How to create the perfect Advisor: Amanda Dohse

How to create the perfect Advisor:
Amanda Dohse
Kenrick Ali Advisor of the Year Award
No Frill 2011 San Jose State University
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Amanda Dohse
Ingredients:
1 tps. of Diligent 5 cup of Hard working
3 dashes of Enthusiastic
2 Tbs. of Positive
4 Pinches of Dedicated
Diligent, hard working, enthusiastic, positive, and dedicated are just few of the many great ingredients that describe San Jose State University Advisor, Amanda Dohse.
As an advisor Amanda Dohse’s main responsibilities is
being the Resident Life Coordinator (RLC) for the Classics, which is the Bricks and Joe West halls at San José
State University. However, her responsibilities do not stop
there. She is also one of the advisors for the Residence
Hall Association and PACURH delegation.
As a Classics RLC, Amanda meets with sixteen Resident
Advisors bi- weekly along with RHA executive board
members. During one on one meeting with the Classic staff, Amanda does not only focus on how they are
meeting their duties, but how they are meeting their life
goals. She wants the best for the staff and guides them
to take action in achieving their true passions in life.
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Five Star Advising
“Amanda changed the way most of us thought about advising because at one on one meetings the first words out
of her month were “So what do you want to do with your
life”. Unlike many other advisors that concentrate on the
present, she concentrates on the bigger picture and really
try’s to help better your life. She will adapt her style of
advising depending on the personality of the person. She
starts out at the beginning of a advisor/advisee relationship by doing a strengths quest quiz to find out how she
should advise you.”
Marilyn Lowman of the Vice President of Programing Times
RHA Advising
The role as RHA advisor is to give the feedback to student leaders. They see the bigger picture and challenge them to think
of how they can improve and grow into a greater leader and
communicator. Amanda attends every executive board meeting, participates in discussion, and adds a new perspective to
the topic at hand. She encourages executive board members to
speak up and helps them articulate their thoughts. Amanda is
not afraid to talk about her personal experiences and life with
the RHA board. If anyone has any problems, she is very personal and approachable. Students feel comfortable coming and
talking to her about any problem that they have.
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Three Thumbs Up Integration
“It can be difficult to come into a group where everyone
is already bonded and try to mix yourself in. Amanda
took this challenge head on and rose to the occasion. She
activated the yeast that allowed her to become part of
the group. RHA met Amanda for the first time at our Fall
Retreat where we go over goals and expectations. She
provided great suggestions and advice on how to make
our goals attainable. One example would be not to over
cook ourselves and remember that we are students first,
and in order to ser ve the residents of housing we need to
take care of ourselves first. As the semester progressed
her involvement in RHA never dwindled and actually got
stronger. She was at almost every program, and even
cooked for a few. It was great to see an advisor come and
support the student leaders in housing even if it was a
late night program. “
Jessica Nguyen of the Vice President of Financial News
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Extra Ingredients
Apart from being a advisor for RHA she is a part of the
Campus Reading Initiative, which involves reading books
to select the next academic year’s campus sponsored
book. She is also on the university housing Diversity
committee. This committee is committed to providing
aware for diversity sensitive issues. A upcoming event
for the Committee is a film series where they show different movies that showcase different trials and tribulations of ethic groups.
SJSU’S PACURH Conference Advisor
As a SJSU PACURH delegation advisor, Amanda was new to
the conference scene, but that did not stop her from being the
best advisor possible to the delegation. Amanda worked closely
with the NCC to pick a great group of students to represent
San Jose State University at PACURH and narrowed the sixteen applicants to ten delegates and three alternates. She was
at every Sunday night meetings leading up to the conference.
She helped work on creating the spirit items with the delegation and helped ensure that all six programs submitted had Top
Ten potential. Three of these programs were selected to be in
the Top Ten.
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A+ Direction
“While I was getting our delegation checked in, Amanda
helped keep everyones spirits high even though we all
were exhausted from traveling. She stepped up and organized the delegation while I was gone. She help people get
their conference materials, keys and rooms assignments,
and find out where they needed to go. No matter what
need to be done, Amanda was there to help me out and
keep the ball rolling without me having to ask her. “
Michael Amundsen of the NCC Weekly
After returning from conference, Amanda has continue
to be a great advisor. She has brought back at least 5
different ideas and programs that are and will be implemented at SJSU. In this semester alone she has help work
on the idea of Canstruction, a can food drive building fundraiser, and presented new ideas to her RA staff such as
“programming dollars” to encourage residents to participate in programs. She also began working on being able to
bring the idea of a reuse room back to SJSU in which residents can drop off items they don’t want and pick up new
items from the room that they need. Her work this year
on this project is making the room a reality as we begin
to pilot the program when we return in January.
