STUDENT SPOTLIGHT — A GLIMPSE IN THE FIELD — REEMA NEGI
Reema Negi, PhD Candidate in the Higher Education Leadership, Management and Policy program (Education Research, Assessment & Program Evaluation Track), proudly serves as the Director of Institutional Research at Felician University.
What is a typical day like in your role? If you had to choose, what are the three most rewarding aspects of your role?
My typical day starts really early, I am a morning person so I get up at 5:00 am. I am usually at work by 8:00 am. One of my department’s key responsibilities is to review and complete all Federal /State IPEDS submissions and other compliance reporting, I try keeping the first half of my day free to work with my team on those reports. Second half of my day is usually full of meetings and internal requests. I love the fact that the data and reports that I provide can contribute not only towards the university’s growth and planning but at the same time can help improve student’s outcome, retention and graduation rates. It gives me a great sense of satisfaction that with the help of analysis done by my department we can better understand our student population. The fact that the data that I am working on can improve the student’s outcome and increase their satisfaction levels is a great motivating factor.
What types of jobs and experiences led to your present role? Which of these experiences was the most influential?
Prior to Felician University, I was working with Department of Education, New York City as the Research and Evaluation Manager. During that period I was exposed to a much larger size student and faculty data as NYC DOE being the largest school district system in US. I was deeply involved in working on various reports for internal and external stakeholders, which really sharpened my skills to look for important data points and how to analyze them further. Prior to DOE, I worked as Senior Research Analyst with Symetic Research firm which played a very critical role in giving me the desired ability to be effective at my present role. I was collaborating with different professors and was working on student data from various school districts that really gave me wide experience of working on different research topics with different data sets. I also worked as the Graduate Assistant at Seton Hall University. I think it’s a combination of all these and my prior experience in India that is helping me at my current position.
Who has been most influential in your professional life?
My professors at Seton Hall have been the most influential person in my professional life and I would like to especially mention Dr. Elaine Walker. I worked as the Graduate Assistance for Dr. Walker and during that period and even today she is my true mentor. She guides me and provided her guidance and suggestions not only on professional but also on personal things. Also, Dr. Chen, Dr. Kim and Dr. Babo they all have been wonderful and very supportive throughout. I truly feel blessed to be surrounded by such wonderful faculty members. I also would like to thank my current supervisor Ms. Francine Andrea, VP – Administration, Enrollment and Planning at Felician University as she has been a true advisor to me at my current role and has been providing a true motivational environment to be efficient in current responsibilities.
Where are you in your dissertation work? What is your topic? What is your intended timeline?
Based on my interest in few specific aspects of Higher education, recently I decided to change my topic and I intend to explore the initial topic on international students (that was the topic that I had in mind when I started this program). Although I know at this point changing my topic is going to be lot of hard work but I think it’s the right to do. As mentioned, being an international student myself and then experiencing the American Higher education system and how it motivates or encourages the sustenance, persistence and performance of international students, I really would want to focus on specific factors which encourage/discourage international student behavior. This is my initial thought process but as I know lot of hard needs to be done before I can be more specific about it.
What people have been (are) the most influential in your personal life?
My husband and my parents have been very influential in my personal life. My husband provided me tremendous support while I was completing my course work as a full-time student and he continues to help me in my career goals. My parents and husband have been very encouraging throughout my life and they believed more in my abilities to accomplish difficult goals than myself. My father is the perfect example of how a person with persistence and determination can make his dreams come true.
If you had to offer advice to someone starting one of the HRED programs, what would you share?
This is a great program; all the faculty members are wonderful. My biggest advice will be “take one step at a time” and if required “ask for help”. When I started this program it was very hard for me to adjust to the new education system as I was an international student who completed the prior education in India. Initially it was challenging for me to adjust to newer education methods as I had no prior exposure to the American Higher Education System. But I learned if you really want to learn “ask for help”. I stared talking to other student about how they manage their time/readings/assignments. I started asking all Professors about their feedback not only on my assignments/test/papers but also on my class participation and how I can participate more in the classroom. Everyone at Seton Hall was very supportive and they not only helped me tremendously in adjusting to this new culture but also made me a part of it.