College & Your Career

Mike: Sure, I mean every semester had something that was really great. But I still remember my junior year, early in my junior year here, I had applied for a student teaching internship. And back then UWL had agreements with the Physical Education department with various…a few different school districts in both Minnesota and Wisconsin. And so, I applied for one of these internships which meant that if I secured one of them, I would actually get paid to student teach. Now, most of the students didn't have that, and I know that’s not in existence today, and but it was competitive. But I said, “okay, I’m gonna give this a shot.” Well, I got one of those, and but part of the stipulation was that you had an internship, whether that was for the fall or the spring of your senior year, you had to be here in the summer for in an intensive workshop, so to speak, that went for three weeks and it was all day long and it was basically a few different Education classes along with some Physical Education classes that you really worked on lesson plans, teaching methodology, all the things. How to put a budget together if you're in charge of the PE department. There were a lot of different things that went into that. And the great thing about it was just those people going on the internships. And so, it was a great group of people, we had a great group of professors, they were all focused in on this seminar going on day after day after day. And while it was a lot of work, it was so enjoyable. I learned so much in that time period that I felt very good about what was going to happen that spring then when I went and I ended up student teaching in Rochester, Minnesota and it was a great experience. But it was because of that intensity. I still remember that as one of my—I still have notes remaining in some boxes from that experience.

Tiffany: That’s amazing. To that point, let's talk about your student teaching semester in Rochester, Minnesota. What do you remember about it? What was meaningful about it?

Mike: Well, it was unique ‘cause I was actually in elementary[-level] PE and I was going to stay in elementary the entire time because that was part of the internship we were hired on. So, whereas most student teachers had cooperating teachers in the classroom with you almost everyday, I did not have that. Matter of fact, my cooperating teacher, there were two elementary schools that we went back and forth to, and so when he was at one, I was at the other and we’d flip back and forth. The only day of the week that him and I were teaching together was on Fridays. And so there was—I still remember that autonomy of this is a little bit unique. Which is one of the reasons you get paid, and one of the reasons you had to apply for this I guess. So it was a great experience there. I learned a lot about, you know, when you’re doing practice teaching with fellow Physical Education majors, we're all active. We all want to do these things. When you’re in a school, not everybody has that same sense of wanting to be in that gym and be part of that Physical Education class because that’s not what they’re all about. They have other interests. And so, learning the patience that goes into it was really, really, important. And then handling things that were not planned. You know, whether that’s a disruption because of a student, you know all of the sudden something else happens. The gym had to be used for something else, you had to make something else up in terms of how you’re gonna go forward. Those were great experiences as well. So, I really remember that and I had a great experience and of course there were a few of us that were in Rochester at the same time, so we used to talk a lot about what was going on in each other’s schools. It was a great experience there and then I also, when I was doing that, I was coaching. I think I spent six weeks coaching middle school girls’ basketball and then I did another six weeks doing the middle school boys’ track and field. So, some great coaching experiences and what was unique is I never ended up back in that level of teaching or coaching ‘cause I ended up basically being a college football coach and a college professor, instructor. So, unique experience, but I still remember it.

Aliyah: Yeah. So a lot. I did go to the bluffs a lot, I think, when I had the time, that was something I did. Every Saturday was taken up with football, and so Sunday was the one off day was, you know, the day where we got to recharge and everything, so that was nice. A lot of Saturdays, I would say, we would spend some time downtown, you know, there were, you know, bars that opened up earlier that we would go and get food and drinks with friends, and just be able to enjoy that part of La Crosse was also nice. I wouldn't say we did that every weekend by any means, just because it was very expensive after a while. But being able to have that, and there are a lot of good restaurants and places to go downtown. So I would say, you know, my weekend was probably taken up mostly by football, but when I had the time our sorority meetings were on Sunday nights, so that was something that we came together to kind of start the week. But being able to kind of just do social things like that, you know, go for hikes, just walk around downtown and the parks and everything. That's kind of what I would say what I did on most weekends.

Tiffany: And then there's this one part of your college experience that actually didn't happen in La Crosse, but happened, it was your internship was in Minnesota, or was it-

Aliyah: It was back home in my hometown in Madison.

