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I came to work at Penn State with the hopes of working on a higher degree at the same time. For many years, I was interested in having a job where I could continue to take classes and learn throughout my career. Initially, I was not too sure exactly what I wanted to do with an advanced degree or even which one, but eventually settled on a Master of Education in Science Education. The logic in that choice was that I wanted a practitioner’s degree and I was a science nerd.

Since I was working full-time, I was only taking one class per semester. Due to this, I was really able to focus in on the topic of the class. This led to me taking a strong interest in the main points of every class. Don’t get me wrong, it is great to be interested in the coursework, but I was torn. It seemed like with every class I took; I saw a different path I could take. I saw my interests growing and everything became a possibility. After just a few semesters, my interests ranged from doing community outreach in science, to teaching at the college level, to developing curriculum, to researching learning theories. With every new class, my options got broader and more complicated and I was less sure about what I wanted to do.

After about three years of this I started having some serious conversations about future plans with my boss. He wanted to make sure my work assignments were going to be a good fit based on my career goals. But, that was the problem, I had too many goals! He praised me for being so enthusiastic about the many aspects of education, but that, in the end, if I did not pick an emphasis, I would flounder. And that is exactly what was happening – I was floundering.

So, with his encouragement, I took some time to just reflect and really examine what it was that I really enjoyed doing. As I did so, I realized that the aspects of my job that were really fulfilling was not teaching students chemistry in a lecture hall or creating and refining curriculum. Instead, it was the personal interactions with students when they came to me for help. I thrived on helping them understand why they were struggling and how to improve their academic situations. It was then, that I committed myself to being an academic adviser.

Since that day, I have felt a profound sense of peace and direction. And things have seemed to just work out. I took a class on academic advising that was AMAZING! Through that class, I was introduced to a coordinator for an advising center who gave great advice and helped me to know that this is the right path for me. Through meeting her, I was able to get a summer job working as an academic consultant for New Student Orientation and have learned so much about the logistics of advising. Once I had committed myself to advising and started telling others, I noticed that I was more confident and directed in my work. I took risks that have started to open doors for me, including me proposing my “dream job” to the department head and he loved the idea!

When I finally committed to academic advising, it seems like things have just started to fall into place with my job and education. Now, everything I do has a purpose and meaning. I don’t think that I necessarily had to have picked advising for things to work out well. More important, in my opinion, was that I pick something. Going forward, I am sure that I will need to make more choices that will be hard for me. But, I have learned from this experience that we need to take the time and effort to really reflect on these matters – think about goals, interests, desires – and just make a decision. I believe that if we give it are best effort to make a wise choice, and then act on it, we cannot go wrong. Things may not be easy, but it will work out in the end.

Be well!