Category: Professional

Personal, Professional, Reflecting, Why

Hello, 2026

The Advisor That Cares

As the first month of the year winds toward a closing, I cannot help but reflect on how much gratefulness I have in my heart.

We are here. We wake up each day with a new opportunity and a fresh start.

I really enjoyed a two-week holiday as a beautiful personal equinox from 2025 to 2026. I spent time in reflection, relaxation, and did some prioritizing and organizing inside and out.

During that time, many people will set new year’s resolutions. You know the good old lose weight, travel more, spend more time with friends and family. This year, I knew I wanted to be determined. Determined to stay happy, healthy, and whole, inside and out. I began building boundaries around my thoughts, my heart, and event my actions. You see I’m a problem-solver, let me save the day, kind of girl, but those around me need to know how to survive with or without me. My child is a beautiful adult finding her way in live and college. My staff are maturing and growing, that comes with both beauty and trials. It is in my nature to want to carry every burden and solve every issue, but they have so many good ideas inside ofo them too.

I have made other personal commitments and walked into the new year with “intentionally-determined” as my objective for the year.

Did the chaos around me stop

Kind of. It was very entertaining to see the world come flying back into my life when daily non-home life resumed, but it didn’t feel personal anymore, so I just tried to stay neutral in all things. It was return to work and jump into walk-ins, as you all may remember, I’m just a sucker for! I love helping students navigate our complex processes and systems. I love problem-solving with advisors and campus stakeholders about complex issues. I often times reference inspector-gadget in my thoughts (I try not to mention him out loud too often anymore, it dates me) because I love the investigative process of following the data thread through admission, documentation processing, any number of status updates and changes. Oh, it’s fun! I’m a complete nerd for it.

It is really one of about two times a semester or academic year that I get to really directly interact with the student body and boy do I miss it and love it! I cannot even explain how much I still know and believe that my career change from medical office staff to university staff was a transformative shift to the purpose for my life. I love what we do. I believe in every single step of the process and the collaboration and coordination it takes along the way.

Has peace spread across the land

Not even close. Our office has been impacted by so many losses and personal traumas as we stepped into the new year. Team members moved on, team members experienced personal loss, the office culture is still not unified or healthy in many ways, but is absolutely inspirational in its teamwork, collaboration, and healing in other ways. It’s just this duplicity of being right on the cusp of some positive shift, when disruption comes. I’m looking back on September 2025 blog posts and recognizing, this is another area I need to be intentionally determined about this year.

Upcoming invitation to share innovative ideas

Next week our division is invited to share any innovative ideas about the upcoming incoming freshman cohort of students.

After walk-ins I feel like my heart is screaming about how complicated and complex our university system is to anyone outside of it and most of those inside too. We become so blind to how complex our processes and procedure are to students. They grasp for any knowledgeable and helpful sounding person that will guide them through those steps. Some well-intentioned people give them invalid information and they become even more frustrated and confused.

I believe that the University should invest in campus-wide onboarding and training programs for every level of staff and faculty depending on roles and responsibilities. I believe that a unified training process would ensure that administrative assistants to department chairs would have access and knowledge on available resources, departmental connections, and university policies. There is no university training based on user-class and role, on how to look up the major code of a student in the Student Information System. Not to mention the complexities added by the segmented processed created by campus-code, classification, and don’t get me started on the physical complexities of which office processes which part of each process. Attempting to help departmental advisors, chairs and deans over the years, it is clear there is no university onboarding to their roles either. It can be frustrating to navigate university policy and systems without a good mentor. Some of them have succession planning and good mentors to their new roles and some are thrown into the deep end of the pool. I spent a lot of my resources trying to point individuals to university source like catalog and processes.

Within these university driven, produced, and maintained training programs, I believe it is very important to Start with Why! In the words of Simon Sinek, people don’t buy what you do they buy why you do it. When there is a clear vision of why we do what we do, then everyone can align accordingly.

I think this university wide innovation would provide an opportunity for a unified message about the campus “why” would provide new members to our community and opportunity to buy-in.

