Assistantship Stuff

This year I have a new assistantship. When I first started at MSU, I began working with a faculty member in the department, who I came to really love. Jim and I worked together about a year and a half and then he retired. When that happened, the chair of my department told me that the Office of Budget and Planning (OPB) on campus was looking for an assistant and she recommended me to their department. I was slightly confused because I knew I had a post in the College of Education, so I thought, "are they trying to get rid of me?" After some clarification, the department chair said she thought it might be good experience for me to work over there, and if I moved there for my assistantship I would have a routine. With Jim leaving, I may have bounced around a bit in the department, so I decided to take the assistantship in OPB.

Erickson Hall, the College of Education. Come visit!
I'm on the second floor, room 203 :) 

Now, fast forward to early summer 2016. My friend who was working with the assistant dean in the college of education asked if I'd be interested in talking with the assistant dean because she would need a new grad assistant - my friend was graduating and would be leaving that position. I had met Sam, the assistant dean my first year. She had done work in the nonprofit sector, and when I was writing my master's thesis, I remember using some of her research. So we met because of our common interests in the nonprofit sector. She asked if I'd want to come back to the college of education and work for her. Needless to say, I jumped at the chance. My work over in OPB was fine, it wasn't particularly my favorite thing, though. While in OPB I worked primarily on my supervisor's research agenda (often administrators in higher education who have PhDs still work on their own research). Sam also is a PhD who would like to continue to be engaged in her research, and since her's is similar to what I used to do, it was a good fit. With that said, I am now back in the college of education, reading and reading and reading about nonprofit stuff and able to learn more from another individual about designing research, organizing studies, collecting data, and putting together manuscripts. I'm very thankful to have had such a diversity of assistantship experience, and I'm very glad to be back home in the college of education.