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Nervous about starting at Michigan State? Worried about your class schedule, living away from home, or where to even start? The Spartan Orientation Station (SOS) is a podcast hosted by New Student Orientation staff and was created by students for students. This podcast will launch twice a week throughout the summer, and each episode will feature a unique interview with campus departments discussing their services, common misconceptions, and fun Spartan engagement opportunities. When you need help at Michigan State, it is okay to signal SOS! Don’t worry – MSU is there for you.
Introduction 0:08
You're listening to the Spartan orientation station on impact 89 the podcast by students for students. Now, this week's episode.
Mackenzie 0:20
Hey everybody and welcome back to the Spartan Orientation Station. New Student Orientation offers many different positions for undergraduate students to gain invaluable experience and have the chance to help incoming students make MSU their home. I'm here with a few of these student employees to talk about their experiences in the many different positions offered at the NSO office and give some insight to the kind of work they do. These students represent the four undergraduate positions available in the office, Spartan leaders or SLs, Office Assistants or OAs, Orientation Interns or OIs and Student Coordinators SCs. So, let me introduce myself quickly. My name is Mackenzie Hanfland and I use she/her/hers pronouns. I am an Environmental Studies sustainability major, dual majoring in communication leadership and strategy. This is my third year here at MSU. And I'm a student coordinator with NSO and I have been with NSO for a little over two years now.
Myles 1:11
Hello, everyone. My name is Myles McGee. I use he/him pronouns. I'm a third-year majoring in Business Management. And I'm a student coordinator at NSO and I've been with NSO since summer 2023 Hi,
Cordelia 4 1:24
I'm Cordelia Rutter. I use she/her pronouns. I'm a psychology major and this is my third year at MSU. I'm currently a student coordinator but I started a couple years back as an SL. I've worked as an orientation intern, and now I’m a studeny coordinator.
Bijanka 1:40
Hi everyone. My name is Bijanka Petrowski. My pronouns are she/her/hers. I'm majoring in neuroscience. I'm a second year here at MSU. And my position was the Spartan leader and I have been working since this past summer with NSO.
Destinee 1:56
Hi, my name is Destinee. My pronouns are she/her/hers. I'm majoring in journalism. And I am a second year. And I am currently an office assistant. And I have been with NSO for 10 months now.
Mackenzie 2:12
Perfect. So moving on into the questions. My first question day is what were some of the responsibilities of your position with the office.
Myles 2:20
So in NSO, there are multiple different committees. One committee that I'm on is a social media committee. So I'm a part of creating all the content that you see on our amazing Instagram, whether that's recording videos, editing videos, writing scripts, videos, I'm a part of all of that.
Bijanka 2:37
Some of the responsibilities of my position specifically being a Spartan leader was working with the office and involving new students, guiding them, providing information about campus resources, and helping them adapt to university life smoothly.
Cordelia 2:55
As an orientation intern, I worked about 15 hours a week, helping out with programming, developing for the summer. We worked on the podcasts, we worked on social media, we each had our own committees that we worked on to help kind of develop the summer 2023 program.
Destinee 3:15
While I was an orientation intern over the summer, I helped a lot with making Instagram posts for the NSO Instagram page. I also designed PowerPoints and came up with icebreakers for the spartan leader training. So that was really fun. I was also there at the training. And then now I'm an office assistant. So really what I do is I help answer emails and calls. And I kind of just help them with anything that they need help with.
Mackenzie 3:49
Perfect. Yeah, I also was on the Social Media Committee with Myles so if you see our Instagram, definitely give us a follow and give us some likes. My next question, what kinds of skills would you say you developed in your position with NSO? Are these skills applicable in your post MSU life?
Destinee 4:05
As for skills that I've gained since being in my position? So I would say I definitely learned how to speak to people, how to communicate very well. I've also learned how to multitask, which is nice and handle conflict, or situations where I'm not really sure what to do. I've kind of learned how to, you know, work my way around that and ask for help when I need it. So I think all those skills are things that will help me after I graduate.
