What is NODA?

Something I forgot to mention is what exactly I am doing out in California. Students who are in Graduate school for Higher Education & Student Affairs programs tend to participate in a summer internship during the one summer between the two years of the graduate program. There are a couple organizations that provide such internships, each has their own focus on different areas of the campus community, meeting the graduate student needs of gaining preparation that will guide them professionally to inform their future practice, and future job searches. One such organization that coordinates these processes is the National Orientation Director's Association (NODA). With over 4,000 college campuses in the United States alone, there are a lot of opportunities for graduate students to assist different campus' for a limited amount of time, this is where NODA internships come in, specifically for internships that are concerned with Orientation Programs.

College orientation is always 'organized chaos,' it is the coordination of many campus offices, over multiple sessions, selection/training of student staffs, marketing to new students, assigning students to sessions, providing housing opportunities, meals for hundreds of people, crisis response care, and other aspects that all go into a giant list of tasks to be completed, and then repeated per session. This is where professional student affairs orientation staffs come into the picture, to assist with this burden they bring in interns (like myself) to help accomplish their goals.

The process is highly selective, most graduate students in Higher Education & Student Affairs programs across the country are typically applying into this pool of limited spots. I am humbled to be at UC Davis, and look forward to my entire experience. 

I will be covering what I will be doing as well as a background to UC Davis' Orientation program, and the program's needs over the coming posts.

Stay tuned.