All posts by Kimberly Golis

Change is Good

If it wasn’t for a dramatic, earth shattering change I probably wouldn’t have a career in education.

I worked in the real estate industry for 18 years until the housing bubble burst and I was laid off. After I got over the soul crushing blow that I was just an expense that needed to be cut and after checking all the pens in the house for ink, I started looking for a job. I wanted something that was stable and had meaning. I wanted to make a difference in my work. I focused my search efforts on education, healthcare and sports. Sports didn’t have a lot of meaning but I thought it would be fun, which at the time passed as a good substitute for meaning.

I guess you know how this story ends, I got a job with MCCCD and eventually made my way to GCC. I am thankful now for the catalyst that forced change in my life and brought me to where I am today. I am honored to be part of making a difference in the world through the work we do. I am proud to say that I have a career in education.

This week’s prompt was to share a song that represents your career in education. Justin Timberlake’s “Don’t Slack” is an upbeat, dance around the room song that celebrates change and achieving your potential. Although my path to a career in education was not necessarily upbeat, the change it made in my life and the opportunity it gives me to achieve my potential is a dance around the room feeling. One of the scary things about change is not knowing if you’re making the right move or if you’ll be successful. In the video, the final scene has a sign in the background that reads “You’re Doing a Great Job.” Thank you for the encouragement JT!

 

Challenge (Happily) Accepted

What fires your passion for your field of interest and reminds you of your role at GCC?

My answer… the 6×6 Challenge. My passion is writing and unfortunately, is not closely related to my role as the Coordinator of Fiscal Services. Participating in the 6×6 Challenge brought my passion for writing and my role at GCC a little closer. Any time there is an opportunity to write – office process docs, communication to the campus from our office, Maricopa Priorities – I happily volunteer. Writing for the 6×6 Challenge allowed me to bring out my creative side and gain valuable insights about my role at GCC.

 

Motivation for Change

This week’s blogging theme is change.  Wait for it…

Tuesday morning, I stepped into the garage, hit the button to open the door, and saw this!  (Disclaimer: This photo was cropped, which caused the snake to look bigger and like I was closer.)

snake

I wasn’t exactly sure what it was because we currently have a rope and bungee cord stuck in a tree in front of our house and the first time I saw them, I thought they were a snake. I walked through the garage as far away from the possible snake as I could and made it to the driveway. At that point, I confirmed it was a snake but since it totally ignored me, I wasn’t sure it was alive. I was fairly certain the scientific method for determining the health status of wild animals is throwing rocks at them, so I did that… but only small rocks because I didn’t want to accidentally hit it and make it squish. When I threw the rocks it didn’t move so I concluded it’s a) got nerves of steel b) a heavy sleeper or c) dead. Since my testing did not result in any conclusive findings, I did what any responsible researcher would do and left my findings to be confirmed by a more qualified researcher (my boyfriend). I trapped the crafty snake faking death in the universal recognized snake-trapping device (pictured below) and went to work.

trashcan

 

As a result of this encounter, I have CHANGED the way I enter the garage. Now, I open the garage door (so the light comes on) before stepping into the garage.

Oh… and the snake was dead. My boyfriend removed it from the garage using his 4-iron.

 

 

 

I am a Teacher!

When I tell people I work at a community college, they usually ask if I teach and I always say no I work in the business office. Earlier this week I realized that I do teach, but my students are not enrolled in courses taught at GCC, my students are the faculty and staff at GCC. We know in the Business Office that it is not easy navigating the fiscal processes. On the Fiscal page of our website it says, “Our goal is to provide employees with the tools and guidance necessary to secure the goods and services essential to providing a quality learning experience to our diverse student population.” We are here to teach and guide and we do that so we can all succeed in our jobs and not pull our hair out while doing it.

As a fellow employee stated to me earlier this week, “Every day is a learning experience.” I am glad I make a small contribution to the overall learning going on at GCC.

 

Student Success (from a Fiscal Perspective)

How many times a day do you see, hear, or think about the phrase “student success”? It is our primary goal, our focus, and the driving force behind everything we do. What about when your job duties (including the “other duties as assigned”) do not bring you in direct contact with students? Can you still contribute to student success? The answer is yes.

This is something I think about often because we are frequently asked to report on how we promote student success and I have a job that does not bring me in direct contact with students. However, after reading some of my fellow bloggers’ posts, I found that I am not alone in my assertion that yes I can contribute to student success.

