Академический Документы
Профессиональный Документы
Культура Документы
Since my last portfolio review 12 months ago, I have had several new
Assistant Director for Club Sports and Assessment. I had been in that position for just
over three years and was finding that my personal growth had stagnated. I was
looking for new opportunities and interviewed as a finalist for two Director of
Recreation positions last summer and fall at Princeton University and William
option presented itself at the Council for Graduate Schools (CGS), the professional
and have since been working as the Program Manager for Best Practices and
Research. In this role I have been able to learn a great deal about the worlds of
and government affairs. I believe that my decision to take HE 722 (Organization &
hiring at CGS as Dr. Okahana is one of my supervisors in this new role and someone
Growth as a Researcher
Understanding PhD Career Pathways for Program Improvement project. This has
1
involved: coordinating meetings for the institution’s project directors; assisting in
reports filed by the participating institutions; assisting in the collection and analysis
of data collected by the institutions; creating data visualizations of the analyzed data;
and ensuring that all project partners and our team at CGS follow project timelines
and institutional review board (IRB) guidelines. In this role I have been able to utilize
the skills I have developed in EDRS 811 (Quantitative Research Methods), 812
as I work with both quantitative and qualitative data, including analysis of open-
reports.
My work on this project, and my ability to speak French fluently, also enabled
francophone pour le savoie (ACFAS) conference, the largest French Canadian higher
outcomes for doctoral students in Canada. The other presentation was held at the
Foundation), researchers from the University of Laval who are working on a similar
project in Quebec, and the Director of Research for the University of Quebec system.
2
in French at an academic conference for the first time, and to learn about efforts to
Learning project, which examined effective methods to train PhD students to teach
courses and assess student learning as faculty members. The meeting will provide an
opportunity to discuss lessons learned from the project and plan for the next phase
of this project. One of the classes I took in Spring 2017, Scholarship of Teaching and
Learning (SoTL) (HE 704), has proven particularly useful in this work. I feel my
consultant.
Other projects I have been involved in at CGS have all focused on research
results of surveys to our members. Our Pressing Issues survey, for example, focused
well-being. The results of this survey led to our hiring of a graduate student
researcher, who I have been helping supervise, to create a literature review and
white paper on this topic. My previous experiences working in student affairs and
Other tasks have included working with our Graduate Enrollment & Degrees
project, which reports trends in enrollment and degree conferrals in the U.S., and our
3
International Graduate Student Report, which surveys over 350 graduate schools in
the U.S. and reports trends on applications, offers of admission, and enrollments for
international students based on countries of origin and degree fields of study. The
latter report has been particularly relevant with the current political climate and has
garnered significant attention in the media and in the higher education policy fields.
Government Relations
required me to observe a leader in higher education, I was able to join our Vice
Capitol Hill on behalf of our organization. This experience, particularly the discussion
with Dr. Buehlmann and noticing that we had many of the same personality traits on
the Myers-Briggs personality indicator and the StrengthsFinder assessment, has led
the future.
as a consultant and presenter for the Collegiate Sport Club Institute (for which our
committee for the 2017 NIRSA Club Soccer National Championships, and serving on
4
Advising Master’s Students
current master’s student. This has been, and continues to be, another great growth
opportunity for me as I feel I have learned a great deal about advising and assisting
students on research projects and about the thesis evaluation process in general.
This work has reminded me that I enjoy working with students and helping them
In the last year, I have addressed most of the skill gaps identified in my Portfolio I
review by taking Dr. Baker up on his offer to facilitate a directed reading course (HE
897), which we titled Philanthropy and Affinity in Sport and Higher Education. This
coursework focused on further exploring the scholarly work to date on the subject of
philanthropy and alumni affinity to their alma maters. This included expanding on
Thelin’s works, including his recently published Philanthropy and American Higher
Education. I also read many publications by Noah Drezner and have joined his $OPHIE
contacting other scholars in philanthropy and staying abreast of the work they are doing.
Lastly, as I did the work for the directed reading course, I found several recently published
contacted and connected with these newly minted PhD graduates and discussed my
research idea and their willingness to share information and review my work in the future.
5
Updated Intellectual and Professional Goals
consistent in the last year. My topic of interest for a potential research project has
former club sport student athletes. As I have discussed the subject with fellow students,
collegiate recreation professionals, scholars, and my new work colleagues, all have agreed
that a gap in research exists with this subgroup of alumni. At George Mason alone, we had
over 800 students who participated in club sports per year, which is more than double the
number of varsity student athletes for which a great deal of research has been conducted.
At Mason, club sport student athletes represent over 2% of the student population and
there is a need for more information about this subgroup of students and how their unique
experience while at the institution affects their decisions to donate in the future.
remains unchanged. While my current job is a bit of a deviation from that path, the
(Graduate Student Mental Health). This detour was slightly unexpected, but it has helped
me grow as a professional and learn about different aspects of higher education. I would
Recreation. After gaining some more experience at CGS, I plan to keep an eye out for