My fifth and final performance for Hmong Legacy. I had originally wanted to go with a piece that encapsulated my time and experience in Hmong Legacy. But that was not what I learned in Hmong Legacy. In Hmong Legacy, we continue to push ourselves and confront some of our deepest fears and traumas. So, with that, I wrote a whole new piece the night before the performance.
I thought I had finished writing about the topic of family as I wrote about my mom, my stepmom, and my mot grandma. There are two topics I’ve avoided writing about for the longest time because they are the two that caused me the most damage and pain. They are my older brother and my father. So, for my last piece, I decided to write about my older brother.
Hmong Legacy has been such an amazing experience throughout my undergraduate career. It allowed me to have a space where I can go to and just be Hmong. Somewhere I didn’t feel like I was fighting to just simply exist on campus. I truly hope Hmong Legacy will continue because it does wonders for our Hmong community at Chico State. Thank you to Raquel Lee and the Cross-Cultural Leadership Center for keeping Hmong Legacy going.
7 minutes and 30 seconds
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My fourth performance for Hmong Legacy’s Reading event. It had been a very long time since my last spoken word performance so I was pretty nervous about this one. The background of this piece is talking about the fragile masculinity I’ve witnessed in the Hmong community. I had the opportunity to attend APAHE earlier that year and I listened to a workshop presented by Vince Moua. They talked about the struggles of being a Hmong professional at higher education institutions and having to be one or one of the few AAPI individuals fighting for our Hmong youths.
I sent this email to Vince after the conference because of how impactful his workshop was to me. “Thank you again for such a strong and powerful workshop you presented here at APAHE. I feel so privileged and honored to have attended and gotten to meet you and hear about your story. I resonated so much with many of the things you mentioned, especially the part about going to higher education and getting that exposure and then going back home and people who you used to go to school with, your own community, outcasts you. I hear you, and I see you and the pain that comes with that experience because I have gone through that too.”
On the right side here, you’ll see a few of Vince’s slides that I was able to capture.
The other media that I incorporated into this piece was from Joyner Lucas’ song called Things I’ve Seen. It is such a powerful song and raw in how he points to the struggles that Black women face and encounter. I wanted to incorporate that and switch to something that is more geared toward Hmong women. Also, I apologize for my usage of Hmong, I got too emotional during my piece and I was not able to correctly pronounce some of the Hmong words I had written down.
We even had a reporter from our university’s independent news source in attendance to capture the thoughts and feelings of the performers. You can read it here! Am I Hmong enough? Students search for identity in diaspora. Thank you Melvin Bui for coming out and reporting on this! Also, special thanks to Selena and the Cross-Cultural Leadership Center for keeping Hmong Legacy alive!
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I was pushed and coaxed into giving a spoken word performance to the students. Kim (my boss) asked me a few days before the last day we met up with the students if I wanted to give a spoken word performance on the last day. I initially said “No.” but after a few more encouragement from Kim and my coworkers, I ended up saying “Yes.” So, I gave my “Represent Represent” piece a few small revisions, and then on the last day with the students, I performed it for them. The reason why I decided to go with this piece was because I wanted the students to understand that coming to college and especially being in the EOP program, they will and are representing many things. They will represent their hometown, their ethnicity, their culture, their family, Chico State, and most importantly, they will represent EOP. So when they shine, the whole program shines. At the same time, I wanted to give them a real talk about how college is not for everyone as it will test them greatly in all capacities in life. The audio is not the best so I apologize about that.
4 minutes and 19 seconds
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IMPORTANT: Skip the video to 21:05 because that is when I begin my performance. My third performance in Hmong Legacy. Before I go any further, I do have to warn you that the audio for the video DOES NOT WORK. Sadly, there was an audio issue so a good portion of the performance was not broadcasted. However, I still uploaded the piece and you can read it here! Tub Xeeb Ntxwv Manting
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IMPORTANT: Skip the video to 40:19 because that is when I begin my performance. My second performance in Hmong Legacy. Compared to my first performance, I was more confident and strong with my piece and the components within my piece; the message and intent. “Represent Represent” will always have a special place in my heart as it was the piece that made me discover my love for performing spoken word. I learned so much during Fall 2018 and this piece really shows my growth not only in me but the growth that I continue to seek in the future as well.
