Category Archives: student affairs

A funny thing happened at the awards ceremony

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We recently hosted a celebration for the learning community peer mentors on our campus. Our campus offers many learning communities linking courses and residence halls and this ceremony is an annual event to honor the student leaders in the academic units and courses. The mentors are nominated for the awards by their professors, course coordinators, and also their students.

As with many ceremonies, some students are able to attend, some have schedule conflicts. This year, we had an opportunity to honor a student who was a mentor last fall and then graduated at semester. At first he was not able to attend, but when he checked in and picked up his nametag, our committee made certain that his award was added to the program for presentation.

The student’s name was announced and he made his way to the podium while glowing praise was read from his award recommendation letters. He was one of the students who dressed up for the event, even donning a tie. The student accepted his certificate and paused for photos with the other student award recipients.

But it was the wrong guy.

You see, when the nominated peer mentor graduated last December, his university email account was closed. When notification was sent to award recipients, the email bounced to a student with the same name. This student with the same name believes he was nominated for and won an award, because we told him that he did. He then dressed up, attended the awards ceremony, and accepted an award to much fanfare and applause. If the learning community coordinator had not been there to discretely mention that he wasn’t the correct student, we would never have known.

Lessons to learn? Double-checking email addresses is pretty obvious. But what do we learn from a student who accepts an award that he has not earned? Is there a message here about the need to be noticed among a sea of faces on the university campus? I’ll take it as a special reminder that all of our students deserve recognition and appreciation. And perhaps they need it more than once a year at awards ceremonies.

Telephone Game

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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.

  1. Find out how long the interview should take.
  2. Make sure it’s quiet.
  3. Use a real phone.
  4. Disable call waiting.
  5. Have a copy of your resume in front of you.
  6. Change your clothes (my favorite tip!)
  7. Don’t smoke.
  8. Pace yourself.
  9. Prepare some questions of your own.
  10. Relax.

You can read more on these and other great tips for your own job search at Clue Wagon.

Tattoo You?

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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

What would we do if we really loved our students?

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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!

eighteen and life?

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Welcome to eighteen and life. This is not a blog about Skid Row or the classic song by Rachel Bolan and Dave Sabo made famous by the vocals of Sebastian Bach. That being said, the song was an inspiration to the thought processes that you will find here. And although the original 18 and Life lyrics end tragically, my experience is that for students making the choice of post-secondary education, the age of 18 can be a stepping off point to opportunity.


I have built a career in college student affairs around the decision-making of 18-year olds, first in admissions and then as a program director and first-year seminar instructor. I have crossed paths with thousands of students poised on the brink of dynamic educations and careers. Some do not make it. Most do. But not always without a struggle.

Join me as I discuss service to students and efforts to build successful first-year to graduation retention programs. I’ll share the humor and challenges in this transformation and invite you to share yours. The folks over at The Student Affairs Blog are kind enough to let me write there as well, so you’ll see an occasional cross-post.

18 and life to go.