Hello!

Hello fellow Grads!

So, I will begin this blog with 2 confessions:

1. I have never done a blog before and am just learning the ins and outs of blogging!
2. I am no more of a NASPA expert than any of you, but hope to do my best to provide you with an inside perspective to what may seem like a complex and overwhelming organization to many of us.

That being said, I don’t really know where to begin since I am new to this blogging thing! But I guess I’ll begin with a quick introduction.

My name is Tyler, and I have just finished my first year in the Higher Education Administration program at the University of Kansas. I’m originally from Massachusetts and just graduated from Denison University in 2007 – a small liberal arts college in central Ohio.

As an undergraduate student, I spent much of my time recolonizing a chapter of Beta Theta Pi Fraternity. I was very involved with both the colony and the fraternity community. Outside of the fraternity, I interned in the admissions office for all four years. I was a sociology major and completed a senior thesis focused on men's identity development and explored ways that student affairs professionals can actively engage men to reverse the trend of male apathy on college campuses – a big interest of mine! All these experiences combined played a major role in showing me the type of development that can happen during the college years, and led me to the decision to pursue a career in student affairs.

At KU, I work in the Student Involvement and Leadership Center on the Fraternity and Sorority Life Staff. I am very passionate about the Fraternal Movement and plan on working with fraternities and sororities professionally after graduation!

Now…onto why I’m here and why I’m blogging!

This summer I have the opportunity to intern in the NASPA Office, down in our nations capital. The purpose of the internship is to provide a current graduate student in the field the opportunity to learn about NASPA and the role it plays in higher education, as well as provide NASPA with a little extra help for the summer!

I am very excited for this opportunity and hope to get a lot out of the experience. I think a good place to start with my hopes for this experience is by sharing with you the goals I set myself in my proposal to receive class credit from this internship. I submitted the following 5 goals to my professor:

I will gain broad insight into the mission and vision, structure and organization, and programs and services that the largest professional association for student affairs administrators provides its individual members and member institutions.

• I will learn and experience the daily operations of the NASPA office.
• I will meet and build relationships with the leaders of NASPA.
• I will gain work-related experience in a non-profit professional organization.
• I will introduce fellow graduate students to NASPA by keeping them informed of my experience via an online blog.

Together, these objectives will cumulate to provide me with an experience that will teach me the role NASPA plays in the profession of student affairs, and how I, as an aspiring professional, should take advantage of the organization as I begin my career.

And the 5th goal, is where you come in! NASPA wants to use this internship as an opportunity to reach out to the entire graduate population of the organization. Living vicariously through my blog, I hope you will be able to learn the role NASPA plays in the profession as well. I want this to be just as much of a learning experience for you, as it will be for me.

That being said, I plan on posting a blog on a weekly basis – each week providing you insight to a different area of NASPA. At any time during the summer, please feel free to reach out to me to ask questions, request me to talk about a specific topic, or to just comment on a post. My ultimate goal with this blog is to help you gain the confidence and skills necessary to become a successful navigator of NASPA as you begin a career in this profession!

Next week I’ll begin by posting an introduction to NASPA. A little NASPA 101. I’m just beginning my second week in the office, and I have already learned more than I could ever imagine. There is quite a bit to this association, and I’m excited to begin sharing with you the structure and philosophy of this impressive organization of which we are all apart of.

Until then, let me know if you have any thoughts or special requests!