Show notes
Welcome back to another episode of SA Voices From The Field! In today's episode, we have a special guest, Hyunmin Kim, who will be sharing their insights and experiences in the field of higher education and student affairs. In this episode of the "Student Affairs Voices From the Field" podcast, Dr. Jill Creighton interviews Hyunmin Kim, the assistant director of residential life for the Courtyards at the University of Maryland. Hyunmin shares his journey into student affairs and his recent transition into his current role. Hyunmin's journey into student affairs began with a personal connection to residential life, as he grew up in a family housing unit on a university campus. He found his passion for working with students while in college, leading him to pursue a master's degree in public administration with a focus on educational leadership. His career path eventually led him to become the assistant director at the Courtyards. During the discussion, Hyunmin reflects on his first 90 days in his new role, highlighting the challenges and learning experiences. He emphasizes the importance of taking time to reflect and recharge, especially in a field that can be emotionally demanding. Hyunmin also discusses his approach to supervising professional staff and the transition from supervising paraprofessionals. He values building close relationships with those he supervises and believes in a balance of professionalism and personal connection. Looking ahead, Hyunmin discusses his plans to focus on building a strong culture and traditions within the Courtyards community. He aims to engage upperclassmen residents and establish a legacy of involvement and participation. Additionally, he explores ways to use social media to connect with students and meet them where they are while maintaining the university's educational mission. In conclusion, Hyunmin encourages others in the field to smile, remember why they chose student affairs, and be innovative in their approach to engage and support students. He also stresses the importance of setting a positive and inclusive culture within residential communities. Please subscribe to SA Voices from the Field on your favorite podcasting device and share the podcast with other student affairs colleagues! TRANSCRIPT Dr. Jill Creighton [00:00:02]: Welcome to Student Affairs Voices From the Field, the podcast where we share your student affairs stories from fresh perspectives to seasoned experts. This is season 9 on transitions in student affairs. This podcast is brought to you by NASPA, And I'm Dr. Jill Creighton, she, her, hers, your essay voices from the field host. Today on SA Voices, we're pleased to feature Hyunmin Kim, who is serving as the assistant director of residential life for the Courtyards at the University of Maryland. He was born in Seoul, South Korea, but was raised in Nashville, Tennessee. He has a master's in public administration from American University with a focus in educational leadership. At the courtyards you could always find him joking with residents and looking to find new and interesting ways to interact with residents. Hyun Min, welcome to the show. Hyunmin Kim [00:00:48]: Hello. Thanks for having me. Dr. Jill Creighton [00:00:50]: And we're talking to you today from Maryland College Park. Hyunmin Kim [00:00:53]: Yes? Yes. That is correct. Dr. Jill Creighton [00:00:54]: Well, we're glad to get to know you today in our theme of transitions. And one of the things that we love to kick off our show with is asking someone how they got to their current seat. So what is your come up journey to being the assistant director at Maryland College Park? Hyunmin Kim [00:01:08]: Yeah. I love giving a good old origin story. I think it's a pretty common story amongst higher educators. I think when I started college, I had A little bit of, like, an idea about, like, something that I wanted to do. And then I got to college, and I realized that it just really wasn't for me, and I had no passion for it. So it was time for a bit of soul searching. Right? Because, obviously, it's just like I work my whole life for a specific goal and then just goes down the drain. So I kinda started to think back about kind of experiences that I had growing up that I really enjoyed. Hyunmin Kim [00:01:35]: So my parents immigrated from South Korea. My dad did his PhD in Nashville at Vanderbilt University, And we lived in a residential college then, like a family housing unit. And I remember as a kid just kind of being a part of that community growing up, just going to those events at the rec centered with my father, and it was I think it was a lot of fun for me as a kid. So then I got involved on our campus, you know, through hall council. It's very you know, the classic higher ed store. Hall council, RHA, the desk, and all that. Then kinda slowly, I just realized that I had a real passion for it, so I did my master's in public administration and leadership Development. And then did my grad work, and then I just ended up at the Courtyard at the University of Maryland, and I just kind of ended up as the assistant director. Dr. Jill Creighton [00:02:12]: And how long have you been