Represent Represent was made during a time that I felt resembled where I was in my life. I incorporated media that I consumed at the time into my pieces whenever I write them. So, if something feels familiar, it probably is. I can’t fully 100% claim that this is original but it is still something I want to share because this piece was everything to me when I first made it.
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My first-ever performance in Hmong Legacy. I was so nervous and I just fumbled my words throughout this performance but little did I know that Hmong Legacy was going to have such a strong and impactful influence on my life not only in finding my identity as a Hmong – American male but also as a creative writer.
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This was my first ever performance in front of an audience and it was surreal and not planned. Like, at all. My workshop leaders asked for volunteers and I decided to share mine. This became the basis of my future spoken word performances. And of course, Facebook quality is just the best… not really.
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During my senior year of college, I was able to apply and got approved to participate in the Student Leadership Academy (Levels One and Two) held by the Associated Students Office at Chico State in Spring 2021. I saw this opportunity being advertised in the weekly announcements email we would get from Chico State and once I saw this, I knew I wanted to be part of it. The application process wasn’t difficult as it only require us to complete some questionnaires. I wanted to continue to experience new things and be active in my learning process of developing and improving my leadership skills even during an online academic year. I was surprised by myself in finding the time and actually getting through this because, on top of SLA, I had picked up a second job on campus pushing my work hours per week from 15 -> 20, balancing school, and so much more on the side. But, I think something I’ve come to understand about myself is that, no matter where I am, I will continue to push myself to my limit and capacity for the things I want to be a part of and experience. Each SLA level was a four-week-long commitment and since I was in both levels One and Two, I was doing this for half of the semester.
I’ve attached most of the things I wrote or did for SLA levels One and Two on the side here so feel free to look through them if you’re interested in finding out on what I learned. This includes the syllabuses, my notes, my presentations, screenshots of the 16Personalities test, the True Colors test, and our goodbye cohort photos at the end of each level completion. Just like most of my other experiences I have had, there is just so much that I learned and it is difficult to remember it all. But, there are some specific ones I want to highlight from each level that I enjoyed the most.
From my SLA level One, I really enjoyed the CliftonStrengths test. Even though I had previously completed one already back in 2018 for my Student Mentor job for ETS. Over time, we grow, learn, and change so it is not guaranteed that we will get the same strengths again as new strengths will become more of a priority and usage based on our situation. I am happy to same that I am a pretty consistent person as three out of the five strengths this time are the same as my last attempt. However, they are all in a different order now. Something to note is that just because the same strengths I had previously do not show up this time, it does not mean that I lost those strengths, instead, they are just lower now on my priority and usage. Context moved from one -> four, Restorative moved from three -> one, and Learner moved from two -> five! That’s some pretty far moves in my opinion. My new strengths that showed up are Realtor (two) and Individualization (three). It was very interesting reading up more on Realtor and Individualization but I soon understood why these two strengths appeared. It was because of my job working as an EOP Paraprofessional. I was very focused on helping each student succeed and I made sure to know the uniqueness of each student I had to better connect and understand their needs to support them even more. Comparing it to my 2018 results, I’m happy to see I am still the same but at the same time, I’m improving and using new skills and strengths.
Another part of SLA level One was the keynote speaker we had on the fourth and last week. Jennifer Keith, what an amazing woman. She shared this one particular quote by Nelson Mandela “It is better to lead from behind and put others in front, especially when you celebrate victory when nice things occur. You take the front line when there is danger. Then, people will appreciate your leadership.” I still think about this quote a lot because I always see people act big and lead strong when things are going well but crumple and act with a small heart when the going gets tough. Nowadays, I try to step up more in situations when the going get’s tough because that is when someone’s best leadership qualities are shown.
