Creative Problem Solver

One of my primary responsibilities in the Office of Admission at Scripps College has been supervising the student admission ambassadors. From 2015-2019, I co-supervised this team with another Assistant Director. Our journey began in 2014 when we (my co-supervisor and another colleague who was currently supervising the team) developed and presented a proposal to change the current structure of student workers from a hierarchy of sixty paid tour guides and four coordinators to ten paid tour guides and one “Lead Admission Ambassador”. While this model was mostly successful – the students felt more connected to our office and to their smaller, tight-knit team – we began to realize that there were limitations to the role of the Lead. This role served as the liaison between the team and supervising staff members, but the programmatic duties of the previous four coordinator roles were too much for that one role to absorb. Additionally, in 2017, our institution was in the midst of poor campus climate. Our community was coping with a student death and an urge for the institution to carefully consider the how much labor was placed upon student workers. We entered the 2017-2018 academic year without a Lead Admission Ambassador. Not surprisingly, this decision affected the unity of the ambassador team. After reviewing other ambassador models and having candid conversations with our returning ambassadors about the challenges of the team, particularly the lack of a team leader, my co-supervisor and I decided to create a new leadership structure. Instead of having one Lead Admission Ambassador, we created two Admission Ambassador Coordinator positions. In addition to serving as a leader of the team, the two coordinators would have specific programmatic duties. One coordinator was assigned Outreach and Overnights, and the other was assigned Scheduling and Social Media. This experience was valuable to me because it forced me to creatively problem solve. Over the past four years, I have had to identify and address challenges, present new alternatives, and be resilient in difficult times.

big idea

Importance

To say that I have become a creative problem solver would be an understatement. We were able to evaluate the challenges and opportunities of our original, proposed leadership structure – a structure that we had proposed and fought for just two years earlier. I was able to take a step back and view the problem from a larger lens, even if that meant being critical at my own decision. I became unbiased and objective. Through thoughtful hiring, group and individual trainings and meetings, in addition to the leadership structure we evaluated and revised, my co-supervisor and I have been able to build and lead a cohesive team of individual ambassadors.

Skills Gained:

  • Adaptable to new ideas
  • Willingness to be transparent
  • Situational awareness
  • Resilient in less-than-optimal circumstances
  • Comfortable having difficult conversations
  • Develop individual staff strengths
  • Approachable and demonstrates active listening

Impact

Supervising student workers for the past five years has left a profound impact on me. I have not only changed as a leader and a professional, but also has a person. I have become an active listener, a collaborator, a risk taker, and a team builder. After years of building a team and evaluating its structure, I am confident that I have left a positive impact on that aspect of our campus. I have learned to be open and receptive to new ideas from my co-supervisor, our other colleagues, and most importantly, our students. The structure we have now is stronger than the previous structure, and I believe it is because of our ability to be reflective, humble, and receptive to feedback. However, it is also important to keep in mind that this current structure may not work for the future team. I am confident that the strength of the current team will propel its success into the future, even if I am not a part of that future. I have learned how to creatively problem solve and have transferred to that skill to other aspects of my career, such as my project on international student recruitment highlighted below.

Work Samples