Social Justice & Inclusion
Social justice is defined as both a process and a goal that includes the knowledge, skills, and dispositions needed to create learning environments that foster equitable participation of all groups and seeks to address issues of oppression, privilege, and power.
This competency depicts the social responsibility of student affairs educators to pursue social justice and inclusion in their practice, community, and the larger global context.
Student affairs educators may incorporate this competency through seeking to meet the needs of all groups, equitably distributing resources, raising social consciousness, and repairing past and current harms on-campus communities.
Students with Disabilities & Online Learning Retention Research Poster
In an effort to better understand the unique experiences of diverse students, I chose to research the challenges that students with disabilities face in an online learning environment. For our Process of Adult Development course, I put together an informational poster on students with disabilities and included current research on the impact of online learning with regards to student engagement. I also included research pertaining to relevant student affairs theories, as well as ways in which student affairs professionals may better support this population. This assignment encouraged me to expose myself to the reality of barriers that students with disabilities face as well as additional challenges associated with online learning transitions due to COVID-19 protocol within higher education (Kotera, Cockerill, Green, Hutchinson, Shaw, & Bowskill, 2019). Presenting this poster greatly expanded my student population comprehension, and allowed me to become more aware of ways I may be able to advocate for and promote online student engagement. This assignment acted as a launching pad for me as I continue to seek out ways I can promote inclusion, accessibility, equity, and social justice for diverse student populations.
Former Foster Youth Multicultural Action Plan
The Multicultural Action plan assignment from our Role of Diversity in Student Affairs course consisted of researching a single student population, identifying current efforts being made by institutions to support this said student population, and designing a workshop to bolster these efforts. Both myself and my project partner were astonished to discover that there were no support systems currently in place within Azusa Pacific University designed to serve former foster youth students on campus. This population is already at-risk, with only 11% of former foster youth students achieving degree completion (Tobolowsky et al., 2019). As a result of our research, my project partner and I designed The Former Foster Youth APU Allyship Training. We focused our efforts in tackling the first step towards former foster youth student outreach and allyship by designing our workshop to target student affairs professionals. Our workshop is designed to promote inclusion through creating awareness regarding intentional efforts that we as professionals can actively achieve in our respective communities. This assignment was both intimidating and inspiring. By spearheading allyship efforts towards an invisible student population, I was challenged to create something that had never been done before, all while discovering my own passion for Former Foster Youth student allyship.
Students with Invisible Disabilities Presentation
We were given the opportunity to conduct a small-scale qualitative study within our Qualitative Research with Today’s Diverse College Students course, in which we were given the freedom to choose a specific student population and gather qualitative data regarding their college experience. The qualitative data I presented for this assignment consists of interview responses from a graduate student with invisible disabilities. The research I had prepared before the interview consisted of concerning findings regarding students with invisible disabilities and their academic success rates (Mamboleo, Dong, & Fais, 2020). Being given the opportunity to personally interview a student who disclosed their invisible disabilities with me, gain insight into their unique narrative, and present their opinion regarding these findings to my cohort was both eye-opening and challenging. I not only walked away from this experience with a greater awareness of the unique challenges students with invisible disabilities face, but I also am able to better promote inclusion, accessibility, equity, and social justice for these students within my own practice.