Before I move on further, I want to say that I greatly loved meeting the people in both SLA level One and SLA level Two because each person was bringing something new to the table (or more like Zoom lol) and it was very refreshing having some entertaining and interesting conversations with these people. After SLA level One, we were given an opportunity to apply for SLA level Two, so naturally, I applied. I am super grateful and happy that I was able to be accepted into SLA level Two. It was even more enjoyable than SLA level One which I was not expecting. SLA level Two was somewhat similar to SLA level One but it had components that expanded on what we learned previously and explored new ideas and topics.
My favorite thing from SLA level Two was taking a Meyers-Briggs personality test using the 16Personalities website. It turns out that I am an ENFJ-A. Which is dubbed “The Protagonist”, basically “Protagonists (ENFJs) feel called to serve a greater purpose in life. Thoughtful and idealistic, these personality types strive to have a positive impact on other people and the world around them. They rarely shy away from an opportunity to do the right thing, even when doing so is far from easy.” And reading all of the other information displayed on the website and how ENFJ’s thinking process works and how we interact with the world. It was like reading about myself, which sounds super conceited but I think if anyone took this test and answered the questions to their correct preferences, then you would feel the same reading about yourself too. After taking this test, it really helped explain so much about myself and I feel even more confident in understanding myself and why I conduct myself in such manners. If you have gotten this far, I would highly recommend that you go and take the 16Personalities test as well to learn more about yourself and who you are.
Very similar to SLA level One, for the last week of SLA level Two we also had a keynote speaker come talk to us, however, this time it was a different person. And boy, she was even better than Jennifer. No shade towards Jennifer, I just personally felt like I was able to resonate more with the ideas and advice that Lori Hart bestowed upon us. Lori Hart’s messages to us were not about leadership, but more like practical life reminders that we tend to forget as young adults and the importance of taking care of yourself in order to take care of others. She mentioned one thing I was severely lacking throughout 2021, which was sleep. The most important thing we could do for ourselves and having better health, mood, and mindset throughout the week is to have enough sleep. Even though I have been neglecting this throughout 2021, I have tried to improve upon this and make myself have at least two-three nights of having at least seven-eight hours of sleep. I’m pretty sure that the average amount of sleep I have in 2021 is five-six hours and on many weeks, I would have two-three nights where I only get four hours of sleep. I’m just so busy with my life and all the things I’m doing that I chose to sacrifice sleep in order to complete everything that I need. I will work on improving this in 2022.
My great experience in SLA levels One and Two would not have been possible without our head coordinator and workshop leader Kaylee McAllister. If I ever get another student job on campus, Kaylee would be one of those bosses and individuals I would want to work for. She’s just awesome and has that energy and drive to motivate people to feel the want to improve. Kaylee was always super fun to talk to and always offer great words of advice throughout my SLA experience. Thank you, Kaylee, Anabelle, and Katelyn for being such great workshop leaders and facilitating such warm and positive workshop spaces on Zoom. It would not have been the same without y’alls.
Overall, this SLA experience was much needed in Spring 2021. I learned so so much about myself and even more about my leadership skills and how to be a better leader. I wish Mr. Wahl and Mr. Simmons can see how far I’ve come in my development on being a leader and the improvement of my leadership skills. I would highly recommend anyone who wants to improve on their leadership skills and learn more about themselves to apply and experience SLA. And if you do, I hope you go in with an open mind and open heart, and allow yourself to learn to get the full experience. Thank you, SLA for giving and allowing me to have experienced something so needed in my life after many difficult moments in both 2019 and 2020.
