Practicum Journal

for
Higher Education Administration and Student Personnel
M.Ed. Program

Dr. Brenda McKenzie

Practicum Faculty Advisor

Spring 2016 Semester

October 2, 2015 10am-3pm = 5 Hours

Met the admissions team
Met the student tour guides
Campus tour of Notre Dame College
Introductions to various campus administration
Lunch Meeting with Vice President for Traditional Undergraduate Enrollment and Student
Success- Beth Ford and supervisor Amanda Means
Discuss upcoming projects for the semester and tailor projects to current skills and interests.
October 5, 2015- 9am-4pm = 7 hours
Started to look over the Notre Dame website, got a feel for the entire website.
Combed through the entire website
October 9, 2015 9am-4pm = 7 hours
Transfer Communications Meeting
o Deadlines for fall communications
o Planning the reminder of fall college fair schedule
o Reviewed transfer marketing material
Informational Interview with Finical Aid officers to understand the role they have in the
admissions process
Website review, specifically looking at the admission pages
October 12, 2015- 9am-4pm = 7 hours
Staff meeting
Little Italy Columbus Day Parade
o Walked in the parade
Went with admissions team and Notre Dame band to talk to local high schools about Notre Dame
October 16, 2015 9am-4pm = 7 hours
Visit Day with prospective Wrestling student and family
Website review looking at the graphics and flow of the admissions pages
October 19, 2015 9am-3pm = 6 hours
Staff Meeting
Website Review going over content
October 23, 2015 9am-3pm = 6 hours
Website Review, meeting with Mandy and Dave to go over the website edits and create an
implementation timeline
Job description dissection
o Dissecting the job description, going over the skills and experiences I have that match the
description.
November 6, 2015 9am 4pm = 7 hours
Meeting with David Hall- Digital Media Coordinator to go over website notes
o Worked with David to implement small changes
o Fixing broken Links
o Changing dates for visit days and orientation
o Updating staff information
Job description continuation
o Worked on Admissions counselor position at Azusa Pacific University
November 8, 2015- 12pm- 5pm = 5 hours
Accepted Students Day
o Set up
o Check In prospective students
o Sat in on Math and Science academic session
o Campus Tour- moved between six tour groups to take notes
o Reception- talked to families about visit day
o Got 3 students to sign for the Fall 2016 School year!

November 9, 2015 6 hours

Worked on recommendations and notes from accepted Students Day
Staff Meeting
Visit Day for prospective Nursing Student and her family
November 13, 2015 9am-3pm = 6 hours
Informational Interview with Nick Formica
o Learned about Admissions for students with disabilities
Toured the Dwyer Learning Center
Participated in two campus tours
o One tour with new tour guide
o One tour with seasoned tour guide
Prepared Notes for Tours, provided recommendations.
November 16, 2015 10am-3pm = 5 hours
Staff Meeting
Presented notes from Campus tours to Beth Ford
Preparation for Counselor Appreciation Reception
o Walk through at Maggianos
o Prepared all gifts
o Went over scripts for staff speeches
November 23, 2015 12am-6pm = 6 hours
Counselor Appreciation Reception
o Prepared all tables
o Check In
o Assisted Notre Dame staff find there assigned school counselors
o Mingled and smoozed school counselors
o Event Clean up
November 30, 2016 10am-3pm = 5 hours
Staff Meeting
Worked on notes from counselor appreciation event
Went over plan for next semester
Job description dissection
o Worked on Admissions Counselor position at Laboratory Institute of Merchandising in
NYC
Total Hours = 85

January 22- 9am-1:30pm - 4.5 Hours

Went through the CARS database with Keri, the administrative secretary to learn
all of the facets of the program. Throughout the day I ran enrollment reports, updated
files on prospective students and prepared the folders for the appropriate admissions
counselor to make enrollment decisions.

January 29- 9am-1:30pm - 4.5 Hours

I had a brief training on Jenzabar system, and then went over the process for
making enrolment decisions and preparing financial aid packages for
accepted/prospective students. I participated in my first Football Visit Day, it was more
to get the students to get comfortable with the campus, and make sure we had all of the
proper documents for signing day. Although only the students that are receiving athletic
scholarships are required to participate in signing day through NCAA, Notre Dame
makes it a point to allow students who receive the Notre Dame grant to participate as
well. I think this is a great example of how student development theory can come through
in the work place. The students who are not receiving athletic scholarships still need to
find an identity or purpose on campus. In Chickerings theory of identity development is
one that comes to mind, the students have to move through the vectors before they get to
campus so when the arrive they are able to establish the identity most associated with
themselves.

February 1- 9am-1:30pm - 4.5 Hours

Mandy and I went through and made enrollment decisions for those students who
were recruited for the football team. We the made the financial aid award packages for
those students who were not receiving athletic scholarships, since those students who
receive any type of athletic aid were then handled through the athletics department.

February 8- 9am-1:30pm - 4.5 Hours

I had my first visit day where I co-facilitated the visit with the Admissions Counselor
Tom. It was an on the spot decision and I had to think on my feet to previous visits and
the information that I gathered when I was researching website content. It was a high
school junior who was an excellent fit for the university, so we werent able to provide
any financial package like we normally would have. I also had an informational interview
with Elizabeth Cappabianca, the coordinator of student engagement and leadership to get
a better perspective on how admissions and student activities work together. Admissions
has meetings with all of the departments under student affairs and it was very interesting
to get a better idea on how they worked together.

