Running head: CAPSTONE REFLECTION

Capstone reflection
Jesus Romero
Western Michigan University

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Capstone reflection

For my capstone, I worked at Western Michigan University (WMU) with the Graduate
College to create a campus visit program for prospective graduate students. If prospective
graduate students wanted a tour of campus, they would be put in contact with the graduate
ambassador that represented the specific area for which the student was interested. It often was
difficult to schedule a time that worked for both the student and ambassador. This system also
led to an uneven distribution of how many tours the ambassadors did, which ranged from some
ambassadors conducting nine tours and others doing none. The ambassadors received no formal
training on giving tours of campus and were instructed to point out what they thought would be
important. My task was to design a campus visit program starting with registration and ending
with an assessment of the visit.
I began my capstone experience doing research on campus visit programs for graduate
students at other institutions. This consisted of looking through websites to see what information
was available to prospective graduate students. Initially, I looked at the websites of the other
institutions in our athletic conference. It was a good place to start since those institutions are the
ones most similar to WMU. However, I was unable to find little to no information about what
resources those institutions had for prospective graduate students. I then read through the
websites of the institutions in the region that would be our biggest competitors for recruiting
graduate students but also came up short. Having found no success, I decided to go with a simple
Google search and I was able to find information on several campus tours specific to graduate
students at institutions across the nation. The data that I collected was simply how often the tours
occurred and what other services were offered besides the tour. Additionally, my supervisor and
I met with the Admissions office at WMU to discuss what the process looks like at the

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undergraduate level. Using both information gathered from the websites and the meeting, I came
up with three options for campus visits. One of the options was to keep the current format of
having one ambassador give a tour to the prospective student. The second option included a tour
of the Graduate College and then a tour of main campus. With the third option, students would
get a presentation and then mini-tour of campus. After receiving feedback from various Graduate
College staff, we decided to do a combination of a few options. This would include a
presentation at the Graduate College followed by a mini-tour on campus. There would be predetermined dates and times for the campus visit.
The next step in the process was determining the content for the presentation and tour. I
attended a few of the trainings for the undergraduate ambassadors through the Admissions office.
Also, I conducted interviews both over the phone and in person with graduate ambassadors who
had given tours to prospective graduate students. From the trainings, I gained more knowledge
about WMU and the academic colleges. The interviews gave me an idea of what the graduate
ambassadors cover on the tours as well as any questions or concerns that come up during their
tours. I was able to determine some of the major points that needed to be covered both in the
presentation and tour as informed by the trainings and interviews. Using the online orientation
for graduate students, I found additional content for the presentation. I created an outline of the
presentation and tour in order to get feedback from Graduate College staff. With their feedback, I
was able to finalize both of these resources. In order to create a script for the mini-tour, I
borrowed content and ideas from the tour script for undergraduate tours at Western. This
completed my goal of designing a curriculum for graduate campus visits.
Another resource I worked on was a one-page document to help graduate students make
the most of their campus visit. The focus was on meeting with faculty, students, and the

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department or program director to learn more about the department and program. I also
developed a training presentation to give the graduate ambassadors an overview of the campus
visit program as well as some tips for giving a successful presentation and tour. One of my goals
for my capstone was to identify a more effective process for graduate students to register for
campus visits. After looking through a couple of registration forms at other institutions in
addition to the one for undergraduate tours at WMU, I was able to develop an online registration
form with pre-determined dates for campus visits. This replaced the former process of calling the
Graduate College and being connected with a graduate ambassador to find a date for a campus
visit. The final piece of my capstone was to produce an evaluation of the campus visit program
both to improve the program but also follow-up with students who may have additional
questions.
At the beginning of my capstone, I determined that I would work on the ACPA/NASPA
Professional Competency Areas. The first area I choose was the Assessment, Evaluation, and
Research competency area, which I had previously focused on during my field experience. I
further expanded on this by conducting interviews, or qualitative studies, to assess the
transferability of the findings to my project to help me develop my skills on the basic level
(ACPA & NASPA, 2012). From the interviews, I was able to determine what content should be
included in the presentation and mini-tour. My other area of focus was the Human and
Organizational Resources competency area. The basic level of this competency area lists that one
should be able to "demonstrate effective stewardship and use of resources" (ACPA & NASPA,
2012, p. 16). I was able to identify the best way to use the graduate ambassadors, or human
resources, to help with the campus visit program. Since all of the ambassadors would be trained
on how to conduct the presentation and tour, they will be on a rotating schedule to distribute the

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work as equally as possible. Through my capstone, I was able to gain more experience in order
to make me a more competent student affairs professional.
Hirt (2006) discusses how teaching graduate students and conducting research are
significantly more important than any other activities for faculty members at research
institutions. My capstone aims at recruiting prospective graduate students by helping them
determine if WMU is the right fit for them to pursue their graduate education. In comparing
recruitment to courtship, Hayek and Hossler (1999) noted that "the best way to convey a sense of
courtship in interactions with prospective students is to continually increase the degree of
personalization and timeliness" (as cited in Hossler, 2011, p. 76). I have ensured that the campus
visit program is as helpful to prospective students as possible by providing several resources and
training graduate ambassadors to provide them with the best possible campus visit. The one-page
document will be useful to prospective graduate students since it provides some guiding
questions about what to ask during their department or program visit in order to determine if
WMU is the right fit. Additionally, there are several opportunities in the tour script for the
graduate ambassadors to share personal stories and experiences making the tour more personal.
I was very pleased with what I accomplished during my capstone experience. When I
started, one of my goals was to compare the skills necessary to work in academic affairs versus
student affairs. The Graduate College is in the Division of Academic Affairs but I would argue
that it has significant contact with the Division of Student Affairs because it serves graduate
students who interact on a regular basis with all areas of campus either as employees or students.
Despite working with various areas of campus, the Graduate College staff work independently
on specific duties. I had very minimal student interaction with the exception of the graduate
ambassadors that I interviewed. Because of this, I really struggled to thoroughly enjoy my

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capstone experience. However, I now know how much I value student interaction and will make
sure that it is something I never lose as I continue in my career. This experience has also taught
me how to work with a faculty member and speak the academic language since my supervisor
was both a faculty member and faculty fellow at the Graduate College. It is a skill that will prove
useful as I begin my career in student affairs and work to forge relationships with academic
affairs in order to provide a holistic educational experience for students.

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References

American College Personnel Association (ACPA) & National Association of Student Personnel
Administrators (NASPA), (2012). ACPA/NASPA professional competency areas: For
student affairs practitioners. Washington, DC: American College Personnel Association.
Hirt, J. B. (2006). Where you work matters: Student affairs administration at different types of
institutions. Lanham, MD: University Press of America.
Hossler, D. (2011). From admissions to enrollment management. In Naijian Zhang & Associates
(Eds.), Rentzs student affairs practice in higher education (pp. 6395). Springfield, IL:
Charles C. Thomas.