July 2007
In a few short years, Evan Baum, ’03, has moved from
being an undergraduate student to a college administrator who
oversees many services students have come to expect during their
college years.
As director of undergraduate academic programs for
the College of Humanities and Social Sciences at George Mason
University in Fairfax, Va., he directs and coordinates student
services for more than 8,000 students.
Baum, who started working at George Mason this past
January, said one of the most rewarding and challenging aspects of his
job is fostering connections between the College of Humanities and
Social Sciences faculty and the student support services staff.
“I help folks collaborate,” he said. “Linking the
academic component with the co-curricular component results in the
greatest student-learning outcomes.” He said he draws upon his Jepson
education, with its significant emphasis on experiential education, in
helping students make those “real-world” connections.
Baum set about pursuing a career in higher education
right after graduating from Jepson. He enrolled in the master’s
program in Education Policy and Leadership at the University of
Maryland in fall 2003.
While there, he worked as a graduate research and
teaching assistant, conducting research with faculty on the status of
ongoing desegregation efforts in public higher education in the South.
The research has since been published and is referenced in a number of
scholarly journals, including those of the Association for the Study
of Higher Education and the Association for Institutional Research.
He also had the opportunity to interview leadership
icon
James MacGregor Burns as part of an oral history project
chronicling the founding and evolution of the University of Maryland’s
James MacGregor Burns Academy of Leadership. And he co-taught an
introductory class on leadership for juniors and seniors.
After completing his master’s degree in May 2005,
Baum joined George Washington University in Washington, D.C., as
community director for housing programs. In this position he served
2,800 undergraduates living in eight residence halls and 13 Greek
townhouses.
“Students at George Washington are a lot like those
at Richmond in that they are high achieving and very involved,” he
said. “My biggest challenge was to offer programs and services to a
large number of students that would meet their expectations of what
their [college] experience should be like.”
As a community director, Baum lived on campus and
responded to a round-the-clock pager when there was an emergency. “If
students were exhibiting negative behavior or needed professional
help, I would respond and manage the situation,” Baum said. “I would
make sure students got the services they needed in times of crises.”
Whether in his former position at George Washington
or in his current position at George Mason, he said his leadership
studies major prepared him well for a career in higher education. He
noted in particular the usefulness of the critical-thinking and
writing skills he honed at Jepson. Thanks to his Jepson education, he
said he often finds himself the designated come-to person for
questions relating to leadership studies.
“The Jepson name has been an incredibly valuable
piece of political capital that I have been able to use in forming
relationships with other colleagues and assisting in the formative
processes of other leadership education programs,” he said.
Aside from his day-to-day work, Baum participates in
a number of professional and volunteer activities. He serves on the
Jepson Alumni Networking Group, which held its first meeting in
February. Inspired by that meeting, Baum created a
Jepson School group account on Facebook to facilitate networking between
students, alumni and friends of the School.
In December Baum was elected to serve a three-year
term on the American College Personnel Association’s Commission for
Housing and Residential Life. He also volunteers every year to
coordinate a mock United Nations convention for some 1,500 high school
students from the Mid-Atlantic region.
Baum first participated in this convention as a high
school student. While volunteering in his freshman year in college, he
met his fiancée, Beth Gelman, who also worked as a volunteer. They
plan to wed November 3.
Baum said he intends to return to graduate school
part-time this fall to pursue a master’s of science degree in
organization development and knowledge management at the George Mason School of Public Policy, a program he anticipates will be reminiscent
of his Jepson experience.
“A small cohort of professionals will be going
through this program at the same time,” Baum said. “The program will
include group projects, discussion-based classes and some consulting
in the community.
“There aren’t many folks who work at colleges and
universities who study [their institutions] from an organizational
perspective. I hope to apply [what I learn in this program] to the
work I do at the university.” |