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Personal and Ethical Foundations

CSP 6050 - Personal Statement of Mission Assignment

 

In my CSP 6050: Capstone Seminar course, we were given an assignment in which we were to lay out a personal statement of mission.  Inside of this assignment was an exploration of both personal and professional values.  Some of my personal values were mastery and achievement.  These two values dictate much of how I approach my everyday life, both personally and professionally.  I have a strong desire to excel in all that I do and I find incongruence when I perceive that I have not mastered skills enough to push me to excellence and achievement.  The past two years have been a challenge as I have transitioned into working in student affairs because I simply have not mastered many of the concepts, much of the knowledge, or an overwhelming amount of skills most useful in this industry.  I must continually remind myself that I have been in the field for a mere two years, and my experience hinges on a 20-hour per week internship within a specific area of student affairs.  Through this process, I have met two outcomes identified by ACPA and NASPA (2015).  The first is "define excellence for one's self and evaluate how one's sense of excellence impacts self and others" (p. 17).  I have my definition of excellence through my personal statement of mission.  I now know that when I do not meet what I consider excellence, that I suffer an incongruence and feel out of place.  This affects my colleagues, students, and personal agents of my life because I act differently when I feel this incongruence.  The second outcome is "identify sources of dissonance and fulfillment in one's life and take appropriate steps in response" (p. 17).  I have identified these sources and continue to craft a plan to deal with it through reflection and reminding myself of my relative lack of student affairs experience. 

 

Hockey

 

My favorite hobby is playing hockey.  Growing up in Michigan on the border between Canada and the United States created much opportunity to be exposed to the sport.  I began playing at an extremely young age and would regularly spend almost the entire winter on the outdoor community rink and all summer on the street playing street hockey.  I never had a chance to play organized competitive hockey until I arrived at BGSU as an undergraduate student.  It was then that I purchased gear and began to play in the Senior League (18-and-older) at the BGSU Ice Arena.  Additionally, I broadcasted hockey on the radio for the BGSU varsity hockey team.  Hockey is always a stress-relieving and worthwhile experience for me.  It helps me to stay physically-active and maintain friendships with people who are not connected to the University in any way other than playing hockey on campus.  This has allowed me to meet two outcomes: "bolster one's resiliency, including participating in stress-management activities, engaging in personal or spiritual exploration, and building healthier relationships outside of the workplace" and "analyze the impact one's health and wellness has on others, as well as our collective roles in creating mutual, positive relationships" (ACPA & NASPA, 2015, p. 17).

Values, Philosophy, and History

CSP 6010 - Foundations and Functions of College Student Personnel

 

CSP 6010: Foundations and Functions of College Student Personnel is a course within the BGSU CSP curriculum that served as an important overview of the profession as well as higher education as a whole.  This course fundamentally altered the way in which I view college.  The course pushed me to view college not just as an experience, but a very important institution within society that presents a gluttony of history and values.  In the course, our professor covered a great variety of content including history and development of higher education and student affairs, diversity and equity, current events and trends, philosophies of student affairs, and other topics pertinent to higher education and student affairs.  We also had the opportunity to each present a different student affairs functional area which created a diverse base of knowledge concerning functional areas and how they facilitate student learning and development.  Additionally, we had the opportunity to explore current events by writing issue papers which were critical examinations of a current issues in higher education that allowed us to dissect an issue and present arguments from all sides then formulate and articulate our own view of the issue using evidence presented.  The combination of learning the course content and applying it outside of the classroom through my internship allowed me to meet a few key outcomes:

  • "be able to explain to staff the public responsibilities of a student affairs professional and the resulting benefits to society"

  • "identify enduring questions, issues, and trends from the history of higher education and discuss their relevance to current and emergent professional practice"

  • "explore new philosophical contexts and approaches"

  • "acknowledge, critically question, and bring together diverging philosophies of student affairs practice" (ACPA & NASPA, 2015, p. 19) 

