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header: AREAS FOR GROWTH LEARNING OUTCOME NARRATIVE

Katie Bates
Areas for Growth Learning Outcome Narrative
SDA Portfolio
Spring 2016
Seattle University

AREAS FOR GROWTH LEARNING OUTCOME NARRATIVE

When reflecting back on the past two years, I have realized the deep impact that
the SDA program has had on my personal and professional learning, so I have chosen the
overarching theme of expanding context. When I began this program, my understanding
of student development was limited to my own scope as a student leader. However, I
have learned to view my work within a deeper context of higher education, including the
founding principles and future trends that will shape our work. Expanding perspectives
involves becoming grounded, realizing systems, and growing impact.
Becoming Grounded: LO 1 & LO 7 | Artifacts C1, C2, E, & G
Relating to the current issues and movement within a field requires one to see the
complete picture. I have done this through Understanding the foundations and emerging
nature of the Student Affairs profession and higher education (LO 1). At the heart of
understanding the nature of the profession lies foundational context and the evolving
roles of institutions.
My first quarter I was enrolled in SDAD 5300: Foundations of the Student Affairs
Profession where I gained foundational context about the structures of higher education.
This process was twofold, as I learned about the historical beginnings of higher education
that benefited a privileged few and how that context continues to affect the types of
students colleges enroll. This class also asked us to contextualize our own skills and
understanding by completing our NASPA/ACPA Competencies (Artifact E). I came into
the program with 10 years of work experience, where I had gained skills that overlapped
with some of the competencies, but not all. By the end of the program, my understanding
of every competency within the realm of colleges had significantly improved, but it is

AREAS FOR GROWTH LEARNING OUTCOME NARRATIVE

something I will evaluate as I continue to expand my expertise in this field. I need to

focus my development on assessment, evaluation, research, law, policy, and governance.
In order to understand the evolving roles of institutions it is important to ground
institutions in a larger societal context. SDAD 5800: Higher Education Law helped me
understand how mindful practitioners must be when making complex policy decisions.
We were asked to interview student affairs professionals in the field about the role of law
within their work. I interviewed the VP of Student Services and the HR Director at South
Seattle College, which I recount in the Student Affairs Employee Reflection Paper
(Artifact C1). This experience helped me to understand how changing laws impact the
policies and procedures of colleges, especially within public institutions, and understand
that colleges do not function in isolation. I take some insight from Bronfenbrenner who
takes into account changes over time not only within the person but also in the
environment (Bronfenbrenner, pg 724, 1986). In a similar fashion, colleges are
influenced by the people within them and their larger environment and context.
Creating innovative programming or policy that is responsive to student needs
requires professionals to utilize assessment, evaluation, technology, and research to
improve practice (LO 7). This learning outcome is something I had very minimal
interaction with before the program. Through both of my internships, which involved
programming, I found that improving practice requires the creation of specific, insightful
learning outcomes and utilizing a multilateral approach to assessment.
My internship at CWU-Westside involved developing a student leadership retreat
(Artifact G) for students that were located at multiple branch campuses throughout the
region by focusing on the creation of specific, insightful learning outcomes. Through an

AREAS FOR GROWTH LEARNING OUTCOME NARRATIVE

evaluation we distributed before the retreat we learned that students wanted to focus on
campus culture. We developed our learning outcomes around this feedback which were
instilled throughout our retreat. We continued to relate our programming to these
outcomes so students could stay aware of the principles we expected them to learn. These
principles allowed us to make sure that students could interpret the connections between
their experiences at the retreat and the work they would do on campus. I learned that in
order for programming to be transformative, it is essential for students to make
connections between their experiences in the moment and their overall learning.
Utilizing a multilateral approach to assessment was critical to the formation of
the peer mentorship program I created during my internship at Highline College.
Grounding this new program required research of best practices to help form the basic
structure. We then conducted mid-program qualitative surveys of our mentors, which
helped us alter our methods of recruitment and engagement. As I stated within my
Leadership Philosophy Paper (Artifact C2), after continued challenges getting students
to engage in the mentorship program, we decided to conduct focus groups around student
leadership to more deeply understand the need within TRiO. This experience was helpful
for me to build a repertoire of data collection methods , such as surveys and focus groups,
to be used in future programming. This experience also taught me that I need to ground
my work in data, evaluation, and assessment in order to develop an understanding of the
impact of my programs on student success and retention.
Realizing Systems: LO 9 | Artifacts A & C1
I have been a sociologist who thinks about the systems that people live within for
many years, however my time in SDA has taught me that students must be able to

