Dedicated Relating
Support Impactful
In class last week we had to come up with words that describe our professional identity by looking the four quadrants: Individual/Interior, Individual/Exterior, Organization/Interior, Organization/Exterior. These are my words!
Dedicated-Originally when we did the activity in class I had the word "compassionate" but after thinking about the work I do with students, I decided that dedicated was a better word to describe me. I have a strong dedication to working with students and trying to make a difference in their lives.
Relating-I have a strong passion for listening to students' stories. I love building relationships with students to hear how they got to college, why they are here, and what struggles they had to overcome to get here. It's important for me to be transparent and share my story to show them they are not alone and normalize their experience. I want to be able to relate to students to help them overcome anything they might be going through.
Support-When I think about what I expect from supervisors and colleagues the first word that comes to mind for me is support. To me it's important to be in a supportive environment and allows me to grow and also make mistakes and learn from them. This is something that has become very important to me during my time as a paraprofessional. I have learned that I will make mistakes and I need to be in an environment that will support me through my learning process of my mistakes.
Impactful-When I was trying to come up with a word to explain what type of organization I wanted to work for, the only thing I could think of was small private or community college, I couldn't think of something to represent what the organization does. Then one of my classmates suggested "impactful" and instantly I knew that was exactly what I wanted. I want to be somewhere that makes an impact on the lives of students. This word impactful really struck me because I realized that in order for the organization to be impactful, I need to take initiative an make an impact as well. I need to make an impact on the students and on the organization itself. Am I doing that right now?
This is something I'm really struggling with because I don't know if I'm really making an impact with the work I'm doing. Most of the students I work with are struggling academically, so I know I'm helping them come with a success plan to ensure their academic success. Am I making an impact though? How do I know if I'm making an impact? Then I think about my organization (Center for Student Success) and I wonder if I'm making an impact there. Something that has really stuck with me is hearing that every GA in that office has implemented some kind of change to make the work that comes out of our office better. Basically, every GA has had an impact on the organization and I really started to worry. How can I make that same impact when I'm only there for a year and every other GA has had two years? Have I already made an impact and I'm just not aware of it?
This made me think of the meeting the MUSE group had last month about intentions and I remember we were asked to write our Professional intentions and I just pulled out my note card and this is what I wrote:
"My intention is to do what other GAs have done in two years time in one year.
I WANT TO MAKE AN IMPACT!"
This is clearly something I have had on my mind for some time and it continues to come up for me. I know I won't know until my time is done in Center for Student Success what kind of impact I'll have, but I will continue to reflect on it as the year continues.
For now, I'm happy knowing that I have a good idea what my professional identity is:
I am a dedicated person who loves relating to students and I want to be a part of an organization that provides support and is IMPACTFUL!
