Running Head: SUPERVISOR INTERVIEW 1

Jane Auge

Supervisor Interview

The University of Wisconsin- La Crosse

Running Head: SUPERVISOR INTERVIEW 2

The International Programs Office consists of the Education Abroad department

and the International Student and Scholar Services Office. Both of these offices have

student workers. I chose to interview our Education Abroad Program Coordinator, Alyssa

Shaff. Alyssa oversees two student interns that work a total of 28 hours together. These

students oversee nine student ambassadors (unpaid student volunteers). The student

interns report to Alyssa on the accomplishments of the student ambassadors. I found

Alyssa’s responses to be very student centered. This is not surprising given she

supervises student workers.

The most pressing issues she considers in supervision are personal growth and

improvement of her student workers. Alyssa wants her student workers to end their

internship with a sense of personal, professional, and intellectual development (A. Shaff,

personal communication, 2017). She does this through offering guidance to the students,

but also pushing them to embrace ambiguity, which allows the interns to utilize critical

thinking skills and decision-making abilities. The second issue Alyssa keeps in mind is

encouraging them to develop interpersonal skills such has collaborating with one another.

Alyssa shared that when hiring student interns she looks for individuals who are reliable,

have strong organization and prioritization skills, and attention to detail. The training

process for these student interns focuses on three different elements. The first is the

content piece or what students need to know in order to do their jobs. The second is

development and personal growth, which encourages student to reflect on what they hope

to gain from the experience of working in our office. The third is cultural competence and

communication. Alyssa expects that her student interns are able to communicate with

students, staff, and faculty from diverse backgrounds.

Running Head: SUPERVISOR INTERVIEW 3

In regards to conflict with her supervisees, Alyssa has navigated conflict between

two supervisees and conflict with herself and supervisees. When dealing with conflict

between student workers Alyssa has expectations that personality differences are kept out

of the work place. Even though they are students, they are held to the same standards as

professional staff. Although this is an expectation, it is not always met, so Alyssa has had

to have conversations with that students. During these conversations, she encourages the

individuals involved to be open and vulnerable with one another, so they can get to the

root of the issue. When Alyssa finds herself in an altercation with a supervisee she

utilizes “I” statements, in hopes that this brings clarity to the students understanding of

the issues at hand (A. Shaff, personal communication, 2017).

Although Alyssa does not supervise any full-time staff she imagines that the main

difference would be the level of handholding given to the employee. She stressed that this

can vary and many times she has had student workers that function like full-time

employees in the sense that they do not need a task list written out and they are highly

capable of problem solving on their own (A. Shaff, personal communication, 2017).

When discussing what individuals need to know to become a good supervisor

Alyssa mentioned taking time to figure out what your supervisees need from you. This

could vary from a personal chat to develop trust or more direction of projects. When

offering advice Alyssa encouraged reflecting on the times when I was the supervisee. To

take time to think about things my supervisor did that I liked or didn’t like (A. Shaff,

personal communication, 2017). Overall, I learned a great deal about supervising from

Alyssa.