AREAS FOR GROWTH LEARNING OUTCOME NARRATIVE

navigate the college system in order to persist. Understanding issues surrounding law,
policy, finance and governance (LO 9) means that we as professionals must understand
these processes and be able to translate them for students. It also means that we need to
challenge the economic, educational, and social systems that students have grown up in.
Yosso (2005) states the main goals of identifying and documenting cultural wealth are
to transform education and empower People of Color to utilize assets already abundant in
their communities (Yosso, pg 82, 2005). The process of realizing systems for me meant
understanding how colleges build structures, navigating the systems within the
institution, and discovering how outside systems impact colleges.
Understanding how colleges build structures has been something I have explored
through work in different institutional types. Before I started this program, I had been a
student at a private institution and was only familiar with 4-year institution models. In
SDAD 5590: The American Community College we explored community colleges and
my intrigue began, as this institutional model was drastically different than 4-year
institutions. As can be seen in my resume (Artifact A), I spent the remainder of my time
in SDA pursuing internships within community colleges and branch campuses. Each
institution had unique ways of structuring their programs and services, largely reflective
of the values of the institution. I have learned that the open access missions of community
colleges provide career opportunities that I want to pursue.
I have found that navigating the systems within the institution can be a basic, yet
difficult task for students to master. During my time as an academic advisor at Seattle
University, I learned the minute details of policy surrounding academics. Often these
policies were available for students to look up online, but for many, contextualizing and

AREAS FOR GROWTH LEARNING OUTCOME NARRATIVE

digesting the policies was difficult. There were many unwritten rules and ways to go
about the processes that we often enlightened students about. Colleges set these
procedures in place to streamline their work, however these procedures are often barriers
for students. As a professional, I hope to become more nimble when navigating these
policies and procedures. As someone who may be developing policy, I hope to improve
my systems thinking to create procedures with more clarity and cohesion.
Some of the most impact learning I did during this program was discovering how
outside systems impact colleges. In SDAD 5800: Higher Education Law, I learned that
public institutions have less autonomy in the ways that they function when compared to
private institutions. In my Student Affairs Employee Reflection Paper (Artifact C1), I
had spoken with student affairs professionals about the impact that laws had on their
work. I realized that developing policy was deeply complex because the institution had to
create a system that abides by local, state, and federal laws, which are constantly in flux.
In order to thrive in this environment, student affairs professionals need to build reliable
networks throughout different venues. As I enter the field I hope to utilize my community
development background to build productive knowledge groups if I am ever tasked with
creating policy.
Growing Impact: LO 10 | Artifacts D & H1
In order to grow my impact within my work, I first need to understand my scope
as a student affairs professional. By establishing and enhancing my professional identity
(LO 10) throughout this program, I have been able to deepen the purpose within my work
and open new avenues I hope to move towards. Growing my impact involves overcoming
challenge and engaging in reflective action.

AREAS FOR GROWTH LEARNING OUTCOME NARRATIVE

I have learned that struggling in a role and overcoming challenges make us into
better practitioners. One of the most impactful experiences of my time in the SDA
program was my work with TRiO at Highline College. My internship project was to
develop and implement a peer mentorship program for current TRiO students, which
struggled to get off the ground. However, as my Letter of Promise (Artifact D) states,
Through the challenges of creating a program from the ground up, Katie was reflective
and flexible with her plan (Saechao, 2016). My work within TRiO developed into a part
time position, which exposed me to a variety of roles within the office. By persevering
through my initial challenges, I was able to discern that advising gave me energy. This
knowledge will help me pursue work that has advising as an integral part of my
responsibilities.
It is important to discern the experiences that have molded me during this
program and through reflective action I can continue to move closer to the professional I
aspire to be. When I entered this program, I only understood the field from a student
leader perspective, which was limited in scope. However, over the past two years I have
gone through tremendous changes and gained in-depth experiences that have helped me
understand the complexity of colleges and my potential role within them. Both SDAD
5900: Student Development Capstone Seminar and the Portfolio Process Assessment
(Artifact H1) have allowed me to spend substantial time reflecting on the successes and
growth that have come from my classes, internships, and work environments. This
process has been seeped within a variety of work environments, which has allowed me to
see the types of institutions and offices where I thrive.

AREAS FOR GROWTH LEARNING OUTCOME NARRATIVE

References
Bronfenbrenner, U. (1986). Ecology of the family as a context for human
development: research perspectives, Developmental Psychology, 22, 723-742.
Saechao, A. (2016). Professional Letter of Promise. Unpublished manuscript, Highline
College.
Yosso, T. (2005). Whose culture has capital? A critical race theory discussion of
community cultural wealth, Race Ethnicity and Education, 8, 69-91.