Tiffany: Oh okay. Can you talk about that internship that sort of got you closer to the next stage of your career, and also temporarily took you outside of La Crosse? So what was your internship like? What was your internship? What was it like? And how did it help you sort of think about your college experience or what it meant to be a college student?

Aliyah: Yeah, so I ultimately did want to find an internship that was, you know, possibly across the country, I was very open to being anywhere, It just kind of worked out. It was pre-Covid actually, but it worked out that it was in my hometown, you know, I was actually able to save some money and be at home for that last semester. So my Senior year at La Crosse, I did leave in December after the semester had ended, and moved back home. My internship started, I think, shortly after January first. and so I was able to intern at one of the local high schools in Madison with the athletic director, she's actually a family friend. She no longer is at the athletic- is the head of the athletic department there, I think she might be retired, I'm not sure, but that was pretty cool. I- I knew, going into it that I didn't want to work in high school athletics, but just having that, you know, other sort of, I guess, broadening my experiences, and, you know, just seeing the other side of athletics, in a sense, because, you know, I either want to work in college or the NFL [National Football League]. And so, being able to work in high school sports and see that part was cool. I mean I did miss going to high school sporting events, so it was cool to be able to go to those again. So for athletics I worked, I think probably, you know, typically maybe like five or six hours a day. I don't exactly know. I know we had to get 300 something hours from January to May and before graduation. And so, you know, what I did is I made videos of different events that I went to, I was in charge of the website, the social media for the athletic department. That was something that they had kind of recently added, you know, Instagram and Twitter, they're very, very new to that, and so it's kind of growing then. And I- I think they still keep it up today. I don't really know, but we really worked on that. And then kinda just going to different events and recording things, you know, throughout the whole semester, I made different videos of different sports. And then, yeah, I would say that that was the most part, those three main things I- I know that a lot of times I was in charge of like scheduling gym spaces and stuff like that, and so we- a lot of stuff was indoors, you know, in Wisconsin, you know, can't do a lot outside, so we did a lot of scheduling of the gyms and just scheduling in general and working different graphics, I think we did graphics for a couple of games sometimes, so that was cool to learn those softwares. And then in March 2020, when everything kind of shut down, my- so my internship was in-person, it- it moved remotely, which was, you know, something that I was glad and I’m very fortunate, that I was still able to do to continue to get those hours. It was kind of, you know, something very abrupt, you know, they went on- I think they went on spring break, and just never came back like a lot of schools did. And so working from home was definitely a little bit harder of an adjustment because there were no sporting events, and so posting about sporting events wasn't really a thing anymore. It was a lot of Senior highlights that we did, you know, we interviewed athletes and did different posts about them, and that kind of took me to May 2020. And with a- they tried to schedule a virtual graduation, or they had, I guess they didn't really know what the how it was gonna be kind of. So they did schedule a graduation and reschedule it to August, you know, maybe thinking that it would be a little bit better by then. I do remember, I think they scheduled it three different times before actually just fully canceling it. But I was grateful to get a graduate ceremony in Minnesota in-person, even if it was somewhat limited. But it was still, it was definitely something that I missed out on in undergrad that, you know. I- I know some people, you know, don't necessarily like going to graduation, but I would say, like making sure that you can go to that, if possible, just because you never know if it might be taken away from you. And so I- I think for that, since 2020 at least, spring was definitely unique in terms of my internship and then graduating. But I think it worked out in the end, and really kind of set me up for grad school, and eventually to move on after that.

