Higher Education
I have been interested in studies related to higher education since my own undergraduate experience at Butler University in 2000-2004. During my senior year, I was given the opportunity to serve as a Resident Assistant at the University's Residential College (ResCo). That experience, in addition to stirring my desire to work in a field that had direct contact with college students, also gave me the experience necessary to move up into a management position in residence halls. After my graduation from Butler, I was offered the position of Assistant Resident Manager at the University of Missouri - Kansas City (UMKC), where I was able to work closely with students, developing interventions and other programming, as well as supervising a staff of Community Assistants and 24-hour desk staff, serving as one of few campus discipline officers, and serving on several campuswide committees.
While at UMKC, I realized I wanted to work professionally after my graduate studies in higher education, so changed my degree plan from one in music to one in higher education. After a year of studies in the higher education field, my advisor, as well as other higher education staff, discussed my professional goals. Seeing that I wanted to work in a research capacity, they suggested a move to a research-focused (rather than practice-focused) higher education program. As a result, I applied and was accepted to the University of Illinois' higher education master's program, which I finished in one year. I immediately moved on to the Ph.D. program, where I received a competitive fellowship as well as research assistantship opportunities that would move me toward my professional goals.
At present, I work as a research assistant at the University of Illinois' Office of Community College Research and Leadership (OCCRL). In this office, I have worked on several projects, such as work supported by the Illinois Community College Board (ICCB) related to Programs of Study as well as Pathways to Results, and am OCCRL's webmaster. My primary research activities deal with the topic of applied baccalaureate degrees. I currently am working on two projects related to these degrees: a project nearing completion, supported by Lumina Foundation for Education; and a new project, started in August 2010, supported by the National Science Foundation (a project of which I was one of the primary grant writers). My research interests in OCCRL are related to secondary-to-postsecondary as well as community college-to-university transfer, and the impact of technology on nontraditional students. Outside of OCCRL, my personal research interests include college student development, student retention, social networking technologies, and the student affairs profession.
I anticipate finishing my Ph.D. program in December 2011. My dissertation deals with understanding the impacts of social networking technologies on the social integration and perceived social support of traditional college-age students.