For our student body, from undergraduates to doctoral students, I believe that the University should invest in a “How To” resource or course explaining how to navigate the systems and procedures. With staff and administrators able to have this single resource every time someone needs to know there is a link/module available to share or review together.

A university website, a link to a video, text, and audio option would provide access to all potential and LU students. This could be a single links page or an organized public facing learning management system with modules and embedded resources. With staff and administrators able to have this single resource every time someone needs to know there is a link/module available to share or review together.

This is true for every one of our areas. If a student doesn’t know their student account ID or password, they are locked out and frustrated. Video, text, and audio resources could help guide students calmly through the process. Many of our offices have templates and guides and we do our best, but I feel this is a great opportunity to show our why in action by helping our students and staff have unified resources and information to reduce frustration and errors, cost and enrollments.

Implement 4DX as led measures will give lag/yield measures. Requirements, standards, documentation, deadlines. Expectations that understand why students need to show the initiatives and ownership of these responsibilities while we also ensure that every team member from student-staff to executive administration know why we do what we do and why it matters so much.

Personal, Professional

Passion

The Advisor That Cares

I have determined that either I’m a really sick individual or I just really have a passion for helping people. We are in the think of wild wild west, students are being admitted as quickly as students are dropping. We are flooded with status updates, transcript blind-sides and full blown scheduling mayham.

I have come home smiling ear to ear each and every night of walk-in advising chaos. I am in my passion. I am helping students and supporting advisors. THIS IS MY JAM!

I am using this opportunity to teach advisors so many things, teaching students so many things, pointing out so many annoying aspects of our world to outsides (culture change), and generally just “putting my finger in the dam” wherever the need pops up.

I am happier than I have been in months! I need this!

ADL Journey, ADL Program, Capstone, Collective, Contributions, Evolution, Goals, Growth, Growth Mindset, It's all about the learning, Learner's Mindset, Learning, Learning Community, Online Learning, Personal, Professional, Professional Learning, Reflecting, Relationship, Teamwork, Why

Contributions, 5320

The Advisor That Cares

Capstone Course

  • Fall 2023
  • Course Number: EDLD 5320
  • Course Title: Synthesis Digital Learn/Lead

Contributions to Learning and my Learning Community

The back of a yellow van is pictured travelling down a dessert roadway.

Crediting Core Group Members: Kelly Skillingberg, Shannon Bowles, and Rachel Hull.

I am giving myself a score of 99 out of 100

Wow, what a transformation from the first course in the program.

please reconsider and evaluate your work and grade with the same fairness as another student.”

March 11, 2022 paraphrased email from EDLD 5305 instructor

Here I am, emboldenly claiming 99 out of 100 for my contributions to my learning and the learning of my learning community. Who is this person I have become?

I know now what I didn’t know then. I know that my “assessment of/for/as learning” is mine to claim ownership over, too (Harapnuik, 2021). The ADL Program equipped me to take control of my learning journey, and I embraced it!

When I began the program, I didn’t understand how having a group would help me. I had always been a little better off on my own or a type A person who would prefer to do all the work to know it got completed.

This independence was also true of my professional life, now that I think about it. While I enjoyed collaborating with others at work, I would typically take the lead to ensure that none of us “got in trouble” for failing to meet expectations.

However, this program and the soul-searching reflection done throughout leave me knowing that I have given 100 percent effort toward my entire learning experience. I also have given 100 percent effort toward connecting with my learning cohort. I am not giving myself a perfect score because there is always room for improvement and more to learn.

The fantastic people in my collaboration group have shown me how much better my ideas and our experience can be if we work together.

My learning communities overlap so many periods and classes that I cannot limit my experience to a single learning community (though this one was top-notch because we have all evolved so much in our learning journey that we now “get it”) but instead try to approach each semester as my opportunity to support and guide my fellow learners in the learning journey.

I love connecting with new people, and weekly meetings are my jam! But I had to learn that they are not that for everyone. I had to adapt and learn to meet others when and where they were available. We have had so many chats and a few synchronous meetings. Still, the asynchronous ability to connect has significantly impacted my future innovation ideas.

