Honoring Our Grads...

Left to Right:  Brian, Josh, Drew, Danielle

Good afternoon.  Yesterday a person "who shall not be named" pretty much stated verbatim in the van ride to Bloomington my blog post for today.  Yes, he was right.  And...here goes. 

Had a nice 6 mile run this morning.  I did not run the mini-marathon, but I ran the last mile of the course and cheered for people.  I did not see who I was looking for (Erica, Theresa, Dan, and others), but I cheered none-the-less.  It was fun cheering for people.  To run the mini is a BIG DEAL.  Congrats to those who ran.

Last night was simply amazing.  I was able to attend the graduation ceremony for our three Graduate Staff Members who graduated from the Indiana University Higher Education and Student Affairs Program.  I am SO proud of them and it was just almost too much for me to handle.  You see, 10 years ago in 2001 I sat in the same room, the Wilkie Auditorium, and graduated from the HESA Program.  George Kuh gave the keynote address and he challenged us to "work at a school like you will work there forever."  I remember leaving Bloomington the next day and just feeling an enormous responsibility to do my best work every single day.  To sit in a room 10 years later, to be working in the profession, and to see three people (Brian Gallagher, Andrew Bennett, and Danielle Miller) who I care deeply about  and supervise graduate from the same program I graduated from was amazing.   More than that, though, I was simply humbled and awestruck by the fact that four of our Resident Assistants (Ose Agho, Nick Estrada, Stephanie Powell, and Danielle Bell) took time out of their schedules to come and cheer for their supervisor, Brian, and for Drew and Danielle.  It's one thing for me as their supervisor to be excited and proud.  It's another thing all together when our student staff feel so moved by their supervisors' performance over the past couple years that they chose to come and cheer them on.  For me, that leaves no doubt that the three people graduating are ready for their next step.  Students "vote with their feet," as the former Executive Director of Housing at UGA Jim Day used to say, and these students decided to come and honor their grad staff.  I could not be any prouder and right now I'm just overcome with pride and positive emotion. 

At IUPUI in Housing & Residence Life we have built a culture of success, support, and outstanding work.  Tralicia (former AD) and Hayward (Director) and then Vicky (AD who hired me, Brian, Drew, & Danielle) and Hayward help lay the foundation for what our program has become.  It's been an honor for me to come and benefit from their work and then build on it.  What we have is a special program where our student staff work hard and often exceed expectations without being asked.  The Supervisory Team Members are successful and they give me their best effort every single day (okay 98.5% of the time).  When all of that happens, then the people we are responsible for, our residents, benefit greatly.  I'm so proud that our student staff members are headed to jobs in business, to medical school, to law school, to higher education programs, the teaching profession, Peace Corps, and to many other careers.  All three of our grad students have landed great jobs that they wanted badly.  Our program is about working and doing a great job, and also about us as a Supervisory Team preparing our students for their next step beyond graduation.  Our staff often refers to IUPUI HRL as a family, and it's so true.  It's a family that cares about each other, a family that helps each other reach their goals, and a family that works it's tail off everyday.  I'm so proud to be a member of the IUPUI HRL Family and I'm looking forward to continuing to build on our success.  

Have a great day.  Happy running to you...