Student Affairs Philosophy Statement

Background

Student Affairs. The title elicits different experiences and meanings for each person that sees or hears it. Prior to the junior year of my undergraduate career, I hadn’t given the term much thought, let alone considered it as a possible career path for myself. However, my life was forever changed when a peer enlightened and brought me into the field. My first experience in student affairs was through the Career Services department at The College of St. Scholastica (CSS), as a Job Fair Prep Assistant. In the role, I enjoyed helping students prepare for job and internship fairs, whether it be tips on how to create an effective elevator pitch or simply the expected dress attire and how they could utilize resources on campus to find the clothing they needed. The following year, I eagerly took on a new role within the department, Job Skills Assistant.

My time spent working in Career Services at CSS was a turning point in my career aspirations. I discovered how much I enjoyed helping students create and/or revise their cover letters and resumes and being able to be a positive and encouraging presence during their journey. Since the spring semester of my junior year of undergraduate school, my passion for working in the student affairs field has grown. I have had the privilege of interning for and being educated by mentors who are passionate about holistic student growth and development. Through my experiences I have developed my own sense of what it means to be a student affairs educator and the values that will guide my work.

Holistic Development

Throughout my first semester of graduate school I have gained valuable information about the field of student affairs, from theories that guide educators work to the opportunity to reflect on my own experiences and how they impact my view of the work I will be doing. Through self-reflection, I found the concept of holistic development to be a key piece of my own identity as a future student affairs educator. According to Saunders and Wilson (2017), “holism encourages ethical decision making that promotes student development and leverages the collaborative efforts of all units to promote student learning” (p. 91). While I found the definition to be informative, I sought out other views to expand my knowledge of the term. A variation I found came from the American College Personnel Association (ACPA), whose value of holistic development is defined as, “education and development of the total student” (n.d.). After seeing various ways to define holistic development, I began to think about my own definition. From my experiences, holistic development is an all-encompassing and collaborative approach to student development. I wholeheartedly believe it’s vital to care about all aspects of a student’s growth and development. A college experience is more than sitting in classes and memorizing content. In order for students to reach their full potential, they need to be encouraged to participate in co-curricular activities and experiential learning opportunities.

Through my own experiences in undergraduate school, I found the opportunities I took to practice and apply the skills and theories discussed in my courses provided the chance for meaning making. The process not only helped solidify my understanding of a concept, but also, my confidence in my own abilities to utilize skills and theories into my own practice. For example, in my undergraduate business courses, we learned about the varying leadership styles, how to effectively move through the team building process, etc. While reading and discussing the content was educational, it left me feeling as if I had the knowledge of the concepts, but not the experience of how to use them. Fast-forward to my senior year and my development of a student organization on-campus. In the span of a year, I formed the organization, recruited members, appointed a Vice President, developed relevant meeting activities, lead the development of an on-campus event, delegated tasks, and much more. In that time, I was able to finally utilize the concepts and theories I had learned about and put them into practice. Because of my experiential learning opportunity, I felt confident in the skills I gained and utilized during my undergraduate experience. This example is a key reason why I believe holistic development is vital to student success, and why it is a value I hold dear to my heart as I embark upon my journey towards becoming not only a student affairs educator, but a career advisor.

As a future career advisor, it’s not only about providing the resources and technical skills of how to create a resume/cover letter; but digging deeper and helping students make the connections between the content they have learned and how they have utilized it through internship or experiential learning opportunities. If students haven’t yet participated in an internship or experiential learning, as a career advisor, I would tell them about my own personal experiences or attempt to connect them with another student willing to share their story. As a whole, the value of holistic development is influential in my approach and my values as it relates to the field of student affairs and the work I will be doing as a career advisor.

Relationship Development

A second value important to my work as a future student affairs educator/career advisor is that of relationship development. By building relationships with students, an educator is able to better help their students succeed. There are many ways in which relationship development can take place. According to Dunkel and Chrystal-Green (2017), “many advisors enter into the advising relationship thinking they will have one set of responsibilities only to find they are serving a completely different role” (p. 471). My relationships with staff members in the Career Services department at CSS are what drew me to the field. In one undergraduate experience, my supervisor became my mentor. At first, my supervisor Mary taught me the necessary skills to be good at my job. However, as I became more interested in the work career advisors do, the dynamic between myself and Mary shifted into that of a mentorship, defined as, “a one-to-one learning relationship between an older and a younger person based on modeling behavior and on extended, shared dialogue” (Dunkel & Chrystal-Green, 2017, p. 472). Through my mentorship, I was able to work alongside Mary on projects, share my ideas, and observe how the field of career advising worked. My experience at CSS is what brought me to the field of student affairs, more specifically, career advising.

The positive impact relationship development had on my career trajectory is what makes it an important value to my philosophy of student affairs. When I become a career advisor, I know I will be doing more than helping the students who schedule an appointment with me, I will also be around student workers in the office. Through those interactions, I aspire to help guide and collaborate with students who are passionate in learning about the field of career advising. If I am lucky enough, I hope to one day pay forward the wonderful mentorship I was given to another aspiring student affairs educator.

Inclusivity

Inclusion. The word is one most of us have heard since we were in grade school. We were told it’s important to create an inclusive environment, but not always why it’s important. Growing up, I didn’t live in a very diverse town nor was I exposed to diverse views. At the time I didn’t think much about it, however, going off to college caused me to view inclusion in a new light.

