Education Commons^™

Resilience Amidst Adversity: The Sine Qua Non Principle For Meaningful And Effective Leadership In Education, Jennifer Jang Helgesen

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

Have you ever encountered difficult moments that trigger you? Do you find it difficult to monitor your internal dialogue after a setback? Do you struggle to find meaning and purpose amidst all the hardship? As leaders in higher education, we must prioritize others, often giving ourselves away in the process only to find there is nothing left within. We might feel empty, beaten down, and exhausted as others need us to repeatedly and reliably show up as competent leaders. I believe the art of cultivating resilience is the antidote for us as leaders to be meaning-filled and effective at work …

Helping Students Find Meaning While Finding My Own: A Scholarly Personal Narrative Navigating Single-Motherhood And A Career In Admissions, Amber Rich

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

ABSTRACT

In this dissertation, I explore my role as an administrator in higher education admissions at a major university and as a working mother who faces many real world challenges. The grueling travel demands, lofty enrollment goals, campus and inter-office politics, as well as the weekend and late night hours required, made it extremely difficult to achieve a healthy work life balance in admissions while also raising a small child. Additionally, "admissions" is increasingly becoming the "hot seat" within institutions of higher education. Gone are the days of an almost tenure like quality to enrollment professionals. If an enrollment director …