Leadership Academy Syllabuses and My Presentions + Notes
I have taken this True Colors personality test three times on separate occasions and all have been in these percentages.My 16Personalities type is ENFJ-A. ENFJs are the protagonists or champions of the MBTI typology. They are the 4th rarest personality type in the world. They make up about 2.8% of the world’s population.It was super cool reading through all this and getting goosebumps because this is literally me.SLA Level One Spring 2021 Cohort! Such a great team to bond with and just learn from. I met a lot of great people and I couldn’t be happier with the people that I came in with.SLA Level Two Spring 2021 Cohort! This team was equally as awesome as my Level One cohort. It was great meeting new people but also expanding on the friendships I made previously too.
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Description: Works with students participating in the EOP First-Year Experience program. Duties include working with a core group of students; advising on GE requirements, course scheduling, and disseminating information and basic knowledge of university policy and procedures; maintaining accurate records of student contact and academic progress; planning programs; and completing end-of-semester student file summaries. The Paraprofessional Advisor must possess the ability to work with minimal supervision and pay close attention to detail. Additionally, in cooperation with a staff member, paraprofessionals may develop and facilitate workshops.
DUTIES INCLUDE, but are not limited to the following: – Assist in academic advising for first-year freshman students (Parapro) – Assist in facilitating workshops – Actively participate in all training and weekly staff meetings – Refer students to services for any problem identified during contact – Distribute and follow up on mid-semester progress evaluations – Participate in student panels and presentations to large groups – Facilitate or assist in planning large group activities – Able to work flexible hours, including some required evenings and weekends – Other duties as prescribed by your immediate supervisor
Year 1: 2020 – 2021
My Junior year was very eventful with plenty of growing pains and lessons learned. Entering my Senior year of college, I applied and got hired as a Paraprofessional Advisor for the Educational Opportunity Program. Before I go any further, just know that I have so much to say about this job. It’s probably gonna be a very long one. This is a position on campus that I always wanted after my Freshmen year of college because I had discovered that I really enjoy working in student mentor roles and supporting other students from similar backgrounds as me. Also, I want to give back to the program that helped supported, and shaped me during my college career. I felt confident when I had the interview for this position, mainly because I felt that my resume was strong and I also did very well answering the questions that were being asked to me. This job came with many responsibilities and also many components that I was looking forward to participating in.
One such component is the EOP Summer Bridge program, which is a transition program for invited EOP first-time freshmen. The program is designed to help students acquire the skills and knowledge necessary to build a bridge from high school to a successful college experience. While at Summer Bridge, the freshmen meet with mentors, experience university lectures, and attend a variety of workshops and presentations. Summer Bridge also is an opportunity for EOP participants to meet each other and the faculty and staff who will be assisting students in the fall. During Summer Bridge, freshmen will be able to finalize housing plans, complete financial aid files, and register for fall semester courses. Students will also attend workshops to help with their transition to the University.
Because I had come in as an EOP student and went through Summer Bridge, I wanted to experience that again but in a role where I would be able to help other students and begin building connections and relationships with the students prior to the academic year starting to accelerate the trust and familiarity between my students and me. Unfortunately, due to covid, I was never able to experience the Summer Bridge program in person as a paraprofessional advisor. We did have Summer Bridge virtually for the academic years of 2020-21 and 2021-22. Which, I think the EOP advisors did a great job at facilitating and having great advisors coming into Zoom and sharing about the resources on campus the students can use virtually to support them throughout the year.
This job has been a very good and positive experience so far and I hope it continues to be that way. My first year working in this position was very new and different because this was the year Covid-19 hit the U.S. and made many universities around the country transition from in-person learning to online. This also affected the EOP office in the same fashion as we converted our operations to online. This meant that for a whole academic year, I would be advising students via Zoom and online interactions only. After saying that, you could just imagine how difficult and how many questions came up in terms of how we as paraprofessional advisors would be effective support systems for our students.
