I am joining a panel of student affairs folks for a webinar titled Facebook for Orientation today. Each of us will share a little about how we utilize the Facebook network for linking with our new students at enrollment and beyond. The webinar is sponsored by the very cool people at SwiftKick, creators of RedRover and founders of the Student Affairs Blog. It will be at 12 noon CST. Join us to share in the discussion!
Author Archives: debrasanborn
Telephone Game
My first-year students have been busy requesting recommendations for summer jobs and internships and seeking out resume and interview advice. Seeking new job search resources to share with my students, I began following former corporate HR exec Kerry Sandberg Scott on Twitter and at her blog. She shares this advice on telephone interviews.
- Find out how long the interview should take.
- Make sure it’s quiet.
- Use a real phone.
- Disable call waiting.
- Have a copy of your resume in front of you.
- Change your clothes (my favorite tip!)
- Don’t smoke.
- Pace yourself.
- Prepare some questions of your own.
- Relax.
You can read more on these and other great tips for your own job search at Clue Wagon.
Tattoo You?
Feeling honored that I was on the campus must-see list for a student who picked up some new ink on spring break.
Introduce a little anarchy. Upset the established order, and everything becomes chaos. I’m an agent of chaos.
~ The Joker, The Dark Knight
Transcending feelings
David Letterman isn’t generally someone I look to for parenting advice, but last night in his discussion with guest, Julia Roberts, the joy and love that he feels for his son and for parenthood really came through.
Here’s the other thing, if you want to get spiritual about it, why doesn’t that feeling, that everyone on the planet has, why doesn’t that transcend to keep us from killing one another?
Yeah. Why is that?
This video includes the discussion within the first 1:20.
Geography 101
My fourth grade daughter is studying regions of the United States in school. The exams for each unit include a map where she identifies the states of each region on a map. Her spelling word list for the week always include the states and their capital cities. It is fun to study these with her as I have a geeky knack for naming state capitals and love U.S. geography.
Contrast this with my experience yesterday at an airline check-in counter, when I was ironically departing the Annual National Student Exchange (NSE) Conference. My conversation with the airline employee checking my bag, (to be fair, this person appeared and sounded to be of U.S. citizenry, although I could be mistaken), went something like this.
You’re flying to Dezz Moin-ezz today? I’ll need to see your passport.Yes, Des Moines. I have my driver’s license.You need to show a passport for international flights.I’m going to Des Moines. Des Moines, Iowa.Hmmpf.
Has your school considered the benefits of membership in NSE?
Take your Vitamin C’s
Today was the 10th Annual Iowa State Conference on Race and Ethnicity (ISCORE). I have been on the planning committee for this conference since year two, and it has been amazing to see our growth each year. We welcomed more than 800 faculty, staff, and student participants to this 2009 event.
Our conference keynote speaker was NPR’s Michele Norris. In her SRO presentation, Race, Gender, and the Future of Leadership in America, Ms. Norris engaged us with observations of a year of political change through the storytelling for which she is known. She addressed our students directly by encouraging them to remember their Vitamin C’s.
Collaboration. Change happens when individuals lock arms together and march forward. Engage those around you to follow your dreams and beliefs and be supportive of what they bring to the effort.
Cut. Eliminate one activity, one committee, one obligation. Build an hour back in your day. College students today do too much with too little time. Cut back and make time for yourself.
Camaraderie. Don’t forget about your friends, they are the ones to get you through your day and your life. It’s easy to become so focused on goals and outcomes that you forget the people that you really need.
When asked whether our country is capable of moving toward a post-racial society, Ms. Norris shared that recent political events lead some to believe we have already achieved a post-racial place in America. Norris said this compares to riding an express elevator to the top of a skyscraper. You have a great ride and get out on the observation deck where the view is wonderful. But you fail to stop at the floors on the way up where the view is not so great.
What’s Your Fortune?
At the Annual Conference on the First-Year Experience, I picked up some great classroom activities from Loriann Irving, of Kutztown University. Loriann has built a creative portfolio of interactive exercises for use in her first-year seminar course.
She shared this activity for test or assignment review titled Fortunate Questions. Supplies needed include strips of paper (large enough for writing) and individual fortune cookies from the Asian foods aisle at your grocery or a specialty foods store.
Provide each student with a fortune cookie and strip of paper. Highlighting a textbook chapter, article, or other project, ask students to review pages or portions of recent assignments that will be on the next exam or are important in the course. Request that they write questions on the strips of paper. Collect the fortune papers in a basket, mix them up, then have students draw one from the basket. In a go-round, ask students to read the question they have selected and respond for the class.
Eat fortune cookies.
What would we do if we really loved our students?
What would do if we truly loved our students? Those two questions were from Edward “Chip” Anderson in a presentation I attended a number of years ago, I can’t even recall which conference. Chip used that message to develop his work in Strengths-Based Educating, or building upon the natural talents of an individual versus improving deficiencies. Those powerful questions and their meaning have defined the work that I do.
On this February 14th, instead of waiting for flowers and chocolate, it is more important to share the love.
Happy Valentine’s Day!
Getting to know you? Create a cover story!
Here is a great idea for getting to know a new class of students at the beginning of the semester: ask students to create a magazine cover! It comes from Barbara Nixon, an assistant professor at Georgia Southern. I follow Barbara’s blog and on Twitter because she is always sharing great gems such as this assignment for her Public Relations course. I may utilize the concept to introduce our peer leaders to new first-year students, still letting the idea percolate.
Of course, I am partial to magazine covers. The image above is the birth announcement for my son (created without the handy-dandy website!)
Self-handicapping behaviors of college students
This NY Times article indicates that ego protection and lowered expectations are the reason some college students protect their failures through a behavior called self-handicapping. Using and creating excuses for poor academic performance allows students to plan for and evade success. If unchallenged, self-handicapping behaviors frequently carry over into the workplace, stereotyping individuals early in their careers. This is a great reference for students needing to take responsibility in their college education. Read more at The Student Affairs Blog.
eighteen and life 
