September 25, 2003

Staff profile: Jen Meyers

Title: Student Transitions Coordinator

photo by Mary Hanlon

What are student transitions? These are the times of developmental change in students’ college careers. For instance movement from one year to the next such as freshmen to sophomore, transferring here from another school or preparing to graduate.

What do you do? I coordinate New Student Week activities, which run through Sunday (Sept. 28). This office is in only its second year of existence, so it focuses primarily on the freshman experience. Soon we’ll expand to work with the other classes when I will look at the existing transition offerings and try to find ways to fill the gaps with more comprehensive services.

How is New Student Week getting better? In response to student feedback, we revised the Responsibilities sessions and created Essential NU, a series of workshops addressing things important to the campus community, such as alcohol use, campus safety, diversity, sexual harassment and academic integrity. And we still offer fun Chicagoland trips like Blue Man Group, Second City and the Cubs.

What’s special about this job? I like to be able to make even the smallest difference in helping a new student feel comfortable here. When I see that I’m helping to ease their transition in some way, it means a lot to me.

Did you really dance the entire Dance Marathon? I’d always regretted not having participated in Dance Marathon at my undergraduate institution. But last year a colleague, Kyle Pendleton, convinced me to dance with him. We decided it would be a great way to show our support of the students. It was an incredible experience; dancing was actually easier than I thought it would be. When we got tired, the students helped energize us. Plus faculty and staff came to visit often and that took our minds off our hurting feet. I started to fade at the end, but we made it the entire 30 hours. I was so happy to hit my bed when it was over.

— Stephen Anzaldi