Linh Hoang

When I worked as a Student Experiences Coordinator, there were many different tasks that I oversaw. I liked to look at the position as the bridge for the Honors students. This could be the bridge between the university and the students, between the students and the Honors program, and much more. There were many things I did to accomplish this goal. I oversaw the weekly newsletter and would put on events for students in the program. Some examples of events I had put on included a trip to the Minneapolis Institute of Art to see a presentation called "I am Somali" and the Spring Convocation, which is a banquet of sorts at the end of spring term celebrating the accomplishes of everyone in the program and serves as a graduation ceremony for the seniors.

 

 This experience allowed me to fulfill levels 1,2, and 4 for Values and levels 3 and 4 for teams in Leadership.

 

 Working as a Student Experiences Coordinator, I discovered quite a lot about my personal leadership style. For one, I am very person orientated and feedback driven. I strongly believe in other perspectives, and that is reflected in my leadership (Values 1).  Whenever I had a new idea, I always bounced it off someone else to see what they would think, whether that would be a fellow co-worker or a friend. My belief is when I come up with something, I am inherently biased, and thus may not be able to see the flaws. Alongside that, it could be a good idea, but by consulting someone else, it allows the idea to grow into something potentially better. For example, we previously had an event in a place called Pizza N' Profs. The event consisted of professors who would be teaching an Honors course for the next semester going over their syllabus and class expectations while also answering any questions students may have. The pizza was used as an incentive to attract students to the event. While the foundation was good, it can feel a bit like a lecture after a while, with most of the time only having professors speak and rarely having students ask questions. I wanted to incorporate more student participation. I had brought up my concerns at one of the weekly staff meetings, and after some brainstorming in the group, we had come up with having the professors present themselves in more of a miniature lesson format for students to get a better grasp of the class. They would still have time to go over a syllabus and answer any questions someone would have on the course, but by incorporating a mini activity pertaining to the class, it allows more engagement from students. Even the name was changed to Next Semester Snapshot to further emphasize that there was a change in format. This event would not have been possible without all the input from my fellow co-workers (Values 2).

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Another thing which I valued was feedback. At an event, someone could seem like they enjoyed an event, but in reality, it was the opposite. On the other hand, they could not like an event, but not feel comfortable expressing that to me. In the beginning, I would ask students to fill out paper feedback sheets, so I could see how they felt about an event. After realizing that it could be very impractical to have that implemented for every single event, I instead created an end of semester survey asking students about how they felt about the events that were being put on. This consisted of questions regarding time all the way to future events they would like to see in place. This was one of the largest projects I had taken up for this position and is something I am extremely proud of. This allowed me to see exactly what students wanted to see in the honors events and how I could improve it (Values 4).

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This position also put me in an area to improve on teamwork as well. A great example would be planning for the Spring Convocation. I worked closely with the Graduate Assistant, Samantha Campa. There was quite a lot that needed to be accomplished to have the event finished in time. Thus, we had delegated tasks between the two of us. It was a balance to see who would oversee what in order for it work efficiently. I found that throughout this process, we both highlighted each other's strengths and weaknesses. Samantha would work on some of the big projects, like ordering the food or creating the seating chart, while I worked on more of the frontline projects like sending out invitations and creating the certificates (Teams 3). It was one of the best partnerships I had ever been in. We bounced ideas off each other and I found with her experience, I grew in many areas and learned many new skills which I did not have before (Teams 4).

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Even so, I realized that with my leadership style there were some flaws. For one, even though being person orientated played to my strengths in some ways, it also was my weakness as well. There are situations where I could have been much more active and move forward with an event, but because I would want to hear everyone's opinion that I would wait to put on an event, and it would end up not happening since I waited too long. There are situations where waiting for feedback is just not reasonable, and I need to be more confident in my decisions and move forward instead of waiting around (Values 2).

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This position helped me learn about my leadership style in many ways, both as being an effective leader and team member. These skills will be applicable as I move forward throughout my professional career, especially as I continue to work in group settings. Alongside that, now that I have recognized some of my weaknesses in leadership, I now know in what situations I should be more assertive about my ideas (Values 4).