Working as a Student Coordinator has helped me develop skills like : 

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• Systems Thinking – At work, while my shifts are always at the same time, each time I tend to close with a different set of students. While Orin’s Place is relatively small, there multiple different roles that we as a team need to fill in order to ensure that we run smoothly. At the start, I felt that it was fine to let students choose what they wanted to do and those that had been working longer would choose whatever they wanted while the newer ones would be stuck with the more mundane tasks. However, there would be times when newer staff would be more efficient at their work. Seeing this it was important for me to create a schedule of sorts that would ensure that each person is in the position that they are most efficient in, while everyone is still taking part in all facets of work. Doing so made us much more efficient and less reliant on one person doing more than the other and instead of us working individually, it made us more of a system.

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• Self Development – It is important for me to do the most that I can while I am working. While I may not have been here the longest, I have been trained to perform the required tasks and have my own ways of doing them to make it quicker and more efficient. There can be times when everything is running smoothly and I feel like there is not much to do, and there are also times when I have to be at the forefront of our activities. Being complimented by customers on my service and by my coworkers and managers for making it easier to work at Orins has helped me realize the good that I bring with my own contribution and how my presence allows others to work smoothly.

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• Mentoring – We are always getting new additions to our staff and with constant schedule changes, more often than not we have students who have not experienced working at Orin’s. My role has allowed me to be a mentor for these students and teach them the ins and outs of the place; as well as certain methods that make the job quicker and more productive. Whenever we have new students, I ask them to shadow me whenever possible and personally teach them the ways to perform tasks around the café. This method has allowed me to pass on the knowledge that I have gained through my experience and allow the newer workers to fit in efficiently and bring a positive impact from as soon as their first shift.

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• Creating change – Having been trained to close the café, I know what needs to be done to perform a complete and secure closing. However, after closing a couple of times I noticed that there are certain steps that can be taken to speed up the process and make it less strenuous for everyone involved. By bringing in some of the utensils that are not used frequently, having multiple people bring signs back during slow hours, and most importantly, packing and stocking goods at optimum hours helped to reduce closing times. Slowly after testing out different variations, I managed to set up a set of steps to take in order to ensure a significantly quicker close which is still as complete as the prior method, but allows for a little more downtime for the students. By following the procedure, we can consistently close by 8:30 pm instead of the usual 9 pm that used to occur in the past.

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• Excellence – Ever since I have been promoted, becoming an ambassador of the university has become more and more important. I am normally the first contact people have so it is impervious that I perform to the best of my abilities. From meeting parents, prospective coworkers, and even the dean of the Foster school on a daily basis, it is crucial that I perform at the best of my abilities to provide each customer with the best experience that I can. The consistency of this behavior has helped me realize the importance of giving all I can at any given moment and has allowed me to reach new heights of professionalism and personal growth in all aspects of my life.