Day to Day

• Jim Disrude doesn’t necessarily have a typical day he probably has more of a typical week or typical month, but every day is a little bit different. So, his job duty is the advising coordinator for the College of Arts and communication, meaning I essentially oversee the day to day advising that happens through our, through our college. Thinking the most common functions is meet with students. You know, I’ll meet with a couple of students typically every day. Another common thing is Disrude does a lot have of is various administrative meetings, whether they be within our college. Including meetings where we’re partnering and working with other departments or other areas.

Personal Experiences

• As a current college student and a different University in Arizona while going to school here, I think it has made him more sympathetic to especially our transfer students because I know how I know firsthand just right now how difficult it is to all of a sudden it would be dropped in kind of a fish out of water at a different university. If you have a question about something like course schedules, what’s going to be offered future terms or holds or I’m a financial aid question or something along those lines. It can feel overwhelming with where do I find this information?  
• It can be frustrating on the advising side sometimes when you know where all of these resources are and you’re part of is you want your students to go find those resources. They perceive it. Sometimes they don’t, they don’t take that initiative but understood. But as a student, understanding that much more about taking all the initiative, but it can still feel overwhelming to find the right information and if you’re not using it as intimately as, as an employee at a university does.
• Disrude’s dissertation actually isn’t built around identity formation, which is the idea that when a traditional-age college student comes to campus at 18,19 years. They’re going through the real estate of role confusion there, trying to figure out, you know, not only who am I as a person, but where do I want to go in life. And also to add that at that time, the role confusion aspect is what they want to do might be different than what their family wants to do or what the societal norms are that they should do.

Diversity

• Whitewater ethnic identity would suggest that somebody who comes, who goes from a situation where they are overwhelmingly part of the majority. And then they come to a university like white water where they’re overwhelmingly part to the minority that that transition can be.
• . So if you picture somebody who goes from a school where it is ethnically homogenous, meaning, you know, 70, 80, 90 percent of their student body with non white and then it comes here where you’re part of 18 percent of the student body that is now not a white couple that with experiencing either directly experiencing an act of discrimination and prejudice or witnessing it, how that control to even more of this identity crisis if you will.
• Regardless of race and ethnicity, exploration and that dissertation that has made me especially more aware of how much of a crisis point that can be for first-year students. I’m trying to figure out really where they’re going and wasn’t what they’re doing in life. We know that’s a struggle for all students, but you know, it’s especially a struggle oftentimes for students that are transitioning in such an environmental change.

Top things to Takeaways:

1. As a student, you learned as a student is having a willingness to raise your hand and ask for help whenever you need to. embrace it as you need. Um, the, um, um,
2. Find time to take care of yourself, especially in graduate school. It’s very easy to burn out. Work, life balance is impossible. Work-life harmony is the key to making life easier.
3. Don’t’ feed into the negatives obviously stress but anxiety and depression and poor wellbeing and so on a breakaway from those things.
4. Realize the breaking points along the way, but really take time to really pat yourself on the back and realize what you’re doing is unique.
5. No one else is the author but you.
6. Always, always network.
7. So can you get to some statewide or regional or national conferences? A lot of times there’s funding for those kinds of things for graduate students.
8. Take advantages of resources by going to conferences or workshops. Also getting business cards along the way and getting to know people and then connecting with them afterward on LinkedIn or following up with an email.
9. Seek out opportunities if it’s just transcribing interviews or something like that that makes you the fifth author on or getting onto a poster presentation.
10. Create multiple sources to support even outside of work and schooling.