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Culmination
Capstone Culmination Paper
As I reflect on these past two years as a graduate student in the CCSD program, I am reminded of how limited my understanding was about Student Affairs when first I first began this journey, but also incredibly proud of how much my understanding, skills, and abilities have grown since. When I was an undergraduate, student affairs meant interacting with students every day through academic advising. I didn’t have a philosophical comprehension or experienced background in understanding the crucial, historically rich, and extensive field that is Student Affairs. All I knew was that I felt a calling to serve college students through supporting them in achieving diverse goals. These past two years have not only been transformational in expanding my knowledge in this field and the diverse work it encompasses, but also my experience in actualizing my calling through personal, academic, and professional opportunities.
The following discussion will aim to synthesize the comprehensive learning I have experienced through the CCSD program. By analyzing how my understanding of student affairs has changed throughout the course of this program, examining the influential ideas, theories and perspectives that have guided my practice, and by considering my future personal and professional goals, I will attempt to capture the way in which CCSD has guided my path and perspective of student affairs.
Student Affairs Understanding
I entered my first year of the CCSD program, certain that I would graduate and become a Guidance Counselor. However, within the first few weeks of classes and graduate assistantship training, my comprehension of student affairs was expanded more than I thought possible. I was quickly introduced to many diverse functional areas encompassed within student affairs, not just guidance counseling. I was also introduced to the vital skills and abilities that all student affairs professionals must actively develop within their practice. I began to consider and formulate my own philosophies of student affairs while contemplating the integration of personal values, beliefs, goals, and foundational theories. I was challenged to develop student counseling skills, explore diverse student populations, familiarize myself with relevant policies, experiment with addressing student barriers, and engage student development. Being intentionally brought into the conversation happening around student affairs, along with peers who felt just as strongly about impacting student lives, was an entirely new environment that I was eager to be a part of.
Another major experience during my first year of the CSD program was my graduate assistantship, where I served as an Assistant Career Consultant with Azusa Pacific University’s Career Center. My prior work experience entailed a more supportive administrative role for college guidance counselors, whereas this experience gave me hands on experience counseling students. Granted, it was incredibly challenging as there was sizable amounts of career development related material to master. I also had to navigate how to foster counseling relationships with incredibly diverse students for the first time. As a result, the Imposter Syndrome quickly set in, and I found myself struggled with the anxiety of feeling like I had to “know it all” and always have the “right” answer. I struggled giving myself grace to be challenged and learn through said challenges. However, working with other student affairs professionals that I admired and who still play a huge supportive role in my professional development, reinforced my motivation to enjoy the discovery of my own unique approach. As a result, I became more and more confident in my abilities and became eager to take on new roles and projects. This experience created the ideal environment that allowed me to grow into a collaborator, educator, and counselor, and ultimately, I was able to impact student lives. Being the one to ignite change and inspire students to invest in their development and career goals continues to be a driving force that inspires my practice and mission.
Similar to my first year, my second year in the CCSD program did not cease in challenging my understanding of student affairs and higher education. What foundational comprehension I had built in my first year, was further reinforced and expanded. My confidence in identifying myself as a student affairs professional grew as I interacted with more students through additional assistantships in various functional areas, connected with my cohort, and tackled and applied new course material and concepts. This past year has allowed me to gain a more holistic perspective of student affairs and its impact on students both inside and outside of the classroom. I become more aware of how student affairs professionals act as agents of change by impacting areas of institutional leadership, student care and wellbeing, program development, as well as program evaluation through mastering various research and assessment methods. Initially, I believed student affairs meant interacting with students every and providing them with resources. However, I now know that the mission and work of a student affairs professional is built upon the institution’s foundation and values through combatting against institutional barriers and injustice, spearheading innovative and accessible programming, and infusing holistic student development into all facets of student life and college experience.