 

Veteran Alumni Steering Committee

 

I serve on the BGSU Veteran Alumni Steering Committee that meets once a month to discuss veteran-related current events at the University.  This has provided me a unique opportunity to incorporate my formal education, experience within my internship site, and my knowledge of student-veteran related issues to serve the campus community as a whole.  As the only committee member with formal education and training within student affairs, it is my duty to be certain that the profession's philosophy and values are represented through my voice on the committee.  Often, our committee members are only involved in veteran-related activities on campus and do not have the ability to recognize certain issues related to pursuing certain efforts over others.  For instance, the establishment of a student-veterans center on campus can help student-veterans, but it can also create unintended messages.  One could demonstrate, however unintentional, that this special population is valued over others because they are given dedicated physical space on campus.  Not to mention, the majority of the student-veteran population at BGSU is White and identify as men.  Due to my knowledge of student affairs, I can understand and articulate to the committee why these issues are important in our decision-making.  The outcomes that I have met are:

  • "Participate in opportunities to identify and incorporate emerging values of the profession into one's professional practice"

  • "Engage in service to the profession and to student affairs professional associations" (ACPA & NASPA, 2015, p. 19).

Leadership

Formal Education - CSP 6400 and Army Training

 

I have had several leadership training and educational opportunities as a young adult that have greatly influenced my understanding of leadership.  While serving in the Army, I had several leadership trainings and experiences.  I regularly trained informally through mentorship from my team leader.  I would often observe and ask questions as to why he led the way that he did.  I also had an opportunity to attend Warrior Leader Course (WLC) prior to my second deployment to Iraq.  This was the first course in a string of leadership courses that leaders in the Army must complete to progress in rank and duties.  WLC taught me many basic concepts that are applicable to any industry or field such as situational leadership theory, team dynamics, interpersonal communication, and mission accomplishment.  Additionally, I trained in Reconnaissance and Surveillance Leader's Course which was a physically and mentally demanding course that reinforced much of what I learned in WLC.  Through these experiences, I gained knowledge that I applied as a team leader on the Command Security Team (CST).  With CST, I mentored three soldiers and trained them in security procedures while performing monthly evaluations.  While I was a team leader, I did not have the rank associated with that position.  This taught me that anyone can exhibit leadership despite their positioning in a unit. 

 

With the foundations of understanding leadership from my Army experiences, I sought to translate those concepts to a student affairs setting.  It was through CSP 6400: Leadership in Higher Education and Student Affairs that I was able to gain valuable knowledge of how to interpret the leadership experience from the Army to leadership experience in student affairs.  I was genuinely surprised at how much crossover existed between the two.  CSP 6400 did teach me a wealth of new leadership models that I had not learned before.  We also delved deeply into organizational development and change as part of the course.  CSP 6400 was a crucial point in my development as a student affairs leader.  Some of the outcomes that these experiences enabled me to meet are:

  • "seek out training and feedback opportunities to enhance one's leader and leadership knowledge and skill"

  • "compare and contrast appropriate leadership models to create organizational improvement"

  • "Identify potential obstacles or points of resistance when designing a change process" (ACPA & NASPA, 2015, p. 28)

 

Advising SVO and PAVE

 

In serving as an advisor for the Student Veterans Organization (SVO) and Peer Advisors for Veteran Education (PAVE), I am often charged with helping our students refine themselves as leaders on campus within the student-veteran community.  Our SVO officers and PAVE advisors are the same people, so this makes it easier on me as an advisor to consolidate efforts and encourage leadership development in both areas simultaneously.  One way in which I continually encourage these students to grow in terms of leadership is to participate in campus events that encourage this growth.  I have attempted to get one of them to attend LeaderShape and had a long conversation about it.  That person stated that they would attempt to go in the future.  I also encourage them to take advantage of Student Veterans of America (SVA) leadership development opportunities.  When one of the students was considering pursuing CSP, I served as a mentor in trying to get him ready for student affairs.  In the end, he elected to pursue a different opportunity, but the mentoring experience gained was valuable.  I often try to have one-on-one conversations about how to run a student organization effectively.  Usually, I incorporate the knowledge that I have gained from leadership theory, particularly as it relates to organizations.  The outcomes that I have met are:

  • "Encourage colleagues and students to engage in team and community building activities

  • "Serve as a mentor or role model for others"

  • "Give appropriate feedback to colleagues and students on skills they may seek to become more effective leaders" (ACPA & NASPA, 2015, p. 28).