I promote student success by helping faculty members navigate the myriad of forms, processes, and systems we have in the fiscal world. When faculty members are successful at the non-teaching part of their jobs, they are likely to translate that feeling into a happier and more successful learning environment. In “Sincere Thanks from an Adjunct” Chris Krause says, “The positive feelings and willingness to help I have experienced outside the classroom spills over into my classes as well. Students are the direct beneficiaries of this. I can be more available and am more willing to advocate for them when needed, because I am happy and comfortable in the environment” (Write 6X6 Blog).

I promote student success by participating in the One2One mentoring program. This program allows me to share with students strategies I have used to overcome obstacles in obtaining a college degree or finding my way around campus or dealing with the pressures of family, job and college all at the same time. It gives me an opportunity to listen and learn what that student needs to be successful and offer guidance and reassurance that their goals are attainable.  Ladonna Lewis, in “Coming Out of the Closet,” says “We all have closets that we can come out of with our students when appropriate” and “Maybe we can just listen to them sometimes, and try to connect them with resources. Sometimes for students, just seeing that someone like them can be a college professor, or administrator, or professional, can help them see themselves achieving their goals” (Write 6X6 Blog).

I promote student success by identifying myself as an employee of GCC. When I walk through the Enrollment Center or across campus students routinely stop me and ask directions, how to work the computers, or where to get help with… you name it.  Every day I come to work there is an opportunity for me to make a difference, taking the time to stop and answer their questions (or find someone who can) is a little thing that can make a big impact. In “Feeling Disgruntled?” Ingrid Austin says, “Just remember that we’re here to make a difference and that everything we do should be done with pride, joy, and self-satisfaction because what we do matters.  It matters to the students who are out there making an effort to better themselves” (Write 6X6 Blog).

Finally, I hope to promote student success in the future by accepting the suggestion of President Kovala. In “Random Acts of Relief” she says, “… to pay it forward with these and any other great ideas to give our students the extra nudge to the finish line. Stopping a student on the sidewalk and simply asking how they are doing, or walking through computer commons or the Library and checking in with students as they are busily working on the computer. Better yet, when a student is in line at Grounds for Thought, offer to pay for their coffee. These small gestures go a long way to assure students know we care about them and their success” (Write 6X6 Blog).

 

I am Too Dumb for Graduate School

I will never forget my first graduate school class…

Finally, I am in graduate school and going to earn a Master’s Degree. I feel great, I am excited, and I just completed my first post on the discussion board. We are reading a challenging book, “The Archeology of Knowledge”, by Michel Foucault; it is difficult for me to grasp the meaning of the assigned chapter but I work hard and come up with something I feel is insightful and thought provoking. My assignment completed for the day, I head off to bed feeling good about my achievement. The next day, I am anxious as I log on to Blackboard to read my fellow student’s responses and retrieve my instructor’s feedback. In my mind, the rest of my graduate school career hinges on this first assignment – if I can do this, I can accomplish anything! I click on the link to my grades and my world comes crashing down – 4 out of 10 points.

Walking from the room where I do my schoolwork, I pass through the living room and without even a glance at my boyfriend I say, “I am too dumb for graduate school” and continue on to the bedroom to wallow in self-pity and doubt.

I let myself have one night of “giving up” but then I got determined! I am not dumb. I am going to show that professor and that stupid Michel Foucault that I can figure this out (even though I am convinced some of the sentences are just random words strung together with a period at the end). I keep the Spark Notes and my dictionary handy while I read the chapter at least two times and read the professor’s notes before and after reading the chapter. I think the highest I ever scored on discussion points was an 8 but I got an A in the class and proved to everyone (mostly myself) that I am not too dumb for graduate school.

So what’s the take away (other than, I may have overreacted and I’m a little hard on myself)? I can think of several clichés that would be appropriate but cliché or not, from great challenges rise great triumphs.

I still have that book proudly displayed in my home office because I read it and I did an “A” job pretending I understood it!

 

The Job Interview

The job interview is one of the most difficult rhetorical situations that exist. In the job interview we must sell ourselves to a prospective employer using both written (resume supplied prior to the interview) and verbal (the actual interview) forms of rhetoric. A person’s ability to communicate effectively, regardless of the position for which they are applying, is the first qualification under scrutiny. In an interview, to communicate effectively that you are the best person for the job, the rhetorical aspects to consider (and ultimately master) are content, language, dialect, and effective delivery.

