Running head: FIELD EXPERIENCE FINAL REFLECTIVE PAPER

Field Experience Final Reflective Paper

Mischelay Roberts
Western Michigan University

FIELD EXPERIENCE FINAL REFLECTIVE PAPER

Field Experience Final Reflective Paper

My field experience took place at Grand Valley State University, located in Allendale,
Michigan as an Orientation Graduate Intern. My position including assisting with supervision of
a student staff of 25 Orientation Leaders, troubleshooting, preparing orientation materials,
communicating with both students that showed and missed their orientation day, and the all so
typical other duties as assigned. My summer orientation field experience included 40 freshman
orientation sessions and 6 transfer sessions. Looking at the 1996 Rentz 2nd edition of Student
Affairs Practice in Higher Education, it is interesting to see that in the section of issues for the
practitioner, it mentioned that in the next few years more and more institutions will require
entering students to participate in orientation programs, (p. 263). This issue was brought up 18
years ago and today it is very true. Orientation, as is at most schools, is required of all incoming
students. Preference is for the students to come to an orientation day session, unless there are
extraneous circumstances, and in that case the student is given an appointment with their
advising office for a one-on-one advising session to schedule classes.
HESA Course Concepts
My experience working as an orientation graduate intern brought up various course
concepts, including student development theories and leadership styles, to name a few. Looking
back at my theory course, Chickering & Reissers Theory of Identity Development can directly
apply to the incoming students. The new students coming to orientation, specifically the
incoming freshman as they are least experienced with the college or university experience, these
students are developing competence, which is the very beginning of the seven vectors.
Developing competence is the confidence one has in his ability to cope with what comes and to
achieve successfully what he sets out to do, (Chickering, 1969, p. 9). During the full-length day

FIELD EXPERIENCE FINAL REFLECTIVE PAPER

of orientation, the incoming students do not know what they will be doing, other than scheduling
classes, and they go with the flow of the day with the goal of having a successful orientation.
Over both my time as an orientation leader and as the graduate intern, I have never seen a student
not complete their day or complete the goals they have for the day. I have, however, seen very
mixed emotions, and this reason alone is why I do not put the students in the second vector of
managing emotions. In this vector, emotions have to be experienced, to be felt and perceived for
what they are, (Chickering, 1969, p. 10) and majority of the incoming students experience
emotions, but do not take them for what they are. Students often cover their feelings and try to
make them different from what they are.
Reviewing the chapter on leadership by Komives (2011), situational or contingency
theory is mentioned. In this leadership theory, it differentiated the leaders behavior based on
the situation that included the nature of the followers as part of the situational dynamic, (p.
375). It goes on to say that situations range from newly formed groups to fully mature groups,
with relationship ranging from low to high in the various contexts. When I look at how my
leadership developed as a co-supervisor for the 25 orientation leaders, I can situational theory
applying to myself. When I began my field experience, we were a newly formed group. In this
type of group, Komives says that newly formed groups might best respond to high-task, lowrelationship leadership when they are seeking clear focus and direction, (p. 357). When I began
this position, I did not have a relationship with the student orientation leaders and focused
primarily on them learning their job and executing the job to the best of their ability. As time
progress, we began to build relationships. Fully mature groups may need the leadership to be
high in relationship orientation, keeping the motivation and morale thriving, but low in task
orientation; or they may need little formal leadership, (2011, p. 357). I believe that the

FIELD EXPERIENCE FINAL REFLECTIVE PAPER

orientation leaders and myself became a fully mature group as the summer went by. As we
formed relationships, my job was more to motivate them to continue to do well and make each
day great and keep their confidence and enthusiasm high. I did not have to focus as much on
tasks, because they knew their job and the tasks they had to complete each day. This leadership
theory can apply to anyone that is a new leader with followers that they do not have a
relationship with when they gain the leadership position.
Professional Competency area: Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion
Working orientation, you will experience and interact with diverse individuals. Over the
course of the summer, I met various individuals, including my student staff, professional staff,
faculty, and family and friends that were different than me. Looking at the basic section of the
professional competency area of Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion, I can see that many of the
things in this section were true during my time as an orientation graduate intern. One of the first
things that came to mind was assessing ones own awareness of EDI and demonstrating
personal skills associated with EDI by participating in activities that challenge ones beliefs
(American College Personnel Association & National Association of Student Personnel
Administrators, 2010, p. 10). During the training for the orientation leaders, we all participated in
cultural awareness training. This session was given by an individual from the Office of Inclusion
and Equity and made us think outside of ourselves, by various activities, scenarios, and personal
reflection. This was important so that when we interacted with diverse students over the summer,
basic knowledge of how to treat those that are different than you with respect and dignity was
done.
Personally, this area is very important to me as a future practitioner. Creating
environments of fair treatment in higher education is key to personal development and

