Revised Goal Statement

Three and a half years ago, I made a life changing decision to move from Calgary,

Alberta to Fairfax, Virginia to take a job at George Mason University in the Recreation

department. My goal at the time was to transform the Club Sports program, which I was

responsible for and which had been poorly run, into one that focused on student development

through sport. The second part of the move was a desire to complete a PhD in Higher Education

Administration.

In the time I have been in Virginia, I believe I have had the opportunity to grow

significantly, both personally and professionally. This growth has occurred from experiences in

the workplace and from my coursework.

My work with Mason Recreation incorporated new experiences for me from day one,

particularly the opportunity to supervise a full-time employee, work with contracted athletic

trainers, and work within the bureaucratic structure of a very large public institution. I was also

able to take on our departments assessment portfolio, leading a successful effort to build a

culture of assessment within our department. This work has included creating and tracking

progress towards departmental and area goals, developing and tracking departmental and area

key performance indicators, creating, administering, and analyzing 40-50 quantitative surveys

per year, and working with University Life assessment partners to use existing data to better

understand the student populations we serve. I have been able to take this role and incorporate

my professional work into my coursework, particularly with a research project I completed for

my Qualitative Methods course that identified barriers that prevent Mason Recreations non-user

students from using the facilities, programs, and services.

 Professionally, I have also been able to mature as a leader in the field of collegiate

recreation, serving as chair of the 2015 NIRSA Sport Clubs Institute, as chair of the 2015 Career

Opportunities Center at the NIRSA Annual Conference, as a member of the 2015, 2017, and

2018 NIRSA Annual Conference Program Committee, and as a member of the NIRSA

Professional Core-Competencies Work Team. I have also had opportunities to present at the five

separate NIRSA related conferences. Two presentations in particular stand out to me as

opportunities where I was able to present projects I worked on for my coursework to a greater

audience: a presentation I did at the 2015 Club Sports Institute, The Legal Implications of

Hazing: What Legal Responsibilities Does an Administrator Have?, which was based off of my final

project for the Higher Education Law course, and my presentation at the 2017 NIRSA Annual

Conference, Engaging the Unengaged: Learning the barriers preventing non-users from utilizing

Campus Recreation facilities, programs, and services, which was based on the project I did for my

Qualitative Research Methods course.

In rereading my original goal statement from my application, I found that very little has

changed in my long term goal of wanting to oversee student services at a large institution. Currently,

my short term goals are to oversee a Recreation department at a university campus and to continue to

develop as a student services professional. I feel that I have a strong grasp on programming for

students and the community, including assisting our diverse student population here at Mason with

their recreational needs. My work overseeing the Recreation departments assessment needs has

allowed me to gain a greater understanding of other aspects of our operations, particularly our

business operations in regards to revenue and expenses, which is important in managing any student

services area. An area within Recreation that I feel I need to grow in is facility operations. I understand

the basic components of how to operate a facility on a daily basis, however, I do not know enough
about construction and maintenance of such facilities to expertly manage one on a campus without

assistance. This is an area in which I hope to grow.

Within student services as a whole, my work serving on the University Life Assessment

Committee, the GetConnected Governance Committee, and now a Mason Student Experience Re-

design project work team, has allowed me to gain greater knowledge in the operations of other student

services areas. I have also collaborated with departments such as Orientation and Family Programs,

Student Involvement, International Student Programs, and Parking Services to host programs or create

resources on campus to better serve our students. This experience will be valuable in my future career

moves as I work towards my ultimate career goals of overseeing all student services at an institution

as a Vice President of Student Affairs.

My research interests have changed slightly, but are almost identical to those of my goal

statement four years ago. The largest difference is that my primary interest for a dissertation is now

examining if a correlation exists between student engagement on campus while attending the

institution and their long term charitable gifts to the institution, which was my secondary interest

on my original goal statement. I have also developed this research idea and would now like to

primarily focus on Club Sport athletes as alumni in determining if they have a higher affinity for

their institution than alumni who did not participate in Club Sports as a student, if that translates

into donations, and to then examine why (or why not) they are more inclined to give. I have also

found a study to replicate for this project, which was conducted by Shapiro and Giannoulakis

from Old Dominion University in 2009, that used a pre-determined questionnaire in semi-

structured interviews with former NCAA athletes to explain why those former athletes were less

inclined to donate back to their institution. In replicating this study, I would hope to show that
Club Sports athletes had a different experience than NCAA athletes, which leads to their

increased inclination to donate back to the institution.