Analytic Personal and Professional Essay

Since the completion of Portfolio II in May 2019, I have made some attempts to engage

in my professional community. I submitted my first conference proposal to the National

Academic Advising Association (NACADA) regional conference in July of 2019. Following the

conference theme of connectedness and building relationships, the proposed presentation

unpacked Although it was not accepted, it was a great learning opportunity for me as I had never

submitted a conference proposal before and the process pushed me to connect with colleagues

and faculty in a new way. Specifically, I learned to navigate the process of asking a research

team for an opportunity to utilize data and to submit for the group.

Following the advice of my committee I was able to sit-in on Dr. Wendi Manuel-Scott's

Representations of Race class, an opportunity that exposed me to concepts and terms that

immediately proved themselves to be valuable as they have shown up in many of the literature I

have read over the summer. Dr. Graziella McCarron provided me with an extensive reading list

from which I was able to pull relevant articles from. I spent a considerable amount of time

reading over the summer and getting deeper into first-generation college student (FGSC) and

students with immigrant-parentage literature.

My professional experiences have leant themselves well to my educational goals as well.

This fall 2019 semester was the first that I have taught INTS 391 Understanding Integrative

Studies. Teaching the course supported my role as the Associate Director for Student Services as

it has provided a platform to initiate the students into the School of Integrative Studies. It also

put my finger on the pulse of what our students are thinking about our curriculum, what general

questions they have, and how they can be supported best. The classroom face-time and

conversations with the students afforded me with connections and insights that I did not
necessarily receive in my online course and/or face-to-face advising appointments. I found that

the course readings that were assigned to the students personally benefited me as well. As a

learner, I was exposed to concepts, theories, and scholars that were lacking in my own

development; as an instructor, facilitating course discussions was a way to develop my own

knowledge and instruction of the content.

Lastly, my last advanced research methods course EDRS 824, Mixed Methods Research,

provided me an opportunity to patch the professional and educational pieces together like an

integrated quilt. More so than my other doctoral classes, I found myself revisiting previous

course readings, assignments, and scholars as far back as my master's coursework to complete

current EDRS 824 assignments. The philosophical underpinnings of mixed methods research

methodology naturally led me to revisiting my work in EDRS 821 Advanced Applications of

Quantitative Methods, as well as the readings and theories from EDRS 812 Qualitative Methods

in Educational Research. When developing my mixed methods research question, I found myself

reviewing the text used in EDRS 810, our doctoral-level introductory Problems and Methods in

Education Research, for a refresher in developing solid research questions.

The course on mixed methods obviously turned me to review past methods coursework,

however, I found myself revisiting my lessons and materials from CTCH 792 Access and Social

Justice in Higher Education. A specific theme I revisited that I believe will be a part of my

dissertation, was deficit framework and how its pervasiveness in discussions related to the

education of underrepresented students. I revisited that doctoral level course for myself, but also

found it relevant to share as context in the INTS 391 course that I taught in the fall semester.

Unlike any of my previous semesters as a student, I am finding myself tangibly integrating

material from past courses I have taken, experiences I have been a part of (e.g., research team for
the No Race Gap study), and the course I am teaching all in one semester for one course – Mixed

Methods Research. I am finding myself more resolute that my dissertation topic will most likely

utilize mixed methods and find myself excited to see how it develops.