Professional development plan
Four Knowledge Areas
As I look back on my past two years and look ahead to my future career in student affairs, there are some things that I really hope to continue to develop and learn in the field.
These include:
As I search for jobs, I am looking predominantly in areas in which I have experience including residence life, career services, learning resource center, and campus programming. I do enjoy all of those things, but would like to branch out with residence life a little more by including living learning communities. My undergraduate and practicum experience with a living learning community is important to me and I hope that in the near future I am able to find a job that let’s me do this work I love. As far as the knowledge that I want to develop, it is tied to the work that I hope to do in my career.
Student development theory is something that I am very interested in learning more and now that I have been working as in intern in the field, I can see how the theories come into play. I am very much interested in identity development specificially and how students develop their sense of self in college. Although I know very little about religious identity/spiritual identity development, I would like to study this more and observe this in students at both public and religiously affiliated institutions.
Counseling is something that I am not extremely familiar with, yet it is a skill that I wish I had more of. Working in residence life, I see the need for the knowledge of counseling and the way to handle situations, and would love to be able to assist students in this way.
Teaching has always been a passion of mine and combining that with my love of college students seems very fitting. I do love guiding my student leaders and helping to develop their leadership style, but even more so, I hope to teach first year students and help them succeed at college. By taking the teaching college course in my first year in the program, I gained some skills needed to do this, but would like to develop my knowledge of teaching college students and first year courses.
Four Competencies
The four competencies I chose were competencies that I would like to further develop in my career in student affairs. These are competencies that I already have some skills in, but some that I would still like to see further.
The first competency is advising and helping, which is my strongest one. I have good skills in this area, but it is very important to me to develop these even further, as I feel this is one of the most important competencies for the profession, especially when working directly with students, such as in residence life. Because I do hope to work in residence life and living learning communities, or in campus programming, I need to make sure that these skills are at the very best they can be and always be working toward the advance stage.
Human and organizational resources is also something I excel in. I am good at planning and being on committees, as well as making decisions about hiring new RA staff. However, I hope to work toward advanced goals, such as sustainability on campus, and speaking on behalf of the instution (and being trusted with that).
Along with advising and helping, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion is top on my list of competencies to always work toward. I don’t think that I can ever be multiculturally competent enough, but always striving to learn more, gain new skills and experiences, and teach others about diversity is something that is important to me in my future career.
As with my knowledge, student learning and development is one I will work on. Assessing the theories I see in students, and helping students grow based on their position in the theory or vector is imperative to good work in student affairs and to my goals. Developing programs, serices, and teaching others is important to me, and can help with my goals of teaching first year student courses.
Timeline
Year One
Year Two
Year Three
As I look back on my past two years and look ahead to my future career in student affairs, there are some things that I really hope to continue to develop and learn in the field.
These include:
- Student Development Theory
- Counseling
- Teaching leadership courses and first year seminar
- History of higher education and its purpose
As I search for jobs, I am looking predominantly in areas in which I have experience including residence life, career services, learning resource center, and campus programming. I do enjoy all of those things, but would like to branch out with residence life a little more by including living learning communities. My undergraduate and practicum experience with a living learning community is important to me and I hope that in the near future I am able to find a job that let’s me do this work I love. As far as the knowledge that I want to develop, it is tied to the work that I hope to do in my career.
Student development theory is something that I am very interested in learning more and now that I have been working as in intern in the field, I can see how the theories come into play. I am very much interested in identity development specificially and how students develop their sense of self in college. Although I know very little about religious identity/spiritual identity development, I would like to study this more and observe this in students at both public and religiously affiliated institutions.
Counseling is something that I am not extremely familiar with, yet it is a skill that I wish I had more of. Working in residence life, I see the need for the knowledge of counseling and the way to handle situations, and would love to be able to assist students in this way.
Teaching has always been a passion of mine and combining that with my love of college students seems very fitting. I do love guiding my student leaders and helping to develop their leadership style, but even more so, I hope to teach first year students and help them succeed at college. By taking the teaching college course in my first year in the program, I gained some skills needed to do this, but would like to develop my knowledge of teaching college students and first year courses.
Four Competencies
- Advising and helping
- Human and Organizational Resources
- Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion
- Student Learning and Development
The four competencies I chose were competencies that I would like to further develop in my career in student affairs. These are competencies that I already have some skills in, but some that I would still like to see further.
The first competency is advising and helping, which is my strongest one. I have good skills in this area, but it is very important to me to develop these even further, as I feel this is one of the most important competencies for the profession, especially when working directly with students, such as in residence life. Because I do hope to work in residence life and living learning communities, or in campus programming, I need to make sure that these skills are at the very best they can be and always be working toward the advance stage.
Human and organizational resources is also something I excel in. I am good at planning and being on committees, as well as making decisions about hiring new RA staff. However, I hope to work toward advanced goals, such as sustainability on campus, and speaking on behalf of the instution (and being trusted with that).
Along with advising and helping, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion is top on my list of competencies to always work toward. I don’t think that I can ever be multiculturally competent enough, but always striving to learn more, gain new skills and experiences, and teach others about diversity is something that is important to me in my future career.
As with my knowledge, student learning and development is one I will work on. Assessing the theories I see in students, and helping students grow based on their position in the theory or vector is imperative to good work in student affairs and to my goals. Developing programs, serices, and teaching others is important to me, and can help with my goals of teaching first year student courses.
Timeline
Year One
- Skim The Chronicle and/or Inside Higher Ed daily
- Subscribe to at least one journal in the functional area that I am working in
- Attend local conferences and present
- Attend ACPA
- Find a new hobby
- Teach a section of a first year course
- No matter my functional area, plan at least 2 campus wide events
Year Two
- Mentor students
- Advise a student organization not related to functional area
- Speak at a university event
- Take art class at university
- Take trainings for Safe Zone and Anti-Racism
- Develop Social Justice Knowledge- Social Justice Institutite
Year Three
- Present at ACPA or other national conference
- Be on a conference committee
- Write an article for Chronicle or Inside Higher Ed
- Take another art class
- Teach leadership course
- Implement something new at the university- a new program or practice
- Host a huge fundraiser philanthropy
- Find a way to merge teaching middle school students with working at an institution of higher education