1. Marcy Ritzert, Muskingum University
Katrina Heilmeier, Bowling Green State
University
Summer Institute 2012 - Xavier University

2.  Building and Maintaining Relationships That
Last
 With Others
 With Yourselves
 Fighting Negativity and Burnout
 Finding the Upside and Staying Positive…
 Because I Was An Admission Counselor

3. No road is long with
good company.
--Turkish Proverb

5.  CollegeFair Neighbors
 Other counselors
 Guidance Counselors
 OACAC
 NACAC
 ACT
 Importance of Communication
 Be Aware of Pitfalls

6.  Broaden Your Horizons
 Making Time For Yourself
 Fighting Negativity & Burnout
 What is burnout and how does it happen?
 Anything in life worth having is worth working for ---
Andrew Carnegie

7.  Student interaction, so rewarding
 Always changing, variety
 Networking with others
 Relaxed/flexible work setting
 Creating friendships
 Traveling
 Acquiring job skills for advancement
 Keeps you young
 Challenging
 Providing a service

8.  Pay
 Hours (Evenings/Weekends)
 Difficult families/helicopter parents
 Paperwork/menial tasks (filing, labeling,
etc…)
 Competitive
 Making phone calls
 Travel
 Deadlines, stress, time constraints
 Denying students (the “dream crusher”)

9.  Positive attitude  Helpful
 Highly motivated  Flexible
 Outgoing  Approachable
 Assertive  Spontaneous
 Good work ethic  Motivator
 Organized  Influential
 Service, people,  Disciplined
goal, detail oriented  Can deal with
 Determined change
 Sense of humor!  “On” all the time

10.  Dropping the ball on projects
 Procrastinating
 No longer feeling you need to work hard
 Resentment
 Bad attitude
 Complaining
 No longer helpful to families
 No longer look forward to work

11.  Ask yourself if you believe in your institution and your job
 Get involved on your campus
 Make an effort to be intrusive in your student’s lives
 Use your skills to your best effort
 Propose your ideas, don’t assume people won’t listen to
you
 Find good in others
 Find a good mentor (doesn’t have to be at your school,
although helpful)
 Trying something new (YES!)
 Get involved in professional organizations
 Make a list of what you love about the job
 Turn criticism and feedback into something positive
 Tinto’s Theory of Departure

12.  You are not alone
 Change really is good. Listen to your heart,
you’ll know it if you need it.
 Your career is forever growing, we never stop
learning
 PIP (Personal or Professional Improvement
Plan)
 Don’t allow others to control you – doesn’t
matter what’s going on around you, YOUR
perspective is the only one that matters
 Give new responsibilities/assignments a
chance before deciding you don’t like it.

14.  Read a map  Be aware of
 Not rely on GPS surroundings
 Make hotel/air/car  Drive in all kinds of
reservations weather/city driving
 Ship materials via  Make decisions
UPS  Like being alone
 Eat alone  How to pack light
 Be comfortable  Take initiative
speaking to  What are YOU
strangers looking forward to
 Have difficult learning?
conversations

15. Twenty years from now you will be
more disappointed by the things you
didn’t do than by the ones you did
do. So throw off the bowlines, sail
away from the safe harbor. Catch
the trade winds in your silas.
Explore. Dream. Discover.
---Mark Twain

16.  Marcy Ritzert, Associate Director of
Admission, Muskingum University –
mritzert@muskingum.edu
 Katrina Heilmeier, Admission Counselor,
Bowling Green State University –
katrilc@bgsu.edu