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The Office of Fraternity and Sorority Life
2011 MGC President's Leadership Retreat
My two-year Graduate Assistantship position has been with the Office of Fraternity and Sorority Life at The Pennsylvania State University. As the Graduate Assistant I have served in a variety of roles, but my main charge has been serving in an advisory capacity for various student groups. I currently serve, or have served, as the Advisor for the Multicultural Greek Council (10 chapters), Advisor for the 2011 Greek Week Committee, Co-Advisor to the Order of Omega National Greek Honor Society where I was charged with reviving Penn State’s charter, and Graduate Advisor for Recruitment where I assisted with the 2010 Spring and Fall Panhellenic Recruitment process. My secondary responsibilities have been more programmatic in description; an example would be my task of developing, overseeing, and executing our 2011 Fraternity and Sorority Leadership Conference that saw the transition of about 120 student leaders.
Bid Day 2010 Panhellenic Recruitment
I believe I have been very privileged to have worked in this capacity not only because I have been able to work side by side with some amazing colleagues/mentors and dedicated students, but because of the experiences I have gained as a result of my time at Penn State and with the Fraternity and Sorority community. From the first day of my employment, the staff has provided me with a great deal of autonomy to carry out my responsibilities as I see appropriate and in return I was greeted with expectations, and was addressed as a professional member of our staff. As a result of my Graduate Assistant responsibilities, I have had the opportunity to gain experience working with members of the four governing councils, serve as a representative for our office on various university committees, plan programs on behalf of the staff for our Fraternity and Sorority community, participate in professional search committees, and directly engage in my learning process as I implement theory to practice. I believe the largest contribution to my learning, however, has been the responsibility of not only advising 12 completely different student organizations, but being trusted with, and able to, solely advise an entire governing council. Although smaller in size comparatively to the other three councils, the responsibility of overseeing a quarter of our Fraternity and Sorority community is not an experience that many Graduate Assistants can say they have had! My time has been more than just difficult and rewarding; it has been lessons learned and life experience gained!
2010 MGC Olympics
During my time at Penn State, I have had the opportunity to witness and engage in a myriad of learning experiences both professionally and personally. I have supervised the full expansion process of two new chapters of my Council, and I have also unfortunately also witnessed demise of two chapters mostly due to unresolvable apathy and internal organizational struggles. This gave me the opportunity to experience first-hand student development in my Executive Board members and Chapter Presidents. Their intentionality and thoughtfulness when considering what was best for their council as a whole was outstanding and the growth that occurred for them as a result of having to make such a difficult decision was phenomenal. As a result of this and other experiences I have personally learned that I have a desire to work with students longitudinally, over an extended period of time; I appreciate being able to witness the development and growth that can occur with new experiences while also being able to assist in the facilitation of that growth. I also acknowledge the importance of recognizing students as individuals with varying degrees of development in their own identities, as well as in comparison to other students. As the Graduate Assistant, I was also able to participate in the hiring process for one of our office’s two Assistant Director positions. The addition of this staff member altered my Graduate Assistant responsibilities from year one to year two and although I had to adjust to the changes, I looked forward to the opportunity to gain new experiences. After settling in to my new role, I was unfortunately also witness to the delicate balance of professionalism that is required to succeed in these positions, and after office restructuring, I was then asked to resume my responsibilities from year one while also maintaining those of year two. This experience taught me that I genuinely can and do work well under pressure, especially when the structure and consistency for my students is potentially threatened. I navigated these roles with little stress and overall believe that I have performed to the best of my ability in all areas.
2011 MGC Retreat
Some other pieces of knowledge that I have gained during my assistantship that I will take with me to my next role revolves around learning, both for my students and me. The observation time/learning curve when entering a new position should not be rushed; it takes time to adapt to not only a new institution, new students, new colleagues and supervisors, but also a new institutional culture as a whole. I believe I have really come to appreciate the significance of observation. Learning Outcomes is another piece I am really looking forward to continue implementing! When I began my Graduate program I could not wrap my mind around the concept of learning outcomes but now that seems to be a completely different person. I have learned how much of a resource they can be now have my Executive Board members discussing and developing learning outcomes for almost all of our programs. I have also gained the language to articulate my personal needs in a work environment such as when it relates to supervisory positions both of myself and of others which I was unable to do prior to commencing my Graduate program. And finally, as cliché is it may seem, most of all I have learned that you never stop learning. I truly questioned what could be gained from working with Fraternity and Sorority Life before I began the program; I had been Greek for three years and thought I knew everything I had to know, I was so very, very incorrect! I have learned so much about myself, about students, and about working with others in the last two years that I feel more than prepared to begin a new experience, as well as continue my learning, in my first professional position. I am looking forward to my next opportunity and to what my reflection of that will entail.