Cordelia 4:37
I would say the biggest one is teamwork. In all of the positions I've had at NSO, we have to work together as a team. We have to communicate with each other. We have to make sure everything everybody's on the same page. Everything is working the way it needs to work and that is 100% applicable to almost anything that you’ll have
Bijanka 4:55
Toggling off of that I would also say communication and leadership. And just like adaptability to new environments and new students, and just leading them would be like the most important skills that I've gained throughout this experience. And they can be very valuable and like different aspects of life, professional, personal, just all these skills are very useful in everyday like tasks too
Myles 5:23
One thing NSO has definitely helped me with this my communication skills, I'm confident in my ability to talk to anyone in any setting about anything. And that comes from the experiences I've had in the NSO office, during summer and fall programming, you know, I've been able to brush up on all my interpersonal communication skills, my leadership skills and, and learn a lot more about what it takes to be an effective communicator.
Mackenzie 5:49
I just wanted to echo off what everyone else already said, just gaining your confidence in being able to talk to other groups of people is one thing. But also working with this office, you'll learn a lot about all the different resources here on campus, so that way you can share them with other students. And while that's really helpful, that you can share that knowledge, it's also really helpful for yourself, it's kind of almost like going through orientation again, and really just equipping yourself with the skills to help yourself so you can also help others. But moving on into the next question, what was the most fulfilling part of your job with NSO?
Cordelia 6:22
I would say the first January that I worked, I had an amazing group of students who we, you know, we showed up to all events, we ate lunch, and all of our meals together. And it was just so amazing to see them all make friends with each other, show up to all the events, and just like seem like they were getting so much out of it. And I really enjoyed that.
Myles 6:46
What I find most appealing about working with NSO is definitely helping all kinds of students with different problems, whatever they're going through, you know, I'm a college student, myself, and I've had a lot of different issues in the three years that we all go through. And it's just a part of the transition. So being able to help students, kind of guide them along the way, give them advice and even create, you know, almost mentorship relationships with these students and being able to, you know, push them in the right directions, give them the resources that they need. That's very fulfilling to me, because it's something I wish I had during my early time at MSU.
Bijanka 7:26
Um, I would say just like watching the students create new connections and making relationships with other peers and just helping them guide like throughout campus and making sure they can navigate everything and giving them the resources that they need. I had to do orientation online. So this was like a fun experience for me, because this was kind of like my orientation too. So it was nice to kind of just like have that feel of both sides, having it online and in person, even though I was the leader.
Destinee 7:58
I would say the most fulfilling part of my job with NSO so I would say is getting being able to help people. I always will get calls and emails from people who are just kind of like stressed out or they're a little flustered, and they have a lot going on. So it's so nice to just be able to help them and give them an answer. So that they don't have to worry about what's stressing them out anymore.
Mackenzie 8:24
I would say for me, some of the most fulfilling parts of this job are just really the little moments. Obviously, every single student's not gonna remember every word you said. But it's just the one or two students, if they if you said anything that really resonated with them, I really find that rewarding. And also those small moments just walking over to meals with students and maybe busting out on some songs and just embracing, you know, maybe all of our inner dorkiness. And it's really a good time. But I would say when I was able to have those small impacts on students, it just really makes a large difference to me. All right. And similar to my last question, I just want to know what has been each of your favorite memories of working with NSO?
Bijanka 9:06
I can go first. One of my favorite memories working with NSO was definitely during the January orientation. Me and a couple of other groups like when we're walking to lunch, like sometimes we'll have like, blare out music with the speaker. And it was really fun because one of the panel speakers, Dr. Scott, love her, she was walking with us and she just made the whole experience so much more fun. And she enjoyed walking with us too because of the energy that we all brought. So I would say like that would be like the best like memory that I've had from this whole entire experience is just watching everyone just like have fun, like kind of let loose a little bit just be themselves and that's like the best thing.
Cordelia 9:50
So this past summer we did an orientation kickoff in the stadium. And I had the opportunity to be on the football field during that experience and the energy that we all had because of there were a bunch of us employees down there, we were just having so much fun. And I just I loved that experience. So that's my favorite.
Myles 10:15
One of my favorite moments working at NSO definitely had to be ice skating this January, I had a lot of fun. I'm not very good at ice skating, but I got better as time went on, and I was trying my best not to fall. But mark my worries next year, I'm gonna look like a pro figure skater out there.