Technology

SSC Training Resource Development

 

In my final semester at BGSU, I've sought out an opportunity to increase the campus community's ability to utilize Student Success Collaborative (SSC) for the benefit of more purposeful and directed advising efforts.  I spoke to the Director of Advising at BGSU early in the semester about any opportunities that would exist to help advising as a whole at BGSU.  He determined that a good project would be to develop some training resources for faculty members, advisors, and students regarding SSC, a new advising platform that has been introduced to BGSU over the last few years.  This program is somewhat technologically advanced compared to past systems that have been used, but is not overwhelming.  Some campus community members have failed to fully buy-in to SSC because of unfamiliarity.  As a way to hopefully combat this unfamiliarity, these training resources were a great opportunity to put forth materials that are easy to understand and help shed some light on how worthwhile using SSC is.  SSC is a fantastic tool mostly because it provides unprecedented insight into student risk.  Using institution-specific long-term data, SSC has algorithms that can assess a students risk of not completing their degree based off of success markers.  These can be grades in certain courses, overall GPA at a certain point in a students' educational career, or not taking a class by a certain point in time.  These risk levels allow faculty and advisors to create better campaigns for the students who need them most.  This is a strong example of new technology creating positive change.  Despite all of the great things, skepticism remains present.  Thus, the need for training materials exists.  Some of the outcomes that this experience enabled me to meet are:

  • "model and promote adaptability among students, colleagues, and educational stakeholders in the face of fast-paced technological change and demonstrate openness to the introduction of new digital tools by others"

  • "generate a wide and vired array of digital strategies for enhancing educational interventions with multimedia, interactive tools, and creativity-enhancing technologies" (ACPA & NASPA, 2015, p. 34)

 

Canvas Orientation Guide

 

As I gained more experience from the staff side of BGSU, I began to see how lucky I was that I was present as a student when Canvas first became an active tool at BGSU, replacing Blackboard.  I had plenty of time to get used to the system, because it was significantly different.  I was around 25 years old when Canvas came to BGSU.  I have also mostly grown up around computers, so it is easy for me to adjust to new programs and technologies.  However, I learned working as a Program Advisor in NTMSS that it is not always as simple for all people as it is for me to become proficient with new programs.  This is particularly true with the populations that NTMSS primarily serves being older.  While computer literacy is more prevalent in the aging population than it ever has been before, there are still many people who come to campus to take courses and cannot figure out how to operate Canvas to properly assist them in learning.  I saw the need for a training program with Canvas that could be distributed to anyone who was experiencing difficulties in navigating Canvas.  I developed a PowerPoint presentation with screenshots and explicit explanations about what different things are for (modules, calendar, etc.) and how to access them.  Had I known how exactly to set one up, I would have made a video.  I have recommended to NTMSS staff that they pursue that at some point in the near future.  Also concerning Canvas, an in-person orientation has been added to our BGSU Military Student Orientation to affect the ability of our student-veterans to begin class strongly. 

  The outcome that I met through this is:

  • "Facilitate educational interventions that are based upon research, trend data, and needs assessments of participants and that increase the technological competencies and digital literacy of those participants" (ACPA & NASPA, 2015, p. 34).

ACPA: College Student Educators International & NASPA: Student Affairs Administrators in Higher Education (2015). Professional competency areas for student affairs educators. Washington, D.C.: Authors

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