ARP 620: Student Affairs in Higher Education

Course Reflection
Danny Oliveira
San Diego State University

COURSE REFLECTION: ARP 620

This course was my first graduate course in over 8 years. Although

I struggled with adjusting to an academic perspective and academic
study, I eventually adapted and am now on my way to completing this
degree that I dearly want to complete and return to a career in higher
education. I struggled with the pace of the course and volume of
reading in the first month but it became more manageable as I made
my adjustment and completed the first major project of describing My
Place at the U in a digital story format. This was a challenging project
for me but in the end it helped me a great deal in reflecting on why
Student Affairs is such a passion for me and that I am now on the
correct path to my purpose in life.
The topics that we discussed in this course were certainly
relevant for my future career as a student affairs professional. I
appreciated the fact that we began with the organization and
functional areas in Student Affairs. I am still undecided on the
functional area that I want to work in but this overview helped me to
realize the breadth of the field and the specific areas that I am most
interested. I have always worked directly with students, most recently
as a school teacher but also in my former role as a fraternity and
sorority advisor. I know that mentoring and supporting student
success is what drives me. There are various functional areas in which
I can do so and Im now exploring these areas in seeking the right fit
for me.

COURSE REFLECTION: ARP 620

Although all of the topics that we studied in this course were

relevant and interesting, the topics that focused most directly on
students were of particular interest for me. Student diversity,
perspectives on identity development, access and equity, and student
culture helped me to gain perspective on the clientele that I intend
to work with in my career. I have realized that although my
experiences have given me a level of multicultural competence, I am
seeking to explore issues of social justice to a deeper degree so that I
can more effectively serve students. I recently attended the NASPA
Multicultural Institute, where I gained a deeper understanding of social
justice and the many programs that various campuses are using to
educate their campus communities including students and professional
staff.
I appreciated the comparison of faculty culture and student affairs
culture. In my former role, I had not made an effort to interact with
faculty. In my current assistantship with SDSU Career Services, I am
interviewing various faculty members in a survey of departmental
internship programs. The readings on this topic helped me to gain a
better perspective on how to potentially collaborate with faculty on
student programming that can be an application of concepts and
issues that are relevant to faculty and their students.
I regret not having chosen a better book for my book review. I
was not as intentional as I should have been in selecting my book. If I

COURSE REFLECTION: ARP 620

had an opportunity to repeat this assignment, I would do much more

research into the topics and books that were presented as options for
this project. I appreciated the opportunity to interview a professional
staff member. This helped me to gain a perspective of the
responsibilities of a leader of a department and the many roles that
their position requires of them. The group projects on generations and
disadvantaged students were important collaborative exercises for our
classmates. The opportunity to attend Shaun Harpers lecture on his
research on the achievement of students of color in urban high schools
in New York City was a great experience. I sincerely appreciated his
approach of observing the factors that enabled student success rather
than the deficits that prevent success. This was definitely relevant for
me as a former teacher and future student affairs professional.