I have privilege as a white, heterosexual, cisgender woman. The aforementioned statement is one I became cognizant of during my undergraduate career. While I grew up knowing my race was an aspect of privilege; I hadn’t thought much about the role of gender identity or sexual orientation as it relates to privilege. Taking college courses in psychology opened up the discussion of the social constructs of gender identity and sexual orientation, yet it only touched the surface of the oppression and discrimination individuals face in our society. Through friendships, I gained insight into the struggle people, who identify differently from the socially constructed views of gender and sexual orientation, face all too often. Whether it be witnessing someone give them a disgusted look after seeing what they perceive to be a man wearing heels or noticing an obvious sign of frustration towards them after stating their preferred pronouns. I will never be able to fully understand how a person feels when being discriminated against based on their gender identity or sexual orientation. Because of that, it is imperative to me, as a human being and a future student affairs educator, to create a space in which everyone I interact with is able to feel safe being their authentic selves.

In order to utilize my values of holistic and relationship development, I first have to create a space in which students feel comfortable sharing and growing. Creating an inclusive environment is a building block for the previous values mentioned, which is why inclusivity is the cornerstone value in my student affairs philosophy. According to Griffin (2017), “welcoming and hospitable campus environments can create opportunities for students to be their authentic selves, develop a sense of belonging in the campus community, and gain access to social support” (p. 73). While I know an inclusive environment is important, prior to this semester, I didn’t think much about what it meant to create an inclusive environment. Through reflection of course content and professional development opportunities I had the privilege of attending, I feel like I am closer to an answer.

An informative and developmental opportunity I participated in was attending a Safe Space Training held on-campus. During the Safe Space Training program, I found it educational to learn about not only relevant terminology related to gender and sexuality, but also how to recognize one’s own privilege and learning how to use your privilege to be an ally for others. Another wonderful aspect of the training was being informed on how to utilize the information we learned during the session. For example, a simple, yet powerful thing to put into practice is including your preferred pronouns in your email signature. I learned this allows others to know you are aware of varying preferred pronouns and that it may also cause those unfamiliar with the concept to learn more about what it means. Overall, I am grateful for the opportunity to become more informed on how I can provide a welcoming and safe space for everyone on-campus, now and as a future student affairs educator. This experience highlights one way in which I can take an active role in promoting an inclusive environment.

While I can take certain actions to create a safe space for students, it’s harder to ensure a safe space beyond an office-setting. When hit with the realization that I can’t always guarantee a safe space, a comment that has stuck with me since the beginning of the semester from Dr. Ashlee came to mind, “I can’t promise a safe space in a classroom or common space, because I can’t know or control what comments other people will make” (personal communication, August 28, 2019). The statement brought to mind the concept of brave spaces and their importance in higher education. According to Ali (2017), “brave spaces are used today in classroom settings as a mechanism to create supportive environments so that all students may equally participate in challenging dialogue” (p. 9). Through my own understanding, the concept of brave spaces connects to Sanford’s theory of challenge and support. According to Jones and Abes (2017), “Sanford suggested that students need an optimal balance of challenge and support for development to occur” (p. 145). Given the concepts of brave spaces and the theory of challenge and support, to truly create inclusion, it takes more than just being aware of your own privilege; a person needs to be open to understanding the perspectives of those different from themselves.

Utilizing challenge and support within a student affairs educator role is another way in which I can help promote my value of inclusivity. Helping and supporting students as they work through their own biases and learning how to understand differing views, will allow me to help promote inclusivity on a larger scale. However, within the context of being a career advisor, I honestly don’t know how I could go about using challenge and support in an authentic way. While I may not have an answer now, I remind myself that I am just stepping into the field of student affairs and I’m not required to know everything now or ever. My passion for lifelong learning drives me to seek out new methods for bettering my own practice as a future student affairs educator. As a result, I am determined to discover a way to incorporate the theory of challenge and support into my practice as a future career advisor to promote inclusivity.

The Future

As I begin my journey within the field of student affairs, I pause to think about all I have learned within the first semester of graduate school. While I am passionate about the aforementioned values of, holistic development, relationship development, and inclusivity, I am able to recognize that my values may ebb and flow throughout my entire career. The values I have discussed relate to the experiences I have had up to this point in time. As I think about my future, I look forward to the experiences that will cultivate new values and add to the philosophy that undergirds my work as a student affairs educator/career advisor.

References

Ali, D. (2017). Safe spaces and brave spaces: Historical context and recommendations for

student affairs professionals. NASPA Policy and Practice Series, (2), 1-9.

American College Personnel Association. (n.d.). Mission, vision, and values. Retrieved from

https://www.myacpa.org/values

Dunkel N.W., & Chrystal-Green N.E. (2017). Advising student organizations. In J.H.

Schuh, S.R. Jones, & V. Torres (Eds.), Student services: A handbook for the profession

(6th ed., pp. 466 – 483). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Griffin, K.A. (2017). Campus climate and diversity. In J.H. Schuh, S.R. Jones, & V. Torres

(Eds.), Student services: A handbook for the profession (6th ed., pp. 73 – 88). San

Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Jones, S.R., & Abes, E.S. (2017). The nature and uses of theory. In J.H. Schuh, S.R. Jones, & V.

Torres (Eds.), Student services: A handbook for the profession (6th ed., pp. 137 – 152).

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 (Eds.), Student services: A handbook for the profession (6th ed.,

pp. 89 – 106). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.