Personally, I felt like my learning curve was a bit big in my first year in the position because I had to balance both a work mode and a school mode. Since we as parapros worked from home and used two laptops, it was very easy for me to just transition from school to work. However, transitioning from work to school was difficult because if I had an email come in, even during the times I was not scheduled to be working, I would work during those off hours. Which, I’m not getting paid for so why would I do that? I knew how scary and difficult it must be for our EOP students who come from a disadvantage compared to other students who aren’t first-generation, historically low-income, and have marginalized communities in their first year of college, and on top of that, it is virtual and the is a global pandemic still happening. So, I overworked myself in being as available to my students as possible because if there was one thing I wanted to say and be proud of myself for at the end of my first year working for EOP as a paraprofessional advisor is that, I was not going to be the reason why a student of mine failed. If I did everything within my abilities without overstepping my boundaries and my student was not able to be successful academically in our program, at least I can wash my hands and be content that I did all I could, and I can accept those results.
2020 – 2021 EOP Paraprofessional Team
EOP Parapro Manting in Spring 2021
Year 2: 2021 – 2022
Now we are on to my fifth year of college. With that, I decided to accept EOP’s offer to be a returner and continue as a Paraprofessional Advisor. I was one of two returners coming back in the position. I still love the job and I felt like I haven’t gotten everything I wanted out of the job yet. The client group I had from my first year in the position are now sophomores so that meant I was no longer directly advising them. We had a new incoming EOP Freshmen cohort so it meant I will have a new client group. I was given a smaller amount of client group compared to my first year. I was also tasked with supporting my co-workers in their client groups. Whatever questions my colleagues had, they knew they can reach out to ask me. I was there to support both my client group and my colleagues.
With a smaller client group, it allowed me to focus more on each of my students. I remembered more about the details and little things they would share with me during our meetings. It felt very nice to do that because I felt the connection was developed quicker which made them want to meet with me more. Also, this was the first time that we were allowed to have in-person meetings because the university allowed students to come back to have in-person courses in a hybrid situation. Some of my students still met with me virtually as that was still an option in case they were uncomfortable being in person due to covid or just weren’t able to come in physically. The energy and connections I made with my students were so much better in person compared to my first year via Zoom.
When Spring 2022 rolled around, I began to feel the creeping feeling of being comfortable. I realized that I had become too good at my job, and I was scared I might become bored with it. I became really good at understanding the university’s policies in terms of grades, GPA, enrolling in courses, withdrawing from courses, and nearly all academic-related questions students had about their student center and degree progress report. Whatever academic plans my students wanted to implement or head towards, I had that on lock ready to help them get to where they wanted to go. With me becoming too good at my job, I wonder if I should come back to the position for a third time in the last year of my undergraduate career.
In my second year of this position as an EOP Paraprofessional Advisor, I continue to have amazing students I get to work with. These students are very impressive, and that is putting it lightly. The resilience they displayed throughout the academic year is something I will always remember. They came to college after spending part of their high school experience virtual and feeling douts of not being prepared for college and not being “college-ready.” It felt very rewarding to see the confidence these students began to accumulate as the academic year progressed and they found success in their spaces. I know that the success will continue to grow for them and I am excited to see where the future leads them.
2021 – 2022 EOP Paraprofessional Team
Team Seven #WaterStyleDripJutsuEOP Parapro Manting in Fall 2021
Year 3: 2022 – 2023
EOP asked me to come back to the position as Lead Paraprofessional Advisor since I was the only returner who would be back with two years of experience. Although it sounds like a fancy title, it didn’t mean anything really. I was still paid the same as the rest of my colleagues and worked the same hours. I basically did the same thing I did last year but with a bigger client group and assisting my colleagues. I decided to come back because if this is the type of work I want to do after I graduate, I should not shy away from this and feel like I’m bored or tired of it after two years. I was determined to figure out how much I enjoyed mentoring and advising students. I would’ve just preferred if they wanted me back and didn’t apply any title to it. Coming into this position, it was also the first year we were able to have EOP’s Summer Bridge Program in person on campus since the Covid pandemic.
