When I wanted to shadow my voice, I had some apprehensions about the availability of finding someone who was both Muslim, female, and an adult learner. With some frustrations, I finally found two individuals to help with my shadowing process. "Ben" was a 37-year old adult learner who was taking general classes over the summer. "Julie" was a 20 year Muslim full-time student taking summer classes. Both were used to help develop background for my voice, the problems they face, and creating solutions that can be applied to higher education.
Ben was mid-way through his marketing major at the university. He works full-time most weeks and has a wife and a son. Though only receiving an associate degree, he is a partner at a local business and looking to expand his knowledge in order to transition into a new role of the business that financial, is a " better investment in the long run". When asking him about his hardest struggle he stated, "It was more of an emotional struggle...I spent less time with my wife, and with my son home from school for the summer, it was hard to leave them". Prying further, he said that his support group was his family and though he had friends in the program, he rarely used them for help except for in group project situations.
His advisor was his main contact with the university. This was a faculty member assigned to help guide marketing majors through the program and though it was not usually for a professor to be the main source, but Ben relied on him heavily. He said that the professor was more of a colleague than an advisor. When asked about other support services on campus he mentioned that though he had heard of the career center but have never needed to use their services. When asked if he ever will he said, "doubtful...it's not needed..since I know what my job is hopefully going to be". He also maintained that his advisor was his greatest asset to his education. "When you have such as strong mentor...you don't really need the other supports...he is my career center, counseling center, and financial advisor, all rolled into one", was a reply about the role his advisor played.
His other transition was the workload. When he first started out, he struggled with keeping up with the reading and the amount of research that was needed for the major. His professors were very supportive and upon revealing to them about his unique situation, they congratulated him for taking a risk and saw to it that they provide him with a mentor who was known for helping students with different situations.
Student affairs is a large part of the college experience and he said that it was largely unnoticeable in his day-to-day student life. He said though he had classmates who were close he wished that each individual college offered a networking team to help students connect to the university better and to colleagues in the program.
When reflecting upon his experience it was clear that his purpose was different than Noor. He had a perspective on education where he was to get in and get out. He admitted that if he did not have a strong mentor that he believes that he would seek out services but said that his mentor was "one of the best connections to the university". His struggles were the same as Noor's with his devotion to his family and being apprehension about the workload of college. How could I, as a future student affairs professional, made his experience better. When looking at this question it was clear that faculty are the first meaningful contact to the university. If a faculty member does not have the resources to help a student then they should work as a referral system. Documents from the foundations course support this notion of collaboration with faculty and student affairs professionals should want faculty members to be knowledgeable about their facilities. A faculty member may only be present for a few hours a day plus office hours and it is important that student affairs professionals respect this time. Like an adult learner, timing is a large issue with faculty. Providing information should be convenient, fast, and assessable. Whether this is creating a one-stop manual or website with easy links, faculty who are exposed to student affairs can help pass information onto students.
When working with faculty, it is important to try to understand the culture. Each department has a unique way of conducting business and where one technique may work with the art center , it may not work with the math office.
Exposure and timing were the main issues with this particular adult learner and would be safe to assume many others. Providing literature and convenient orientations to either programs or facilitates would help in spreading the word about support services on campus. With a heavy workload for the student, these facilities may be only used a handful of times and it is important that these offices are easily assessable to adult learners. The most important piece that can be taken from this shadowing experience is that in some ways adult learners have the same struggles but each provide a unique problem to assist the learner in achieving. A student affairs professional should be an advocate for these people because they like full-time students, can easily be lost in crowd at the university level.
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