This History, Philosophy, and Values competency area is one I have been able to develop inside the classroom throughout various College Student Personnel courses. In Foundations and Functions of College Student Personnel, I learned about different functional areas in the field through our “Functional 15” assignment. My assigned functional area was Career Services, and I had to interview a professional at BGSU in that area, provide a brief overview of the purpose of Career Services, and discuss a current issue affecting the functional area. In addition to completing my own assignment, I also listened to my classmates present on their functional areas, which provided me an overview of the various areas within student affairs. Through my own research and presentation, and listening to others’ presentations, I learned about the historical contexts of functional areas within the field (ACPA & NASPA, 2010).
I took a doctoral level course in Spring 2014 called “Comparative Higher Education” that allowed me to explore higher education systems in different countries. A large focus of the course was an independent research project that allowed each student to choose a topic in higher education that compared two country’s practices to one another. My paper was titled “Affirmative Action in the United States and India”. My research required me to revisit the history of higher education and student affairs in the United States, and learn about the history of India’s higher education system. I have included my presentation as an artifact because I believe it illustrates how I engaged my classmates in the critical examination of the historical implications and contemporary presence of affirmative action (ACPA & NASPA, 2010).
I also learned about higher education in other countries through the presentations of my fellow classmates, and historic and current issues facing student affairs professionals in those countries. This class allowed me to “identify other countries’ history and development of student affairs practice” and “contribute to the research and scholarship of the profession” (ACPA & NASPA, 2010, p. 15). |
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