Instillers of Hope: Similarities Between A Caped Crusader and Student Affairs Professionals

Has anyone seen The Dark Knight Rises yet? I really enjoyed the movie, although I’m not surprised, since I’ve enjoyed every Christopher Nolan movie I’ve seen. Without giving away any spoilers, I’d like to revisit the concept of Batman and the main reason that I fell in love with the character from Christopher Nolan’s interpretation.

Batman provides the city of Gotham with Hope. Yes, that’s Hope with a capital ‘H,’ because it is such an everlasting and powerful Hope that he instills in people. Even through the darkest of days, members of the city believe that it is going to get better, mainly through the hard work and dedication that Batman has put into saving the city. Batman is Gotham’s savior; he continues giving and giving until there is nothing left for him to give. At the end of The Dark Knight, he goes into recluse and takes the fall for Harvey Dent because he thinks that it is what the city needs to move forward (with Gotham eventually developing the Anti-Crime “Dent Act” we see in The Dark Knight Rises).

In addition to Hope, Batman also provides inspiration to Commissioner Gordon and Detective John Blake. In “Batman Begins,” Bruce Wayne states “I’m going to show the people of Gotham that the city doesn’t belong to the criminals and the corrupt. People need dramatic examples to shake them out of apathy. I can’t do this as Bruce Wayne. A man is just flesh and blood and can be ignored or destroyed. But as a symbol… as a symbol, I can be incorruptible, everlasting” (Nolan, 2005). Talk about providing the ultimate Hope so that the people of Gotham have something they can truly believe in! Similarly, Batman can inspire us to do what’s best in our institution. Through our interactions, we become symbols of Hope for our students.

Whether it’s Hope for a relationship, Hope for a promotion, or Hope for the future; Hope is one of the most powerful things that someone can be given. As student affairs professionals, we provide a similar service to our students. Whether they come to us in a time of need, or are mandated to come to us because of their actions within the community, we are ultimately providing them with Hope that they can get reintegrated into the community and succeed within their time at college and life. We comfort students in need through conversations, provide mentorship, and even provide sanctions to engage students in learning and higher level thinking about themselves and their behavior. Whenever students are getting ‘in trouble,’ (I don’t like that term, but students often use it to describe having to come and talk to us), we are ultimately showing them that someone at the institution cares about them and their wellbeing, even though they may not immediately see it this way.

While it is not likely that we will remember every one of our students in the future, our acts of compassion and kindness serve as masked reminders to the individual that there are some people (even though they may not always show it) that care about them and want them to succeed. We will not stay in most of our residents lives long after they graduate, and yet we are still able to have a huge impact on them. Like Batman instills Hope in the civilians of Gotham, we instill Hope in our students so that they can believe in themselves and others.

Our institutions are like Gotham; there are a lot of opportunities for people to get involved with the wrong things. Our conduct systems are similar to the court system in Gotham, but our institutions need more. Our institutions need caped crusaders to become symbols of hope for our students. We need to be the ones to become these symbols. I know it can be frightening at times, especially helping students that are going through extreme situations and circumstances. “But a [student] is not complicated. What you really fear is inside yourself. You fear your own power. You fear your anger, the drive to do great or terrible things” (Nolan, 2005).

It is a lot of responsibility to be the beacon of light for our students, but there is something within us that is attracted to it. For whatever reason (call it fate, destiny, a higher being’s desire), we are in this field. We may not always be in the best of moods, or always excited about working with our students, but I urge you to embrace your own power. We all have the power to do great things within the field, and through leading by example, we can show students how to become great.

We can become the instillers of hope that our students need. “[We’re] not their heroes, [we’re] their silent guardians; watchful protectors…[Student affairs professionals] (Nolan, 2008).

References:

Nolan, C (2005). Batman begins. Based on characters created by Bob Kane. DC Comics, Legendary Pictures, Syncopy Films, Patalex III Productions. Distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures.

Nolan, C (2008). The dark knight. Based on characters created by Bob Kane. DC Comics, Legendary Pictures, Syncopy Films. Distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures.

Happy (belated) 4th of July!

Happy (belated) 4th of July! We hope you had a great holiday, and keep a lookout for a new post next week!

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Question of the Week 07.02.12

If you could pick any superhero power to help with your role as a student affairs professional, what would it be, and why?

Founder

Founder is a funny word. According to dictionary.com founder has multiple definitions:

1. Founder (noun)

• a person who establishes an institution, company, society, etc.