Mackenzie 10:30
Yeah, I would just say piggybacking off of what they all said, they all kind of stole my favorite memories and reminded me of things that that have just happened over the years. But I would say, January 2023, we have our student panel. And we just have students working for NSO answering questions from students coming into the university. And after that time, we do some debriefing in small groups. And during that time, some of my group members just had came up to me and told me just how much the experience has impacted them and made a difference on them. And just hearing that, from their perspective directly, really made a difference and kind of stuck with me. So moving on to my next question, what skills make you a successful member of the team, some
Myles 11:10
Some skills that are important to have as NSO team member is first bringing a positive attitude, just you know, being positive in the workplace, that makes it a great place to work in and makes you want to get things done. And that also comes with being ambitious and wanting to get things done. You know, having a passion for what you're doing and taking pride in your work.
Cordelia 11:34
I think empathy is another thing, because we all have those days and those times where things are just not going well. And to understand that and other people and be able to work with them through that and to make everybody feel valued and supported. Like Myles was saying, that's one of the most important things we can do is work together like that.
Bijanka 12:01
I agree with what both Myles and Cordelia said. But on top of that, I feel like leadership and having a passion to help people and just to help new students like navigate through campus is a very important aspect of being like a Spartan Leader. Just knowing that you can help someone in any way, like if it makes you feel good that you're actually like putting like, your skills and your passion towards helping these new students like to life. So it's really important and rewarding to at the same time to have those.
Mackenzie 12:37
Yeah, no, I also just echoing off of what everyone else said. But I would say another skill that just is really makes you stand out is just your own story, your own Spartan story. We were saying before that everyone kind of comes to MSU with different experiences on their belt, and just other things that that makes up them. And for me, I had a little bit different, I would say not the as usual experience of coming to MSU. So I kind of just made it my passion to be able to help students who may have not had similar experiences to me. So your story matters and how you made it to MSU matters. And I would say that is a huge skill inbeing a successful member of this team is just owning your own story. But moving on into the next question, what tips would you give someone who is submitting an application to the office?
Cordelia 13:25
Well, I can speak on this I have. I'm a part of the hiring committee right now for our summer positions, the orientation intern and Spartan leader, I have read a lot of applications. One thing I would say is to make sure you fully read and understand the questions that we're asking. And then you fully read and understand what you're saying in your answer. Because the best answers are not necessarily the longest ones, but they're the ones who fully understand the questions that we're asking them and then give a full answer that shows an understanding of the questions.
Bijanka 14:03
I'm picking back of what Cordelia said when I first applied like she mentioned I made sure to just read the questions carefully, provide like not a long answer. The point is not to have a long answer just to like be yourself in the answer and also just highlight like your skills and like what you're good at because that's what they want to see is just what you are good at and who you are. They don't want to have anything sugar coated like make it short and sweet, simple to the point.
Myles 14:34
One tip that I will give to someone applying to NSO is to be honest, number one and only write things down on the application that you can speak to that you've actually done because you will be asked about it and you don't want to be asked about something you know you haven't done
Mackenzie 14:52
well, that's awesome. I really I want to apply to work for the office now. So my next question, Where can I apply to work for NSO?
Cordelia 15:00
Both the orientation intern position and the Spartan leader position are available on handshake, you just have to search for them. Just to clarify the orientation intern position is a summer position part time. So if you have time in the summer and you're interested in working with us for 10 to 15 hours a week, that's the position you should be looking for. And if you're more interested in like, post internship or like whatever you're doing over the summer thing, and you have you know that two weeks before classes start, it'll be like a full-time work experience, one week of training and then one week of programming. If you're living on campus, you get to move in early. That's more of the thing that you would be looking for for the Spartan leader.
Mackenzie 15:49
Amazing. Well thank you all for sharing your experiences working for a new student orientation. Working for NSO is so important because you really are the first faces students see as they start at MSU a to our listeners here we hope you take a few moments to apply for one of the positions in our office. Thank you for listening to another episode of Spartan orientation station. Go green!
Speaker 1 16:10
Thank you for listening to this episode of The Spartan orientation station on impact 89 FM. Let us know what you think by connecting with us on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram at MSU underscore NSO