Training Sessions and More!

There are four interns here for the summer. We are all in different areas, but are brought together once a week to do some professional development activities. The other interns are in the areas of Guest & Conference Housing and Student Staff Training, Recruitment & Retention. Yesterday was our first training session, but it was more of a meet and greet with the Director of Residential Life at ASU. Her name is Kendra and she gave us a lot of good information about their program here. She talked about her involvement in Student Affairs and the path that she took to get to her position. Also she was able to provide us with some insight on fun things to do in the area, which was nice. The meeting happened over lunch, so we just asked questions, talked, and ate lunch. We were encouraged by her to make the experience our own and contact other employees in our areas of interest and set up a meeting with them to learn more. I am hoping to start a list of people I would like to talk to throughout the summer and get help to find them.

The other training sessions for June include:

·         Sustainability

·         Spirit, Pride & Traditions

·         Social Entrepreneurship

I also had the chance to sit in on a couple of move-in planning meetings on Monday. This was cool to hear about another process and how they work everything. The team that meets has a wide range of positions all of which handle a different aspect of move-in. I met the Coordinators of Marketing, Operations, Technology, Interior Design, and Guest & Conference Housing. One of the Associate Directors was there along with me and my supervisor the Coordinator of Strategic Initiatives & Sustainability. They check-in about 10,000 students in two days on the Tempe campus, so you can imagine how detailed their process has to be. Something new this year, which was a big topic of discussion was their new wireless check-in system. Each resident will check-in at a central location in Wells Fargo Arena and will scan their “Passport” that will automatically check them in. From there, they go through the vendor fair “Welcome Zone”, pick up their keys at the end and then they are off to their specific hall to move in. I learned a lot of new information in the past two days, so I am looking forward to the coming weeks!