Unfortunately, the lack of annual professional development funds at JWU-CLT has prevented such a predicted expansion of professional involvement and as such I continue to rate my VPH competency as ‘intermediate.’ This is not to say that there has been no-progress. In fact, during the fall of 2023 I presented at NACA-South in Charleston, SC, and in the spring of 2024 I presented at the University Scholarship & Best Practices (USBP) Exposition – followed shortly after by repeating the same presentation (Gamifying engagement via Presence.io) at a metro-regional student affairs conference (Charlotte EdConnect). I have done my best to continue to grow my professional values. 

Goals

1. Continue to seek professional development opportunities, particularly through larger national/international associations. 

Despite not completing the HAPE graduate program, I remain committed to my growth within the fields of educational history and philosophy. With a new job in student engagement, including campus programming, I will have to expand my professional involvement — likely to now include the National Association for Campus Activities (NACA) and (potentially) the Association of Fraternity and Sorority Life Advisors (AFA). The expansion may also include new involvement with NASPA, while retaining my ACPA membership.

As I continue my studies in a new program (History & Philosophy of Education, HAPE), I continue to dig deeper into the values, philosophy, and history of education and higher education/student affairs. As hinted at within ‘Student Learning & Development,’ I have sought a greater understanding of the individual and communal liberatory nature of education. For the sake of my own exploration of this area, despite my status as ‘intermediate’ competence, I will refrain from specifying future goals (other than graduate from the HAPE program).

Due to my fortune of being hired as a full-time service leadership program coordinator at FSU, in the Center for Leadership & Social Change, I did have to withdrawal from both my TA role and graduate co-advisor role. While I have gained significant depth of understanding of the service and leadership programming areas, I have missed out on student government and organizing. It appears now that my future plans should include service toward professional associations (such as ACPA or Break Away). Next year I should also have the opportunity to supervise a first-year graduate student, to whom I can help teach the values, philosophy, and history of the profession to. Having recently reviewed the ACE point of view (1937) for a paper inquiring about specific functional exclusion from the profession, I have also come closer to my understanding.

I have been able to move toward completing foundational outcomes by completing both my short-term and long-term goals by this point. By reading all 380 ACUHO-I internship summaries (as of January 8, 2019) and rating them on a 1-10 scale, I was able to find 19 that I felt both interested in and qualified for. From that I was able to secure an internship at Cornell University in Residence Life. I also applied for the LDR Teaching Assistant for Gender and Leadership and will be assisting with that course in the Fall semester. To round out functional area exploration I secured another internship as the graduate co-advisor for the Pride Student Union. Meeting professionals from different institutions during Dalton and during local and international practicum has further enabled me to explore that values, philosophy, and history of the student affairs profession in varying contexts.

Foundational – While coursework in the context of Higher Education in America (EDH5051) is helpful and assists with the meeting of many of the foundational outcomes, limited exposure to diverse functional areas, professional associations, and global iterations of student affairs leaves many outcomes unmet. Strengths lie presently in the understanding of foundational philosophies, demonstration of campus citizenship, and a clear belief and ability to explain the public role of higher education. As suggested by the limitations, opportunities for foundational development exist, particularly within the outcomes related to the diversity of values between functional areas of the profession, the values and ethics of the professional associations, and the application of values and guiding philosophy in global contexts.