2. Founder (verb)

• (of a ship) to sink
• to break down or fail: the project foundered
• to sink into or become stuck in soft ground
• to fall in or give way; collapse
• (of a horse) to stumble or go lame
•  archaic (of animals, esp. livestock) to become ill from overeating

(taken from http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/founder?s=t)

Therefore, a founder can be someone who creates or the act of failing. An interesting thought for people who are trying to create something new. I was thinking about calling myself the founder of newSAprofessionals.wordpress.com, but I became a little hesitant about using that word, because I don’t want the site to founder.

But then I began thinking. The best things come from foundering. Sinking and failing often leads to a better outcome. Therefore, I’m okay with being founder of this site. I have established something which has a lot of potential, as long as people utilize it. Right now, the site may be foundering because people are not using it often. However, as founder of the site, I will continue brainstorming ways to make sure the site succeeds. As the saying goes, “in order to succeed, you must first be willing to fail.”

 

(Lost) In Transition

How was the transition into your first professional experience? Mine was full of many emotions; happy I had finally accepted a position, excited about learning a new institutional culture, and nervous I would not live up to people’s expectations (just to name a few). While change and transition are necessary, and often very exciting, it can also be intimidating and nerve-wracking to the point where some of us can get lost in it.

Fortunately, I was surrounded by some great new co-workers who have helped to navigate me tremendously over the past few months. However, some things were definitely easier to adapt to than others. Supervising 21 student staff members was a much larger group than I was used to in the past. I tried to let my personality show, and I found that it was easier to adapt to the large staff than I had originally expected.  While I am spending more of my week doing one on ones, I am still able to connect with them individually and utilize their unique skills and personalities to help them connect with their residents.

One of the more difficult transitions I have faced in my new position is the 8:30am-4:30pm work day.  While I’m not complaining that I can leave work and not really worry about anything (as long as there are no programs, other night time obligations, or duty), it definitely took some time getting used to. I’m not going to waste your time by writing about how difficult it is to wake up and be in the office every morning by 8:30am. And I thought I had it rough having to wake up twice a week for 8:10am classes in undergad… However, I’ll never forget the first day of being a Residence Director, and going home at 4:30pm. I sat in my apartment for a few minutes asking myself, “what’s next?” It is such a strange feeling not to have papers to write or textbooks to read. I also came from an institution where as a Hall Director, I participated in first response duty coverage (meaning that if something happened in my building, I would respond if I was available), so letting go of responsibility took some effort. However, I plan on using some of this free time to pick up hobbies, work on myself, and further my professional development.

 While I felt that grad school and internships prepared me very well for my first position, I was still very nervous that people would have high expectations of me that I would not be able to meet. Luckily they have been very accepting and understanding of my ‘rookieness,’ and the twelve thousand questions a day. I have found that the people I work for have been happy to have me around since it lessens their workload (two of them had previously been running my buildings on top of their own prior to my hiring).

What were the first few weeks like in your first position? Did you enjoy the experience, or were you slightly disappointed? Either way, please share your experience of being (lost) in transition!

Welcome!

Welcome to the New Student Affairs Professionals Blog!

Thank you very much for taking the time to read this blog, and hopefully you will be able to actively participate in blog posts and discussions once everything gets up and running smoothly. Right now, it is just me blogging, but hopefully we will have many more people contributing to the conversations shortly!

First, I will start out by telling you a little bit about myself. My name is Topher Sutton, and I am currently a Residence Director at The College of New Jersey!  I recently graduated from the brand new Rutgers College Student Affairs masters program in May 2011.  I have been at TCNJ since October 2011, and have already learned so much about being a full time professional in the field.

My hope by starting this blog is that we can all share information and stories with one another about our daily work. My original idea for this blog was for it to be a place where I could write and reflect upon my experiences in order to keep a positive attitude. Then, I started thinking about how it would be beneficial to share and have others participate in the conversation as well.

My hope is that through honest dialogue, we can help one another out as well as receive tips of the trade from people who have been here a little longer than we have. Hopefully we will all get a lot out of this blog, and possibly continue sharing it so that everyone (including new professionals, professionals, as well as those starting their journey into the wonderful field of student affairs) can benefit!

If you have anything you would like to contribute, please send it to newSAprofessionals@gmail.com and I will try to look at it as soon as possible. I do want everything to remain relatively professional, so I don’t want this to turn into a complaining corner or anything like that. Unfortunately, those types of posts will not be shared with the rest of the community. However, if you write a story that starts out with complaining, but then addresses what you were able to get out of the experience, I would LOVE to share it with the world! Also, please proofread so that we can keep it professional. It is a blog for new student affairs PROFESSIONALS, after all.

Thanks for reading, and I look forward to conversing soon!