Fall Practicum 

Philosophy of Work

As a student affairs practitioner, my approach to work stems from some of my core characteristics, which is a balance between realism and optimism. My personal values of self-confidence, balance, and intentionality help me go about life with a pragmatic mindset. I acknowledge the intricate challenges in higher education, however I remain optimistic on our ability as practitioners to cultivate good change and development. My values give me direction for how I engage with students, colleagues, and institutional goals. 

I pride myself on being a grounded person who approaches both opportunities and challenges with a realistic perspective. Because of this, I find it comes more naturally to me to find solutions rather than remaining stuck on the problem. What I mean by that is, yes sometimes unexpected and unfortunate events do occur, however I do not allow the problem to cloud my entire day. I acknowledge the issue and proceed to search for solutions with an uninhibited mindset. This makes problem-solving a strong-suit for me, something which higher education is in need of right now. 

On top of that, I set and maintain firm workplace boundaries, respecting my own time and well-being. For me, this means not checking emails after hours and mainly focusing my energy on what is expected of me from the job description. By maintaining healthy workplace boundaries, I not only protect my mental well-being, but I am also able to bring energy to the workplace due to not being burnt out. In turn, I am demonstrating to students the importance of self-care and work-life balance. In my opinion, these are skills people should learn as students because this could promote academic success as well. 

Lastly, sustainability and genuine care for the longevity of our planet’s health is paramount to me both personally and professionally. As someone who believes in the importance of sustainable development, I go out of my way to integrate sustainable practices into my work. I try my best to plan environmentally friendly campus events, promoting these practices to students and colleagues. This commitment is a reflection on my realistic-optimism. I am fully aware of the direction our planet is heading in, but I am optimistic that universities have a role to play in influencing the communities they are situated in. 

Ultimately, my work is driven by a desire to create a supportive, inclusive, and sustainable environment where students feel empowered to succeed. My approach as a student affairs practitioner most closely aligns with holistic growth and Chickering’s vectors of development (Chickering & Reisser, 1993). I like to focus on empowering students to understand both themselves and the world around them. I try to push students to make informed decisions and take responsibility for their learning and growth. This is something my father really pushed for when I was a kid, and I found his approach to be overall beneficial to my personal development. I strive for a community that values growth, mental well-being, and collective good. 

Personal Strengths and Areas for Growth

My fall practice with the Office of Sustainability Practices (OSP) aligned very well with my pre-existing personal strengths, which is project management, event planning, and, of course, environmentalism. This is not the first environmental related internship I have done, the first was actually with the West Michigan Environmental Action Council (WEMAC). Between the two experiences, I would say I was challenged more at WEMAC because I had more responsibilities and projects to oversee. Not to say I was not challenged at OSP, but the workload was much more lenient and collaborative. Overall, I would say I excel at independent work because I prefer to be accountable for my own projects. However, I do work well in collaborative spaces but I find it incredibly frustrating when I find myself doing the bulk of the work. 

Areas of growth for me would probably be developing patience for others around me. Whether it is when I am working with other people or interacting with sustainability learners, patience is something I could work on. When I am referring to patience, I am talking about the frustration I feel when I am having to explain instructions multiple times. For example, when working the Zero-Waste Football games at Grand Valley, the goal was to have as minimal waste as possible generated at our football games. Every station would have three bins: recycling, composting, and garbage. We would have volunteers standing at every station to ensure optimal waste sorting when attendees are throwing away their waste. Additionally, every volunteer had a “cheat-sheet” on the backside of their volunteer badges for what items typically being thrown away in the stadium goes into which bin. When walking around to check in on our Zero-Waste volunteers, I would get frustrated when their bins were not sorted properly. I was frustrated with both the volunteers and game attendees, because not only did the volunteers have a cheat-sheet, but the front of the bins did as well for the attendees. And it was obvious that they did not care about the impact we were trying to make on not just Grand Valley’s campus, but on the environment as well.

