The Vibe of Working at Mines

Describe what you experienced during the past week at your internship. (Include meetings, tasks accomplished, conversations, services you delivered, etc.) Describe the experiences as fully as possible, without bias, including relevant details.

While my title is Desk Assistant Summer Supervisor, I don't have that many duties related to the desk. I manage the schedule, document information about the desk, and connect with my DA’s. It seems that I have been brought onto the team to take on some responsibilities and projects that other office staff may have been responsible for in the past. I feel that many of the meetings that I attend I struggle to contribute meaningfully. I have been slowly getting more and more projects to work on, but I am anticipating a rapid acceleration of work tasks as we near the event horizon of orientation week in August. This is a valuable experience because I get to test what I have learned in class in real work projects. When I'm asked to do research on a subject to serve my objectives I fall right back into the rhythm of academic readings. 

Observations of Self, Others, Systems, Materials, and Space

What did you observe about yourself, other people, policies, written material, and the physical environment during your experience?

While Mines is well funded, it doesn't feel wasted on trivial things and more serves to empower their programming efforts than anything else. My lodgings are premium and the dining hall food is made by a professional team of chefs and a nutritionist. All of the staff I have met are coming from previous institutions and all speak very openly about how much of an improvement Mines is in every way compared to their previous place of work.  The dorms on campus are all the same price yet have a full programming budget that is overseen by the RLC’s. A fellow intern pointed out that the average programming budget for a single residence hall here is the same as the entire programming budget for dorms at UT Austin. Each office that serves students has these small pieces of programming that would be an insurmountable cost at another institution and here is just a normal thing.

Reflections on My Experience from Different Lenses

What did your experience and observations cause you to think about? Use the following perspectives to guide your reflections.

 a. How might students perceive my experience?

I am not really perceived by students because we have no direct relationship with them. I feel like a puddle of water on the summer sidewalk, either a mirage or soon to be gone when my time runs out. My normal political advocacy programming is unnecessary because of my co-worker's self-police. One of the first things brought up about the challenges in our work is working on the ethical development of students while they interact with weapons manufacturers and whatnot. Our student population is not politically involved. While higher educational institutions have been dealing with expressive activity fallout, Mines has been as calm as a morning lake. This is not to say students are not aware of political issues. Much of the marketing language and featured stories share how their students are working on real issues that are better for the world. For the most part, I believe it, based on the kind of things I have seen. Engineering is a critical piece of world operation and inequity exists in it like any other system. 

b. How might staff interpret my experience?

Staff seem to want to facilitate a place for me to comfortably grow and learn. The other interns and I talk about how our cohorts are drowning in work because their institutions exploit their cheap labor, and how lucky we are to work for a place like Mines. We acknowledge that we may not be learning the most. But our coworkers will frequently comment about how talented we are. My guess is that the Gen Z work ethic is strong and so is our public perception of older generations. 

 c. How might my experience be seen by other elements of the community (e.g., faculty, administrators, faculty)?

I have minimal interaction with these groups. I feel like a background character and am happy with that. It might be viewed as an opportunity to expose more people to a positive Mines experience and share what I learned with other institutions. I am being considered for a working group thinking of ways to program around the election to keep communities safe. 

 d. What do existing theories or research tell me about my experience?

According to Chapter 3: Supervision and Other Relationships that Support Learning. It's up to me to orchestrate my learning. I have had conversations with my supervisor about my performance and ways I can improve. The chapter suggests that taking notes on my experience prepares me for learning from it. My supervisor wanted me to improve these notes during my 1 on 1 with them since they noted my notes had limited details and could be more effective. Since then I have found myself speaking more objectively about my current tasks. I also struggled with engaging during team meetings because of my physical, contextual, and social discomfort. After my supervisor encouraged me I am now engaging fully. I have additionally started to work on my passive social skills with people who don't fully relate to me. But this is a process that is being undergone in therapy. 

When considering the organizational culture I am still grappling with it. It seems like a low-stakes environment since our programs are well-funded and each participant is respected. The culture is engaged, positive, and focused. I struggle to be as positive as my co-workers. I don't just put on a smile because it's what others are doing. I am hoping I don't put others off but that wouldn't be surprising for me. 

 e. How do my values, experiences, and preferences affect how I interpret my experience?

My lack of faith in institutional ethics seems to crumble a bit here. Everything is worn on the sleeve here and intentions are clear. This is an engineering school that engages with virtually every STEM industry, especially those most profitable like weapons developers and petrochemical corporations. My co-workers openly comment on this when considering how to develop the ethical foundations of our students. We want to provide a space for students to decide what field they would like to work in based on their critical understanding of the industry. Students featured in marketing materials often share about their work that is having a real positive impact on communities around the world. To be honest this is what made me most cautious about coming to mines in the first place. But all my co-workers are democrats and we talk casually about how bad the debate was. They invite me to create programming to help students through the election cycle. 

I am extremely uncomfortable collaborating with the police. One of the staff leaders organized a meeting between our office and our campus police so we could put names to faces and have a basis for a relationship before a crisis occurs. I'm looking forward to this meeting and hope to use this approach in the future. I'm also surprised by the amount of individual care each student is offered here. Virtually no end to the support resources and structures. The attention to documenting interactions between RA’s and their residents is very detailed. It's setting an extremely positive example. I feel our department's operations are a little idealistic as an example for other institutions because of how well-funded our programs are. I'm not sure how much I can take to my home institution. 

Tentative Hypotheses from Experience

What tentative conclusions or hypotheses can I draw from my experience, observations, and reflections?

A base hypothesis I have is that I am not likely to work in Housing Operations in higher ed but will likely work as a supervisor. This idea is more reflective of a trend I have noticed in my work generally. I am not trusted with duties that require detailed attention to information and adherence to protocol. This may sound pessimistic, and it likely is, but my current position does not feel closely related to what I would consider classical housing work. When I hear a description of housing duties I shudder. I have never been hired as an RA, or housing operations officer. Most of my work experience is in advocacy and it makes sense that I am being given similar opportunities. If I am honest I don't think housing is right for me because I don't have consistent enough performance of these kinds of duties. 

Actions and Questions to Prove Above

What actions do I need to take or what questions do I need to ask to either strengthen or disprove my tentative conclusion?

I cannot acquire more duties than what I am assigned and this strengthens my argument. I have been placed where they need me and I am willing to perform the work assigned to me. Move-in/ orientation will be the best time for me to test my most housing-related skills and will be a trying period since I will be working a total of 50 hrs a week since OMA is having me start at the end of July. I have asked to be given more supervisory responsibilities since I oversee 6 student staff. This is still developing so I will update the progress on this in my weekly Journals to come.