Jon Merrill | Curriculum ePortfolio

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Key Professional Learning

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One of the reasons that I enjoy working within Residence Life is for the opportunity to regularly utilize several different skills. In my position as a conduct administrator, I have polished my ability to quickly build rapport with students, ask intentional questions with care to better understand their case, and create educational sanctions. Through supervising student staff I have developed the skills necessary to hold them accountable for their position as well as working with them to develop within the position. As an advisor, I have learned how to work with students to create a dynamic where they are able to hold one another accountable. I would be able to learn these skills within other specific assistantship opportunities. However, the key thing that I have learned from my assistantship is how I can use the skills that I developed within specific responsibilities in my other responsibilities as well. For example, I regularly use the questioning skills that I developed as a conduct administrator during my one-on-one meetings with my resident assistants to better understand both their lived experience and programming efforts. As such, the key thing I learned from my assistant resident director position is how I can be creative and flexible in utilizing my various skillsets. 

Author: Jonathan Merrill
Last modified: 4/27/2015 7:05 PM (EDT)