Learning/Working Preferences

When it comes to learning environments, I quite honestly prefer a lecture style or how-to videos. I am someone who trails off with my thoughts easily, but if I have a simple game up on my laptop, such as mahjong or solitaire, I can almost treat class like a podcast. I think this works for me because when I have a simple or mindless game in front of me, it keeps me from trailing off with my thoughts and it makes it easier for me to listen to what is going on around me. Quite often I have had professors “bust” me for playing games in class and they request that I regurgitate everything they just said. To their surprise, I usually am able to. Additionally, for more intricate subject matter, I enjoy a good-ole how-to video. Something that can break down the topic and explain it piece-by-piece. 

As for workplace environments, I enjoy a healthy balance of efficiency and fun. I take deadlines seriously because I grew up in a punctual household. My dad always said you’re late if you’re not 10 minutes early, and that mantra has always stuck with me. If I translate to workplace deadlines, I prefer to have things done a day or two before the deadline. I am not a procrastinator in the workplace because those people employ and pay me. Additionally, I find it important to bond and have a bit of fun with the people you work with. When I am not at home or in class, I am probably at work and I want to feel comfortable with the people I work with. 

Critique of Practicum Site

Though I had an overall positive experience with the Office of Sustainability Practices, everyone was very friendly and welcoming of new ideas, however I do wish there was more structure to the internship. I am not too sure how many interns the OSP has had in the past, and there were some things for me to contribute to this office, I also feel they would have functioned completely fine without me as well. There were some weeks where I struggled to get any hours at all with the OSP. Yes, the Zero-Waste Football games were good for getting hours and hands-on experience, but the weeks we did not have a home game I was not really being utilized by the OSP. For future interns they may have, I would recommend they come up with a more structured plan to fulfill their time and experience with them. 

Supervision Styles

I have had the privilege of working with a supervisor that has an incredibly flexible leadership style and is always willing to assist with new ideas. Despite their stark differences in leadership styles, my internship supervisor, Yumi, and my graduate assistant supervisor, Bri, are both excellent in their own ways. Yumi is both flexible and supportive and grants me more autonomy in projects, assuring to support my independent work for the OSP. But I must add, my graduate assistantship has more structure and is focused on task assignments and deadlines. Not to say Bri does not give me autonomy to be creative with my projects, but she does check in on my progress more than my internship supervisor did. Bri holds me more accountable and gives me more responsibility, which I genuinely enjoy. This should be expected from a 20 hour per week graduate assistantship over a 5 hour per week internship though. Overall, I do prefer a structured, supportive, and task oriented supervisory style such as Bri. 

ACPA/NASPA Competencies

The three ACPA/NASPA goals I set for myself at the beginning of this practicum experience were (1) assessment, evaluation, and research, (2) personal and ethical foundations, and (3) student learning and development. Of those three, I feel I only truly improved upon personal and ethical foundations, and student learning and development. Throughout my internship, I never really had any opportunities to perform any assessments, evaluations, or research. I think I put that in there at the beginning of my internship because I thought maybe I would be a part of the Zero-Waste football game assessments, but that was mainly my supervisor and facility services. 

As for personal and ethical foundations, I feel this internship further solidified per-existing personal and ethical foundations I hold myself to. Recycling, composting, and buying items that are earth-friendly were already on my agenda, but now I find myself being even stricter when it comes to these daily tasks. Lastly, for student learning and development, I feel I slightly improved up as well through the Zero-Waste Football games and movie night that I coordinated and oversaw. At the Zero-Waste games, we had the volunteers that we would train and check-in on. We tend to have the same group of people volunteering and at the beginning of the season, not to sugar coat it, but they were not very good at sorting the waste. But as the season progressed, so did their knowledge on what items belonged in what bin. As for the movie night, I showed a David Attenborough documentary, and at the end of it I had put together an interactive reflection for the students to do as an option. To my surprise, everyone participated in the reflection and gave meaningful feedback about what they had learned. 

Shaping Professional Identity

Overall, I chose to do my internship in the Office of Sustainability Practices because aside from working in the Office of Student Life, this is the only other office I could see myself working professionally in for the foreseeable future. I am passionate about sustainability and I try my best to incorporate it into every aspect of my life, both personally and professionally. It was cool and exciting to work with Yumi and see what she does for work, because she basically has my dream job. I am hopeful to end up in a position such as direction of sustainability practices at a university.