At this point in my career, I am both a student and higher education professional. In addition to being a full-time master's student studying higher education administration, I am also a graduate assistant working in a living learning village, a tutor to student-athletes, and an intern at a small, private liberal arts college. This latter role is the focus of the blog posts that follow, and my hope is that they afford you some insight into my growth as an educator and higher education practitioner.

​

Said internship is a required component of my graduate program in higher education, and it is intended to enable master's students the opportunity to explore additional areas of interest within postsecondary institutions. The areas I chose to explore for the purposes of my internship span first year experience programs, academic advising, retention initiatives, and academic support services, and the institution I chose to engage in this exploration is William Peace University. This school just so happens to be the institution where I began my career before pursuing graduate study, and it is accordingly one of the principal reasons why I chose to return to Peace as a graduate intern.

​

With regard to learning outcomes specifically, however, three competencies in particular were of greatest interest:

• Familiarity with and practice in student retention strategies

• Familiarity with and practice in curriculum development for first year seminars

• Supporting the ongoing training and development of student staff

​

As these things often go, however, I found that I developed other skills both in addition to and in lieu of the three I originally sought to develop. These blog posts chronicle their cultivation.