Retention programs for first-year students. With this new job, I now live in Cleveland & commute to Kent for two days of class every week.

My life is the same yet pretty different (if that's possible?). My focus is very much on higher education and student affairs and I'm doing as much as possible to understand the field and the community I'm joining now. The positive factor to note is that the student affairs community is INCREDIBLY welcoming and supportive. From my professors to my supervisors to the other blogs, I have been able to have all of my questions answered and I feel very comfortable. This is definitely the right environment for me.

I would say I'm in a good place right now and I don't have much to bring me down! The next step for me is to register for classes for the spring and find an internship at another institution in another higher education field. I really enjoy admissions, advising, study abroad and any field that I can use my knowledge to assist students and I would really like to be at a small, private liberal arts college. I probably won't figure this out for a couple weeks, but I'm anxious to find this out.

In all, I'm glad I decided to get back in the blog game. Let's hope I can take 15 minutes at least once a week to keep up blogging. Some topics that I want to touch on in the future include:
*Graduate school life
*My wonderfully amazing assistantship
*What comes after graduation
*Learning experiences
*Grad school classes
*Connecting with SA professionals
*Using social media to connect and research

Now to finish my lunch break & get back to work!

E