Scholarship Day Preparations - Office Projects in October

This last month has been very busy for me, especially with all the planning that I have been doing with Mallory for the upcoming Scholarship Days.  We have three this year – one in November, January, and February.  Here is a list of the projects I have been working on up to this point.  This does not even include my travel experience, which I will discuss in my next post. 

1.  Interview Folders – I have been making interview folders for the twenty different rooms we have at each Scholarship Day (three packets for each room at every Scholarship Days), printing off all the pieces to include in the folders, and creating a new organization system for them.  This consumed the most of my time this past month.

2.  Interview Volunteer List – I divided the master list of all the faculty/staff and alumni who volunteered to help interview the prospective students into separate categories, alphabetized the names, and organized the lists by the dates which each person could interview.  I looked up all the faculty/staff volunteers in the Wartburg directory and included their job titles in the spreadsheet.  I also emailed the Alumni Office the list of alumni interviewing students for the November Scholarship Day to obtain their graduation years.

3.  Emailing Department Chairs/Coaches – I drafted and sent an email to each department chair or head coach that had not informed Mallory if anyone from that academic/athletic area would be staffing a table at the Open House during Scholarship Day.

4.  Faculty/Staff List – I removed the names of faculty/staff who had already volunteered to help at a Scholarship Day from a master list.  This enabled Mallory to send an email to the remaining people asking them to volunteer.

5.  Table Signs – I compiled the Admissions table signs so I could verify if we had all of them.  I cross-referenced the list of all the academic departments and athletic teams at Wartburg and made sheets for the signs that we were missing.

6.  Scholarship Day PowerPoint Presentation – Tony, one of the other Admissions Counselors at Wartburg, gave me a new task this past week.  I am in the process of updating the Scholarship Day PowerPoint Presentation, which includes different facts about the college (study abroad, service trips, Scholars Program, etc.) and the names/territories of all the counselors.  I had to remove video slides, add the new counselor slides, and verify that all the information is correct.  I have given the presentation to Chris in the Marketing and Communication Office, as there are a couple slides that he will need to update for me.

7.  Sunday, November 10 Attendee List – I updated the list of prospective students that are attending the first Scholarship Day with their interests (band, football, choir, etc.).  This list will be used when Mallory and I do seating this next week.  We will have to place each student and the people who came with them at a table for lunch, and there are certain rules to it.

8.  Names PowerPoint – I have included the names of all the prospective students who are attending the Scholarship Day on November 10 and their respective hometowns in a PowerPoint that also gives the schedule for the day.  My task during this week will be to continually update it as people sign-up/reschedule.

While these tasks are related specifically to preparation for Scholarship Days here at Wartburg, there are connections between them and the Knowledge Base for the Wartburg Teacher Education Model.  The first one is Communication.  Over the past month, Mallory and I have been sending emails back and forth, talking on the phone, and meeting face-to-face to discuss the progress of the various projects I am working on for her.  Strong communication skills were important for both of us, as we needed to be clear to each other what had been accomplished and what still needed to be completed.  When I emailed the department chairs and coaches for the Academic/Athletic Open House, I was sending the messages via Mallory’s email account.  I needed to write a clear and professional email which could easily be adapted for each department and athletic team.

Another Knowledge Base component, Collaboration, is imperative for Mallory and me.  We need to work together in order for all the tasks and projects to be completed in a timely manner.  To accomplish our common goal, which is to successfully plan and execute three Scholarship Days during the 2013-2014 recruiting year, we need to combine our talents and abilities to see our work through to the end.  This will be an ongoing task for us as we learn from each Scholarship Day and work to apply the experience to the next one.  A strong professional relationship is important for Mallory and me to be able to work with one another and trust in our abilities to complete the projects.

Finally, I have been working with Technology over the past month with most of my assigned projects.  The information on all the interview volunteers and participating students is organized in Excel spreadsheets.  The various pieces of information for the interviewer folders and other materials are in a folder on Mallory’s computer.  Along with Word documents and PowerPoint presentations, my tasks for Scholarship Day have been centered on a computer.  The two previous components definitely relate to this competency in the Knowledge Base, including many of my communications with Mallory or someone else, as they have been through technological means.

While I have worked on a lot of projects this past month, Mallory and I have a lot of work left ahead of us before this upcoming Sunday.  One task that I am excited about is seating everyone (prospective student participants, parents/guardian and family members of the students, faculty/staff members, coaches, and current students) for the Scholarship Day Luncheon.  Even though we have many tasks left to complete, I know Mallory and I can work together and accomplish everything we need to get done.

Watch for my next blog post sometime this week that will recap my travel experiences in October, which include being on the road with Mallory and a covering a college fair by myself!

Jenny