Influential Theories & Perspectives
Sanford's Challenge & Support Theory
One theory that I often recall when interacting with students is known as the Sanford’s Challenge and Support theory (1966). Theorist Charles Sanford addresses the belief that there is a reciprocal relationship between supporting and challenging students in which student affairs and higher education professional play a key role in. Sanford took an environmental interaction approach and theorized that students mature through experiencing internal and or external challenges and support throughout their educational journey. Additionally, Sanford advocated for the role of a student affairs professional to become more focused on identifying the proper moments and opportunities for when students may need either to be challenged or supported. However, the challenge for student affairs professionals lies within being able to appropriately analyze when there is too much challenge or too much support occurring within the student experience.
In cases where student affairs professionals allow for students to face an excessive amount of challenge, while offering too little support, students can become overwhelmed, and experience undue stress which can have a negative impact on academics and their overall well-being (Evans et al., 2010). On the other hand, it is possible for student affairs professionals to provide excessive amounts of support to students, resulting in students experiencing little to no challenge. In “hand holding” cases like these, students are held back from the academic development and personal maturing that only comes from experiencing and proceeding through internal and external challenges; Their personal understanding of what is necessary to be a successful student is undermined (Lawton, 2018).
Through my work as a graduate assistant, career consultant, and now career specialist, I have faced this balance dilemma firsthand when engaging in counseling relationships with students. Students facing unhealthy levels of challenge, either internally or externally, often can’t imagine the next step. It is my desire and my joy to walk alongside students navigating challenges, and dream with them the goal that will highlight their next step and encourage them. Additionally, in my experience counseling students who expect a more “hand holding” approach to meet either short term or long term goals, often struggle with being held accountable in the decision making process. Referring to Sanford’s approach when navigating these unique interactions has inspired my love of dreaming alongside students while simultaneously empowering them to take self-actualized steps towards goals.
Baxter Magolda's Self-Authorship
Throughout the CCSD program, I’ve learned that an integral part of the college experience for any student is self-development and how independence affects relational growth. Student affairs theorist, Marcia B. Baxter Magolda (2004), established the theory of self-authorship which addresses a college student’s sense of independence and how it relates to relational interaction. She states that establishing internal independence is key to learning to engage with others as you grow as an adult: “Humans have the capacity to internally define their own beliefs, identity, and relationships. Developing this internal capacity is the necessary foundation for mutual, collaborative participation with others in adult life” (Baxter Magolda, 2004, xvi). This theory includes six guiding assumptions related to student salience, as well as four phases of growth that define progression into adulthood.
Through studying this theory throughout the program, I found that the third phase, becoming the author of one's own life, was one that I truly related with as a practitioner, primarily because I experienced this phase through my personal collegiate experience. Baxter Magolda (2004) identifies how establishing independence as it relates to those around you (peers, family, friends, etc.) helps a student’s identity development during college and throughout adulthood. As a student affairs professional, I consider it an honor to help support students as they explore concepts of self-authorship (establishing integrity, problem-solving skills, growing independence, critical thinking, etc.) while engaging relationally with those around them (learning about the surrounding world and how one fits into it, working alongside others, etc.).
Higher Education Innovation
In addition to developing my understanding of student affairs, my understanding of U.S. higher education has also been transformed. Not only is the role of a student affairs professional a more recent piece of higher education history, but higher education itself, as well as how it is attained, continues to be reshaped. One of the most drastic changes to higher education, both within the U.S and globally, has been due to the COVID-19 global pandemic starting in early 2020. Not only has the pandemic re-shaped the common higher education learning environment for all student populations, it has have also challenged universities to ensure the safety, health, and success of students at an entirely new caliber. The U.S. spent $198 billion in covid relief funds sent to colleges and universities to support educators in meeting students’ basic needs (Washington Post, 2022). With said funds, institutions across the nation were able to open food pantries on campus, provide covid testing and bolster student healthcare services, ensure social distanced and sanitized on-campus housing, etc. All of these efforts were made to promote student retainment. However, student enrollment has also drastically declined due to the pandemic.
