My #OneWord2012: LOVE

A few nights ago, my husband and I went out to dinner to celebrate the New Year.  We began discussing his resolutions for 2012.  As we discussed all of his wonderful resolutions, he paused mid-way through our conversation and simply said, "...so, 'Love more' - what does that mean?"   

He was referring to my tweet from the night before: 

Love more “@keyetv: Happy New Year Austin, Let me hear some of those resolutions... Losing weight does not count.”

— Jennielle Strother (@HigherEdGirl) January 1, 2012

Skip to today, and this tweet showed up in my #EMchat feed: 

I need to join the fun and think of my #oneword2012 #sachat #emchat

— Eric Felix (@EriqFelix) January 4, 2012

I have been seeing the hash #OneWord2012 show up in my feed, and following the great conversations regarding one another's #OneWord2012.  Some are funny, some are serious, some are obvious, and some aren't.  

I decided I wanted to choose my #OneWord2012.  

I immediately dismissed my original resolution, "love more", merely because it had two words, and I didn't think it was deep enough.  But after hours of brainstorming - I keep coming back to the "Love More" tweet I posted a few days ago.  

So, (drum roll please), my #OneWord2012 is..... "Love". 

The beauty of having a blog is that I don't have to be limited to 140 characters, and can fully explain my #OneWord2012 to anyone who is interested, just as I explained to my husband a few nights ago. 

Love... my family. 

I want to spend more time savoring each moment I have with them.  I want to be present mentally and emotionally when I am with them - and really, really pay attention.  I don't want to forget one glorious minute I have with all of them.  

Love... my job. 

It might be impossible for me to love my job more than I do.  If you know me, you know how blessed I feel to work at Seminary of the Southwest.  You would also know that I feel so lucky to be in a profession that not only excites me daily, but challenges me in ways that I appreciate.  

But that's not what I am talking about.  I am talking about loving the parts that I don't necessarily find exciting.  I want to slow down, roll up my sleeves, and tackle each task with excitement, inspiration and motivation.  

Love... myself. 

I am constantly trying to be and do better.  I analyze and over-analyze.  I beat myself up over the smallest of mistakes or miscommunications.  As a result, it changes who I am.  If you know me, really know me, you know that I prefer to be upbeat and positive.  I prefer to smile - actually, I prefer to belly laugh.  I prefer to hug over handshake.  I prefer to see the good in people, over the faults.  I prefer a high-five over a pat on the back.  That's just who I am.   

Love... my body. 

I am an athlete.  My body knows it, I just need to remind myself!  So, I'm making working out a priority.  I'm committing to run a half marathon this year.  Running a half scares me, but it also excites me!

So, join in on the #OneWord2012 fun!  

¡Ciao!

Jennielle

What Motivates You?

I have a book on my desk titled, “Thank You – In Appreciation of You, and All That You Do”. The book was given to me by my assistant.  I love that book.  I open it daily.  If I need a little something extra to get me through the day, I’ll open it to a random page and read a quote.  It’s one of the many ways I motivate myself to bring my authentic-self to my job.  The book serves as a way to center myself and focus on the positive. 

Working in a positive environment is so important to me.   

Rule #1:  I have to be positive in order to expect it from others.    

Do you know what I have found by sticking to that rule? It makes it easier to motivate my staff.   It makes it easier to push them beyond what they think they can do.  It makes it easier to celebrate their accomplishments.  It makes it easier to reset the goals every year and start back at 0!

What motivates you? What do you do to motivate others? 

Join the discussion this Thursday, October 13^th at 9:00 EST at #EMchat. 

What is #EMchat? Check out this post.  

Hosted by: Yours truly (@HigherEdGirl) and @AlexMWilliams_

Drawing Inspiration from Strangers

When I was coaching, I was inspired all the time.  Yes, being a coach fed my insatiable competitiveness, and being around athletes kept me youthful.  However, my coaching days gave me the opportunity to empower young girls, and I'm most proud of seeing what amazing women they have become.    

I moved from one male dominated profession to another (coaching to administration), and I am comfortable in that type of environment.  However, if there's one thing I have learned, it is that I draw my motivation and inspiration from other women in leadership.  There are several women on my campus that inspire me daily (@NancySB2), and I really should tell them that more often.  I wouldn't be able to survive without them.  There are other times though, when I need more than that.  

A week ago, I thought that by starting a blog, I might be able to spark an idea or start a conversation that could get my creative juices flowing just enough to feed my lack of inspiration.  Then, I stumbled upon this tweet

RT @tweetinglavoz: Are you an #salatino pro looking for a network for female empowerment? Check out #wlsalt #sachat http://ow.ly/1ufyGs

I clicked the link, and I recognized a name in the article, Teri (@tbump).  Just a day prior, Teri sent me a DM with the most uplifting message about my blog.  As I continued to read the article, Teri is quoted quite extensively about how and why she created the hashtag, #WLsalt.  Here are just a few words:

"I want to use the hashtag to send tweets that support, lift, encourage, promote women leaders. And, to invite others who do the same to use it as well building a network of women focused on consciously choosing to push women forward. I watch the twitter stream and women Student Affairs professionals are quick to devalue their work/skills/smarts." (@tbump via Student Affairs Women Lead)

#WLsalt tweets are for: Women as Leaders who Support, Affirm, Lift and Transform.  

