Check out Kelsey Weaver, our December featured student employee. She is a study abroad outreach ambassador and is working towards a Bachelors of Science in Public Affairs with a Minor in Africana Studies.
Meet Kelsey
Description of the video:
[MUSIC PLAYING] KELSEY WEAVER: Hi. I'm Kelsey, and I'm a non-profit management major. I'm a graduating senior, and I'll be done in December. And I am the lead peer advisor for the O'Neill School.
The most enjoyable part of working within the O'Neill office is that it's a very big community environment. I always know that I have someone to reach out to and to talk to with any questions that come up. The biggest takeaway from my position is that I've always been able to have professional development opportunities so that I can always advance to the next level.
The thing that I'm most proud of is that when I was actually being interviewed as a student success assistant, I really looked up to the team lead at the time. She was able to approach training the student staff in such a way that I admired. And I knew from day one that I eventually wanted to become in her position. And so I'm really proud of the fact that I have been able to go from student success assistant to peer advisor to now lead peer advisor where I'm able to create the schedule, onboard new staff members, and really just be a part of the group environment that we've created.
TERRY O'BRIEN: My name is Terry O'Brien. I am a senior academic advisor in the O'Neill School. I work with our undergraduate students. And then I oversee our student staff who manage our front desk and our peer-advising program.
Kelsey is the kind of student and the kind of employee that's willing to jump in and do what needs to be done. If it's something she hasn't done before, she'll collaborate, she will research, she'll work to figure it out. She is volunteering to take on the lead, help others, and has really looked for growth opportunities in the positions.
KELSEY WEAVER: I was originally interested in the position specifically because it was a student worker position within my school. However, the more I got to know about the position details and what exactly my job would entail, I knew that I was looking forward to being able to work in a community environment and help other students with any questions that they had. I was once a student that came into the office needing all of the help, and now I'm really excited that I'm the student helping another student.
TERRY O'BRIEN: Yeah. So Kelsey's passion for IUPUI and O'Neill specifically. She also had the experience of being a transfer student, and that's something that I know can come with its own additional challenges. When you're a student who's trying to figure out and navigate not only a new campus but how did your credits transfer, how did this fit into your new degree. Maybe your new degree is different from your former institution degree. So having that experience where she overcame some challenges and had to use parts of the system that not every student has had to use and persisted and was passionate about helping other students do the same, particularly O'Neill students.
So the funny thing about this is, I knew when I hired Kelsey that she would be great. So exceeding expectations. Not that I had overly high expectations for anyone, but I wasn't surprised when she met and exceeded expectations when she delivered projects, brought ideas on. When she was hired, she wanted to grow in the position. That was something she said very early on. She wanted to help other students be trained for the position and hire them. And that is something that she did grow into.
So while she started as a student success assistant, she was promoted to a peer advisor and then the lead peer advisor. And so she has, in that position, really stepped up to help us during the remote work with the pandemic and to help onboard and hire new staff and get them trained. She helps with the schedule. So she's just a great resource. And we're going to miss her when she's gone.
KELSEY WEAVER: As a first-generation student, I've always found that higher education is a really difficult path sometimes to understand. So being able to be a student worker within the advising office space, I've really been able to have time to understand and fully develop what it takes to navigate this space. I'm in no way, shape, or form a pro, but I'm not as confused as I once was. And so I'm really happy that I can take my knowledge and share it with other students.
TERRY O'BRIEN: Something that's really fun about supervising student staff is learning what students are into, what their interests are, what their challenges are. So that's something. She's a very open student. We've had a lot of conversations. And so she's taught me some fun things like lingo and Sir Noodle on TikTok with Bones and No Bones Days.
But she's also taught me that our students are pretty amazing. And if you give them the opportunity to grow and to try new things and to get outside of their comfort zone and challenge them to take on new things and responsibilities, they really will rise to the occasion. And she's a great example of that.
KELSEY WEAVER: A fun fact about me is that after graduation, I will be moving to Egypt for three years.
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Meet Academic and Career Development
University College is the academic home and advising resource for most first-year students at IU Indianapolis. We also work with students beyond the first year as they prepare for admission to a degree-granting program. Academic and Career Development offers you a team of student success advisors and career consultants to help you explore your interests, choose a major, and create a plan to achieve your academic and personal goals. Once you transition to your degree-granting school, you could work with advisors, career professionals, and even faculty to prepare for a successful career.