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Artifact C3: Student Leadership & Identity Development

Hope Howard

Seattle University
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Student Leadership & Identity

Development: Expanding the
Pipeline to Student Affairs
HOPE HOWARD, M.A. CANDIDATE
STUDENT DEVELOPMENT ADMINISTRATION, SEATTLE UNIVERSITY
Creating a curricular pipeline to 3

Student Affairs
Experiential learning is critical to success of S.A. grad students (Renn & Jessup-Anger,
2008)
Social Justice Philosophy
Emotional Intelligence has a predictive effect for identifying outstanding RA performance
(Jaeger & Caison, 2006)
RAs must approach their role with the greater good of their community in mind ( King, 2012)
Practicing Empathic Response
experiential exercises emphasizing awareness and empathic responding and practice of
these skillsbeyond that of didactic training alone (Pasco et al., 2012, p. 134).
Service-learning in leadership courses has been shown an effective approach to
development of leadership behaviors in undergraduate students (Foli, Braswell,
Kirkpatrick, & Lim, 2014).
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Research Questions:
HOW DO STUDENT LEADERS EXPERIENCE THEIR
TRAINING PROGRAMS IN RELATION TO THEIR
LEADERSHIP IDENTITY DEVELOPMENT?

WHAT IS THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN EXPERIENTIAL

LEARNING AND IDENTITY DEVELOPMENT FOR
STUDENT LEADERS?
Seattle University, 5

Division of Student Development

Center for
Housing & Student
Residence Life Involvement Innovation Center
About 50 RAs; houses Houses student Houses Ignatian
47% of all 4,511 government, student Leaders program,
undergrads (Fall, 2014 clubs/orgs, and responsible for iLead.
data). leadership development.
Methodology 6

Qualitative data gathered via three focus group interviews

Demographic survey was taken immediately prior
Sampling: Purposeful selection (nomination, invitation) of
students who held positional leadership roles within the
Division of Student Development
Data Collection: Questions concentrated on: student
motivations for becoming a leader, what parts of the role
make them feel like a leader, and their training/leadership
development
Data Analysis: transcribed, hand coded, organized into three
themes
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Sample Description n=11
Race/Ethnicity
Time in role: 1-9 quarters
All 5 RAs in first-year.
Wide range of majors from science,
business, humanities Hispanic/Chicano(a); 8%

Gender: 5 Female, 4 Male, 2 non-binary African American; 15%

Caucasian; 38%

Qtrs at SU: 3 6 9 12
Pacific Islander; 15%

Asian; 23%
Students: 1* 6 2 2

*transfer
 Findings Identity: Training: Identity- 8
Challenging Based Content &
Social Justice: Dominant Views Hands-On
Connection & of Leadership Delivery
Community
you fly amongst all of the people who are
I was kind of your birds that youre teaching your peers still
disappointed that iLead leadingyou have to [do] not understand, it's
is not something thats lead from within, not kind of disheartening in a
accessible to all from in front. way it's like there's
students. Or that there -Gwendolyn nowhere to hide because
are meetings on you live where you work
campus that are it's just a lot of extra
totally closed off to I do realize that you weight to carry. -Laura
students who dont hold dont need to have
leadership positions. some kind of title to be
-Mia a leader. I think how
you define leadership
makes you a leader.
Findings 9

Social Justice Identity Training

I dont think that
Breaking down, I [BCDs were]
theres ever been a
guess, those pillars effective as a
time that I felt
that student leaders teaching tool
particularly like a
are in and getting to because you were
leader. Ive been
know each other and faced with the most
formally recognized in
what each other challenging situation
many different ways as
does for the you could probably
a leader, but I think
university would be face and so, I think,
those times are
extremely helpful. knowing that you
honestly part of my
-Devin could do that
biggest failings
prepared us well for
because that makes
the upcoming year.
my work about me and
-Terry
not about what Im
doing for my
community. -George
Implications
Re-prioritize staff MCC
training
Re-conceptualization of
leadership community at
SeattleU
Strengthen cross-
departmental relationships
Evaluate and update student
leader trainings (especially
lecture-based delivery & MCC
content)
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Course Recommendations
All other implications apply to the
course
Inclusive content, centering
marginalized identities
When the material that you're learning
from is, like, material written by old dead
white guys it's not always very clear
where this is applicable to me. George
Integrate service-learning and
reflective activities
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Action Plan
Community Leadership

LO1 Increased self-awareness of

Open enrollment
identity and worldviews
Staff with high MCC LO2 Increased knowledge about
Integration of theory-to- student development & higher Ed
practice LO3 Increased self-efficacy in
Experiential + reflective working with diverse populations
assignments LO4 Identify leadership
Service-learning style/philosophy
Retention (at SU)
LO5 Increased understanding of
their pathway and where S.A. fits
Access (in community)