Adding peer support is a transformative component of innovation in advising. I never imagined how learners could support one another in co-navigating a new experience. However, thanks to my experience with choice, ownership, and voice in this authentically significant learning environment (COVA + CSLE), I know firsthand that peer support and a shared experience can revolutionize a learning experience.

Key Contributions

  1. My learning community’s core group members have all done a fantastic job staying in touch throughout the semester. One evening, we were the only members of the course who attended the class call. What worked this semester was our continued commitment to learning as much as possible, improving our innovation ideas as much as possible, and getting as much as possible out of this last course in the ADL program.
  2.  Fortunately, Shannon, Kelly, and I have been in learning communities and have maintained ongoing chats over the last several semesters. Before this session began, we had an EDLD 5320 Capstone Community GroupMe started. We all did a great job sharing links to our works in progress for feedforward and periodically just checked in to see how we felt about our coursework and innovation ideas.
  3.  I completed an overwhelming number of revisions on my ePortfolio as a whole. I continually revised current coursework and previous courses/projects coursework as a part of the entire program synthesis process. It was amazing to see how much we have learned and evolved in such a short time.
  4.  I completed ALL of the course readings, videos, and supporting resources provided and actively sought additional resources to deepen my learning and improve my innovation.
  5.  I met the various course activity deadlines indicated in the calendar.

Supporting Contributions

  1. While our group maintained a well-balanced interaction, I took a leadership role by requesting and creating recurring Zoom meetings to chat about projects and our reflections throughout the course. I contributed to my classmates in class calls and discussions by answering questions and pointing to resources when applicable.
  2.  I contribute to my learning and the learning of my colleagues by participating in ALL activities.
  3.  I actively contributed to discussion posts with engaging and well-thought-out reflections.

Reference

Harapnuik, D. (2021, August 16). Assessment OF/FOR/AS learning. It’s About Learning. https://www.harapnuik.org/?page_id=8900

https://www.harapnuik.org/?page_id=8900

ADL Program, Evolution, Goals, Influencer, Leadership, Personal, Professional, Relationship, Why

Love Your Job!

The Advisor That Cares

“When we feel safe. When we feel that our leaders care more about us than a number. They care more about our lives and our confidence, and our joy and our skillset more than some short-term gain… we will respond in kind and we will offer our blood our sweat and our tears and we will make sacrifices of all kinds to see that our leader’s vision is advanced” (REDDOT X, 2018).

“Working hard for something we don’t care about is called stress.

Working hard for something we love is called passion“

(REDDOT X, 2018)

References

REDDOT X. (2018, July 13). HOW TO BE a LEADER  – motivational speech by Simon Sinek [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=urrYhnaKvy4

Humor, Personal, Professional, Relationship, Teamwork

Such a Nerd

The Advisor That Cares

No offense intended by using the term “nerd” because I am a self-proclaimed goofball, silly goose, and nerd. So, I want to share a little piece of that with you because it is an example of how this program has helped me live authentically and how I am beginning to share myself with my team.

If you are participating in the upcoming event, I ask that you stop reading here and don’t steal my awesomely nerdy idea. Agreed? Okay, let’s continue.

So, I may have mentioned in a previous blog that our institution is celebrating its centennial celebration (woot woot, centennial class!). Leaning into that 100-year achievement, this upcoming weekend, we will participate in a campus preview event. These are typically themed, and this fall’s theme is “A Century of Leaders.” Boy, oh boy, were we stumped.

We’d recently done a decade of leadership and struggled to think of something new. “Cheers to 100 years” and President Taylor for taking a picture with our booth at the Spring event. We showcased the 100 years of university presidents and had university annuals from the 1950s to the 70s for guests to view.

Photographs of the last 100 years of Lamar University presidents is strung between red letters reading Cheers to 100 Years" below them and "LAMAR" clothes pinned above. President Jaime Taylor agreed to be photographed with his photo in the display.

So, one morning, I was mulling over the theme. I kept repeating, “A century of leaders, A century of leaders, leaders, leaders, leaders, leaders, humm liters?!?!”

