Northwestern State University

Trevor Obannon

Educational Equity Champion

During my undergraduate career, I was uninvolved in organizations or Greek life and did not attend campus events. I went to class, went to work and then went home, leaving me disconnected from school. While I witnessed other students radiating pride in our college, I viewed my presence there solely as a means of obtaining a degree and securing employment. It was not until I started my master’s program and the job of Graduate Assistant of Student Activities and Organizations that I realized the positive impact of being an involved student. In this role, I was also required to serve on the college’s student activities board. It was through this job and organization that I started to understand why my peers cared so much for the school and their organization, because I started to form connections, make friends and see the impact that being involved has on students. As a G.A., I was also working very closely with each organization on campus to ensure they were following policy, and this gave me more perspective on the impacts of being involved because these students cared deeply about their organization and the members and wanted to make sure their organization complied so that all members, current and future, could have a place to feel welcomed and connected to likeminded people.

In my current role as the Assistant Director of Student Engagement, I do everything I can to ensure there are as few “younger me’s” as possible by highlighting the events and organizations our campus has to offer, partnering with orgs and departments to draw students to activities they may not have attended otherwise, and speaking with students about the benefits of being involved. I use my story to hopefully inspire students to find connections through extracurricular participation and use my current knowledge to let them know that organizational involvement is not just something fun to do during your college years, but it also allows you to find friends, a chosen family and gain experiences and skills that can help set their resumes apart from others when applying to jobs. The experience and connections formed during a student’s college years can serve them a lifetime if they allow them to!

“The degrees offered at a college draw students in, but the engagement is what fuels retention.”

Working in the realm of student engagement is amazing and incredibly rewarding, but like every other job, it comes with its own set of challenges. One that we are still seeing is a decline in engagement for events and organizational membership. This started during the COVID-19 pandemic, and there are still residual effects from the concept of social distancing and concern for new pandemic outbreaks at the back of people’s minds. There is also the problem of institutions not realizing the benefit of involvement efforts. My university thankfully cherishes and fosters student involvement and engagement initiatives, but colleagues of mine at other institutions are expressing concerns about having their departments reduced and budgets drastically cut, leaving little room to enhance engagement opportunities due to higher workloads and fewer funds. If a university itself does not value involvement, then they are committing a disservice to itself and, more importantly, to its students. Academics are the priority at any place of education, but to forget that the students are not just students but also humans who deserve opportunities to decompress from the stress of schoolwork and to connect with their peers is a dangerous mindset to have, as it can cause them to feel like they are just a number to the school rather than a person with individual likes and desires that could be nurtured in activities and organizations. Without connection to the university through these types of opportunities to anchor a student, they may not feel as though they need to complete their education there when another offers the same program but at a decreased rate or through another incentive.

The biggest hardship I have found in these jobs is the time demands that come with it. We work long days, late nights and weekends. While this is a known demand of the job, it still takes a toll when work begins to consume the majority of your days. The best advice I can give in these moments is to make these days enjoyable by incorporating routines or aspects that will help them feel less stressed. For instance, when I know I have a fifteen-hour day coming up, I always pick up my favorite snacks the night before, get my favorite soda in the biggest size, and wear clothes and shoes that I love so that I feel excited about the coming day rather than dreading working six hours past my usual end time.

To those considering a career in student engagement or who are already in one, I urge you to remember that while the students you are working with are adults, in many ways they are still children and naive to the ways of the professional world and life in general. You have an opportunity to help them grow and learn, even if that includes opportunities for failure while they are still in a safe and controlled environment, where the repercussions could be minimal instead of potentially detrimental, like in the professional world. Let them be the guiding voice in creating initiatives and events, as they know the current trends and interests of the students best. In student engagement, yes, the days are long, funding is tight and the red tape of working in a university setting can be difficult to navigate, but seeing the students of your campus active and involved in life outside of the classroom makes it worth it, especially when you hear that the reason they graduated or stayed at the university is because of the work you have done to make it an enjoyable place to be. The degrees offered at a college draw students in, but the engagement is what fuels retention.