Why I Want to Work in Student Affairs

Almost everyone in the world has dreams of what they want to be when they grow up, I am no different. I am going to share briefly about my story and my plan of setting in motion my dream of what I want to be when I grow up.

Since I could remember I always wanted to be a teacher. As a child I would organize my pretend classroom in our garage where I would teach geography and band. My interest in education stayed strong through high school and into college. My first two years of college I majored in music education. Although I enjoyed what I was doing it just did not feel right; because I have had a wide range of interests from science, sociology, and to the arts. I then decided to take a semester off to kind of “soul search” to find out what “I want to be when I grow up”. After my semester off I was not much clearer on what I wanted to do. I did change my major to communication, which I felt was a good general degree that fits into many career paths and it would allow me the flexibility to pursue interests with extra credit classes. Now, I was sitting in the Academic Advisors office with my plan of attack to go back to school when she made the comment, “I wish all students were like you”. Puzzled by her comment, I asked her what she meant. She replied that you are always organized, you have a plan and an idea of what classes you want to take, and it seems you want to succeed in your academic career. I was walking out to my car after my advising appointment and it hit me that I would like to do academic advising/planning. With my wide variety of interests, kind of that jack of all trades, I could help students start, plan, and continue their academic futures.

Now with a solid direction, I finished out my semester and then transferred to a four year college. I was able to focus my communication education by emphasizing my major in interpersonal and organizational communication. Also, I was given the opportunity to do an internship worth ten credit