What if we created liter bottle people to represent a century of leaders liters. So, I pitched the idea to my immediate supervisor. Then, I pitched the idea in a staff meeting. Needless to say, I was met with many stares of “Are you kidding me?” but no one flat out said, “That’s stupid,” and no one offered a better suggestion, so away we went. In my head, I could hear them saying they were crafty and couldn’t possibly create 6people from 2-liter bottles. But I was prepared. I came armed with middle school assignments to create just such a thing. I asked them if they could think of anything else, and I came prepared with lists of distinguished alumni and a more contemporary top 25 most recognizable alumni. We began brainstorming who we could create and showcase as our entry into the prize-winning contest.

I feel so much like Dr. Harapnuik when he says he’s so sneaky in how he helps us learn, collaborate, and grow (COVA). My teams have worked together to create their “bottle buddies.” When I explained in the staff meeting that 5th graders were making these, I found that everyone stopped thinking they couldn’t. We just needed a little dose of Growth Mindset. I will see staff members wandering off with felt, hot glue guns, and any crafting supplies I and others brought to the office.

The culture is shifting. There is teamwork happening. It is so exciting!

I have selected Florene Miller Watson as my most recognizable alumni of LU to honor with a crafty creation since I visited the WASP Museum in Sweetwater, Texas.

Humor, Personal, Professional, Relationship, Teamwork

Researching WASPs

The Advisor That Cares

My institution is celebrating its centennial year. Next weekend’s preview day/campus visit theme is A Century of Leaders. I went through a list of 25 Notable alumni of Lamar University and decided that I would like to research Florene Miller Watson. I felt I had a personal connection after touring the WASP Museum in 2018.

Here, I’ll share a few of my findings to compile some talking points about her.

https://ww2db.com/image.php?image_id=24178

Born in San Angelo, Texas**

Born on December 7, 1920**

BA at Lamar Tech University***

After the war, she attended Lamar State College of Technology (now LU), majoring in secretarial science.**

“Florene lived her life cheerfully giving to others and always believing the best in everyone she met” (***).

““Do not undervalue your abilities. You have abilities that you haven’t had a chance to use.  Now, find something you want to use them on and get after it!” (Soundbytes of the WASP***)

  • 1 of 25 women of the Women’s Air Force Service Pilots (WASPs)*
  • Completed flight training by age 19*
  • Taught servicemen to fly*
  • Army service volunteer – moved aircraft from factories to bases*
  • Obtained a Master’s Degree in Business Administration*
  • Taught college for 30 years*
    • UH**
    • Howard College**
    • Frank Phillips College**
  • Distinguished Flying Corps Member in Krister Aviation and Space Museum, Amarillo, Texas*
  • National Medal of Honor, Daughters of the American Revolution*
  • Lifetime Achievement Award, Air Force Association*
  • 1st woman inducted into the Texas Panhandle Veterans Hall of Fame*
  • Galveston Aviation Hall of Fame*
  • International Women in Aviation Hall of Fame*
  • Ninety-Nines International Forest of Friendship***
  • Texas Aviation Hall of Fame***
  • Congressional Gold Medal***

Eagle Profile, Gathering of Eagles Foundation

Florene Miller Watson, Wikipedia

Florene Miller Watson, NASA Headquarters Oral History Project

Florene Miller Watson WAFS, Final Flight

WASP: Women in the WW2 US Army Air Force

Women of Courage, TV documentary

Florene Miller Watson. (2023, August 28). In Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Florene_Miller_Watson

A New Culture of Learning, ADL Program, Advising, ePortfolios, Focus on the learning, Goals, Influencer, Innovation Plan, It's all about the learning, Leadership, Learner's Mindset, Learning, Outcomes, Personal, Professional, Publication, Reflecting, Relationship

Engaging Media

The Advisor That Cares

5317 Discussion 3

EKG - pulse rate display

In the ADL Program, we learn the importance of always focusing on learning. Technology, just for the sake of it, does not revolutionize education. We must be ready to engage in crucial conversations about our innovation ideas to be effective agents of change. To do this effectively, we must work to enact organizational change as we influence others. Acknowledging that our learners come to education from a new learning culture, we must find ways to adapt and reach our learners by creating significant learning environments. With intentional planning, we can present learners with choice, ownership, and voice within an authentic learning environment (COVA).

