Faculty at California State University, Fullerton, along with consulting practitioners, have built the higher education emphasis of the M.S. in Education program around five core learning domains. This summarizes my experience since coming to Cal State Fullerton in Fall 2014 and I look forward to continuing to grow and develop in each of these areas as I continue into my professional career.

 

Leadership

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Leadership is a unique concept and practice that can be seen or considered as very abstract. Often time, students do not consider themselves leaders or may not believe they have leadership capabilities. During my time in the MSHE program, I too did not consider myself to be leader. I was afraid to take on leadership roles and be at the forefront of any project. However, my graduate assistantship with the Associated Student, Inc. and, First Year Experience program allowed me to define leadership and make meaning to my own experiences. In terms of the leadership within the MSHE program, I learned how to apply Yosso’s (2005) Community Cultural Wealth concept to my process in order to better lead in a team to put on the Maywood Educational Fair.

 

Having the opportunity to become one of the Maywood Education Fair co-leads, which is a nominated position to lead the cohort in the planning process was not only difficulty, but rewarding at the same time. I realized often times the leadership process is not easy. How to maneuver through different leadership styles, communication amongst team members, and challenging team members is truly an art.  I struggled with a lot on my plate throughout the Maywood process. I began to get frustrated and question who I was as leader and if I was truly deserving of such a position when comparing with my fellow co-leads. Towards the ladder end of the Maywood process, I began noticing how understanding cultural capital wealth assisted with explaining why we do the things we do with Maywood. For instance, it was used as our framework in all the interventions created. Listening to the community, sharing stories, and learning from one another truly enhanced the overall experience. All in all, the reflection process continues and I am hoping to continue to grow within the realm of leadership.

 

During my final semester of the MSHE program I have been very intentional with navigating the leadership within any department and institution. How do they navigate through the various challenges and barriers of what it means to be a leader? I will continue doing this because it is a part of my process to learn from others’ experiences. My hope is to be a prominent leader within the realm of Higher Education, while being a change agent. Lastly, understanding and being conscious of the different communication styles needed to interact with different groups of a people. A strong leader is able to tailor their style for each individual working within their team. I understand this process will not be easy, but with the help of strong mentors and colleagues I believe I will be able to accomplish this goal.

 

Social Justice & Advocacy

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Before entering in the program I never thought about social justice and advocacy and how important it is to our society. Kathleen Manning (2009) states social justices “focuses on the outcome-hope, equity, fairness.” Social justice to me sounds intense and I would define it as fighting for a social cause in which you strongly believe in. Manning’s definition created the space for me to better understand social justice and what it means to apply it to my practice as a Student Affairs professional. In terms of the MSHE program, we learned to be more aware of social justice issues around us, and being able to find commonalities within each issue to become an advocate for more than just the things we believe in.

 

Throughout the two years in the program I have learned what it means to be a social justice advocate. I have become more socially aware of the things occurring within our society and I am able to draw parallels between various social issues. My final year within the program I became a life skills coach for the Student Diversity Success Initiative. In working with the institution and their data showing achievement gaps to students of Hispanic and African American ethnic identities, we sought to increase support and advocate for our students because we knew they were capable. I am proud of the work that we do at the office because in nature our students are amazing and progressing through their college career. Not only have we increased their confidence, but their successes are paving new grounds for themselves. I am proud of the work we have done and I am excited to see what comes next.

 

I hope to continue advocating for change within the realm of higher education. Also creating the space for students to be open about their advocacy and the causes they feel most passionate about. I have noticed within the profession we create fluffy mission statements and an image that institutions are wanting to create equitable opportunities for all student groups, however, I find it interesting most underrepresented groups still have low retention and graduation rates. As an advocate for change and a Student Affairs professional I have to hold the institution accountable and ensure we create equitable programs for our students on campus.

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Education

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There have always been great debates centered around if education is a right or a privilege. Generally, when we think of education we think of the traditional in the classroom form of education. However, there is a formal and informal way education. I think education is a right, but turns into a privilege because not every individual has access to the resources to receive formal education. Informal education comes from family, experiences, friends and our communities. Considering the various ways in which we learn, education is not limited to one source.

