NASPA - Southern California Careers in Student Affairs Day

Date: April 17, 2021

Description: The 2021 Southern California Careers in Student Affairs Day (SCCSAD) is a virtual conference focused on new graduates, current graduate students and future graduate students interested in the field of Student Affairs.

Learning Domains Addressed (Labels):

• Leadership

• Education

• Personal Development

Learning Outcomes:

• SLO #1: Student will be able to (SWiBAT) compare session “What I didn’t learn in Grad School” with personal learning experience by the end of the session.

• SLO #2: SWiBAT collaborate with faculty to lead an information session about MSHE during the Graduate Fair.

• SLO #3: SWiBAT analyze a workshop session by a Student Affairs professional and a Graduate Student contributor by the end of the SCCSAD conference.

Evidence:

Reflection:

SLO #1: SWiBAT compare session "What I didn't learn in Grad School" with personal learning experience by the end of the session.

This general session had a very eye-catching title and piqued my interest (See image 1). However, after attending the session, I realized many of the topics they covered were for newly graduated students or current graduate students who had zero professional experience. Session facilitators covered many basic topics such as tailoring your resume, how to stay persistent during the job searching phase, and understanding your role in a new higher education institution.

Comparing this to my own work experience and educational experience with MSHE, I found that these topics are commonly covered in graduate programs and didn't particularly help me as a graduate student with 3+ years of professional experience. I tried to ask facilitators questions about new professional burnout and what professional retention could look like. I found that many sessions throughout the day, and this one included, relied a lot on "self-care" to prevent burnout. I understand that self-care and setting boundaries are essential. However, it's challenging to think that yoga and mediation can be the answer to all of our new professional challenges.

When we cover basic topics such as resumes and interviewing techniques, I believe graduate programs and conferences like SCCSAD are doing a disservice to their graduates. Theory and case studies can only take us so far. As a current professional, I struggle daily navigating political dynamics and finding creative methods to gain allies to support the programming we need. I'm constantly thinking about finding data and numbers to show evidence that what I'm doing is important. We reference Critical Race Theory and counterstories in class often as a method to support program development. Still, in practice, counterstories are considered anecdotal or one-off situations—new ideas or never done before programming doesn't have data to support it. No data means no funding. This is what I want to learn in class and at these conferences. How can I convince administrators that Student Affairs needs to be innovative?

SLO #2: SWiBAT collaborate with faculty to lead an information session about MSHE during the Graduate Fair.

Dr. Lundberg was hosting a virtualGraduate School Fair Booth at SCCSA (see image 2). Jimmy and I volunteered to help talk to students about the MSHE program. The virtual platform, HopIn, that SCCSAD was using was challenging to navigate and didn't have the same capabilities as Zoom would. Since the SCCSAD staff created the graduat session, we had no administrative abilities for our session and only allowed Dr. Lundberg to be the only person visible. Jimmy and I worked hard to be warm and welcoming in the chat, but it was hard to know who was in the room due to the participant list being on different screens.

We did our best and answered questions in the chat, and tried to connect with potential graduate school applicants. We offered direct CSUF website links to help answer their questions or provide our email addresses to ask questions. Through our frantic search for information for students dropping by our Grad Booth, I realized our lack of social media and internet presence could hinder our program's growth. Social media can play a significant role in showcasing what our program is doing and highlight our students' achievements. Our student organization HELO can only do so much and can't 100% represent the program because it's student-run.

SLO #3: SWiBAT analyze a workshop session by a Student Affairs professional and a Graduate Student contributor by the end of the SCCSAD conference.

I attended Dr. Lisa Gates and Graduate Student Andrew Mutsalklisana's session, titled: Resorting Dignity: An Equity-Minded Approach to Leadership (Gates & Mutsalklisana, 2021). Inspired by their work, and was excited to see a leadership theory or framework in its development stages.

Andrew was originally a member of our MSHE C13 cohort and chose to attend the San Diego State program instead. Our cohort is always very excited to support him when we see his name as a presenter at the various conferences this year. He has truly inspired me to push the boundaries of what a graduate student can do. This framework of having an Equity-minded approach to leadership resulted from him expressing his frustration and with the guidance of Dr. Gates to begin a restoring dignity approach. One aspect of their approach is titled "Lifting as you climb" (see image 3). It challenges leaders to evaluate their relationships, understanding their capabilities, willingness to take risks, and having the faith that anyone can lift (up others as you climb). Applying their concept of "Lifting as you Climb," I challenged myself to set goals to push the abilities of a graduate student.

Lifting as you Climb

• Relational (you are never alone)

  • I am collaborating with Jimmy Nguyen and Albin Lee to write a general session proposal for the NASPA - Western Regional Conference. We are challenging ourselves to take on the topic of Toxic Positivity. Our proposal has developed and grown to more than what I could have imagined by working with Jimmy and Albin. We are only at the beginning stages, and it's always thousands of times better than what I could have created alone.

• Understand our capabilities

  • Although we do not hold a Master degree yet, we are well versed in our topic of Toxic Positivity through our own personal lived experiences as Asian Americans and through navigating our educational journeys. We are applying what we learned in our coursework and using personal experiences to prove our expertise in the topic. Taking a page from Andrew, we are graduate students who are inspired to be conference contributors. If our proposal is selected, we hope that conference attendees can respect the knowledge we share with seasoned student affairs professionals, faculty, graduate students, and anyone else.

• Trust = Willing to take risks

  • We are taking a risk by submitting our proposal to NASPA - WRC and NASPA National Conference. I firmly believe that even though we are graduate students, we are still working professionals. A graduate assistant is still working and creating programming and serving students. As a full-time professional myself, I have faced many situations where colleagues have underestimated my abilities. Time and time again, I have worked extremely hard to prove others wrong. I trust in my abilities, and I trust in my team with Albin and Jimmy.

• Anyone can lift

  • Inspired by Andrew, I want to lift up others as I climb the leadership ladder. As a professional working woman, I have encountered many doors closing on me, but I remind myself to hold the door for others to follow when a door opens. Through our NASPA session, we can inspire other graduate students to break down the imposter syndrome, take risks, and have the courage to lead because they are capable!

References or Sources:

Gates, L., & Mutsalklisana, A. (2021). Southern California Careers in Student Affairs Day. In

Restoring Dignity: An Equity-Minded Approach to Leadership.

Question: What was a risk you took recently? Let me know in the comment section below!