Southeast Missouri State University student publication

Reminding me of why I am here!

Posted Monday, February 12, 2018, at 6:57 PM
NPC and IFC Students at AFLV 2018

Thank you for the mid-year reminder of why I have one of the best jobs at Southeast... direct interactions with students.

One of the best parts of my job is working with students (oh, it is also one of the most annoying, just being honest here). In my current role, I am spending more time with Greek students and with this comes great opportunities and some challenges. This past weekend, I was fortunate to travel to Indianapolis with 16 of our students who are leaders in the Greek community. I want to say a special thank you to these 16 students for reminding me of why working with students is so great. While I see many of these things in my day to day work, nothing reminds me more about why I like what I do more than spending four days in another city with a bunch of students.

Here are my top ten takeaways in no particular order:

  1. Bruce hours and student hours are not the same. Gone was getting up before 7am; also, gone was going to bed before midnight.
  2. When you share a higher expectation of students, they most often rise to meet that standard.
  3. There is such a thing as fourth meal. It often occurs after 10pm.
  4. When you find topics that students are engaged in, they will not disappoint you with how attentive they are and the copious amounts of notes they take.
  5. If you have a "spin the wheel to win a free long-sleeve shirt" people will line up for a spin.
  6. Our students want to tackle major issues in our Greek system, but they don’t know how to get everyone on the same page (not a problem unique to Greeks).
  7. Salad is not a lunch for most students, no matter how much lettuce there is.
  8. Greek students recognize some of the stereotypes they have are earned, however, they wish at least part of the value they see in their membership and efforts were as widely recognized.
  9. The students in these leadership roles are very busy. From work, chapter, other student organizations, and their roles in the governing council, they must be organized to be successful. Most of them have this organization well planned out.
  10. If the test to measure if something is successful is whether you would want to do it again next year, then yes, AFLV was successful, as I very much look forward to attending again in 2019.

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