Running head: NARRATIVE DESCRIPTION

Portfolio Narrative Description Christopher J. Van Drimmelen Seattle University SDAD 579 Instructor: Dr. Jacob Diaz March 13, 2014

NARRATIVE DESCRIPTION This artifact provides an overview of my experience in the Student Development Administration Program, highlighting the most significant learning from my coursework, internships, and professional experiences. The most important content that I have learned in the SDA program generally has a practical application. Courses such as SDAD 575: Best Practices in Student Services highlighted unique and particularly effective ways of practicing student affairs at three

different institutions, many of which would make great addition to any institution at which I work in the future. COUN 510: Basic Counseling Skills has also imparted some of the most practically applicable content for working with students. I have found the skills and responses that I learned in this course to be applicable to advising conversations with students and to conduct hearings as I attempt to probe for learning and growth. Finally, EDAD 570: Leadership in Education I has been very applicable to my own leadership. The frames of leadership (structural, political, human resource, and symbolic) have been very useful for me in conceptualizing how different types of leaders lead and in articulating how my leadership works. In the SDA program, I have learned many things about myself. One major learning for me has been that my leadership leans very heavily toward the political frame. I depend upon relationships and alliances to make things happen as a leader. In practicing political leadership, I have also learned that things like support and access can be resources to be sought just as much as tangibles like money and space. My internship with Housing & Residence Life taught me much about assessment in student affairs. By combining both quantitative and qualitative assessment, I was able to successfully explore not only what students thought of our programs, but why they

NARRATIVE DESCRIPTION

answered in the way that they did. This internship highlighted for me that the assumptions that we make about student satisfaction and dissatisfaction are not always correct and that it is our responsibility to probe deeper. Being an intern with Central Washington University taught me a great deal about working with student populations that I had little prior experience with. Since the students who I advised were entirely commuter, transfer, and older than average, they challenged my assumptions about successfully engaging these populations. The students themselves were the authority on how to reach their peers, so it became easier for me to trust their ideas and to instead hone my facilitation skills. My first graduate assistantship with the Library Media Production Center taught me about practicing student affairs in a non-student affairs centered context. It is important to bring student development into the conversation, particularly when few of ones coworkers have that particular background. Its not always easy to convince others of the value of things like developing our student employees, but once the results start showing up in their increased autonomy and productivity, it becomes easier over time. My second graduate assistantship in Housing & Residence Life taught me first and foremost that operational concerns such as building maintenance and billing can have a big impact on the student experience (in fact, if these are not addressed properly, they can seriously interfere with a students ability to engage on campus). I also learned that process improvement should always be balanced with maintaining the core values and integrity of the processes that one is trying to improve. My learning from the SDA program has come from a wide array of experiences. I think that the biggest implication for my future practice from this set of learning is that, at

NARRATIVE DESCRIPTION

my core, I am a generalist. I am most comfortable in roles with a variety of responsibilities and that I operate at my best when I can learn from a diverse group of individuals. A particular critique of the SDA program from my experience revolves around the graduate assistantship process. I do not feel as though students have as much agency as they should in where they end up working as GAs as an example, incoming students do not apply to specific offices and are not given the opportunity to express preferences before being given their interview schedule. This can lead to situations such as my own where I left my first GA position because it was not the experience that I needed to advance myself as a professional. I can say for certain that attending a Jesuit institution has made a difference for me. I also believe that it will make a difference for the students that I serve in the future. The notion of cura prsonalis or care of the whole person is, for me, why student affairs exists, and is one that I will carry into all of my future work.