Through reading the book Beyond Meetings Lessons and Successes in Advising Student Organzations it caused me to reflect on my experience over this past semester in advising AS&F. I thought back to when I first came to Adams and how I was so ready to change students lives and shake things up within the organization. While as I tried to change things I realized that I was doing a disservice to not only my students but to myself. I was trying to change an organization that I had no knowledge of the interworkings as well as the culture of the university.
From this, I had to take a step back and really understand a few things about where I was working. One was to understand the culture of the Unversity and the organization. The second was understanding where I fit in as an advisor and as a person. The third was to the development my advisor style and figure out which style worked for my students and myself. Though I am still trying to figure things out my advisor style.
Looking back at the beginning of last semester I have grown within who I am as an advisor to my student organizations as well as build better relationships with my students. Though this growth I have been able to help my students challenge different norms of the organization and to try and think outside of the box for different goals which have caused for them to grow as well as our organization which makes me SUPER proud of them.
But the major take away is that when going into a new Student Affairs positions get to know the organization, the institution and the students before trying to make changes.
-Nzingha Wright
