Hey OSU!!

My name is Evan Oglevie and I am a first-year graduate student in the College Student Services Administration (CSSA) program here at Oregon State University (OSU). I am originally from Colorado and lived in the state my entire life until moving out to Oregon this last August to attend graduate school. My childhood consisted of involvement in Boy Scouts, playing ice hockey, and being a Star Wars nerd (which I still own up to today….in fact just celebrated “May The 4^th Be With You”). I attended Colorado State University and completed my degree in Communication Studies as of 2009. During my time at the university I started my life in Student Affairs as a resident assistant (RA), the typical path seen for a majority of professionals in the field. I was an RA for 3 years and loved every minute of it. I worked mostly with first-year students, but had the opportunity of working with transfer populations as well. I loved it so much that I continued my time in residence life for an additional three years post-graduation. I became a Resident Director (RD) at Western State Colorado University (WSCU), a small public liberal arts college located in Gunnison, CO. There I began my journey as a professional and learned the intricacies of work in the office, student conduct, crisis situations, supervision, and of course work-life balance among the many other hats I wore at a small institution. This was also my first small town experience…a place much smaller than Corvallis. I was always shocked when people in Corvallis told me that this was such a small town. If you want a small town experience, head to Gunnison… a town where five minutes or less of driving will get you out of town and into the valleys and forests in the area.

I have found Corvallis and OSU to be a great community to live in. The CSSA program has been a blast thus far. I love the courses I am taking for the CSSA program and am almost finished with my first year! I can’t believe how fast time flies while in this program. The picture in this post shows my “Corvallis family”, some of my CSSA cohort members helping me celebrate my Birthday this past weekend with a progressive dinner that took place at five different places across Corvallis. I am the person on the left with the hat and lei, part of the mandatory Birthday regalia provided for me by my loving peers! The cohort is a great support system for both in and out of class learning. The knowledge I am gaining from the CSSA program is extremely beneficial for me. I regularly find crossovers from my professional experience to the in-class competencies within CSSA. I am interning this spring term with the Office of the Dean of Student Life (DOSL). For the spring term I am specifically focusing on the development of the Transitions course for the incoming CSSA students this fall, including the planning and organization behind the class. I also work with a team of cohort members focused on the orientation, social media, and social justice areas related to the Transitions course. For the fall term I will be continuing my internship experience with the DOSL as a teaching assistant (TA) with fellow cohort members for the Transitions course. It will be great to see my planning in action! I look forward to continuing my work with the DOSL office and look forward to applying my experiences with this internship into my future career as a professional. Good luck on week #6 Beavers!!

-Evan Oglevie, CSSA