The question came to me recently in one of those moments of, ‘why am I doing what I do and have I had a career or not?’ I think this typically comes to you when you are relatively near the end of your ‘career’ as I am, and perhaps because my term as President of AAIR is coming to an end soon too.
I came to institutional research (IR) late in my working life, and thinking about that late bloomer effect reminded me of something I wrote for AAIR’s 21st birthday back in 2010 where we were asked to talk about ‘coming of age’ and how we came to be involved in IR. I wrote, ‘I am not sure if I have always liked numbers and data, but I have certainly come to appreciate them and what they can and can’t do.’ In fact, I distinctly remember my first year class in statistics at St Lawrence University with Dr Singh and my excitement over receiving an A in that class – my first A ever in anything related to mathematics. I was quickly brought back to reality when I took a second-year paper in non-parametric statistics thinking I was good at it, and was delighted to scrape through with a C. Don’t ask me what non-parametric statistics is, because I either never learned or have conveniently forgotten.
While at St Lawrence, I was able to study at the University of Nairobi for a semester, and as part of that, I was involved in a study of thermo-regulation and respiratory water loss in giraffes. It was a life-changing experience that led me to realise that perhaps working in the environmental and development areas was somewhere that I could make a difference. (I will come back to that point about making a difference.) I then studied for my Masters of Environmental Management at Duke University. Armed with that qualification, I worked for the next four years in various capacities on a project called the Resource Conservation and Utilization Project which was a USAID project in Nepal – another life-changing experience that led me to an appreciation of performance measures, success and what really makes a difference in people’s lives.
Fast forward, and I ended up living in Wellington married to a New Zealander, and I had to reinvent myself once again. This led me to working in universities. I started at the University of Otago, where I worked for 20 years, before coming to Victoria University of Wellington where I have now been for over 11 years. At both institutions, I held several roles that increasingly involved data, data usage, and presentation of the data for decision making and sense. I started to learn terms like mix of provision, educational performance indicators, equity groups, retention and attrition, GES, ATAR, NZCED/ASCED, strategic planning, load management, data warehousing, business intelligence and had to learn to be ‘agile’.
As you can see, it was a very circuitous route I took to get to where I am today as Manager of Institutional Analysis.
So, how did you get where you are today and, if you thought about it, is it where you thought you would be?
In the end, I am not sure that it worries me too much because all I really wanted to do was make a difference to someone or something. Have I succeeded in my career? And what is success really? I guess others will have to judge this themselves, but I am not sorry that I have ended up working with some amazing colleagues at the University of Otago, Victoria University of Wellington, in AAIR and the wider IR community. And by the way, where do I really want to be now – back in Kenya doing this!
On another note, the AAIR Annual Forum has nearly arrived and it’s going to be huge this year, so be sure to secure your place!
Register for the AAIR Annual Forum
Kathie Rabel
AAIR President
