I had one of those nights tonight that remind me why I love what I do.
At 7:00, I guest-hosted Admissions Live, a weekly web show geared toward the admissions/enrollment/counseling community. I’ve been a guest on the show a few times, but this was my first (of hopefully many) guest-hosting spots. But this was more that just the typical give-Chris-a-microphone-and-a-camera situations.
Our topic tonight was Operation Apps: Taking College By Storm, a NACAC program being run in conjunction with NJACAC and NYSACAC to support students, families, and schools affected by Hurricane Sandy. This weekend, students and families can go to one of five locations in New Jersey and New York and get college information, financial aid help, and anything else that they can use to make sure that any impact from Sandy doesn’t roll into college plans and upset the application process or any future dreams or plans.
(I’ll stick a link to the show here when it’s posted, probably some time on Wednesday.)
Then I swung over to the sports complex on my way home from campus. Our women’s basketball team hosted FDU tonight, and seeing as we’re in the middle of finals week right now, our marching band director gave our pep band students the night off so they could focus on academics. But you can’t just have no pep band at the game, right? So he recruited faculty, staff, and alumni to come out and play and support the team!
AWESOME. Totally makes me wish I knew how to play a band instrument. (But if they need a guitar next time, I’m in.)
So, fully energized, I hopped in the car to head home. Waiting at a light, I caught a tweet from a student affairs colleague:
Today an old RA that was away for 2 yrs in the Peace Corp showed up in my office. I spent a yr convincing him to do it & he came to thank me
— Wimer Alberto (@WimerAlberto) December 12, 2012
AWESOME again. It’s so easy to forget sometimes that there can be incalculable value in what we do in higher education.
I haven’t been this hopped up about things in a while. Gotta take that positive energy and focus it into great things now!