I have been asked to further define what I mean by the professional sense of self. I have been thinking about how I want to frame this concept because I know that my current understanding and perspective is partially intuitive and steadily developing. Consequently, my definition will probably evolve as I write and contemplate more on this subject. Over a week ago, I explored various definitions of the word “professional”. One online source provided a [...]

“Work” has always been important to me. I love putting my mind to a task, creating something new, problem-solving, and improving efficiency. Like other young children, I play-acted being different professionals such as a news reporter, a doctor, and a lawyer. One defining moment in my awareness about work actually happened when I was 9 years old. I remember watching various sitcoms during the 1980s and noticed that a running joke in most of these [...]

First Generation Professional is a mouth full of something. For those of you reading this who have never heard of a First Gen Professional, let me start out by saying that it’s a term that I coined for myself over this past summer (2009), after taking a career development facilitation (CDF) training. While conducting research for my independent study for that training, I began to identify more deeply with being a first generation college student. [...]