By Rachel Paris, SAA 2020
When I first began my higher education journey, my end goal was to become a pediatrician. I wanted to be able to change the world through medicine and my undergraduate degree would set the foundation for me getting into medical school and completing the necessary training for a medical doctor. Yet, during my senior year at my alma mater, Grand Valley State University (GVSU), I began to question my path post-graduation. I am not sure if it was the pre-graduation jitters or I finally reflected on what the next journey of my life would be and if I was ready for it. Since I was just a semester away from graduating, I knew I wanted to just complete my undergraduate degree, but also tried to explore the nonprofit field as best as I could through internships and elective courses. After four years, I graduated with my Bachelor of Science and decided to embark on a gap year to reflect and reframe what chapter I would embark on next.
When thinking about my fondest memories and experiences during my undergrad, the role of being a Resident Assistant and involvement in a leadership organization topped every other experience. I reflected upon myself and began to think about why I loved those experiences and who made the experience wonderful. I began to reach out to my mentors in student affairs and higher education and began to learn more about the field and their careers. The more I learned the more I found myself reflecting on how I would help contribute to students’ lives and their experiences at higher education institutions. I have always held educational roles in my work experience. At 16 being a swim instructor, to high school as swim coach and captain of my team, and especially as an RA during my undergrad experiences. All of these positions throughout my life possessed educational roles. Education has always been a part of who I am, what I am, and who I am going to be. I finally found my passion and began the next steps of applying to student affairs and higher education graduate programs across the country.
Yet, when I finally decided on coming to MSU and entering into my first graduate class, I was not prepared for such a flip in teaching and learning. I had grown accustomed to sitting in lecture halls with close to a hundred people as my professor would lecture for the period and students would be taking notes. For my general educational requirements, I took one interdisciplinary sequence for an entire academic year, which allowed me to bypass taking multiple courses from different disciplines. Now being in a graduate education course, professors were asking me what I thought about readings and how I applied theories into practice. At times I would just sit and draw a blank and wouldn’t know what to say or think. I was new to the pedagogical approach to education and felt overwhelmed with the new knowledge and framing. I felt it was difficult at times to even contribute to class discussions because for four years I was told what to think, how to think, and what is most important to think about.
Yet, through the transition and moving into my second semester of graduate school, I began to grow in my knowledge and experiences in student affairs and education. I was a sponge in the first semester, listening, observing, and trying to make sense of the content presented to me. I needed to allow myself to transition and process all of the information before I could apply it to my framework of knowing. Now thinking back, I wish I had given myself more grace and understanding to transition into a new way of thinking and learning. It was like graphing an exponential function, a little slower growth in the beginning then the curve becomes much steeper as the points curve upward. The graph is like me, always growing and moving in a positive direction. It may have been slow in the beginning, but like me, I am still learning and growing each and every day. I am proud to be an educator with backgrounds in STEM and education. I know my journey was not direct, but it has taught me so much more than I could have ever imagined. I am excited to take my experiences and knowledge and help with students who may be experiencing a similar situation of changing their majors or adjusting to a new discipline. And I will still be changing the world one student at a time.