California Community Colleges make up the largest higher education system in the nation, providing a gateway for over 2.1 million students per year (California Colleges Statistics, 2020, 2021). In their book, Comprehensive Reform for Student Success: New Directions for Community Colleges (2016), authors Maxwell and Person state, “Never before have community colleges received so much attention and recognition. From modest beginnings at the start of the twenty first-century, community colleges have become the largest, most affordable, and most responsive sector of American higher education” (Maxwell & Person, 2016). However, community colleges have felt the impact of current transitions being made due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Specifically, within the year 2020, enrollment overall within two-year community colleges decreased by 9.4% (Whitmire, 2020). Additionally, the fastest growing institutions, private colleges and universities, have also suffered due to a lack of student enrollment.
Specifically, California is home to over 730 various higher education institutions, with 545 being private (California Community Statistics, 2020, 2021). Although the number of private institutions across the country are increasing, student enrollment has severely decreased due to the COVID-19 pandemic. On average, college enrollment rates have declined about 1.67% per year since 2010 (Hanson, 2021), but with a worldwide pandemic mostly still affecting the United States, the percentage drop increased to almost 3.5% (Nietzel, 2021). As a current graduate student and student affairs professional, I am experiencing firsthand the challenging transitions being made within U.S. higher education institutions due to a lack in student enrollment.
As I continue to develop myself as a career services specialist, in light of the drastic decline in student enrollment, I find myself placed in a unique position to support students considering dropping out of college or struggling with job insecurity. In an era referred to as “The Great Resignation”, in which the COVID-19 pandemic created an unprecedented change in the labor market, students and professionals alike are seeking career advice and services (Parker & Horowitz, 2022). The U.S. unemployment rate increased by over 14 million in a matter of the first three months of the pandemic, compared to 8.8 million during The Great Recession from 2007-2009 (Kochhar, 2022). The need to address, reform, and alleviate the current labor market downfall happening in our nation is of utmost importance. I hope to continue to develop my skills, experience, and expertise within the field of career advising to support the effort being made to develop the next generation of high performing and capable difference makers. Additionally, I want to develop myself in a way that I may join the efforts being made to address and reform the overall trends of discontent being expressed by America’s workforce.
Future Personal Growth
As I near the end of my time in the CCSD program, I desire to continue to implement the many things that I have learned, experienced, and come to understand as it relates to my personal and professional life. When I first began my professional journey into student affairs, I believed I knew what the role entailed. Fortunately, I was vastly mistaken, and I now understand both the broad array of roles and factors that play into the crucial work of student affairs, but more importantly, I understand what kind of student affairs professional I want to be. I have a clearer comprehension of what it means to re-imagine success for students who feel lost, adapt my approach to the unique needs of diverse students, lead authentically, and identify myself as both a lifelong learner and passionate educator. For both my personal and professional future goals, I want to strive to occupy more spaces that challenge my empathetic abilities, humble me as both a follower and a leader, and allow me to mentor both students and future student affairs professionals. I will actively look for opportunities that will expose me to unique student narratives and opportunities to collaborate in developing accessible and innovative responses to under-served, under-resourced, and under-represented student communities.
As I leave this program with a grateful heart and inspired mind, I look to the future with both excitement and melancholy. I’ve worked consistently for the past six year to reach this goal, a goal that has motivated my studies, my professional work, my personal values, and passions. Though I know I am not without motivation to pursue whatever new achievements I set my mind to, I still can’t help but feel sad saying goodbye to this learning environment. As a result, one of my future goals is to return to the college classroom as faculty to inspire, challenge, and empower the next generation of student affairs professionals in their pursuit of impacting student lives. Another goal of mine is to diversify my professional resume by pursuing both training, certification and professional experiences that will prepare me to ally with specific student populations in need of representation and community on campuses. Lastly, I will continue to work within higher education career development and services, and after becoming an associate director, I hope to become the director of a career center that I can courageously and authentically lead, in the face of today’s changing world of work and U.S higher education. This program has laid the foundation of my advocacy and care for students going forward. I will utilize the blueprint that CCSD has placed and step into a new future, knowing that I am able to create the change I desire to see in higher education, and the inspiration to continue to better advocate and serve students in their unique journeys towards vast goals.
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