Adviser gives back

Danielle Colbert-Lewis spent her first two years of college as a science student and an… Danielle Colbert-Lewis spent her first two years of college as a science student and an executive board member of three campus organizations. After realizing she did not want a science degree, she consulted her associate dean, who helped her find a balance between academics and organizations and create a new major.

Colbert-Lewis decided that she wanted to work in the university setting because of the great help she received from her administrators. She pursued studying higher education and student affairs at Virginia Tech.

Now, she is a Student Life adviser to four of Pitt’s campus organizations, a position she started a week ago.

“How they helped me is how I want to help students,” she said.

Colbert-Lewis advises Pitt’s Black Action Society, Campus Women’s Organization, Asian Students Alliance and Freedom Honors Society. She looks forward to working with these organizations and realizes that each one will have different needs.

“Not every situation will be the same,” she said, adding that student activity continues to change. She said that students are now able to get involved online via e-mail, discussion boards and Web sites.

“Organizations don’t get less active, they just change,” she said.

This year, ASA plans to change its constitution. Colbert-Lewis said that she will make sure that this does not get put on the “back burner.” She also promised to make sure they achieve their goals and gain as much leadership ability in the process as possible.

“I don’t change organizations,” Colbert-Lewis said. “The students I work with change them.”

Colbert-Lewis called herself a “super member” because of her involvement on and off campus. She attributed her desire to help students and their organizations to her experiences in customer service jobs she held in her hometown of Northern Virginia.

“I was always the involved person with the title,” she said.

By looking back on her own experiences in college, Colbert-Lewis said that she relates to the issues and pressures students deal with today. She said she always tries to be aware of the dangers of over-commitment, for instance, and helps to keep students aware of it as well.

“I’m a student’s personal cheerleader,” she said.

Colbert-Lewis looks at student involvement as an invaluable lesson in dealing with different kinds of personalities.

She said that observing basic human characteristics such as deceit and aggressiveness as an executive board member of her yearbook association helped her in future work experiences.

“Dealing with people has not changed,” she said.

Before coming to Pitt, she served as the assistant director of reunions and class activities and the coordinator for summer residential programs at the University of Virginia. She also held the position of assistant residence director at Virginia Tech.

Although she has six years of student affairs experience, Colbert-Lewis said that new things “always come up.” She prepares for the unexpected by gaining as much knowledge as possible of her organizations and then dealing with situations step by step.

“Nothing surprises me, yet there will be surprises,” she said.

As she moves into her new office, Colbert-Lewis brings with her memories of the past, like a collection of Hello Kitty figurines to occupy her desk and a symbol of her future, the Pitt teddy bear she received from her new colleagues.

“I really wanted to work here,” she said, describing the welcoming feeling she got on the day of her interview. “It’s that feeling [when] you feel like you are already there,” she said.