One of the critical components of becoming a catalyst for change is drawing others into collaborative relationships so that ideas and innovations can continue to grow and evolve with the input and perspective that others bring. Engaging media is one thing that we can employ to ensure that our message reaches those who can contribute. Speakers Mathew Luhn and Nancy Duarte discuss how effectively using media through storytelling can draw the audience into your message (Marwick Marketing, 2017; TEDx Talks, 2010). In my media project, I describe the misery that summer orientation season can bring to the advising profession. I will be the first to admit that in its current format (a long, hot day of walking all over campus and hearing people present to you), it is not an engaging experience. I cannot describe how many students and parents sleep through presentations and content. Hoping to resonate with potential readers of my article, following the advice of Nancy Duarte I paint this picture of the status quo sets the stage for my description of an alternative solution (TEDx Talks, 2010). I hope to draw readers into my article by describing “the new bliss” of what learners and advisors can experience by adding technology to expand the relationship (TEDx Talks, 2010). 

  • Set up:
    • Beginning: Problem. Explain the problem that you set out to solve.
  • Build:
    • Middle: Solution. Describe how you solved it.
  • Payoff:
    • End: Success. Get excited about the success this produced.

(Marwick Marketing, 2017)

  • What is:
    • Beginning: Establish what is, the status quo
    • Compare a drastically different vision of what could be
    • Compare and contrast the status quo and the new idea
  • What Could Be – A Compelling Solution
    • Middle: What is vs. What could be
    • What is vs. What could be
    • What is vs. What could be
  • The New Bliss
    • End: Call to Action

(TEDx Talks, 2010)

References

Marwick Marketing. (2017, May 30). Story telling in business – Pixar story teller Mathew Luhn at CIMC [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HYQOW34b-0g

TEDx Talks. (2010, December 10). TEDxEast – Nancy Duarte uncovers common structure of greatest communicators 11/11/2010 [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1nYFpuc2Umk

Behind the Scenes

Splunking?

Swing Batter, Batter

Discussion Videos

Participate in a class discussion in which you begin by addressing the following issues/questions:

  1. Discuss ways that media can engage the audience to influence their thinking?
  2. What have others done to engage you?
  3. How will you incorporate these ideas into your media project?
  4. How would you influence reviewers to read your publication?

Free writing and brainstorming for discussion response

One of the critical components of becoming a catalyst for change is drawing others into collaborative relationships so that ideas and innovations can continue to grow and evolve with the input and perspective that others bring. This Resources for Digital Environments course asks us to create a media project to advertise our publication article. Media allows the viewer to increase or decrease the speed of content. As a learner who still takes old-fashioned pen-and-paper notes, I appreciate the ability to back up and replay. The addition of closed captioning has been instrumental in my full understanding and is especially helpful when recording quotations.

Speakers Mathew Luhn and Nancy Duarte discuss how effectively using media through storytelling can draw the audience into your message (Marwick Marketing, 2017; TEDx Talks, 2010). Dr. Harapnuik does an exceptional job of placing questions of inquiry throughout his introduction videos. I always search for Learners Mindset Discussion podcasts on the topics we cover throughout the ADL Program. He has continually taught us about the power of storytelling and drawing your audience into your ideas through active, engaging, personalized learning. In my article, published in sources read by advisors, I reflect on the misery that summer orientation season can be for our profession. I cannot describe how many students and parents sleep through presentations and content. Improving these events through engaging media presents an opportunity to draw them into the event’s purpose, preparing their learner for the upcoming college experience. Mathew Luhn explains that you need to draw people in by creating something unusual, unexpected, or has some sort of action or conflict in the very beginning in [the] first eight seconds” (Marwick Marketing, 2017, 22:30). Nancy Duarte (2010) creates this hook by comparing “the commonplace of the status quo, [… contrasted …] with the loftiness of your idea” (TEDx Talks, 2010, 6:57-7:02). I hope to draw readers into my article by describing “the new bliss” of what learners and advisors can experience by adding technology to expand the relationship (TEDx Talks, 2010).