Is Corporate Ethnography the Key to Student Success?
Hi! My name is Abby and I’m a senior at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. I’m earning a B.A. in Ancient Studies with a certificate in Media and Communications Studies and a minor in Sociology.
I always knew that I was going to college. My parents both have graduate level degrees and it was simply expected that I would transition smoothly into college after finishing high school. My parents went to a small liberal arts college in our rural hometown and I grew up listening to their stories about late night campus adventures and stealing mattresses from their dorms. I assumed my own college years would be equally idyllic.
It didn’t work out that way.
I dutifully started as a freshman at Bryant University in Smithfield, Rhode Island in the fall of 2014 having no idea what I wanted to study or even if I really liked the idea of being 300 miles away from home. About a week in, I realized I hated it. I hated how small the campus was. I hated the bleak blanket of snow that landed in October and didn’t leave until May. And I hated that I hated it. Why wasn’t I having the quintessential college experience that I had been sold all my life by glossy promotional magazines, movies, and my own parents?
I stuck it out the rest of that year but I was overjoyed to transfer to UMBC at the start of my sophomore year. When I was finally at a school I liked where I felt engaged and supported, I flourished and found the experiences and community I had been looking for. I also started working at The Office of Off-Campus Student Services which serves the needs of several different student populations at UMBC such as veterans, adult learners, commuters, and transfer students.
At OCSS, I found a passion for student affairs. I saw so many students in situations like my own, where they felt left out of the traditional college experience. In my future career, I want to help students succeed in higher education and find the college experience that they want to have regardless of their circumstances.
But in order to do that, universities need to employ people like corporate ethnographers. According to Michael G. Powell in his article The Para-Ethnographic Trajectories Of Professional Ethnography, ethnographers working in the professional field “analyze culture, community, identity and social behaviors.” I will research these key factors to better understand the students’ backgrounds as well as the culture at the university and use the data to create programs and services to meet the student’s unique needs. Using ethnographic methods will allow me to determine how students integrate resources into their daily lives.
I am qualified for this position based on my personal experience as a transfer and commuter student. I know first-hand the need for these services and I can recognize potential hurdles for students in a similar position. I have also worked as an undergraduate Commuter Assistant helping to design and run programs targeted at increasing Commuter engagement on the UMBC campus. In addition to work experience, I have also taken several Anthropology and Sociology courses which have helped me develop an ethnographic mindset and an understanding of the need to be aware of differences in culture and social privilege when assessing the effectiveness of different programs. In order to improve my work, I plan on continuing to take classes in the Anthropology and Sociology departments. I would like to also take on more opportunities to interact with students. I’m also striving to become more self-aware so I can evaluate information with less personal bias.
