The
Financial Aid Department at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University Worldwide is a
rather small department consisting of a Director, Manager, Manager of Direct
Loans and Verification, Manager of State Grants and Scholarships, International
Counselor, Online Counselor, Western Region Counselor, Central Region Counselor
and I am the Eastern Region Counselor. We all work together as a team with one
objective: to award students the financial aid needed to attend ERAU. There are
roughly 6,000 students receiving financial aid for the 2012-2013 academic year
and only five counselors handling their requests and that is why it is very
important we all work together as a team.
We
have a lot of similarities to that of a high-performance team as we all are connected;
yet we work interdependently on our specific regions assigned. I feel as though
we all are voluntary members as we chose to apply for our positions and invest
a lot of time in learning all of the processes and procedures of the financial
aid. Financial aid requires us to adjust our performance to the different needs
of each individual we deal with. Sometimes we are just packaging their account
for the academic year, where other times we are reviewing their personal
information because they were selected for a process called verification.
As
our team develops over the passing months and years we have grown together and
became dependent upon one another. When a counselor is out we all re-group and
pick up the counselors work responsibilities. I personally have experienced
this type of commitment. While I was out on maternity leave for 12 weeks my
fellow team members all collaborated to complete all of my tasks. One team
member answered all my emails, while another called all of my students. Every
member chipped in to make sure that while I was out my students were taken care
of and reassured me to enjoy my time away as they were going to take care of everything.
When I returned I only had present day emails, calls and tickets. I was completely
caught up because of their willingness to take care of me, as I would do for
them. Our relationship with one another is deeper than just as co-workers, we
are a family unit working together towards accomplishing our team’s objective
to give students financial aid.
We
are connected through our shared passion and dedication in growing as a
department and as individuals. We all act as each other’s cheerleaders. If one
of us fails we all fail with them. We care for one another and want to see
everyone succeed at one point or another. Recently our manager of Direct Loans
and Verification received an award for ‘going above and beyond’ her normal call
of duty. We were all at our annual awards ceremony when she was announced and
in front of all Worldwide Headquarters our department was screaming and
clapping because of how proud we were for her. We all felt like her award was a
demonstration of “our’ accomplishments. She represents us and we all
experienced ‘mirror neurons’ as she accepted her award with tears in her eyes.
We are a team that lives by the motto “one team one dream”. Our Western Region
counselor developed it and since he announced it we all have it written on our
dry erase boards to remind us daily.
According to
Denning there are four ways in which we as humans work together: Work Groups,
Teams, Community and Networks. Each type of relationship has different benefits
and challenges which in my opinion can be predicted by the type of project you
are working on, different personalities associated with the project and environments
they are encountered in.
In my past I
have participated within a working group where each of us were assigned our own
specific task and reported directly to the supervisor. When I was in high
school I was forced to get a part-time job to pay for my own gas and cell phone
bill so I applied at a doctors office. I was a jack of all trades meaning I did
whatever they needed me to that day I wasn’t really in charge of only
completing one task. The positive of working within this working group was I
was given my responsibility that day and then left alone to complete it. I wasn’t
forced to interact with anyone unless I needed assistance. The challenge of
being so independent was that I was very lonely. I felt like the hours would go
by slower than molasses dripping from a tree. I hated my job and couldn’t wait
to quit.
My current place
of employment gives me the opportunity to work as a team and I really enjoy it.
We are all very different in our interests and hobbies, however we all share
common values such as being helpful, supportive and strive to go above and
beyond the normal call of duty. We are more of a family unit, which is the
biggest challenge for me. We are so tight knit that we tend to bicker about the
stupidest things like a family would. On a positive note we can usually read
when one of our team members is having a bad day and re-adjust how we behave
towards them for that day.
As a financial
aid counselor I am not only apart of the financial aid team I am apart of the
ERAU community in that we are a pretty close group of individuals all working
towards ERAU goal in recruiting, retaining and graduating our students. As an employee
I am able to be around people with common interests such as furthering my
education. Employees I work around are currently pursuing their master degree
and this is very motivating to me. I feel like since I have started working
here I fit in better with my co-workers than I do with my friends at home
because at ERAU we all are working towards bettering our students and ourselves.
The challenge of being apart of this community is that I develop deep
connections with my co-workers but as we all evolve into better employees comes
more opportunities to grow and many employees go on and receive better jobs. It
is hard when co-workers leave because I am forced to develop new bonds with the
new hires.
A network I am
apart of would be Facebook. I use Facebook to network and stay in touch with
family and friends or potential resources. Although Facebook is a fun sight for
many it is also a superficial way of communicating with no deep connection.
This type of relationship is a great way to stay up-to-date with what’s going
in the world, but it is also serves as a useless way for people to portray a
pretend version of themselves. Networking can be beneficial in that you can
stay in touch with resources for future opportunities, however if used
inappropriately it can also be very harmful to ones self imagine.
For me I would
prefer to work as a member of a team within a community like I do now at ERAU.
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