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		RELI & Professional Development By Amy Paciej, Student Life Coordinator Lycoming College I was lucky enough to be able to attend RELI (Regional Entry Level Institute) this month at Rutgers - Newark. The institute is for people who want to gain skills and competencies to move up in the Housing/Residence Life division of Student Affairs. It is small, intensive, and interactive, has a great faculty/student ratio, and is a lot of fun. Among the many things I learned at RELI, one of the most important in my eyes is realizing that professional development is my responsibility. Professional development can be defined as actively pursuing your professional interests and making the choice to go "outside your comfort zone". Professional development should not occur by chance, because someone else feels that an opportunity would be good for you. Professional development should be a conscious and deliberate decision, where personal and specific professionally beneficial opportunities are pursued. As an example, one could consider attending professional conferences. In the past, I had not taken a very active part in deciding "where I go from here". I let things happen depending on the situational aspects surrounding me at the time. I waited around for professional development to happen to me; and it did, a little. Since the RELI Program, I have adjusted my perspective and now view professional development as one of my responsibilities. As a result, I see a whole new variety of interesting choices and opportunities for professional development that are available, and I have the folks at RELI to thank for this. I attended a church service last night and part of the message involved an analogy to each of us being a branch of a vine. The story continued to describe how, in order to flourish the dead wood must be cut out and then the parts that are growing need to be pruned. I can relate this analogy to my stage of professional development. I need to examine where I am, what I need to cut out, what is working and then push myself outside of my comfort zone in order to flourish (a little painful pruning). As a result of the individual attention I received at RELI, I now feel that I have a clear direction and a plan of how to pursue my professional development. For me this will be a deliberate series of involvement and experiences designed to prepare me for not only the next position on the professional ladder but also for more responsibilities and stronger competencies in my current position. As a recommendation to other entry-level staff, I would like to encourage you to begin the process of formulating your own professional development plan. Creating a professional development plan Assess where you are and what your current skills are: your interests and what you enjoyed about the positions you have held in the past. what you feel you are good at. what you are not good at and why (i.e. your skills aren't developed or you are uninterested). Understand the position you are trying to obtain: compare your assessment results to the next position description: where are you lacking? what does that person in the desired position do all day? what does the supervisor of the position you are striving for look for in an employee? Set goals with plans and completion dates. Recommended Reading Ideas of avenues to pursue to develop your competencies can be found in: Janice Gerwick, Designing a Personal Career Plan, ACUHO-I Talking Stick, March 1998 About the Author Amy Paciej is a Student Life Coordinator at Lycoming College. Before her position at Lycoming, Amy was the Fraternity Hall Director and Program Advisor at Texas Christian University. Amy has also worked as a Recruitment Coordnator for the Big Brother Big Sister program in Fort Worth, Texas.