Building a Community Beyond Higher Ed – with Nicole Terrell

Student Housing Matters

It’s well known that a career in higher education leaves you with many transferable skills. Are those skills useful outside of your workplace? How can we use what we’ve learned working with students to better ourselves and our communities?

In 2009, Nicole Terrell joined COCM as a first-time Assistant Director in a brand-new residence hall at Marshall University. In Nicole’s role at COCM she developed a resident handbook and worked to guide first years struggling to transition to university life. After COCM, Nicole went on to work in loss prevention at Target. Today, she is raising a family, serving on community boards, and teaching cross-fit to kids.

On this episode of Student Housing Matters, Nicole joins guest host Tara Wilkinson to reminisce about her time as an AD. Nicole shares how building a sense of community in a first year residence hall relates to supporting members of the community she now lives in. She also weighs in on how working in higher ed pushed her outside of her comfort zone and taught her how to deal with tough situations. Listen in for Nicoles’s insight on how her experience with CCOM continues to influence the way she approaches supporting others in her local community and what ‘paying it forward’ really means.

Topics Covered

How Nicole got involved with COCM

Nicole’s experience working with first years in a new residence hall

How Nicole’s role as an Assistant Director prepared her for future positions

The importance of reaching out to others in your community

Nicole’s lasting relationships with former COCM colleagues

How COCM helped Nicole push past her boundaries

Connect with Tara

Student Housing Matters

Student Housing Matters on Twitter

Capstone On-Campus Management

Tara on LinkedIn