 

I have always valued and enjoyed learning new things in and out of the classroom. I consider myself to be a seeker of knowledge and a sponge looking to absorb the knowledge of others. The final year in the masters program has allowed me to explore the various options of education. Informing my experience inside and outside of the classroom through various texts, conversations, and presentations within my time in the program. My focus has been assisting my fellow board members in HELO, creating and executing programs and learning opportunities for students and myself, and affirming the abilities of our students. Not all students (including myself) have the opportunity to be step back and see how the environment affects our learning; I am still learning about what education means and how others view education.

 

Learning will be to continue to grow and understand educational policies, laws, K-12 system, and explore the possibility of international education. I hope to utilize and draw upon what we have learned in the MSHE program to create an organization sustainable to increase the retention and graduation rates of underrepresented students. I hope to accomplish this by working in various retention, access, and outreach programs to begin to create an idea for how two and four-year institutions recruit and admit students. The more I can learn about post-secondary institutions, the better I will be to program effectively.

 

Assessment & Evaluation

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Assessment and evaluation is a two-step component to making any program or organization more effective. Assessment is the methodology in which you will assess using quantitative and qualitative methods, and evaluation is how you making meaning of the findings from the assessment. In considering program development, Wolf and Hughes (2007) suggest using a comprehensive model to assist with the development. Outcomes->Assessment->Curriculum->Pedagogy (Wolf and Hughes, 2007). Assessment is key in this model because it allows you to think critically about the program to understand there is always room for improvement.

 

Coming into the program, I was excited about taking on new opportunities and developing any program I would be a part of. I have been the graduate assistant for the Associated Students, Inc. and First Year Experience. Throughout my time in student leadership and program development, I worked directly with the Titan Pride Center, a hub for campus involvement. The center was a program geared towards assisting students with finding involvement of their interest. Unfortunately, the center was not updated frequently or looked user friendly. As a student and new professional I wanted to instantly make changes and build off what was already in place to create a more substantial program for Cal State Fullerton. However, I learned very quickly I needed assessment to back up my ideas and thoughts about the center. Which led me to hosting meetings and online surveys to gain knowledge of students’ experiences. Once my data was collected, I wrote an assessment report and submitted it to my supervisor. This instantly supported my thoughts about the center, but the department needed more data in order to make any type of changes to the center. All in all, I have learned data talks, and assessment is key to reinforcing in programmatic decisions.

 

I want to continue to learn and develop in the various quantitative and qualitative methodologies. My hope is to pursue a doctoral program that will further strengthen my knowledge of qualitative assessment and study how historically disenfranchised students succeed in higher education, learn how they interact with their peers, faculty, and how they experience the over campus culture and environment. Using focus groups, interviews, and observations, I think this will be an interesting way to get to know a day in the life of a student on various campuses.

 

Personal & Professional Development

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The growth of an individual is determined by the person’s experiences, community, culture, believes, and the environment in which they interact. Personal and Professional development is an everlasting reflection process, very similar to the leadership process, where we should always be looking to grow and strengthen our areas of weakness. Unfortunately, maintaining a healthy balance between personal and professional is the challenging aspect. Personal development is over development of the person, this is a holistic scale, while professional development is how one wants to grow within his/her own perspective career field.

 

Often times we sell ourselves short as individuals, we become complacent in thinking we have it all figured out. We are not willing to continue to learn and grow or sometimes take a helping hand from others. I believe this has been one of my downfalls throughout the program. Pride has shown me that more often than none I need others around me to make me a better individual and professional. Therefore, in using reflection and asking questions of others I have grown to develop myself as individual to better understand how others interact with me. However, one of the biggest questions I have is who defines professionalism and does it differ across racial groups. For me developing as professional has been to understand what it means to be a professional in the environment of an institution. Is it the way we dress, speak, carry ourselves, is it in the office or outside of the office, is it when we go home? Is there a switch to turn on given the various settings.

 

Professionally, I believe I need to learn more about the professional competencies and begin to develop more skills within the realm of education. I have realized my experience within the field has been lacking. I am currently seeking a professional mentor who is willing to take me under their wing and continue to groom me. Personally, I want to continue to grow as a man, son, brother and one day a husband and father. There are many things I want to see and do before my life passes me by. I believe I will continue grow as I experience different life challenges, successes, and failures.