When I first applied to Loyola University Chicagos M.

Ed Higher
Education program, I got wait listed. I wasnt that surprised because for me,
graduate school was never something that I thought was attainable. I knew
that I wanted to work in student affairs but I also knew that I had never been
the brightest student, so completing a masters degree would be the biggest
challenge I would face to date. When I got the email on March 27, 2013 that
my status had changed from waitlisted to accepted, I knew that my life was
never going to be the same. Throughout my time at Loyola I have felt
supported, challenged and everything in between. Because of that, I have
learned more about myself both personally and professionally than I have
ever thought possible.
Impactful Course Content
From the courses that I have taken at Loyola, I will take away three
very important pieces of content. The first piece of content came in my first
year at Loyola in the Student Development Theory course I took with Dr. John
Dugan. It was in this class that I realized that what I learned in the classroom
I could directly apply to my outside experiences in higher education. Through
this course I learned various theories that related to how students develop
throughout their time at an institution. From Arthur W. Chickering and his
vectors to Marcia Baxter Magoldas theory of self-authorship, we learned a
variety of paths that students may take as they learn about themselves and
how they relate to the world around them. Most importantly, however, we

learned that these theories and research arent definitive. Each student and
person develops, learns and grows at a different pace. What is important for
us as practitioners and educators is to support students wherever they are
along the journey of their development and use these frameworks to help
guide our work.
The second piece of content that I will take away from my time in the
program was from the Leadership in Higher Education course that is offered
your second year taught by Dr. John Dugan. This course was centered on
various leadership theories and their relation to our own leadership journeys
as well as our work with students. Through this course I learned that like
student development theory, leadership theory serves as a framework for
the work that we do. Leadership theories such as Team Leadership and the
Social Change Model can help us understand how to work together to affect
change, but they are not stagnant. One of the most influential parts about
this course was learning how to deconstruct the various theories and then
reconstruct them in multiple contexts. Through taking a critical approach to
theory in this course I am now able to not only connect my own personal
identities to theses theories, but also guide students along in their own
personal processes. From this course I have learned that it is essential to
listen to and value the experiences and stories of students that we work
with, not just what the research tells us about them.
My final piece of course content that I have taken from this program
comes from the Curriculum Development in Higher Education course taught

by Dr. Patrick Green. In class this semester we have taken time to dissect
and analyze not only what we learn, but also how we learn. From
conversations around the work of Dr. L. Dee Fink I have learned the
importance of connecting the learning outcomes that we create for our
students with intentional activities both inside and outside of the classroom
to provide students with a significant learning experience. This course
content has shaped not only my practices every day at work as a graduate
assistant for Student Conduct at the Illinois Institute of Technology; but it has
also effected the way that I approach programming and leadership
development in the various areas of higher education that I am involved in.
My Graduate Assistantship
Throughout my time at Loyola, I had the opportunity connect what I
had learned within the classroom to my experiences and develop both
personally and professionally at my graduate assistantships at the Illinois
Institute of Technology (IIT). Throughout my time at IIT, I have learned what it
really means to do student-centered work and how to navigate campus
politics. During my first year at IIT, I served as the graduate assistant for
Gender and Sexuality services. As my first position out of my undergraduate
experience, I learned a lot about the day-to-day work of a student affairs
professional. In this role I worked with programming large-scale events that
support students who identify as female and/or LGBTQ. In this position, I
learned a lot about how to balance a budget and build effective campus
partnerships. I also learned about how student populations vary from

institution to institution. The students at IIT are mostly Science, Technology,

Engineering and Mathematic (STEM) majors and have a different way of
thinking and learning. Finding ways to engage this type of student population
was extremely difficult, but also extremely valuable in building my
professional skillset.
During my second year as a graduate assistant I worked in Student
Conduct. Through this experience I gained skills in having difficult
conversations with students and that university policies are there to support
and educate, not reprimand. This role is also where I really began to see the
politics of an organization and how they impact our every day work. In this
position, my supervisor went on maternity leave a month early leaving me to
fill in as the interim director. It was when I had the opportunity to work with
the Dean of Students and other senior student affairs officers directly in this
role that I realized the politics of the institution and how to truly get things
done. Over time I learned who I need to talk to in order to receive certain
information and how to effectively get things done. I am so grateful for this
experience because I think that having the practical knowledge of how
politics work at an institution will help me adjust to my new professional role.
My Social Justice Philosophy
Due to my experiences both inside and outside of the classroom, my
social justice philosophy has transformed. When I first began my graduate
school experience I thought of social justice as a concept that you can teach
in a classroom. This semester I have had the opportunity to take a class with

one of my mentors from Loyola, Dian Squire. Dian is in the Higher Education
doctoral program at Loyola and has been someone who has constantly
pushed me to do better and believe in myself. In the class he teaches,
Organization and Governance in Higher Education, we have learned
organizational theories and how to affect change at an institution. It is in this
class that I learned that social justice is a journey.
Social justice, to me, is the understanding that we need to value
difference. I also believe that there is a need to engage with those who are
different than us in a way that honors and respects each individuals
identities. Our journeys through social justice are different since that journey
is so personal to each identity. I believe that each path, however, should lead
to two key aspects, equity and a call to action. Through the different classes I
have taken and my experiences at my assistantship I have learned that
social justice needs to be infused into whatever type of work we are doing. It
is a journey that is extremely important for every person. When thinking
about how my social justice philosophy is related to my future I have come to
realize one important thing. I have come to realize that my goal in student
affairs should not be to pull students along the social justice journey. My goal
is to support students as they learn, grow, move through their social justice
journey and develop their own understanding of the world around them.
My Personal Growth
Because of my experiences in this program I believe that I have
learned three main things. First, I have learned that the people who support

you are as important as the work that we do. I have also learned that my
worth is not defined by the world around me, but by me. Lastly, but most
importantly, I have learned that I matter.
I am very fortunate to walk away from this program with some
incredible systems of support. I struggled a lot in my first year at Loyola with
who I was and who I wanted to become. It was in my first semester that I
found a great system of support and one of my mentors in the field, Dr. John
Dugan. Throughout my classroom experience and my personal growth in the
program he taught me to trust what I know and helped me gain confidence
in my academic work. Because of his mentorship and endless support,
applying to a doctoral program is now in my future. I have also found a
support system in Tricia Banach, a coworker at IIT. From my very first day of
work, Tricia took me under her wing and helped me develop my professional
identity. She showed me the importance of being authentic to I am and the
promise we have to the field to support our students. She is an incredible
example of a strong woman, and someone I hope to channel every day in my
work and in my personal life.
Most importantly, my experiences in this program have taught me the
value of each person and their story. For a very long time I believed that I
was not worth much and I let other people define who I was. Because of my
experiences throughout this program, I have come to understand that I am
more than enough. I have also come to realize that I am in this field because
I care for people. I want the people I interact with to know how much they

are valued. This world is beautiful because of them, because of you, and
because of me. I ground what I do in this life in what I value; love. You
matter. I matter. We all matter.