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Credientials: Amanda Dohse
375 South 9th Street #5214, San Jose, California, 95112 ● 712.830.9042
amandadohse@gmail.com
Education______________________________________________________________________________
Master of Education, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa
Major: Educational Leadership and Policy Studies, Emphasis: Student Affairs
Bachelor of Science, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa
Major: Business Management – Minor: Print Journalism May 2008
May 2006
Student Affairs Experience__________________________________________________________
Residential Life Coordinator, University Housing Ser vices
Spring 2009- Present
San Jose State University, San Jose, California ● Provide leadership to three first year and upper-division residence halls housing 950 students
● Supervise, select, train, evaluate and manage the overall direction and development of a diverse staff of 3
Assistant Residential Life Coordinators, 10-20 Resident Advisors, 1 Office Manager and 15 Office Assistants
● Manage multiple deadlines and concurrent projects including staff development and training, judicial meetings,
chairing committees and departmental processes
● Assess and respond to residential students’ physical, emotional, psychological, and intellectual needs, utilizing
knowledge of student development theory
● Assumes on call duty coverage and crisis response for 3000+ on-campus residents
● Facilitate residence hall programming model in collaboration with Resident Advisors, faculty and professional
staff to provide holistic academic and social education
● Monitor program and administrative budgets and track student payroll
● Resolve problems and maintain confidentiality in conjunction with students, parents and administrators
● Adjudicate conduct cases and assign educational and developmental sanctions
● Support and manage the success of three themed-based living learning communities
● Advise and serve as a resource and role model for student run hall government and student organizations
Admissions Counselor
University of Minnesota Duluth, Duluth, Minnesota
Fall 2008- Spring 2009
● Promoted opportunities within higher education to perspective students
● Responsible for a recruitment territory to assist in achieving enrollment goals for the university
● Advised students and families of admission requirements, financial aid and scholarship information
● Reviewed admission applications, evaluated credentials, and made admission recommendations
● Contributed to the success of student visit programs designed to recruit a diverse student population
Graduate Hall Director, Department of Residence Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa Fall 2006- Spring 2008
● Provided leadership for upper-division residence hall housing 225 students
● Supervised, selected, trained and evaluated 6 Community Advisors
● Created and executed training on leadership, academics, community development, diversity, safety and facilities
● Facilitated weekly staff meetings and individual Community Advisor meetings
● Conducted judicial hearings and implemented educational sanctions
● Created and implemented programming and outreach for undergraduate, transfer and international students
● Addressed concerns from families regarding their student’s success and behavior
● Responsible for on-call coverage and crisis response for 7000+ on-campus residents
● Assisted residents dealing with mental health needs, roommate conflicts and academics
● Reestablished and advised Hall Council consisting of 9 House Presidents
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Continued Student Affairs Experience________________________________________________
Instructor, Academic Success Center, Psychology 131, Academic Success Seminar Fall 2007
Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa
● Taught full semester academic success seminar for first-year and academically at-risk students
● Designed and implemented weekly lesson plans
● Developed assignments to teach academic success, personal skills and multicultural appreciation
● Created assessment of student learning and provided feedback for academic improvement
● Provided individual academic consultation for 29 undergraduate students
Residence Life Intern, Association of University and College Housing Officers
Loyola University Chicago, Chicago, Illinois
Summer 2007
● Developed training program for Graduate Hall Directors based on Jesuit values
● Revised and updated policy manuals and hall desk procedures
● Participated in task force to revise on-call duty procedures
● Observed facilities planning, retention, recruitment and occupancy management meetings
● Developed staff programming to utilize the urban multicultural campus setting
Residence Life Intern, Department of Residence
Summer 2006
Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa ● Created community development plan and collaborated in vision setting for reopening residence hall
● Selected and hired Community Advisors and Desk Assistants to accommodate community needs
● Developed hall desk procedures and updated hall desk inventory
● Managed facilities issues related to reopening
● Assisted with the management of summer conferences such as Special Olympics National Games
Residence Life Intern, Association of University and College Housing Officers
Summer 2005
Frostburg State University, Frostburg, Maryland ● Facilitated team building, group development and training activities for residence hall staff
● Reviewed résumés and interviewed Resident Assistant candidates
● Edited and redesigned the Residence Hall Guide
● Created multiple publications for faculty and students
● Created and revised the Student Conduct Code brochure
● Created displays for Freshman Orientation to recruit for special programs within the residence halls
● Received certification of Training for Intervention Procedures (TIPS), to recognize substance abuse
Committee Experience _________________________________________________________________
● Living Learning Communities, Member
Fall 2009-Summer 2010
● Delegation Advisor, NACURH & PARCURH
Spring & Fall 2010
● Student Staff Selection, Committee Chair Fall 2009
● Student Staff Training, Member Spring 2009
● Welcome Week and Frosh Start, Member
Spring 2009 & 2010
● Residence Hall Fitness Center Task Force Member
Fall 2007- Spring 2008
● Community Advisor Recognition Committee Facilitator
Fall 2006- Spring 2007
● Women’s Enrichment Mini-grant Writing Group Nov. 2005- May 2006
● Multicultural Leadership Summit Planning Committee Member Nov. 2004- Apr. 2005
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