Karolyn: It really started to fast forward once I figured out what my major was going to be and I declared it. It was like a small enough program that we had a lot of faculty advisors…we had a lot of support in the program. And so I had a faculty advisor who was helping me look at my schedule and I had this kind of lull—like I had a semester where I could, I don't want to say take it easy, but, I didn't have as much as I thought I did to graduate, and she said “well have you ever thought about studying abroad?” I said “no.” And I remember taking it home to my parents, like telling my parents and they were like do it. And my dad had been in the Navy so he had traveled around the world on a naval ship and he’s like, you know, my parents didn't have the money to support it all, but I was eligible for loans—I paid loans forever. They’re like “why not.” It was a program, it was called the “Wisconsin in Scotland” program. It was a collaboration of 4 or 5 UW [University of Wisconsin System] campuses. There was a castle leased in Dalkeith, Scotland. And owned by the Duke of Buccleuch. And so the cost, it was an exchange, so it didn’t really cost any more than it cost to go here for a semester. And that was what was really the trigger for my parents, and so they kept pushing it and so I thought “okay I’ll try.” So I applied and I got accepted and I remember the night before I left, [I told] one of my girlfriends, my roommates, I was like “I don’t know if I can do this Sarah,” and she’s like “oh it’s gonna be awesome.” My parents, I feel like they had to push me onto the plane, but it was probably one of those defining moments in my life that just, changed everything. You know, I tell lots of our students who are departing on study abroad, I’ve told them over the years, you think you are going abroad to learn so much about these other cultures and other parts of the world, and it took me years to kind of understand it but I learned more about myself in those few months for that semester abroad than I ever dreamed I would, could. I had no idea I was so independent and that I could problem-solve and I could communicate when I couldn’t speak the language. It really opened my eyes to what was possible. So, while I was there I did some soul searching, I still had this idea that I was going to be in government, I wanted to be in politics although I hated campaigning and everyone knows you need to campaign if you want to be in politics. And so I emailed my career advisor Karla Stanek and, I said, “I have to do an internship when I get home for my major, what do I need to do?” And she said “don’t worry about it, enjoy the rest of your program, when you get home come see me right away.” So I did. And, Ron Kind had just been elected. And, I don’t know how it happened, I just lucked out, but I somehow got to be their first, I wasn’t like their first intern, but I was one of their first office interns. And so, I worked in his office that first year with Jennifer Shilling and Brandon Rettke who had been a Student Body President here. It was, you know there was really kind of a UWL feel there too in his office. But I quickly, quickly, learned I did not want to work in politics. You know the number of people that would call and demand to talk to the Congressman I thought, “I never see him what makes you think that he’s going to be here to answer the phone?” But I just realized this isn’t what I wanted to do. And because of all my involvement on campus and my interactions I started to realize, “oh, is there a career where you can work on a university campus and advise students?” So, I went to my career—I graduated from college. That summer the state budget hadn’t passed I thought I was going to work in HR in state agency with my Public Admin[istration] degree, but the budget wouldn’t pass and I went to my advisor in April, my career advisor and I said, “I think I want to be you.” And she just looked at me like I had two heads and she said “are you sure? I’m like “no I want to do what you do.” Fast forward, all of a sudden I’m in grad[uate] school, not at all—the path was very nontraditional because it happened within weeks. And pretty soon I was a student in the College Student Development and Administration Program. I was one of maybe 3 people in the program who came right from their undergrad to their grad. So, you know that first year was really hard because I was still struggling with my own identity, let alone trying to learn how to support college students who really aren't that different in age from me [laughs]. So, yeah it was that study abroad that really made me, pause and pay attention to what I really liked, what I was capable of, and what I could do. And, I ended up doing a grad[uate] assistantship in Career Services, I loved it, I swore I would never, ever, ever stay in La Crosse. And then, I got to work with one of the best Career Services teams in the [University of Wisconsin] System and I knew it. And, long story short, the director, there was some changes in the office and so I became the interim Career Advisor for a year. After that year, I got let go because the person came back for their job. And I went to UW-Parkside I was there for about, I don’t know, maybe eight or ten months and my job opened up back at UWL again. And so, I was miserable where I was and I just thought, if I get to work with that team again—and the best thing about the UWL career services and I will say it to this day is the internship program. It is, like the internship program is one of the best in the system and very well respected by employers. Our team, I was the kid in the office for many years, but I was interim for seven years. My first seven years I was interim. Every, every summer I was looking for or every spring I was looking for a job because I didn’t know if the budget was going to be there to keep me for the next year, so, and then here I am like twenty-four years later.