Global Connections #3: Where are you now? – Yuezhong Zheng

Global Connections #3: Where are you now? – Yuezhong Zheng

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Podcast Transcript: Global Connections #3: Where are you now? – Yuezhong Zheng

Xiao Yun  0:00

Hi Yuezhong! How are you?

Yue Zhong  0:02

I’m doing well. How are you?

Xiao Yun  0:03

I’m doing pretty good. We’re so excited to have you here today to speak on our podcast.

Yue Zhong  0:09

Thank you for having me.

Xiao Yun  0:11

We’ll just jump right in and dive into the question. So I think all of us and me myself is interested to learn about your journey in student affairs. So can you share a little about that? And if you want to, you can also share about your experience deciding going into Student Affairs from a History major to getting a degree in higher education?

Yue Zhong  0:34

Sure, do you want the longer version or a short version?

Xiao Yun  0:40

Based on your preference, you can share it however you wanted to.

Yue Zhong  0:43

Okay, sounds good. Um, so yeah, I came to the US in 2012 to pursue. I studied, undergraduate study at the College of William and Mary. So during my time there, I think it was during my sophomore year, I started to work on campus, and my first student worker job was with the Student Union at the time. And then my supervisor, there Rich Thompson, he really you know, introduced me to the field of Student Affairs and people who are working behind the scenes, the Student Union, to make sure students are having a great experience, are feeling supported. And at the time, remember, I wasn’t, you know, really sure what to do with my history major, I think I just switched from a business accounting major to history, because I just didn’t like what I was studying at the business school. And I was doing history minor on the side. So I thought, you know, I could just make it a major because I really enjoy taking all the history classes. But yeah, Rich introduced me to, to NASPA, and I applied for the NASPA NASPA undergraduate fellowship program. So through that program, I got a lot of exposure to the field very early on, so I feel very lucky in that sense. So I was connecting with a lot of very senior student affairs professionals within NASPA. And I also attended my first NASPA undergraduate conference, which was before the, I think, the 2015 NASPA convention in New Orleans at the time. So I think that’s, and I feel very accepted. And I’m just really liked what I was hearing people were doing at the time, um, you know, within Student Affairs through NASPA. And then I think, the summer after my junior year, I apply for an undergraduate internship through NASPA’s internship program. So I actually got a position to work at SUNY Albany over the summer, I worked at their community standards office, which deals with a lot of Student Conduct issues. So I was, you know, getting exposure to a lot of different areas within Student Affairs at that, you know, that really reaffirmed what I what I wanted to do with with my career, and then on campus at the same time, I was also working with the International Student Center, at William & Mary and the my senior year, I also became a freshman RA. So I think having all of those experiences really helped me understand what I would be doing if I become a professional in this field. So I, you know, I think from very early on, I knew that I wanted to go into student affairs, but I’m, with my experience as international student myself and working with international students center at Williams & Mary, I realized that you know, with a student affairs in higher ed, I really wanted to work in international student international education, because that’s what I am most passionate about.

Xiao Yun  4:18

Yeah, thank you for sharing that through those experience you were exposed to like Student Affairs, higher education early during your undergraduate career, which, which I would say from the people that I know are different because they were first introduced us to the first because someone in the field help them or encouraged them, or were a mentor for them. But your case was like, while you took it right away during your sophomore year, you were already involved in NASPA and taking up opportunities to immerse yourself in that environment. So fast forwarding to completing your master’s program in higher education from University of Michigan. So what were some of your takeaways or challenges that you you face?

Yue Zhong  5:02

In terms of challenges, I was definitely super, super busy. And I think during my undergraduate year, I thought I was busy enough, because everyone was just busy,at William & Mary, everybody was staying up late all the time. Um, but when I got to University of Michigan, amongst, you know, all the coursework that I had to take care of, I was also working, I think most people in my cohort, were working 20 hours a week, with their assistantship, or internships on the side. So I found that pretty stressful early on, when I was just getting used to it. Um, but I think later on, I figured out the rhythm, and how to deal with all the readings, because I was reading every single pages that I was assigned to at the beginning. Because I thought, you know, I just post read everything. But then later on I was I, I was told that you need to develop a strategy to skim through a lot of the readings, it’s also a skill to be able to quickly extract important information from your reading assignments. So I think after the first semester, things got better, because I’ve developed strategies, and time management skills and all that. So I was actually having a pretty great time, you know, learning and working and putting what I learned in to my work.

Xiao Yun  6:37

Yeah, you definitely share a lot of the strategies that as a graduate student, or other like anyone who is pursuing a degree should definitely take note on like, still read it, but you can just skim through the important points and know what the, I don’t know the whole article, the main highlights were, but I do want to talk managing time, and how you are able to juggle with your internship, your workload and class assignments, knowing that you are involved within ACPA and our commission, can you share about your role? How were you able to juggle your day job and also the commitments to our commission?

