Personal Narrative: An Interview With A College Admissions Counselor
Even through I do not want to be an admissions counselor I do want to help people in the way Timber has and does so this is the reason I interviewed him twice. Admissions counselors have to be very well educated about the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh campus in all aspects: the colleges, majors, student-to-teacher ratio, campus resources, financial aid, and tuition and fees, and much more. Not only must admissions counselors know about the schools that they are representing, but they also must know a little about the schools that they may be visiting for a college fair, or schools that might be coming to visit the campus. High school students and even sometimes middle 8th grade students have questions about the campus, and admissions counselors must be prepared to present that information to those students. But above all, they need to offer an environment that welcomes all and produces more than just initial numbers, maintaining the students in every aspect of attending college, from academics to personal life, emphasizing the counselor aspect of administration counselor. UWO Admissions Counselor Terrence “Timber” Smith goes above and beyond in his job duties to create something like magic between “these four walls.” His influence and drive for an individual to reach for the skies and pull down a
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future. Timber really is UWO’s undercover Superman.
What particular challenges face African-American college students? These problems will be addressed on three different scales, the national scale, the state scale, and the local scale. Throughout discussion of the scales, connections will be made to what Timber Smith offers students and why it’s important in addressing this question.
At a campus with significant underrepresentation of African-Americans, even lower than to the low representation state-wide of 6.6%, places like Timber’s office make students stay at an institution that does not represent equally the state level of African-Americans. In a 10’x10’ office, the percent of African-American population almost switches from 87.8% African-Americans and 6.6% white, providing a comfortable space to find the support students need, making them feel like the Other or outsider.
In a long list of duties, it’s important to highlight the connection between recruitment and retention. Timber navigates between these importantly related roles, and he does that job well. Timber creates an environment that allows students to not only come to a University, but to stay as well. He often says, “Holding students is just as important as getting students.” This statement relates to his first year in his job. He tells how he recruited African-American students that were not ready and, in his words, “hungry,” and all African-American students except one didn’t make it to graduation. This experience has pushed him to not only look at the student on paper, but to also follow up with calls and personal visits to the potential student Timber really gets to know the students he’s recruiting, and these African-American students that Timber deems “hungry” come to the University. Because of the support Timber provides, the students who come hungry get their fill.
Timber’s office also stresses community engagement. Timber himself always has espoused the philosophy that students help students the best. He strongly encourages connections between students and their peers, but trying to pair African-American students with each other to create a support network throughout school. He also believes strongly in giving African-American students roles where individuals can voice their own opinion and show their “hunger” for success. The many roles that individuals can obtain through Timber go from long-term, such as internships, peer counselors, and the ever-so popular office visitor, to more the short-term roles, such as student panels, assisting on school visits, volunteering, and going to school career fairs.
I believe this is another way for Timber to help retain African-American students at UWO, regardless how miniscule. This seems what he is doing is making African-American students feel involved, and part of the community and this for semester or 10 minutes. It makes someone, especially an African-American student, feel like they count, and it brings importance to the feelings that African Americans feel their voice counts just as much as their skin does in the eyes and ears of the UWO community.
Timber also deals with non-academic issues, such as sexual assaults, homelessness, community service—anything from hours needed to satisfy the court ruling to pointing individual African American students in the right way for legal help. One of the most impressive things I’ve ever seen in Timber’s office is his ability to engage students’ fear and how he can ease it on any level and help get them through almost any situation and his continual effort to check up on the progress, once the student is helped. His ability to do this is truly saint-like.
Something else that always impressed me about Timber is he values the opinions of the people surrounding him, asking for “fresh eyes,” on any and every aspect of his job. I remember constantly sitting down with him after one-on-one meetings with potential students and asked me to go through how he thinks I believe the meeting went giving advice and tips and even asked me what would I do. I have observed that Timber finds a way to always help and guide students, making a system that allows him to reach these students, which will continue to improve recruitment and retention of African-Americans.
Improvement and support are needed for Timber to be able to continue to support students in his role as liaison. For example, the physical structure of Timber’s office needs to continue to promote academic success: the majority of the time, Timber’s office is used for homework and other academic needs, so more than just one desktop is needed in the space because the stress on academics in the space is important.
