I had a free day on Sunday and Ryan came down to spend the day with me. I was so exhausted from recruiting that I didn't want to do much. I went to the Jesuit Association of Student Personnel Administrators (JASPA) morning mass and returned to the hotel room where we lazed around for a while. While walking back from the mass I saw a massive helicopter transporting sewer pipes from the edge of the river to the top of the Hyatt building. I didn't realize Ryan snapped pictures of it from my room on the 25th floor until I loaded my camera onto my laptop for this post.
This morning Dr. Condoleezza Rice served as our morning keynote and she rocked the house! I was unsure what to expect because of her politics, but she gave a thoughtful and engaging speech that got right to the heart of our profession. Here are a few things she suggested or asked us to consider:
- How are we supporting and encouraging students in their crisis of confidence that inevitably comes with entering the college environment?
- Encourage our students to do something hard! Growth comes through challenge. We should not lower our standards, but encourage them to do things that are really, truly difficult and support them in achieving these goals. Working toward success in the academic arena will show them they can work hard and succeed at challenges out in the "real world".
- Encourage our students to "see the other side" and to develop discourse with people who are different from themselves, especially people who do not look like them, think like them or agree with them. Encourage students to study abroad, live/work in another country, or to speak another language. She noted specifically that we are way too monolingual.
- Teach our students to eschew a culture of entitlement and grievance. We should be thankful for the blessings we do have and cease comparing ourselves with others. We can only be the best we can be for us, not our parents or because we're comparing ourselves with someone else.
- We need to have high expectations for public K-12 education.
- Finally, we should exceed a sense of optimism and encourage our students to do the same. In this process we should honor our legacies: honor those who came before us and made us who we are today.
Overall, it was a humorous and inspiring speech. It was helpful that she started as an academic and her father was a college administrator. She knew our language and knew what to say. I was thankful to have the opportunity to hear such a major political figure speak.
The sessions I attended invigorated my professional interests and got me feeling excited in a way I haven't experienced for a while. They got me thinking about what I could do in a new role and why I got into this line of work in the first place. Here's what I attended:
- Public Policy Issues - Impact on the Student Affairs Practitioner
- Enhancing the Legacy of Civic Engagement
- Practioner Advocacy to Improve Undocumented Student Success
- Balancing Your Legacy: Motherhood and Student Affairs
I know, sounds rousing (wink). It was all fine and dandy until I hit the presentation about motherhood. This is an issue I've been thinking a lot about lately, specifically, is it really possible to maintain a career in Student Affairs while raising a family?
I was expecting to go and receive some answers, but I left feeling depleted. There are clearly many Student Affairs women (and men, but especially women) out there sacrificing their family lives and living in very unbalanced ways for the sake of their careers. I think it would have been an unpopular view point in that group, but I'm not sure true balance is possible or that I'm willing to make these type of sacrifices myself. I value my career and I want a family - I don't know what I'm going to do about that when the time comes.
Thankfully, I did meet one very bright, middle-aged woman in the crowd who had a prestigious and powerful job, but she left for a more balanced life. She said it was the best choice she ever made, that she wouldn't change anything from the beginning of her career or more recently since she's made those changes. She gave the group this piece of advice, "remember, you don't have to be superwoman".
After that session, I ran into the Associate Director for Residence Life at Northern Arizona University, Dr. Cindy Anderson. She invited me to sit down with her for a while and catch up. We talked about what I've been doing, my job search, marriage, and our house offer. She caught me up on all of the personnel changes and current happenings at NAU. She was always a very friendly and kind person, but I never had the chance to sit down with her one-to-one when I was a grad student. I very much appreciated this time together - she treated me as a professional and reminded me of all things positive about my experience at NAU.
A view from my room. Chicago skyline at night including the river and bottom of the new Trump tower:
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