As an undergraduate, I remember sitting in the office of one of my mentors and saying, “I don’t know what I want to do after graduation. I wish I can stay in college forever!”
She laughed and asked, “Have you considered pursuing a career in higher education?”
And, just like that, it clicked.
I spent the rest of my junior year looking up different student affairs programs, conducting informative interviews with my mentors and reaching out to graduate programs to learn more. As a product of the Higher Education Opportunity Program (HEOP), I knew that my persistence at Cornell was tied to the support and guidance I received by the administrators of that office. Their commitment to my success inspired me to consider a similar career, and I finally felt like I knew my calling.
After receiving a master’s of education in higher education administration, I returned to my alma mater as an assistant dean of students. In this role, I advised diversity-related student organizations, coordinated a peer mentorship program for men of color and distributed funding for departments, individual students and student groups who wanted to put on cultural events on campus.
However, as you may have heard from other student affairs practitioners, “other duties as assigned” takes up a lot of time, too. Beyond my primary roles, I was accustomed to responding to reported bias incidents, one-on-one advising with students and simply being present at the communities I was hired to support. I loved my job, but I knew I wanted a Ph.D. in the near future and had to figure out how I could adequately prepare to not only apply to programs, but also transition back to being a graduate student.
Here are some of the strategies I used that I recommend:
