Overview

BEST is a two year program required for all graduate assistants in the Division of Student Affairs and strongly recommended for all graduate assistants in other divisions within the university who are enrolled in either the College Counseling or the Student Affairs masters program. The program, consisting of an employment skills seminar series and an experiential coaching component, is being established to accomplish several major objectives:

1. To help graduate assistants integrate the theoretical knowledge acquired in the academic program with the practical experience gained in the assistantship experience.
2. To serve as a marketing tool in attracting students to the Student Affairs Masters Degree program and to graduate assistantship in the Division of Student Affairs.
3. To help make our students more marketable after graduation by providing them with a number of applied, career oriented skills and qualities that are often cited by employers as lacking in newly-hired college graduates.

Students who successfully fulfill the requirements of the program will receive a Certificate of Completion for their portfolios. In addition, students in the College Counseling or Student Affairs program will be able to receive credit for their participation by registering for a one or two-credit hour independent study during their last semester WITH PERMISSION from their faculty advisor

Program Expectations

Students participating in the BEST program will be expected to meet the following requirements:

1. Attend at least 12 of the 16 regularly scheduled monthly seminars.
2. Complete any assignments and/or advanced preparation related to the seminar topic(s).
3. Meet with his/her Experiential Coach (EC) at regularly-scheduled intervals each semester.
4. Complete the Experiential Coaching Workbook before and after meeting with his/her EC.
5. Turn in the Experiential Coaching Workbook at the end of each year for review.

Program Components

Employment Skills Seminars

Employers of college graduates have consistently identified a set of core competencies that are needed for success in the workplace and which are sometimes lacking in new graduates. Each month the GA’s will focus on one of the core competencies in an employment skills seminar session. The sessions will provide the GA’s with some basic knowledge of each topic, hands-on exercises, recommendations for further developing each competency and a bibliography of additional resources. Toward the end of the program, the focus will be on helping the graduate assistants prepare for their job search, including portfolio building, resume writing, and interviewing techniques.

In addition, the BEST program participants will have the opportunity to attend one or two special topic workshops to further their professional development. The special workshops will vary, based on the needs and interests of the graduate assistants, but may include such topics as Business Etiquette, Conflict Resolution, Time Management, Creative Thinking and Use of Humor in the Workplace.

BEST Program – Employment Skills Seminar Topics and Schedule

Experiential Coaching  

Each BEST GA will be matched with a University staff member who will serve as his/her experiential coach (EC) for the academic year. The GA’s will be paired up with new EC’s for the second year in order to provide them with two separate coaching relationships and to give them the opportunity to observe different approaches to problems and work issues.

The GA’s will be expected to meet with their EC’s at least three times per semester, although it would be ideal to meet four times per semester, after attending each of the four seminar sessions. The Experiential Coaching component is structured around the Experiential Coaching Workbook which contains discussion items and questions to be addressed during each EC meeting. The questions and discussion items for each meeting are intended to help the graduate assistant critically reflect on his/her professional and personal development during each segment of the program. The EC Workbook will be turned in for review at the end of each academic year.