The questions posed in an interview restrict the content, but the rhetorical skill to master in this situation is the ability to provide substantive answers detailing your qualifications without rambling or straying from the intended topic. Bitzer says, “A situation which is strong and clear dictates the purpose, theme, matter, and style of the response” (223). Later he adds to this saying, “One might say metaphorically that every situation prescribes its fitting response; the rhetor may or may not read the prescription accurately” (223). The interview structure at Maricopa County Community College District (MCCCD) is a formal process. The human resource department reviews the interview questions for potential legal issues and fairness to all applicants before an interview committee may use them. Each member of the committee has a sheet to score the answers and write key phrases or words that support the score. They are looking for specific responses to the questions – a perfect example of the situation Bitzer describes. In the past four years, I have interviewed eleven times with Maricopa County Community College District (MCCCD), at three different campuses and in front of several different committees. My first interview, a phone interview, was my first experience with this type of questioning and with the committee style of interviewing. When the interview was over, I was sure I had done horribly due to my inexperience with this type of situation. I thought I had not “read the prescription accurately” and not being able to see the reactions of the committee members, my audience, I could not gage if my responses were fitting. Although it is a very structured setting with a clear purpose, it is still a difficult rhetorical situation to interpret and left me feeling very inept. The interview setting is one where it is crucial to understand what response is required and to deliver that response clearly.

While the questions restrict content, the vocabulary of the culture restricts the language of the interview. To show your knowledge of the organization and type of work they do, you must be able to speak their language. For entry-level positions, the knowledge can be general and broadly applied. When I interviewed for the first time with MCCCD, I knew general bookkeeping terms, practices, and was able to apply them broadly in the interview. Not knowing the specific language of the institution was detrimental during a management level interview when I was asked for an explanation of my knowledge of fund accounting. My initial reaction was that I had no idea what they were talking about; after some prompting I realized I did know what it was and had a fairly good understanding of fund accounting but unfortunately, did not know that was what it was called. Although I understood, and could explain the concept, I did not appear knowledgeable because of my initial reaction to not knowing the term. I was not hired to that position; I was excluded from that community in part due to my lack of knowledge of their vocabulary.

Even with a thorough knowledge of the community and an ability to use the language appropriate to the field, a dialect may make you seem unintelligent. Dicker speaks of this when he talks about language and cultural stereotyping, “…hearing one’s native language spoken with a regional accent different from one’s own, or hearing one’s native language spoken in a variety associated with a particular sub-culture, can trigger thoughts and feelings about the people who speak that way. Language is therefore a means by which cultural stereotypes are transmitted” (6). It is difficult for me to accept when Dicker says, “A single standard English exists only in theory, in the pages of English grammar textbooks” (7). He also states that, “To many speakers of standard English, AAVE sounds like a corruption of the standard, English spoken in a lazy or uneducated way” (7). If as Dicker claims that, “…they are bidialectical, and can move back and forth from one to the other as the situation warrants”, then the job interview situation is a time when an AAVE speaker should use Standard English (7). However, according to my family and my teachers, there was never an appropriate place to use non-standard English.

When content, language, and dialect come together perfectly it is then that the ability to persuade your audience is optimal. In an interview, your goal is to deliver the message that you are the most qualified candidate for the job and that the interviewers would be fools for not hiring you. Corbett states, “…most rhetoricians would acknowledge the importance of effective delivery in the persuasive process” (145). In an interview, you are selling yourself to your audience – your ideas, skills, and worthiness to be a part of their organization. The manner in which you deliver this information is a key element in persuading them that you are the best person for the job. Corbett also says, “Skill in delivery can best be acquired, of course, not by listening to theoretical discussions of this art but by actual practice and by analyzing the delivery of others” (145). As I stated earlier, I have interviewed eleven times in the past four years, additionally I have served on two interview committees, and I now feel very confident in my interviewing abilities. I have applied, and interviewed for positions that I knew were unlikely possibilities but they offer opportunities to improve my responses and feel more comfortable with the process. By serving as a committee member I get a greater insight to the process as a whole, I know better what the interviewing committee is looking for when I’m in the hot seat, and I can note the behaviors and responses that were unfavorable in other interviewees. Repeated exposure to the interview process has allowed me to refine the delivery of my qualifications (content), in a language and manner appropriate to the organization, resulting in two promotions in a short period of time.

In a job interview, we use our best rhetorical skills to garner the acceptance of a stranger and influence their decision about our value as a potential employee. Corbett states, “But if, as we are told, the ability to use words to communicate thoughts and feelings is our most distinctively human accomplishment, there can be few satisfactions in life that can match the pride a person feels when he or she has attained master over words” (148). We put our best foot forward and hope it doesn’t end up in our mouth.

 

 

 

References

 

Bitzer, Lloyd, “The Rhetorical Situation”

Corbett, E.P. J.  “Introduction to Classical Rhetoric for the Modern Student”

Dicker, Susan J.  “Language and Identity”