YLNG had the pleasure of speaking with Melanie Pagan, Yale Housing Manager of Graduate Residence Life, and Tanya Colon, Program Administrator for the Child Study Center. Melanie and Tanya are the current YLNG Co-Chairs. Check out their interview below.
Tell me about your current role at Yale University?
Melanie: I currently serve as the Yale Housing Manager of Graduate Residence Life. This role essentially focuses on building community among the graduate student population.
Tanya: I am currently the Program Administrator for the Child Study Center’s Child, Adolescent and Integrated Psychiatry training programs. I coordinate 25 residents and fellows during their 6 or 2 year training within the Child Study Center.
What are your main responsibilities?
Melanie: My main responsibilities include overseeing and training a team of 20+ graduate student coordinators, and together we host weekly events and programs for graduate students and their families. In addition to supervising our student staff members, I support the department in the housing application process, room assignments, building maintenance, and communications.
Tanya: The main responsibilities for program administrators are ever changing depending on the day of the week. It all starts with scheduling interviews in the fall, orienting them in the summer and graduation in the spring. The cycle continues yearly with lots of program planning in the middle. I coordinate required training and credentialing during orientation season, assist with their lecture and elective scheduling, keep tabs on their accreditation requirements – duty hour entries, evaluation completion, all while making sure they meet mandatory deadlines prior to graduation. I also assist the program directors with the coordination of regular program events, process GME (Graduate Medical Education) surveys and trainee information to keep the program in good standing. My responsibilities are endless which keeps me on my toes.
What do you like most about your work?
Melanie: My favorite part of my job is how much I get to work with students. Being intentional about the events we organize is incredibly important to me.
Tanya: I like being able to help make someone’s day a little easier. Whether it’s taking on an extra task so my program director has more time to see her patients to being the main point of contact for my trainees so that they can devote their time to their training.
How does your job affect your general lifestyle?
Melanie: My current role, and prior roles, have honestly enhance my life but do pose some challenges. There’s always new and exciting projects, committees and events to work on. I want to do it all! I try my best to work on managing my time in order to accomplish as much as I can.
Tanya: My job affects my lifestyle by giving me a greater appreciation of what psychiatrists do for the community, our schools, and the world around us. I am able to grasp a better understanding of how the current state budget cuts towards mental health programs are effecting our community. Without my trainees, so many families would be lost in the shuffle of not knowing where to go for services and how to help their children. There is always something new to learn within my department and at Yale.
How did you begin your career?
Melanie: I started my career in higher education/student affairs about seven years ago. I’ve worked at the multicultural center at Connecticut College, the housing department at Columbia University, and as an admissions counselor at the Art Institute of NYC. I like to think that my career started while I was in college. My experiences as student leader laid a lot of the foundation for the work I do now. I really enjoy working in student affairs and would recommend anyone who enjoys supporting students to consider this field.
Tanya: I began my career at Yale when I was laid off from my previous employer due to a large healthcare acquisition about 4 ½ years ago. I was hired at Yale as an administrative assistant for a fellowship program of a couple of fellows and was quickly promoted to program coordinator of over 50 residents. After 3 years I transferred to my current role within the Child Study Center where I now oversee 25 residents and fellows.
What steps would you recommend one take to prepare to enter this field?
Melanie: There are many ways to entering this field. Higher education associations like NASPA and ACPA are great tools to find out what your path can be. There are so many graduate programs that can formally train you for this field, but personal experience with students is just as important.
Tanya: The biggest recommendation I can offer is organization. Not only do you need to stay organized in this field but you will need to keep everyone in your program organized as well. Set soft deadlines so you will have additional time to follow up and still meet your requirements.
What skills, abilities, and personal attributes are essential to success in your job/this field?
Melanie: There aren’t any particular skills or personal attributes that would grantee success in this field. The only thing I could recommend is that you make sure have a real interest in student affairs. Explore the different ways that you can work within the field and find something that excites and challenges you.
Tanya: People skills. In order to be a good program administrator you need effective people skills. I never thought that I had these, being an only child and quiet for the most part. But then one of my first residents mentioned how happy they were to have me to come to, and be able to have helpful discussions that impacted their future. You must also be willing to meet new people on a daily basis and be able to work with all personalities and levels of management and faculty no matter if it is your job or not to help them.
If you could do it all over again, would you choose the same path for yourself? If not, what would you change?
Melanie: I don’t think I would change anything. My path did come with some challenges but those very experiences aided to my development as an individual and a professional.
Tanya: I consider myself lucky to have had the opportunity to work alongside amazing physicians, assistants and management. Without the past experiences I have had along the way, I would not be where I am today. I would definitely repeat the path I have taken to where I am now as I have and continue to learn so much along the way.
What does YLNG mean to you and what do you wish to contribute as a co-chair?
Melanie: I want to be able to create opportunities for Latinos at Yale to connect and grow. I believe that having a strong sense of belonging at the institution can continue attract and retain Latinos. My Latina identity is incredibly important to me. I feel that my strongest qualities and skills are a result to my culture and upbringing, and I want other Latinos to feel the same. I hope that I can bring as much of my prior experience in diversity and community building to this group.
Tanya: YLNG means that I was given a chance to represent a part of my ancestry/culture that I might not have had the opportunity to represent under other circumstances. I am glad and proud to know that Yale supports all affinity groups and their members. During my term as co-chair I would like to see more partnerships available to the community offered by Yale’s student, staff and faculty populations. Whether it’s free courses, children’s activities, shadowing or community service. We shouldn’t wait for a “a day of caring” event to motivate us we need to give back every day. And as much as I support the 8 affinity groups we need more joint partnerships to show that we can support each other just as well as we support ourselves.