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Growing My Own Way

September 18, 2008

In my three years at Rollins, the only time I was ever away from the campus for more than a month was when I studied abroad in Sydney. Living locally has always been an advantage. My first summer, I worked in the office of the Dean of the Faculty. I learned how grades were handled, how tenure worked, as well as getting to know the future provost. This summer I am working at the Office of Student Involvement and Leadership (OSIL), and overall I have worked for six separate offices on campus.

My first job has also been my longest lived; I’ve worked at the office of Modern Languages for three years as a work study and have become friends with some of the great faculty there. I was next hired as a Resident Assistant in McKean Hall, an all-first year residence hall. Being an RA helped me define a lot of leadership qualities within myself that would otherwise have remained amorphous.

I have also worked for the Admissions Department off and on and for the office of Public Relations & Communications as a 2007-2008 R-Journalist. All of this experience working on campus has given me many contacts for my job this year.

OSIL hired me at the beginning of the summer to set up student programming for the fall. In previous years, students returning from summer break were easily caught up with all the excitement of moving in and starting new classes and therefore did not begin holding club meetings or planning events until a month into the school year. This left a gap in students’ Rollins experience that OSIL is eager to see remedied. When I was given the job, this was all the instruction I was given. In essence, I was allowed to create my own job. This is very different than any of the other jobs I’ve ever had.

Frankly, it’s both scary and exciting. I’ve always had jobs that amounted to being handed a stack of work to do, finishing that stack, and receiving a new stack to repeat the process. I asked one of my supervisors if there were any benchmarks my work would be judged against; “Just the ones you set for yourself,” she replied. In that respect, the job has really helped me grow and utilize new skills.

I have had to set my own goals and work on my own schedule. It has also brought all of my knowledge of the campus to good use. My working energy is now going towards coordinating events with a half dozen offices on campus from Dining Services to Campus Security. I am also coordinating an event with the City of Winter Park.

My summer has been all about growth and change. I’m developing skills that will serve me well when I leave in the spring and building relationships that will help me until then and perhaps beyond.

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