February 12- 9am-2 pm - 5 Hours

I went through an additional in depth training of CARS and learned more about how
students are classified when they are missing information or they need to improve test
scores before being admitted. I also worked on sending out emails through Hobsins to
those students. I did a walk through of the set up for the presidents day visit, and went to
each department involved asking what they needed to set everything up. There was some
miscommunication with the time commitments needed from the academic departments,
so I had to address them as well.

February 15- 8am-2pm - 6 Hours

Presidents Day Visit Day! I helped set up for the event and still took that
observant eye about the program itself. I was focused on what the parents were saying
rather than the students this time. I was also able to mingle with prospective families and

talk about Notre Dame, and I made a connection with an interested football student and
the coach. It was such a great feeling when I saw them talking and the family really
engage with other faculty after that initial contact was made.

February 19- 9am-2:30pm - 5.5 Hours

I went through the faculty Safe Zone training for the college. In the past I had completed
safe zone training my freshman year of college, so a lot has changed in almost 6 years. I
was interested initially going into the training because it was taking place at a catholic
institution, but I felt I got more out of this training than the previous one I has attended. I
was also able to provide some examples that we had talked about in Dr. Iversons
Administration of Multiculturalism and Diversity in Higher Education class when Karl
Rishe (the presenter) asked for some updated material. I was able to talk about some
personal stories that students shared in class with their first interactions with different
populations, and I also talked about some of the support mentioned in the Quaye and
Harper book for the different populations on campus.

February 22- 9am-1:30pm - 4.5 Hours

I started working on the CAS standards today, this was the first time that I had even seen
what the document actually looked like for a department. In class that term gets used
often to describe competencies that we as professionals should have, but not always what
the department we work for should have. I spent the day reviewing two CAS assessments
from two different schools to get a better understanding of what I would be completing. I
also sat in on a visit with a prospective student and the admissions counselor Nicole. It

was very interesting to see the different styles and ways that they say the same essential
message.

February 26- 9am-1:30pm - 4.5 Hours

I started to work on the CAS standards for Notre Dame Admissions and realized how
much work it actually is for one person. I was able to do a very surface level completion
of half of the sections listed. I also had my first visit with just students, a group of three
girls traveled to see the school. It was such a different approach since we wanted to cater
to all three girls majors and needs in the same appointment.

February 29- 9am-2 pm - 5 Hours

I did the second half of a surface level CAS standards evaluation. I found it a little
difficult because I didnt know all of the information and wasnt looking for an in-depth
response to the questions yet. I felt myself wanting to explain my rationale but it wasnt
the right time. After completion of the surface level evaluation I sat down with Mandy
and went over what I had completed, and started to get ready for the in-depth evaluation.
I was able to sit in on an interview for an open admissions position at Notre Dame. It was
such a great insight at what I should be looking forward to in the near future. I only wish
that I was able to sit in on more of the interviews to get a better picture.

March 4-9am-2pm - 5 Hours

After sitting in with various admissions counselors in admissions visits throughout the
year, I had a better picture of what to be putting in the admissions presentations. I was

able to start working on the content and thinking about what types of audiences I wanted
to target with these presentations. I also continued working on CAS and the more indepth evaluation. Since I was an outside perspective, with being someone who didnt
come up with any of the policies or practices; it was much easier to give comments that
were unbiased.

March 7- 9am-1:30pm - 4.5 Hours

I continued to work on the CAS standards and the admissions presentations. I decided to
create different presentations for the key messages that I thought were different; athletes,
student clubs/orgs, and classic standard one. I started to collect the information that I
wanted to be different and went from there.

March 11-9am-2pm - 5 Hours

I was able to finish the CAS standards and sat down with Mandy and discussed my
answers and scores for each section. I also worked on the admissions PowerPoints and
was able to complete the general admissions one. I also created a set of general FAQs for
prospective students and ones the office can ask prospective students. I based them off a
note from a sales training that the admissions staff had previously gone through, and
research I had done previously on other schools websites.

March 14- 9am-1:30pm - 4.5 Hours

I finished up the athletic and student clubs/org presentation and was able to show it to the
staff in admissions. I explained how It could be utilized in an admissions visit as well, so
it was fully functional.

April 4- 9am-1:30pm - 4.5 Hours

We had the site visit with Brenda McKenzie and we discussed how the call went
afterwards. It was really nice to hear what Mandy had to say about my progress and work
that I had completed. I was also able to lead an admissions visit with an admissions
counselor present in case I needed help. I was able to get through the whole thing and
answer most of the questions the student and mother had on my own. It was such a great
feeling to walk them through that.

April 11-9am-1:30pm - 4.5 Hours

We had the first round of Orientation Leader Interviews, with a total of 12
interviews on Monday. It was such a different feeling to switch gears between Greek life
interns and professional staff for Greek life and admissions interviews, to average
students for the orientation position. In the beginning of the interview I was much harsher
with how I was grading them, often times comparing them to my student leaders at Kent.
After I kind of took a step back and remembered that it was a different culture, I started to
view the interviews very differently.
Total Spring Hours- 76.5
Total Internship Hours 161.5