I also feel that if any effort is to be done about diversity training on this campus, Timber needs to be involved in it because he is the closest to any African American student that I’ve seen thus far.
For this reason alone, he knows the African American students and can advocate for where change is and is not necessary. Lastly, I would love to be able to shadow Timber for my last semester in college and help design a program and possibly a space for African-American students to supplement Timber’s environment a “Timber study hall” that allows a stress-free feeling to pull academic success together with a feeling of being at home at UWO, just like in Timber’s
Office.
future. Timber really is UWO’s undercover Superman.
What particular challenges face African-American college students? These problems will be addressed on three different scales, the national scale, the state scale, and the local scale. Throughout discussion of the scales, connections will be made to what Timber Smith offers students and why it’s important in addressing this question.
At a campus with significant underrepresentation of African-Americans, even lower than to the low representation state-wide of 6.6%, places like Timber’s office make students stay at an institution that does not represent equally the state level of African-Americans. In a 10’x10’ office, the percent of African-American population almost switches from 87.8% African-Americans and 6.6% white, providing a comfortable space to find the support students need, making them feel like the Other or outsider.
In a long list of duties, it’s important to highlight the connection between recruitment and retention. Timber navigates between these importantly related roles, and he does that job well. Timber creates an environment that allows students to not only come to a University, but to stay as well. He often says, “Holding students is just as important as getting students.” This statement relates to his first year in his job. He tells how he recruited African-American students that were not ready and, in his words, “hungry,” and all African-American students except one didn’t make it to graduation. This experience has pushed him to not only look at the student on paper, but to also follow up with calls and personal visits to the potential student Timber really gets to know the students he’s recruiting, and these African-American students that Timber deems “hungry” come to the University. Because of the support Timber provides, the students who come hungry get their fill.
Timber’s office also stresses community engagement. Timber himself always has espoused the philosophy that students help students the best. He strongly encourages connections between students and their peers, but trying to pair African-American students with each other to create a support network throughout school. He also believes strongly in giving African-American students roles where individuals can voice their own opinion and show their “hunger” for success. The many roles that individuals can obtain through Timber go from long-term, such as internships, peer counselors, and the ever-so popular office visitor, to more the short-term roles, such as student panels, assisting on school visits, volunteering, and going to school career fairs.
I believe this is another way for Timber to help retain African-American students at UWO, regardless how miniscule. This seems what he is doing is making African-American students feel involved, and part of the community and this for semester or 10 minutes. It makes someone, especially an African-American student, feel like they count, and it brings importance to the feelings that African Americans feel their voice counts just as much as their skin does in the eyes and ears of the UWO community.
Timber also deals with non-academic issues, such as sexual assaults, homelessness, community service—anything from hours needed to satisfy the court ruling to pointing individual African American students in the right way for legal help. One of the most impressive things I’ve ever seen in Timber’s office is his ability to engage students’ fear and how he can ease it on any level and help get them through almost any situation and his continual effort to check up on the progress, once the student is helped. His ability to do this is truly saint-like.
Something else that always impressed me about Timber is he values the opinions of the people surrounding him, asking for “fresh eyes,” on any and every aspect of his job. I remember constantly sitting down with him after one-on-one meetings with potential students and asked me to go through how he thinks I believe the meeting went giving advice and tips and even asked me what would I do. I have observed that Timber finds a way to always help and guide students, making a system that allows him to reach these students, which will continue to improve recruitment and retention of African-Americans.
Improvement and support are needed for Timber to be able to continue to support students in his role as liaison. For example, the physical structure of Timber’s office needs to continue to promote academic success: the majority of the time, Timber’s office is used for homework and other academic needs, so more than just one desktop is needed in the space because the stress on academics in the space is important.
I also feel that if any effort is to be done about diversity training on this campus, Timber needs to be involved in it because he is the closest to any African American student that I’ve seen thus far.
For this reason alone, he knows the African American students and can advocate for where change is and is not necessary. Lastly, I would love to be able to shadow Timber for my last semester in college and help design a program and possibly a space for African-American students to supplement Timber’s environment a “Timber study hall” that allows a stress-free feeling to pull academic success together with a feeling of being at home at UWO, just like in Timber’s
Office.