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Foundations for the Future: Developing My Student Affairs Philosophy

Dan Dunne

Northern Illinois University

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As a future student affairs practitioner, I think it is essential to develop my own guiding

philosophy to the work in which I am about to dedicate my career. Much like any relationship,

the decision to re-commit to the job should be a regular and routine practice. Reflecting on

whether the drive and the fire for the work can persist day after day is essential to any career.

Many would say however, when the job you are tasked with is that of inspiring and educating the

next generation, this question becomes even more critical. I am not sure where my interest in

student affairs came from. I am not sure if it will be sustainable day-in and day-out in the career

that I have in front of me. With that being said, this paper will reflect on what I value and believe

in when it comes to education, see how this aligns with the guiding student affairs principles, and

hopefully through this investigation, I will find my career foundations for the future.

As the youngest of four children growing up in a predominantly white suburban middle-

class environment, my perspective on the public education I received was not synonymous with

any form of passion. The concept of finding a ‘passion’ is still something that I struggle with

defining for myself. In fact, I actively push back on any statement of 'finding your passion' when

it is causally inferred that a passion must be determined in order to have a fulfilling career and

life. The majority of my childhood, I never felt any ownership or enthusiasm for my classwork. I

felt as though it was just something I had to get through because it was expected of me. A subtle

change occurred during my university years when I finally felt like I had more ownership of my

academic career path. Even though I chose a major that was pretty conservative, business

management, I was finally charting my course and building skills that I believed I could use in

post-graduate career applications.

This newly found ownership over my education was empowering to me. At the same

time, the free time I had outside of my university studies was ripe with learning in a more non-
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traditional sense. I was able to get a much better understanding of what independence in ‘the real

world’ could look like. I was developing skills to navigate tricky social interactions, pursuing

inconsequential part-time work, and gaining all types of enriching non-curricular life experiences

outside of class. This knowledge steered me to one of my first core life values, the power of

filling up an individual’s toolbox through experiential education of all varieties. Experiential

education is still, to this day, one of my most significant guiding values in the work I do. I

believe there is immeasurable power in learning by doing, hands-on problem solving, and

education through exposure. So much of the knowledge I gained during my university years

came from me finally being independent and figuring it out on my own. This value aligns with

one of Evans and Reason’s (2001) guiding principles of student affairs work, that the role of the

student’s collegiate environment shapes their educational experiences. John Dewey continues

this theme by describing how experiences of meaning for students can be educational when they

are built on and connected to prior experiences (Dewey as cited by Noddings, 2007).

After finishing my undergraduate program, I sought out a variety of work experiences

where I could gain a better understanding of the working world and the people in it. Following

one of the most interesting classes that I took in my senior year of university, leadership vs.

management, I chose to further explore all things having to do with leadership studies. During

this time, I was able to see that there was a lack of leadership programming for certain groups of

people in our society. Additionally, there was a significant lack of representation for large swaths

of our population who were never given opportunities to lead and learn from that experience.

This new understanding leads me to an ongoing value of mine to improve the access and

exposure of outdoor leadership education to a much broader population of under-served and

under-represented students. This value area is one where my aspirations have not yet been able to
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fully connect with my applications. I think this mainly has to do with how historically there has

been a lack of diversity in the outdoor industry. However, as the demographics of university

students continue to shift, I hope to continue to be an advocate for this access in ways that will

re-shape the outdoor education industry.

Finally, with where the world is today politically, things have become so partisan and

contested within our society that to be educated has now become synonymous with being

privileged, snobbish, and liberal. I believe this turn away from truth, knowledge, and the

betterment of each individual through educational advancement may be the undoing of ‘The

American Dream’ if it is not quickly corrected. These times have helped me develop my final

value that education is to empower knowledgeable citizens to be active and involved in

correcting the course that we are currently on. If a university student cannot gain exposure to

populations different from their own and diverse ways of thinking, then what is the point of this

whole thing? Empowering people to learn from one another and develop their own opinions on

issues affecting us all should be a goal of the higher education experience. As Dewey (1933)

claimed, the importance of the learner in a progressive education is seen when the student is

freely able to make choices and take the initiative to advance the collective situation.

Through this investigation, it seems as though my core beliefs and values align pretty

well with some of the guiding principles that are held up as foundational in student affairs

literature. My career aspirations to provide enlightening experiential education to a broader and

more diverse group of students looking for access to leadership opportunities will hopefully

result in supporting a more informed and empowered group of citizens. Finding a functional area

in student affairs where I can do all of these things within the definition of one job description
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may be a challenge. Still, at least now, I know that the personal values that I have are in-line with

the philosophical values of the work in which I am seeking to build a future.

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References

Dewey, J. (1933). How we think: A restatement of the relation of reflective thinking to the

educative process. New York, NY: D. C. Heath.

Evans, N. J., & Reason, R. D. (2001). Guiding principles: A review and analysis of student

affairs philosophical statements. Journal of College Student Development, 42, 359-

377.

Noddings, N. (2007). Philosophy and education. Boulder, CO: Westview.