One of the best things I think you can do as an aspiring Student Affairs (SA) professional is to find a unique passion outside of "work" but not necessarily outside of your college or university. Of course, take my suggestions with a grain of salt as this comes solely from four years of an undergraduate experience and a year and a half of graduate school. However, in this five and half year time span I have been able to hold executive board positions with two separate organizations, worked in numerous areas within the university setting as an undergraduate student worker and later as a graduate assistant (GA) and intern.
There are two separate passions I've taken on as I've studied and learned more about higher education in this country. One such interest is sustainability and green living, especially within colleges. I can't explain it, I really can't. To be honest, the inspiration for this very entry came from earlier today when I was standing out on the patio of my parent's third floor apartment (visiting over the holidays) and looked out into the wooded area immediately outside of their apartment. The closest tree has to be less than five feet away! Regardless, I heard some rustling in the trees and took a look out there to see a couple squirrels chasing each other crazily from tree to tree, jumping from branch to branch with reckless abandon. I watched these animals participate in something that's likely very normal in their lives without any clue that I was watching them. I love watching "nature" unfold in front of my eyes, especially when I'm unnoticed. Let me stop here and prevent myself from over-romanticizing what I was looking at today but it really helps illustrate why I'm so into sustainability.
I've carried a phrase with me for some time now, "leave the world in a better place than when you got in it". For me, embracing sustainability is one way for me to do that. Sustainability encompasses many things such as recycling, reducing energy consumption, reducing waste, and educating others. Those are only a few things I think about in regards to sustainability. I hate seeing trash along the side of the road, especially when I see bottles, cans, cardboard boxes, etc. What irks me the most when I see trash like this is that those pieces of "trash" are all recyclable! I don't understand how people can discard trash out of the vehicle's window with no care as to how it affects the environment. It would be crazy for someone to walk into your house and toss trash on your living room floor and then run away, wouldn't it? So why go and do that to the animals we share this planet with? You didn't think you were getting yourself into one of "these type of posts" when you began reading, did ya!
Anyway, my current campus is far from the most sustainable campus in the country, let alone the Gulf Coast region. One of my goals has been to improve the university's status in regards to sustainability. This includes laying the foundation for more recycling on campus, breaking ground on the university's first community garden, and just spreading awareness on the millions of ways one can be more sustainable in their daily lives. It's not all about picking up trash and recyclables outside on the side of the road but I think fulfilling one's own definition of sustainability inherently comes with an interest in preserving the environment. It's an uphill task but perhaps I'll talk more about that in a future entry.
My second passion is empowering women in higher education. I think the term feminist is outdated and stigmatized so I don't call myself a feminist. Instead, more recently a United Nations/Emma Watson-led initiative has made the phrase "he for she" trendy so I'll roll with that. I've studied the history of higher education and learned that higher education has been far from inclusive to anyone who wasn't a white male for much of it's history. Times have since changed of course and higher education has continually become more accessible to people of different genders and ethnicities, partially thanks to several acts that gave incentives (Morrill Land Acts, for example) for more open admission policies or required them (Title IX).
Still, while access has improved, equality still has a ways to go. I care about many women in my life and I like to view every woman I encounter daily as someone else's mother, sister, daughter, wife, girlfriend, etc. I want to see women everywhere treated the same way I would treat a woman in my life. Sadly this is not the case everywhere. However, I find that the progressive nature and tone of many higher education institutions does create an environment that is quite welcome to and celebrates differences in gender. But regardless, as women have been a mistreated portion of the population within higher education for so long I still feel that advocacy is needed. Empowering young female leaders is imperative to the progression of equality in the classroom and workplace if you ask me so I'll gladly lend a hand.
So that's me. As a young SA professional I hope to accomplish two things outside of my normal duties: 1) Make my campus more sustainable and 2) Help create a higher education landscape that is more welcoming to women as students, leaders, educators, and administrators. These pursuits "keep me sane", so to speak, outside of the daily comings and goings of life in SA. Hope you enjoyed the post!
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