Welcome to the CSA Management Issues Blogspot for 2012

Hello All- We are ready to kick off the blog for EDF 6938. I appreciate your participation and I think we will all learn a lot through this interactive electronic communication board.

To start us off, I'd like to welcome Dave Roberts, Assistant Dean of Student Affairs at Columbia College...

Dave, when you get a few minutes, please get the ball rolling by replying to the questions below. The exercise is intended to help our students learn through the experiences of others in the field. Since you are a graduate from the USF CSA program, I think they will find your comments and experiences to be especially interesting and helpful.

There are 32 students enrolled in EDF 6938, however only a third of the students are expected to actively participate in a dialogue with you this coming week. Students in the class with the last name starting with A-F will be monitoring and engaging with you in this process. The other students in the class will monitor only this week's conversation. Thanks to all, in advance, for your participation!

Discussion starters:
1) Describe your professional path in the field. If there are aspects of your decision-making (in your career choices) that may inform how our students approach the beginning of their own professional employment, please share them. If there are things you'd have done differently, please explain them.

2) Describe some challenges you've faced in your work. Are there experiences you've had as a supervisor (or with a supervisor) that presented particular difficulty (or joy)? Are there challenging interactions with faculty, colleagues, students, or parents that have made lasting contributions to your learning?

3) What keeps you going? What are the best parts of the work, particularly any surprises you've experienced, ways in which the work was better or more fun than you expected?

4) What advice would you share with entering professionals?

Again, a portion of the students will be interacting with you over the course of the coming week. They will react to your observations and ask follow-up questions. Whatever time you can spare to respond to them would be greatly appreciated. A dialogue with you, in effect, is what I am seeking.

Thanks again Dave!! I appreciate you! Dee Siscoe