Yue Zhong  7:17

Yeah, sure. So I first joined the commission in January 2018. And I remember I was just connected with Gudrun on one of the Facebook groups, I think she was looking for a director booard member at the time. So I joined the commission first, as a member at large, then I transitioned into Vice Chair for sponsor programs at the convention. And afterwards, I ran for the chair elect position. Um, and then afterwards, I became the chair for the Commission for the last year. Um, and I definitely feel like being the chair of the Commission, has been a lot of commitment, both professionally and personally. But I do find it a very, very rewarding experience. Um, not just for professional development sake, but also, you know, meeting a connecting with wonderful people, through our commission and beyond. So, you know, meeting people like you that I would never, I would otherwise never have the chance to meet someone who is also from outside the US and also pursuing a career in higher education in the US.

Xiao Yun  8:33

Yeah, for sure. So for audiences who are tuning it today that wants to hear about the story, How I was able to meet Yue Zhong, I actually met her in an ACPA conference in 2020. So I do think that networking, going to conferences is a good way to get connected with folks in the US who are in higher education and outside of work coming from a different country who is also having a career in the field of student affairs. But you did mention a little about, what were you doing, like as a commission chair? And like, what were the accomplishments reflecting on your time within our commission? I know that it’s, it’s April 1 today, when we record this session that you have ended your tenure as the chair. I’m just curious about what are some of your future plans?

Yue Zhong  9:23

Yeah, so I am in the process of applying for graduate certificate program within ASU. It’s where I currently work. Um, and then I’m also looking forward to getting back to my language learning routine. So I’ve been learning Spanish for a long time now, but it was kind of on and off and I really look forward to getting back to the to the, to the routine of of practicing Spanish, and I also started a personal blog. Well, I started it a couple years ago, but I stopped writing for a long time during grad school because it was incredibly busy. So I look forward to writing more and just finding more time for myself. Yeah.

Xiao Yun  10:10

Yeah, thank you for sharing that at least that you have something in plan in motion that you know that after this, you might have more time to take for personal self development. And I do want to share it to our audiences who are tuning it today as well that we are recruiting for director board members for a Commission’s that I would put the link in our show notes later for y’all to refer to.But Yue Zhong, as the past chair  right now, do you have any words of encouragement or advices, that you would like to share for folks who are interested in joining our commission and probably giving introducing our commission a little?

Yue Zhong  10:53

Yeah,so if you are someone who is or would like to work in the field of higher education, Student Affairs, whether that’s in the United States, or elsewhere in the world, in whatever field you’re in, I highly encourage you to apply to be on the director board of our commission, especially if you’ve been following our commission for a little bit of time. Now, I think it’s incredible opportunity to get involved and meet wonderful people, and really develop your professional skills and connections within within Student Affairs. And I think one thing that I really liked about our commission at ACPA, is that it has a very strong social justice focus. So what our commission does is we really focus on the intersection between social justice, decolonization and international international education. So I think if you are passionate about one of these areas, which I think all of them are important, but if you’re, you know, passionate about this, this special, this unique area, our condition is definitely for you.

Xiao Yun  12:10

Thank you for sharing that. I hope that all of us or folks who are interested definitely  check out our commission and also the vacancies of positions that are available in our directorate board. But to end our podcast, you did mention a little earlier about setting up a routine coming up routine for yourself. I’m, I’m interested to learn about what is your self care routine? How do you avoid burnout or compassion fatigue in this field of student affairs?

Yue Zhong  12:41

Yeah,um, I think looking back on my time, during graduate school, now, I realized that I was super burnt out without really noticing it or realizing it, I didn’t find time to truly enjoy my time. I guess my free time. And I find I found it really hard to just relax and do nothing, because I would, you know, put on podcasts, even when I was doing chores, you know, doing laundry, and it would, I would watch TED Talks during lunch breaks. And I think that was really unhealthy. Um, and I think after I started working, I really, you know, I find it really important to just relax and find things that make you really happy for what it is and not really trying to get, you know, quote, unquote, productive out of everything. And I think everyone has your own self care practice. But I think it’s just really important to find things that work for you. And it took me a long time to get to where I am today, where I feel like I am generally not too stressed, although sometimes I do get super stressed still, but it’s also about finding ways to quickly bring yourself back to your, um, peace kind of peace state when you do get stressed. So I, you know, I watch Netflix, I listen to podcasts and going for a walk and things like that. But I think Yeah, like I said, finding a routine that truly works for you is, is what really matters.

Xiao Yun  14:27

Yeah, I do agree like finding a routine or a practice that really matters to you is really important. And, you know, I would say that I’ve heard a lot from different folks that it’s to still have a  life outside of student affairs. So finding what things that you’re passionate about things that you enjoy doing so that you can really have a break outside of work and still take care of yourself and enjoy the different things that you do to end with that. I just want to encourage everyone to find where your people there that would support you throughout this space and note that our commission is here. If you are interested to look into different resources that supports international higher education, or like what you just mentioned about social justice decolonization information, we will link it on our description here below that all of you guys get to refer to so thank you. It’s really nice having you today, Yue Zhong to talk about where are you currently And where would you like what are your future plans. Next, and I’m really excited to be able to read your blog sometime soon. So thank you Yue Zhong.

Yue Zhong  15:43

Thank you for Xiao Yun.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

Shownotes:

Learn about our commission CGDSD – https://www.myacpa.org/commgdsd

Find out about our directorate board and recruitment – https://linktr.ee/acpaCGDSD