Photo by Kawê Rodrigues on Unsplash
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As I sat in our new SAAL board onboarding meeting, I could not help but think, “what in the world am I doing here?” Here I was, someone who has only been working professionally (at all) for one year, and my experience with assessment just being on a departmental committee, and I was on a Zoom meeting with individuals who have been doing assessment work for 10, 15, and even 20 plus years! I never felt so intimidated and out of place. However, I also have never felt so hopeful, excited and eager to take on what I see as a new challenge. I am honored to now get to serve as the Communications Specialist for SAAL.
I have always been the type of person who jumps head first into any and all opportunities. My mantra has always been, “do now, think later.” And no, I would not consider myself a reckless person, rather someone who approaches every new situation as a puzzle that I get to have fun piecing together while I am in the middle of it. Coming into this, I knew I was beginning to really enjoy assessment work within my role in Residential Life and I knew that I have a passion and skill set for different communications media. The rest? The actual doing the role? I embraced the challenge of figuring it out as I went along.
Photo by Hannah Busing on Unsplash
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SAAL is an incredible organization that is making tremendous strides in providing education and resources for those looking to work in Student Affairs assessment. As someone who is rather new to the field, I am eager to help guide SAAL toward connecting with emerging professionals to start their passion for assessment early on in their careers. In identifying different opportunities for communication and collaboration, it is truly my hope to help further build relationships between us and other professional organizations such as ACPA and NASPA. Using built in metric indicators on different social media platforms, I plan to expand our reach and elevate our mission of “creating a robust, active and inclusive community” by meeting our current and prospective members where they are, whether it be perusing our website or engaging with us on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and maybe one day, Instagram.
When I figure out how to make assessment work translate well into a TikTok, I may just even bring us there, as well. As you all engage with our material on these different platforms, I want to create an inviting space where all of you can send suggestions on what you’d like to see from our social media. My hope is that when there is a crazy idea to reach new followers, the response won’t be no, but rather “sure, let’s do it.”
Blog written by Sara Schabe, Communications Specialist