The last in-person Summer Bridge Program that EOP did was in 2019. Since 2019, the EOP office at Chico State has undergone a huge staff turnover. The team is really new, and most of the staff members are in their second year or first year in the EOP office. My previous boss also accepted a new position at UC Davis during this time, and he was the most senior member of the EOP staff aside from the Associate Director. What I’m trying to say is that Summer Bridge 2022 was the first time this new EOP staff team did it together. But what is Summer Bridge? Instead of explaining what it is, I’ll just go ahead and paste what is written on the EOP website.
The EOP Summer Bridge program is a transition program for invited EOP first-time freshmen. The program is designed to help students acquire the skills and knowledge necessary to build a bridge from high school to a successful college experience. While at Summer Bridge, the freshmen meet with mentors, experience university lectures, and attend a variety of workshops and presentations. Summer Bridge also is an opportunity for EOP participants to meet each other and the faculty and staff who will be assisting students in the fall. During Summer Bridge, freshmen will be able to finalize housing plans, complete financial aid files, and register for fall semester courses. Students will also attend workshops to help with their transition to the University.
The previous two years I’ve worked as a Paraprofessional Advisor, and we’ve had to conduct Summer Bridge online via Zoom. Summer Bridge is one of the best times for Paraprofessional Advisors to connect and develop bonds with their potential client groups so that when the academic year starts, students are already familiar and somewhat comfortable with their assigned parapro from the interactions they’ve had at Summer Bridge. Summer Bridge 2023 was very fun but it also presented a lot of challenges where you can see the inexperience of the staff come out. I do not hold animosity towards the EOP staff as it is their first time doing Summer Bridge in person again. I expected it to be a stressful job as all the Paraprofessionals worked as Resident Advisors during Summer Bridge. That meant we would be living with the students in the dorms and be on call 24/7. You would go to sleep around midnight and wake up around 5/6 AM to prepare for your wing meeting.
Your whole day would be packed from 7:00 AM until 8:00 PM. Highkey, the job of being an RA for Summer Bridge is an underpaid position. For the amount of work and bs that we had to deal with, the position does not pay enough. It’s a good amount of money for two weeks of work but man, it hits differently knowing that I put in more work compared to a few of my colleagues on the team. This was supposed to be a seven-person team but the majority of the time it felt like a 4-5 person team instead. Two of my colleagues were not pulling their weight and that severely stressed out and hindered the ability of the rest of the team. I think what didn’t help too was that the two colleagues that didn’t carry their weight were the favorites of the EOP staff. I think that irked me more than anything. I don’t mind favoritism, that’s to be expected, but if you’re going to play favorites, be subtle about it and favorite someone who will actually get their responsibilities and tasks done.
Summer Bridge builds character for everyone involved. Everyone comes out of Summer Bridge a stronger and more prepared individual for the upcoming academic year. Summer Bridge is filled with more positives than negatives but I would not recommend anyone to work this job of being an RA for Summer Bridge more than once. It is extremely draining and I do not believe most people’s sanity can endure it more than once. I didn’t feel quite as sad when Summer Bridge ended because I knew that I’ll see them a few months later when they come back when the academic year starts. Shout out to my colleagues that did their thing and kept us going during the tough times. You know who you are. I would not have made it through Summer Bridge without yall.
With Summer Bridge done, let’s talk about the actual academic year. I have to admit that this was my favorite client group out of the three years I worked this job. A huge reason is because of Summer Bridge, the bonds I already made with some of the people in my client group made it so much easier to connect and assist the students. Something cool about this client group too was that I had a few students who had majors that I haven’t advised before. That presented a new and fun challenge for me when it came to course selections and figuring out what would be the best route for what the student wanted. You know who you are lol. You kept me on my toes and it was always fun seeing you in the office. I had a great group of students that were academically driven and got involved early on campus. Their growth was quick and I was very impressed.
