This blog post is for HEA624: Supervised Practice I
As a student affairs and higher education professional, it is no secret that finding the “perfect match” of an institution can be a tougher battle than anticipated, but keeping your values, skills, and experiences in mind while searching can make the decision a bit easier. This process can also often times feel very trial-and-error, which is perfectly normal, when you find a good fit, you’ll know and until then you just keep trying your best. I would say that I am facing this a bit as I chose to attend what I would call the antithesis of my undergraduate school, the University of Arizona (UArizona). UArizona is a Research 1 – Division 1 institution that serves around 50,000 students located in the sunny desert of Tucson, Arizona; this is what I find to be the opposite of Buffalo State University, a liberal arts college serving around 6,000 students located in Buffalo, New York where it can be snowy one day and sunny the next. Attending Buffalo State is definitely a complete 360 from where I got my undergraduate education at, but I am (mostly) grateful I made the decision to come here as it not only diversified my experience working with students and in higher education systems, but also allowed for me to get to compare systems here and at UArizona first hand.
All that being said, I have just a few things that I will seek out in an institution when the time comes to begin searching for my next steps as a professional. Firstly, I have several interest areas in terms of departments within student affairs, including residence life, student engagement, and multicultural resource centers. These departments are of interest to me because I value engaging with students through programming and initiatives while providing space for students to engage with their community and I appreciate the direct link between the experience I want to facilitate and the mission and purpose of these departments. A first step of mine would be to look a bit into the institution’s utilization, presence, and perceived value of these departments. Looking into any website highlights, news articles, social media pages, and any other presence that I could find would be essential for me to gain perspective on not only what the institution values, but also what challenges maybe present on campus. I don’t necessarily give a preference to those with well-established presence, the information would just be used as a way for me to gauge what support may be needed and what specific values can be perceived. The values of DEIB, authenticity, and transparency are extremely important to me and give context to the initiatives and ideas that I bring to the table, so I would look for institutions who hold similar ideals and show these values in their contributions to their students. These contributions would be shown through program initiatives such as those centering the voices and well-being of students who come from marginalized and oppressed identities (i.e. identity-based resource centers, scholarships, living learning communities, annual programs). Aside from active engagement programs, the language that institutions utilize on their website, in their interactions with the community, and when sending out memos is an important way for the institution to exhibit their values. This can look like an institution displaying their land acknowledgement statement on websites, around campus, and integrating them into everyday language when conducting things such as ceremonies and school tours.
As stated previously, I hold many values and beliefs as a student affairs professional and these can fall into the overarching values I hold of DEIB, authenticity, and transparency. These values are important to me because, in my experience, when professionals are able to maintain and foster communities under these values of practice, it creates a space that students and colleagues can thrive off of as it promotes community and positive relationships. If I were to find myself at an institution that did not share similar values or if they stated values that they did not always live up to through their actions, I would feel as if I could not be the most authentic student affairs professional that I could be, which directly violates one of my core values. An institution serves it’s students and if the students are getting inauthentic engagement or feel like they are not being heard out, then that’s where frustration and resentment begin to build up. As we navigate the ACPA and NASPA competencies in this course, I can’t help but think back to the Values, History, and Philosophy (VPH) competency and how historical context of an institution always hold contextual value whether an institution recognizes that or not, students, staff, faculty, and the community are affected by the institutions acknowledgement or disregard of important issues and world-events. Given the opportunity to engage with and serve an institution in the capacity I would like, I can contribute my experiences within residence life as a previous student leader and now graduate assistant complex director. Working within residence life holds an abundance of different challenges and learning opportunities, I have gotten direct experience with conflict management, supervising student staff, program planning, and crisis on-call situations. These skills are set to provide a solid foundation for the developing skillset of a professional that I am curating in graduate school. I also have experience working within multicultural centers as a student intern which gave me a perspective on why identity-based multicultural centers are so important for students to gain community. I look forward to discovering the environment and working role that best suits my values and skillset, my journey so far has proven to be educational and I intend to ramp things up from here on out!
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