Scholar - Practitioner Journal 1

The first month of graduate school flew by and with it came learning and development. While my journey towards becoming a student affairs educator is just beginning, I am amazed at all I have learned thus far.  I gained knowledge not only from my courses, but also through my graduate assistantship (GA). Throughout the past month I have also learned more about my own interests, in the process, I developed questions about the student affairs field and how I can become an effective student affairs professional.

As it relates to insights, I have gained about myself, one aspect is my passion for working with students one on one within a career center setting.  In my GA, I work on the Employer Relations team, which is interesting and a different change of pace than my previous experience in a career center; through a career counseling focus, I helped students create/revise their cover letters and resumes.  In my current GA role, I primarily work on employer approvals, inputting mock and on-campus interview information, and following up with students who don’t show up to their scheduled interviews within the Handshake system. While I am enjoying the employer relations side of working in a career center, as I am able to work on a variety of different tasks, I miss the one on one work of the career counseling side.  The revelation has allowed me to think about the direction I want to take with my career.  As of now, I still want to pursue a career counselor role, but I am keeping my mind open to learning new aspects of the employer relations side as I continue the year in my GA role.

A second insight I gained about myself relates to my desire to learn more about the student affairs field, so I can be a more informed professional.  I began reading scholarly work – through sites recommended by Dr. Ashlee, to start developing my scholar-practitioner identity.  It has been difficult to find the time, but I truly believe it will benefit me in the long run.  I am a firm believer that a curious and open mind allows for true growth and development to occur.  Through the process of reading articles, I found I felt uninformed and at times overwhelmed.  I understand I am relatively new to the field of Student Affairs, but it’s difficult to fully understand the results of the scholarly work I am reading and how I can utilize what is found into my own practice.  Because of this, I want to learn more about other sources available for those just starting out, who want to be informed on topics relevant to current student affairs professionals.  I will continue to read research articles, as through knowledge gained in my Introduction to Graduate Statistics course, I know I will soon be able to better interpret the results of said articles.  In addition, through my other courses, I will gain insight on how to best apply what I read about to my own practice as a student affairs educator.

While I have learned new insights about myself in the first month of graduate school, I have also learned about topics of interest through course readings and how they are informing my approach to my role as a student affairs professional.  In particular, I found the topic of free speech to be intriguing.  Within the text, it was discussed that free speech is covered under the constitution (Miller, 2017).  The reading reminded me of Dr. Ashlee’s comment on how at Georgetown University, they have a designated free speech area for students to utilize (personal communication, September 25, 2019).  The concept of a free speech zone is wonderful, but I began to wonder, how does a student affairs professional encourage free speech while concurrently thinking about the impact said free speech may have on others?  My question connects back to a previous reading on ethics and values, “ethical principles rely on cultural and societal norms and assumptions that privilege certain perspectives and diminish others” (Saunders & Wilson, 2017, p. 90).  Based on the quote and my aforementioned question, I continue to wonder how as a future student affairs educator I can find the best approach to navigating the gray area that is free speech?  While not all free speech will be viewed as controversial, there are topics that may cause others to feel threatened.  One answer to my question, may be by providing resources and discussions in conjunction with free speech events, so students are given the opportunity to process, ask questions, and let their differing views be heard as well.  My proposed solution may work in select scenarios and at certain colleges/universities, so I look forward to continuing to learn about the best practices on how to effectively process and respond to ethical dilemmas that impact the welfare of the student’s I am supporting.

As I reflect on my first month of graduate school, I am amazed at all I have learned not only about course topics, but also, my own interests and how I plan on further developing my own scholar-practitioner identity.  I look forward to delving deeper into the study of student affairs.  Through my action plan of continuing to read scholarly work, learn about other resources that may benefit my understanding of the field, and keeping an open mind in my GA position, I hope to begin to answer the questions I previously posed and further develop as a professional.  While finding answers to my questions will be beneficial, I will continue to be inquisitive, so I can best develop my identity as a student affairs educator.

References

Miller, T. (2017). Legal foundations and issues. In J.H. Schuh, S.R. Jones, & V. Torres (6th ed.),

Student services: A handbook for the profession (pp. 107-120). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Saunders, S.A, & Wilson, C.M. (2017). What is ethical professional practice? In J.H. Schuh, S.R. Jones, & V. Torres (6th ed.), Student services: A handbook for the profession (pp. 89-106). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.