in that assistant director seat now? Hyunmin Kim [00:02:16]: Since May of this year, so not too long. Not too long. Very fresh, the position. Dr. Jill Creighton [00:02:19]: Absolutely. And before that, you were in the coordinator position at the same university. Yes? Hyunmin Kim [00:02:25]: Yes. I was a resident director. Dr. Jill Creighton [00:02:27]: So one of the things we're gonna be focusing on for you today is the 90 day story, the 90 day transition because you're basically just coming out of the other side of that 90 days, right about now. And interesting for your transition that it happened really in the summertime, which is a much more chill time to transition a position in our industry than it would be if you did it in, like, October or something. So tell us about the beginnings of the transition in terms of wanting to interview with your current colleagues for a position because I know that that can be a really nerve wracking space. Hyunmin Kim [00:02:57]: I think the first thing that I really thought about was when when they approached me, like, hey. Like, this This position's opening up. Would you be interested? It's a less formal interview process because we know you, but would you still be interested? And I think I really thought it's like, Am I qualified to be the assistant director? Right? Because I'm I think I'm on the younger side, for higher educators. I'm, like, coming into, like, Year 2 of it, so I was a resident director for a year, and then they approached me at this position. And I think that was the first thing that I thought was, like, am I ready? Can I actually do it, and what do I actually what does an assistant director actually do? And I talked to my boss who was the assistant director at the time, And she was like, you're ready. I mean, you you worked underneath me. You can do it. It's just a matter of getting there and just showing up for the job and following through and and learning as you go and Kind of understanding how the role plays a part into the community as you continue to work in the role. Hyunmin Kim [00:03:46]: So, you know, I go through the process. I think now that I've kind of been that 90 day, as you said, it's I feel like now I'm slowly getting comfortable as to what I'm supposed to do. The qualified part, I think every day, that's a struggle just, like, knowing if I'm doing the I think if this is actually making a good impact for my student staff or the students that I work with, I think it was overall a very interesting transition, and I think a lot of time for Self reflection on my part about my years as a director. Dr. Jill Creighton [00:04:09]: So in that self reflection, how did you come to the determination that you were ready and you didn't wanna apply? Hyunmin Kim [00:04:14]: I think my life's Motto has always been, you gotta try it first. And if it doesn't work, then, like, you'll know, but, like, you gotta at least try. And I'm a very hands on guy. I've always been more of human, and I've just really enjoyed getting my hands deep with the students. So I think my mindset was is if I'm just in my head space constantly fighting demons, that I I really never will know, and then it'll go to someone else who may not know the community as well as I do, who may not know my students as well as I do, who may not know the needs as well as I do. And I think I came to kind of the conclusion that I do know what my students need and what my students staff especially need. So I was just like, alright. We're gonna run with it. Hyunmin Kim [00:04:48]: We're gonna do it. And, If it doesn't work, then we're gonna grow, we're gonna improve, but I won't know until I try. So I just kind of jumped in a little bit. I turned off my brain a little bit. Dr. Jill Creighton [00:04:57]: And you made that leap from 1st entry level professional into that mid level, like, as you said, pretty quickly. So what are the skills and abilities and knowledge areas that you needed or the KSAs in order to really start to think about the conceptualization of how your regular work and your mindset towards work need to change in that jump. Hyunmin Kim [00:05:16]: Yeah. I mean, I think as a resident director, you really are I mean, I've, you know, much love for all the resident directors. It's just you're really out there with the students. You're the 1st line of defense in the trenches, and I think sometimes it's easy to lose sight of the bigger picture as you're always just so, like, knee deep with students. And I think that year of Maybe with my RAs, it was just like I was just so knee deep with them. It was sometimes hard to see the bigger picture as to why sometimes my supervisors were making the decisions that were being made. I'm like, why why are we why we doing this, and I think going to my 1st NASP, interacting with, you know, the KC, but also just kind of, like, talking to other friend other colleagues and friends in the area. I had to kind of take a step back and kinda distance myself a little bit from my students who I enjoy so much just to kind of See the bigger picture. Hyunmin Kim [00:05:58]: Right? Because it's not just student staff that I work with or it's not just