Honestly, being an EOP Parapro is such an emotional rollercoaster. You never know what you’re gonna get with the student coming in. But with every interaction I had with my past students and from this year, I am beyond grateful. It taught me a lot about myself and I learned a lot from my students too. One of the hardest parts about this job is when you weren’t successful in helping a student. Whether it is from them failing a course or deciding to withdraw from the university, it was hard to take that in. Because I would ask myself “Did I do enough?” And sometimes I try as much as I can and the result still wouldn’t be what I want.
Accepting we did all we can and being okay with that was very difficult. As much as I want the students to succeed and do well if they did not meet me halfway, I couldn’t fully help them. I had a lot of great students that made my job easy to manage and relieved a lot of stress. But whenever my students were stressed or in pain, I felt that too. I just hope that in some way, I was able to be a positive impact and influence on these students. They are amazing and they also motivated me throughout this year too. It’s sad this experience is ending because I know this will forever be something I will cherish for the rest of my days.
EOP Parapro Manting in Fall 2022The EOP Office 2022 – 2023The Paraprofessional Advisor Team
My client group for 2022 – 2023. Missing a few.I am really going to miss them 😦
The students I had on the third floor of Sutter Hall for Summer Bridge 2022. Missing a few.My students during Summer Bridge went above and beyond.
June 2023 – EOP Summer Bridge 2023 – Head Resident Advisor
Just as I thought my time working for the EOP Program had come to an end, I was offered to come back and work for them as Head Resident Advisor for their Summer Bridge Program. I was offered the position back in late March/early April. Honestly, I was hesitant from accepting the position. The trauma I endured from Summer Bridge 2022 still haunted me a little bit. I remember when I got done with Summer Bridge in 2022 I went home and was knocked out due to exhaustion. And then I took the next few just staying home and recovering. I would be going in with a new team that I did not know I could rely upon. I did not want to experience the same bs I endured last time where one-two colleague didn’t pull their weight.
I ended up accepting the position because of two reasons. The first reason is that I love this program and I want Summer Bridge to be a success for this next incoming EOP freshmen cohort. I know that I can get the job done and have it job the right way. I am the best person for the job and I’m not afraid to admit that. If I didn’t love this program and helping students, I would not have accepted this position. I already know it is underpaid and the potential for me to gain more money for being Head RA was very slim. The second reason is that I’ve always wanted to run and manage my own team. Even if I’m only semi in-charge of this team, this is still my team. Not many college graduates get the opportunity to manage their own team so quickly after graduating.
Going into this position, I kept more of an open mind and let things slide off of me. I didn’t let something that was unpleasant affect me as much this time around. If something didn’t go as planned, I just brushed it off. It helped my mind a lot to stay level-headed and sane during Summer Bridge. I was there to support the next team of Paraprofessionals but also I was assigned a group of students. I was assigned to the fifth floor of Estom Jamani Hall (formerly known as Sutter Hall), which is the top floor, and last year I was assigned to the third floor. I had a good team this year for Summer Bridge. For the most part, everyone did their job. A few of my colleagues slacked off here and there but it was still way better than last year. The only big concern I had throughout was that my team was not cohesive in agreeing to policies or ideas we had agreed upon to put in place and actually back up each RA’s floors. It felt divided and that caused problems throughout the program’s duration.
I dislike bashing on the partners and other departments we work with during Summer Bridge but I believe in transparency and letting others know how things are. Housing both years for Summer Bridge was ass and I’m putting it lightly. Numerous rooms had issues that should have been resolved or not even inspected. In both years, I had students who could not get into their rooms on the first few nights because they were issued the incorrect room key. Some rooms were still in winter setting so it blasted warm air instead of cool air. Keep in mind that it is during the summer and it is constantly high 90s and 100s outside as well. A few of my students had rooms where their room lights did not turn off so they had to sleep with it on. Essentially, housing just needs to get its shit together. There is a limit to encountering small inconveniences and then seeing that someone is incompetent in their job. After witnessing this twice in a row, I think it is the latter.