In just one short week, my inspiration cup is overflowing.  Thank you Teri for reaching out and encouraging me, even though you have never met me.  I will pay it forward.  

Where do you draw your inspiration from? 

@HigherEdGirl

Hispanic graduation rates: What is your campus doing?

The San Antonio Express-News' story, "Hispanic college degrees getting a push: Group focuses on Latinos starting but not finishing" described a partnership between State Rep. Joaquin Castro, D-San Antonio, and Exelencia in Education, created to begin working towards raising the percentage of Latinos completing a college degree.

The initiative is called Ensuring America's Future, and I applaud the work of Exelencia in Education and its co-founder and president, Sarita Brown.  As a Latina, the issues involving the Hispanic culture and higher education are ones that I am passionate about.

As I read the article, I couldn't help but wonder how colleges and universities are tackling their Latino retention rates.   When I worked in undergrad enrollment, the university I worked for wanted to increase their Latino enrollment.  As I began researching and developing strategies for recruiting Latino students, I quickly realized that the university did not have the resources available to retain them.  However, the university did begin making small steps towards achieving even the smallest of initiatives, such as hiring more Spanish-speaking staff.

"Rising to the Challenge: Hispanic College Graduation Rates as a National Priority" provides a lot of data and tables regarding this topic.  During the study, the authors interviewed eight administrators: four schools with higher than average Hispanic graduation rates, and four with lower rates.

The study was an interesting read - and I was shocked at what some of the administrators said about their successes and/or failures in the graduation rates of Hispanics on their campuses. One mentioned that their white students arrived to their campus better prepared academically than the minority students somehow blaming the minority students for their inability to graduate.

Here are some real solutions:

• build a sense of community among Latino students, faculty and staff
• include the family - invite them to campus. 
• ask your Latino graduates what helped them succeed and how they can "pay it forward" to the current students
• Latino family visit dates

Almost half of school children in the state of Texas are Latino.  Colleges and universities need to be a part of the conversation, and begin to understand what needs to be done to help Latino students enroll in college, and to persist through to graduation.  What will it take? What has your institution done recently that has improved retention on your campus?

@HigherEdGirl

Coaches as Worthy Retention Officers?

I found a great post in the NY Times blog, The Choice, written by Lionel Anderson, who is an academic advisor at Temple University.  His post, "Now That You've Gotten In", gives 6 tips to incoming freshman about how to survive their first year.

My favorite tip given was to visit the Career Center as a freshman.  Making that connection early on is such a great piece of advice, and thought it was worthy to point out.

After reading Lionel's post, I realized that the years I spent coaching college volleyball was so instrumental in nurturing my love for higher education and enrollment planning.  As I read the 6 tips offered in Lionel's post, I quickly realized that I had communicated those same principles to my incoming freshman, but without any guidance from the retention officer at my institution.

Does your institution train or include the coaching staff in retention planning on campus?  Is the coaching staff at your institution included in any conversations regarding enrollment management services (recruitment, admissions, retention, marketing)?

Declaration: After 10 years, I'm still a higher ed novice

I have 21 month old twins, and my son jumped into the kiddie pool today head first without an ounce of fear - and loved every second of it.  He went back for seconds, thirds and fourths! I'm going to do the same thing - with a blog.  So here goes nothing.

If you know me, you know that I love my job as an enrollment manager. You also know that I have a master's degree in enrollment management, and that I read article after article about higher ed.    Sometimes I feel like I can't keep up with the ever-changing landscape of higher education, and twitter doesn't seem to help that feeling.  Every second that goes by, my news feed is filled with links to higher ed articles.  After 10 years in this business, I still feel like a rookie.

Then I read @TimNekritz's blog post, "no gurus: we are all social media students".  In his post he writes about how social media is constantly changing and that there are no experts.

There are no experts.

Those four words jumped off of the computer screen at me.  I've been wanting to start a blog as a place to begin networking with other higher ed/enrollment professionals, but was too afraid.  After all, I'm no enrollment expert, right?

So, today, I am declaring myself a higher ed novice.  After 10 years in the business, I am still learning.  Yes, I definitely have opinions about the future of higher education and not everyone will agree with them, but some will! I look forward to networking and getting to know others through this blogging journey.

I've survived jumping in head first into the pool of blog-land! I kinda liked it.  I think I'll go back for seconds, thirds, fourths, ...

@HigherEdGirl