Midterm Reflection

Midterm Reflection
Jacinta Luster
EDLD 8735
Spring 2016
Georgia Southern University

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Practicum Environment
For this practicum, I am interning in the office of First Year Advising; at Kennesaw it is
called The NEST, NEST stands for New, Exploratory, and Students in Transition. is the primary
advising resource for students at Kennesaw State who have not yet chosen a major, as well as
those who are considering a change of major. The NEST is also a secondary advising resource
for those students who have a declared major but need assistance with general education
requirements or university policies (KSU,2016). The idea of interning in first-year advising was
to get continue to the interaction and observe the transition of the incoming freshman I recruit
throughout their senior year of high school.
My mentor is Dr. Chris Hutt, Director of the NEST and he oversees seven first-year
Advisors. Dr.Hutt and I decided that each Thursday, I will sit with an advisor for the day, learn
how they counsel students and how to best discover the major they should choose. When I sit
with the advisors, I always ask if they have a special population or what population they enjoy
working with more. The office environment is extremely friendly; they are open to helping me
understand their everyday roles. The first day, everyone seemed genuinely excited that I was
interning with them this semester. There has not been an awkward period for adjustment and
workings with the advisors are laid-back; I seem to fit in well. It has been easy for me to insert
myself into the office because I already work on campus.
Currently I would rank my experience a 3. The reason for this middle of the road score is
due to the fact I dont one specific project I am responsible for, at this point I am just observing
each individual advisor and how they interact each individual student to create the best schedule
and path as they choose their major. If there was one thing that I would change about my

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internship is the term I did my practicum. I wish I conducted it during the summer. During the
summer, the advisor does group advising during orientation. This would be great for me to
continue relationships with the incoming freshman I met back in the fall.
Portfolio Components Reflection
The components that are applicable to this practicum experience are my career trajectory
and last years spring semester when I took the course Contemporary College Student. In my
trajectory, I expressed my desire to work in first year advising. I want to work more in a one on
one basis with students. Their college choice and their academic success are truly important to
me; I want to experience students growth from the time they put in an application, to their first
interaction as an admitted college student in their freshman year, and find their path in higher
education and ultimately their career. In my current job, I work with students on an individual
scale but I really only have a short period to get information across because I am doing more
elevator speech about the university and admission process. As an academic advisor students
will come from all walks of life; in each of my observations with the advisors, Ive heard many
stories about why students want to change their major due to not comprehending the materials in
their introductory classes or lack of time management. The contemporary college student teaches
administrators that there are many influencers for this generation of students and during this
internship Ive learned that it not always about going to school to get an education, it is making a
life they may have not gotten without a college degree.
Eye-Opener

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The biggest eye-opener is how the NEST affects other advising departments on campus.
They are truly the first stop students meet along their journey. The advisors are the helping hand
that guides first year and transfer students that defines themselves as undeclared.
The one thing that amazed me and this speaks volumes to the kind and friendly atmosphere their
department creates for their students; they do not turn students away even when they have
already picked a program. My hope, as I continue with my internship, I will have the opportunity
to advise students on my own or supervised.
Administrative Philosophy
I meet with Dr. Hutt before I begin my observations with the advisors each Thursday. The
main aspect that we both agree on is we want departments, specifically the admissions and his
department, to work more closely together. Many of the departments at our institution are siloes;
silos dont help an institution and our hope is to work in a linear capacity. I havent run across
any differences, we are pretty much on the same page about many aspects of higher education.
One of my objectives in this internship is bridge that gap. Our biggest push is to encourage
admitted students through my office will set a pre-advising session prior to orientation. This
advising sessions helps student fill comfortable signing up for classes during orientation because
they have a better understanding of what their first year looks like academically.
When it comes to office dynamics, Chris resembles my current supervisors Jordan and
Sam. It helps me feel comfortable with walking into his office and speaking to him about where I
am in the internship and what he expects from me.
Content Knowledge or Skills

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I wish I had more knowledge in Degreeworks, the systems that shows students if they are
on track with graduation. Degreeworks has a what-if capability where students can play around
with their majors by adding a minor or switch their major to see if the courses theyve taken will
satisfy in the new major of choice. Also, I think that I had more knowledge of how the registrars
office deals with how curriculum courses fall into the general education courses. This semester,
our university made changes to the general education courses. I wish I had a better understanding
of course curriculum, why we chose these courses to place in a particular area and so forth.

Reference
Kennesaw State University.(2016). Advising Office for New, Exploratory, and Students in
Transition. Retrieved from http://uc.kennesaw.edu/nest/