First Month at DGS

First Month at DGS:

I started at DGS around the third week of class. Thus far, I have shadowed 3 different academic advisors while they taught General Studies 101. It was important to me to see different approaches to instructing this class and that is what I saw. One advisor, who had a smaller class (40 students), engaged the class in a lot of discussion and group work. Another advisor had a mix of engagement with the students and lecture. The last advisor mainly lectured with some engagement; however, this advisor also had a large class of about 100 students. I am currently in the process of creating a lecture on Registration and Intercollegiate Transfer processes to teach General Studies 101 students. I will be teaching this class next week to two different sections of the class, each with approximately 100 students.

I will also be shadowing the Admissions Director at DGS at the Orange and Blue Day today to learn more about what parents and students are asking. Since I have been at DGS, it has always seemed like the admissions process into DGS is somewhat removed from the everyday tasks of DGS as an office, but the admissions director lives it daily, so I wanted to see what that was like. I think shadowing her will also give me some ideas of how to better the DGS website (more to come on the website below)

I also have been at the staff meetings learning more about many of the logistics that go into running an office like DGS. It has also been a great opportunity to learn more about the different majors to better my knowledge when helping students. The staff meetings, I have found, are pretty critical to being able to keep up with what is going on in the office and how DGS is actively trying to improve services. For example, DGS is currently partnering with the Study Abroad office to create a short spring break trip abroad to give DGS freshman the opportunity to go abroad. DGS students and freshman are an underrepresented population of study abroad students. A class will be paired with the trip that students will take before they go abroad so that they are prepared.
Additionally, I have worked on some marketing materials for the office. I created a flyer that advisors can give to their students to let them know when they can meet with the Stress and Wellness Health Educator, who is housed in McKinley, but has hours at DGS (my supervisor for my GA position :)) I have updated the slideshow that rolls on the TV Screen in the lobby though I don't think it has been put up yet. Finally, I am currently doing research on other general studies programs and their websites in hopes of making the DGS website more user friendly and useful for all of the stakeholders of DGS.
I also joined the C.A.R.E. Committee at DGS. C.A.R.E. stands for Creating A Restorative Environment. The purpose of the committee is to promote wellness in the workplace since advisors are helping students all day. The committee was started last school year after advisors around campus were encouraging departments to focus on their wellness. I think the CARE Committee is a great hybrid of my GA position in stress and wellness and my work at DGS. I am excited to see some of my ideas brought to fruition.

This week, I also worked on the Academic Plan and gathered many journal articles that will give me further incite into advising and undecided students. However, what I have gathered thus far is that academic advising is incredibly decentralized at U of I and the issues with that bring to mind many discussions in the Student Affairs Administration class. Because the university is so decentralized, at almost every staff meeting, we invite advisors from different offices to come talk with us about majors, updates on requirements, and other things. Without this explicit effort to meet with advisors, we would not be able to advise students appropriately and the quality of our service would go way down. Communication is even more important for an office like DGS because it serves students with all future interests in different majors. Also, I found reflecting on institutional and departmental missions in Student Affairs Administration very helpful because it has made me reflect on the purposes of DGS and why we are here. DGS does have a mission or a statement about their beliefs that they strive for daily; however, it is the decentralized campus that can get in the way of the DGS office's ability to achieve that mission. For example, there are some majors that have a rigid curriculum and if the student is exploring different majors, with only one of them being rigid, then the student can be severely limited on their ability to explore those majors.

Overall, I have logged 10 hours per week with my time being split amongst these various projects. This week, I spent 4 hours preparing for GS 101, 1.5 hours at a staff meeting, 1.5 hours at the Orange and Blue day admissions event, 45 minutes reflecting and journal writing, and around 2 hours researching different general studies departments. I also spent time working on the academic plan.