Hi! My name is Maria Garcia and I am fifth year student here at Oregon State University.  I am from Hermiston, a small town in Eastern Oregon.  I am very excited to be interning at the Office of the Dean of Student Life this term and even more excited to be receiving my bachelors in June!  It has been a long journey but definitely worth the struggle because of the opportunities I have received.

Because of the very busy term, I like to take some time to relax in the Memorial Union and enjoy my surroundings.  Besides interning in the office, I am also taking a few classes, including a cardio kickboxing class to ease away the stress!  One of my biggest goals is to go to graduate school to obtain my masters and I would love it if it were in the College Student Services Administration (CSSA) here at Oregon State.  Meanwhile, the drafts after drafts of resumes and personal essay questions will continue.

Working in the office has been quite enjoyable (as I have wonderful colleagues and supervisors)!  I am currently working on a few projects, the first one being researching and compiling data on other dean of student life/student affairs websites and comparing it to our university and other peer institutions.  This has proven to be quite a challenge when I dislike their website and can find nothing positive to say and bring back as an improvement to our own site.  Nevertheless, the final product of this research will definitely contain a lot of information to consider when making improvements to our website and office.

Furthermore, what began as a summer internship with a couple of students creating videos to establish a more inclusive environment for students and easy access to a visual tool, has now expanded into this term as well.  I am co-creating captioned videos with other interns in the office to offer students the opportunity to learn a little more about services identified as imperative on campus.  Through this project, we hope students and families will be able to easily navigate our website and find the information they need.  Our intention is to ensure that students are aware of everything our Office of the Dean of Student Life offers and create an enjoyable college experience.

Finally, I am also working with my internship supervisor, Kim McAloney, to try to establish a few Students of Color meetings where students interest’s can be met.  Because my personal interests lie in student affairs and because I am in the NASPA Undergraduate Fellow’s  Program (NUFP), I have targeted my meetings to students with these same interests.  Currently, this is still a two-times-a-term project, but hopefully next term it will grow.

With all these projects, and the other projects currently underway in the office, it has been quite busy around here!  I enjoy listening to the updates other interns have in our weekly meeting and establishing a cohort between our DOSL team as we engage in icebreakers.

I can’t wait to see the advances we make this term!  Fall is here and besides the rain, it is time to appreciate the hot chocolates, yummy pastries and the changing color of leaves.

-Maria Garcia