FIELD EXPERIENCE FINAL REFLECTIVE PAPER

intentionally increasing diversity in institutions. As an orientation graduate intern, I tried to make

sure to identify the contributions of similar and diverse people within and to the institutional
environment, (American College Personnel Association & National Association of Student
Personnel Administrators, 2010, p. 10). I always made a point to interact with those different and
make sure that my student orientation leaders could see the benefits of them being open and how
diversity was not only a benefit to them, but also to orientation and the institution. We not only
would interact with diverse students, families, and friends, but also with diverse faculty and the
goal is to make everyone feel equal, valued, and a contribution to orientation and Grand Valley
overall.
BASIC Professional Competencies
Advising and Helping is one of my areas that I felt I would gain knowledge or increase
competence during my field experience. As I looked back at my competencies assessment from
my first semester in graduate school, I ranked myself a 2.5/4 on the basic scale. I will not say that
I am a complete 4, but I do feel that I have grown in this area. In this competency area, you build
rapport with students, groups, colleagues, and others, exhibit active listening skills, maintain an
appropriate degree of confidentiality, and facilitate problem-solving (American College
Personnel Association & National Association of Student Personnel Administrators, 2010, p. 6).
Although I had some of these skills, I believe that I grew in them all and increased my ability to
do these things. Problem solving was one of the things I did almost on a daily basis since I
worked at the control table. My problem solving included troubleshooting issues when they came
up, including missing materials, incorrect numbers, solving various student issues.
Another area where I feel that I gained skills is Human and Organizational Resources. In
my competencies assessment I said that I did not know how to supervise and I was unsure if I

FIELD EXPERIENCE FINAL REFLECTIVE PAPER

would be efficient and effective in this area. I did hope to gain more knowledge in this area,
which is exactly what I did. Even though my supervision was co-supervision, I still learned a
great deal about how to supervise a staff. The most important things related to supervision are
communication and listening. You need to be able to communicate your expectations, but also be
able to listen to what your employees need from you as a supervisor. This competency area also
says that you must be able to recognize how networks in organizations play a role in how work
gets done, (American College Personnel Association & National Association of Student
Personnel Administrators, 2010, p. 16). Working in a staff position and not a student employee
position like I did in my undergraduate career, I realized how many people it take to run an
orientation and that you need all of them to successfully get things done and in the correct way.
There are many departments and divisions related to making orientation successfully and I
finally realized this. If I did not have this experience, I do not think I would understand all of the
key players it takes to run different programs and services.
Professional Identity and Goals
My experience working orientation over the summer at Grand Valley State University
assisted with assuring my decision to go into student affairs. Working as an orientation assistant
during my undergraduate career was what led me to the idea of furthering my education to get a
degree with a focus of student affairs instead of business. Going back to the place and setting that
led me down the initial path was an experience that I am glad I was able to have. Orientation is a
position that you have to be interested in and dedicated to. Orientation is not for everyone.
Orientation is something I thoroughly enjoy doing and could potentially see myself doing in the
future. As I am getting close to the time of job searching and graduation, my field experience let

FIELD EXPERIENCE FINAL REFLECTIVE PAPER

me know that I am interested in this position, but this is not the position I would want to have
straight out of graduate school.
Orientation, and my field experience overall, did help me gain practical experience with
leadership, both of myself and being a leader or supervisor of students, build my communication
skills, as I had to learn to communicate with incoming students of various ages and parents,
family and friends of students, and it helped me to learn who I am as a person, what type of
people I work well with, and last but not least, it assisted with me learning to work on my toes,
because you never know what type of experiences, people, or issues you will have each and
every day. With orientation, each day may be similar, but it is never the same.

FIELD EXPERIENCE FINAL REFLECTIVE PAPER

References
American College Personnel Association & National Association of Student Personnel
Administrators. (2010). Professional competency areas for student affairs practitioners.
Washington, DC: Authors. Retrieved from
https://www.naspa.org/images/uploads/main/Professional_Competencies.pdf
Chickering, A. W. (1969) Education and identity. Jossey Bass: San Francisco, CA.
Komives,S.R.(2011).Leadership.InJ.H.Schuh,S.R.Jones&S.R.Harper(Eds.)Student
Services:AHandbookfortheProfession(5thed.,pp.353371).SanFrancisco,CA:
JosseyBass.
Rentz, A. L. (1996). Student affairs practice in higher education (2nd ed.). Thomas Books:
Springfield, IL.