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What I wish I knew – Jules Slater ’21
This blog post started as a “What I wish I had known before starting college,” but after staring at my screen for longer than I’d like to admit with no ideas popping forward, I’ve come to the conclusion that there’s nothing I really and truly wish I had known.
Some may say that they wish they had known who their friends were going to be, or how to study for a college exam, or how to pay their taxes, but I truly believe that everything I’ve learned between my senior year of high school and my senior year of college have shaped me into who I am. I would not be the person I am today without these formative learning experiences. Sure, it would have been so much easier on my GPA had I known how to study for a college exam, but learning through actually doing is what taught me things about myself that I didn’t know before and taught me how to deal with failure.
(more…)Careers in Organizational Leadership Grow! Here’s why.
Most of us can agree on one thing- change is constant. Change across many industries and markets is leading to a surge of career opportunities in organizational leadership. Dominick Peruso, Chair of the Department of Accounting, Business, and Economics, states, “COVID-19 ushered in an era of need for systemic change and innovation within organizations. It has impacted everything from working remotely to employee recruitment. When you couple that with emerging issues in diversity, technology, and ethics, you can see why organizations are quick to hire experts in this area.”
Before COVID, many publications shared that organizational leadership careers would remain in demand across the corporate, education, government, and healthcare sectors through 2026. As a result of COVID, this outlook has grown – with many professionals citing a decade-long upward trend. The reason? We have fundamentally changed the way we do business. Everything has changed; how we communicate with our employees, where they work, how we develop them for career growth, and how we deal with disciplinary action situations. So many of our leaders are specialized. Leaders focusing on organizational leadership (OL) are trained to develop frameworks for an organization’s success.
So what does that mean in real life?
(more…)How Juniata is thriving during the pandemic
How is it possible that at Juniata, despite CoVID restrictions, I’m allowed to compete in the annual Bailey Oratorical speech contest in person? I get to eat food at Baker celebrating Mardi Gras at a table with four of my friends? Juniata students are in the fortunate position of having found a new normal during the CoVid19 public health crisis while keeping our on-campus students’ test positivity rate– our rate of infection –just around 1%. Through the extraordinary performance by our school, faculty, and most importantly, our students, we’ve been able to enjoy what many other colleges cannot at this time.
Of course, if your school is like most high schools or colleges across the U.S., these privileges may seem unbelievable for you. Dining, sports, being with friends? The option for in-person classes that maintain the quality of education that has been more familiar and effective than SOME online classes have been for many? How is it possible?
(more…)An MBA with a Healthcare Administration Concentration is a Solid “Now” Decision
In Pennsylvania, we recently saw Alison Beam succeed Dr. Rachel Levine at the Pennsylvania Health Department. Beam holds a Bachelor of Science in Health Policy and Administration and is just one example of the pathways available to those exploring a healthcare administration career.
The truth is the need for healthcare administration professionals exists across the nation, making it one of the upward trending career decisions in the United States.
Why all this growth and will it last?
The complications in healthcare, data, and artificial intelligence to drive decisions and an aging yet long-living population have driven the demands. Add to that all that we have learned during COVID-19, the expectations for growth are expected to continue well past 2030. People with a passion for healthcare administration and the right education are sought out by hospital systems, physician networks, nursing homes, home health agencies, and governmental positions. Consider compliance alone. As national administration changes every 4-8 years, so does the regulatory environment. Healthcare systems rely on administrators to ensure that they remain compliant while driving up quality care.
(more…)Reflecting on my first semester during COVID-19
I was in Florida on spring break with my teammates when we all first learned that we would not be returning to campus for two weeks. We had no idea at the time that we would not see each other again in person for almost six months. This is not a wildly unique experience I had – high schoolers and college kids alike missed out on their senior years, sport seasons, time with family members and friends, and the long list of experiences a person has while they are still young. The pandemic we have all been trudging through for the last year has put life on hold in so many ways, and yet life at Juniata has not become all that different as many of us thought it would.
I was ecstatic to come back to campus for in-person learning. Attempting to learn from a computer screen in my childhood bedroom hours away from campus for the second half of the spring 2020 semester was neither productive for me academically nor for my mental health. When I found out that Juniata was expecting to make a full return to campus, I – along with every single person that I told from home – was doubtful to say the least. How would a small liberal arts school in the (in what they like to say) “middle of nowhere” be able to control local outbreaks without endangering staff or the local community? How did we expect college kids to listen to all the rules in place? I bet we’d be on campus for three weeks max (which was very noticeable in what I chose to pack). And for maybe the first time in my life, I was very happy to be wrong about something. We were able to stay completely in person for the entire semester!
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