students that I work with. It it's the collective body of the courtyards, and and it was just trying I had to kind of just take a step back and be less hands on, be a little less turn off brainy, and actually turn on my brain a little bit more to see what the bigger picture was and to understand what it meant to To kind of make the harder decisions, the harder calls, and I guess transitioning my mindset to be a little bit more broader focused rather than so narrowly focused on Just like one specific sect, I guess, of higher ed. Dr. Jill Creighton [00:06:26]: And when you think about working with the students, which I think is why almost all of us got into higher education is we're really passionate about working with developing adults. How has that changed your relationship with the students in your community given now that you're not in the day to day and you're in that mid level leadership space? Hyunmin Kim [00:06:42]: Honestly, I think especially right now because it it has been my and now, like, the school year started, I'm not doing as much up front interaction with the residents. It's a little lonely. Like, I'm not gonna lie. Like, middle management is great, but also I think there's a little bit of loneliness at the top. I see them a lot less, and I can't interact with them as much. So I find myself talking to them more, which I don't know if they want that from me, but, like, I get a lot more Excited now. So I find myself actually just going up to them a lot more, asking my RD, like, what's the deal with this resident? What's the deal with this RA? Like, I think I try to Stay in the notes, stay in the loop more. I I find myself spending more time at programs. Hyunmin Kim [00:07:18]: Like, I'll just kinda show up and just kinda sit there and be like, alright, guys. Just do your stuff. Like, I'm just gonna be here. I just wanna See what's going on. I just wanna know what's happening. So I think I've had to become a lot more intentional with how I interact with students because it really is kinda why we all do it. When you are middle management, you see it a lot less, And it's a lot more paperwork and which is so much fun. But leaving that office is like, let's talk to people. But yeah. So just being a lot more intentional in my interactions with them and Approaching them a lot more and making them talk to me a lot more. Dr. Jill Creighton [00:07:45]: So that 90 day space is a really critical upstart time for anyone in a new position. And even if you've been at the same institution, there's a lot to learn. So can you tell us about how you approached that 1st day of entering into that new space, you know, mentally coming onto campus and knowing, okay. Today, I'm the assistant director. And then how did you strategize for yourself looking ahead in those first Hyunmin Kim [00:08:05]: 90? When I transitioned, all of us were transitioning into new spaces as well. So my supervisor, who is still my supervisor, she's now the associate director, like, of the courtyards and the commons, and And we were looking for a new resident director. So within that 90 days, it was just a lot of hat juggling for me. It's like, are you still kind of the resident director? You're still kind of the assistant. My boss is busy. Like, I don't know where she is. Like, I'm just juggling hats here. And I think it was really just I have to hold down the fort 1st, cover all our bases, and then I can kind of process what it means to be an assistant director. Hyunmin Kim [00:08:39]: So I think for the 1st 45 days, it was just me, like, Cutting out fires, just making sure that, like, everything was, like, fine and ready, you know, for the move in process to start, like, late July, like, early August, just all of that. Like, make sure that all of that's ready. Making sure that my resident director is prepped and ready to go, thinking about what type of supervisor that I wanna be. So the 1st 45 days is just like, Like, the sky is literally falling. And then I think after those 45 days, after we got an a new resident director, I started to kinda have that mentorship responsibility. And I think It really hit me that day. It wasn't even the 1st day. I don't even think it was, you know, like, the 1st 45 days. Hyunmin Kim [00:09:14]: It was, like, the 1st, like, 60 days. My resident director just kinda sits out of my office. She kinda plops out. She just goes, How do you have all the answers, dude? I'm like, that was literally me last year. Right? Like, I was like, I got nothing for you. If you told me, hey, Hamdan, what's this policy? I'd be like, ask Olivia, who's my boss? And she just goes, how do you know everything? And I think During that conversation where she kinda felt like, I feel a little out of place because I feel like I don't know enough. And, you know, we were kinda able to have that Talk about, like, new employee kind of, like, loneliness, new employee, like, imposter syndrome that you feel when you're a new employee. I think helping her talk through that was kind of that, like, oh, I am someone's supervisor now. Hyunmin Kim [00:09:53]: And the kind of the pressure and the r…
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