The program is only six/seven days but it is jam pack and everyone is busy. The job is both extremely exhausting and draining, that’s just the truth. But what makes it worth it are the connections and interactions I had with the students. Making sure the students are safe, comfortable, and having a positive experience was what mattered to me. It didn’t matter how I felt, I put the students first because I was in their exact same shoes and situation six years ago. They must have a glimmer of hope and reassurance that by the end of Summer Bridge, they can feel like they will succeed here at Chico State in the Fall semester. I know that whoever they go, they will do great, I just know it.
It is my last job working for EOP at Chico State, well at least for a while. I don’t know when I’ll have the opportunity to come back and work for this office. It is a bittersweet feeling. I cried a lot at the end of Summer Bridge knowing that this was it and that I probably won’t ever see these students again. I gave this program everything I had, took on more than I was supposed to, and still did a great job. I’m thankful for everything I learned and experienced from working with this office.
The EOP Summer Bridge RA Team with our Boss.Officially leaving Summer Bridge.
Funny version!Photo credits to Sal
This weather was a huge no no.Yup, my students loved me.
Hello, I would appreciate it if you would give me feedback on what you enjoyed and what you didn’t. If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to comment or email me too! Thank you.
My Junior year was very eventful with plenty of growing pains and lessons learned. Entering my Senior year of college, I applied and got hired as a Paraprofessional Advisor for the Educational Opportunity Program. (I will talk about this experience below in the next section). During my time working there, I personally went and sought out this virtual conference in October called the California Student Leadership Conference. Which, it seems this conference has been happening for a while now but I only heard about it recently in Fall 2020. I haven’t gone to a conference for over a year so I knew this was something I wanted to attend and experience.
Heading into this conference, I kept an open mind about the available workshops and topics that were available for us to attend. One thing I didn’t know that was a bit of a surprise to me was that this conference was politically driven by liberals and the Black Lives Matter Movement. Which, I’m all for as I identify myself as an ally and liberal. This did cause some tension within the chat feature in the conference as many attendees voiced their dissatisfaction that this conference would have these things incorporated. Safe to say that a portion of the attendees decreased after the first hour when the keynote speaker Alicia Garza finished.
Aside from that, I felt like the organizers did a great job running this virtual conference during covid and keeping many people engaged with each other. There was an app that we used on our phones to text in questions during the workshops or to interact with other attendees. The app was called Whova, it was a bit confusing to use at first but I quickly got the hang of it and once I did, surprisingly, I had one of the best days of just chatting with strangers for the whole day. It was super casual and people would crack jokes in the chat and it made the whole using Whova experience even better. Being active in the app gets you points that are displayed on the leaderboard. And once I found out that the top five people on the leaderboard would receive prizes at the end of the conference, my competitive drive kicked into overdrive. Turns out, I’m not the only competitive person on the leaderboard, as you can see the top four were pretty strong lol. We at the top four actually had our own group chat talking about how other people must hate that we are blowing up their phones late into the night (12:00 PM/1:00 AM).
If you want to read my notes on the workshops I attended, I also attached that below. I really enjoyed all the workshops I went to as the ones I picked out were mostly about improving my facilitation skills in a virtual space because the roles and jobs I had during the Covid academic year required me to use those skills. The workshop that was my favorite is learning about all the resources and tools we can use for team-building activities in a virtual space. I loved this because many of the resources shown to us were very new to me, so I screenshotted and wrote down all the ones that I wanted to use.
Overall, this conference was different in many ways but still, it provided me with opportunities to connect and network with like-minded people and also learn valuable skills and resources. I would love to attend this conference again in the future if I’m able, and preferably in person because if I already had a blast in a virtual setting, I know it will be even more enjoyable in person.
Shoutout to us top four! It was a blast talking with them about life, interests, and the conference.CSUN had some amazing singers in their Acasola group. The song they sang was Andra Day’s Rise Up.
Hello, I would appreciate it if you would give me feedback on what you enjoyed and what you didn’t. If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to comment or email me too! Thank you.
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