Leadership & Supervision Interview Paper

Noel Fernandez

MA in Higher Education Administration and Leadership, CSU Fresno

HEAL 225
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Leadership & Supervision Interview Paper

I interviewed Francisco "Javier" Rosas, Assistant Director of Admissions and Student

Engagement at San Joaquin College of Law (SJCL). Francisco is a two-time Fresno State alumni

who graduated from the HEAL program in 2017. He worked at SJCL as an Admissions

Counselor and Veterans Resource. His duty was to help advise student veterans on the

educational benefits they might qualify for while also counseling students on the admissions

process. He worked in that position for three years until he was promoted to Assistant Director of

Admissions and Student Engagement. He took on more tasks by working with the Director of

Admissions and Student Services. He has been in this position for over three years and still does

some of his duties as an Admissions Counselor but is also responsible for doing assessments or

anything related to student services.

His educational background goes back to when he started serving in the army back in

2004. He then got retired after three years of serving due to an injury. As a retired veteran, he

was set not to have to work another day in his life, but he started to look into school as he

mentioned that he was at home with nothing to do (F. Rosas, personal communication, October

3, 2022). During his recovery, he started looking into becoming a history teacher, so he went to

West Hills College Lemoore. As a first-generation college student, navigating the system was

difficult for him. What started as a journey to become a high school teacher transitioned into

wanting to help veterans navigate the higher education system. After he finished at West Hills

College Lemoore in 2011, he transferred to Fresno State and graduated in 2014, and he started a

master's program in 2015 by luck. He had gone to an info session on a master's program related

to Higher Education and applied for the program and got accepted but never signed up for the

classes. He then got a call from Dr. Hernandez on the weekend before the first week of school,
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asking him if he planned on enrolling in his classes for his first week of instructions, and he said

yes to end the call. Since he likes to follow through with his word, he signed up for his classes

and started his master's in Higher Education. He mentioned it had been the most important call

he had ever received in his life and was happy he answered that random call (F. Rosas, personal

communication, October 3, 2022).

While doing his master's, he worked at the Fresno State Veterans Services office as an

advisor, and a colleague told him about an opening at San Joaquin College of Law. He took the

opportunity to branch out and start helping students, so he applied and got the job. He struggled

the first day he started the job and planned on quitting on the third day after meeting everyone he

would be working with at SJCL. He struggled to fit in as he was the only person of color and felt

out of place. He called his mentor and explained the situation to them. His mentor told him that

he could leave if he wanted to, but he was in a position to make a change at the college. He

stayed as he wanted to be an example to students and future college staff members that SJCL has

people of color. “It takes determination and strength to deal with the adversities of life and

leadership” (Kouzes & Posner, 2018). He was in an uncomfortable situation, but he stayed

because of the impact he wanted to make on the campus. His passion for wanting to help

students from minoritized backgrounds and veterans who were interested in attending law school

helped him make his choice and he has never looked back at his decision.

His current role as Assistant Director of Admissions and Student Engagement is

coordinating recruitment outreach on campuses and in the community. He provides admission

counseling and assists a diverse, multicultural student population with their educational, career,

and personal goals. He works on achieving enrollment goals for the campus and maintaining the

institution's database and systems. He also uses his background as a veteran to serve prospective
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student veterans who have questions regarding veterans' education benefits. He is also in charge

of conducting the assessments on his campus with the help of his team. He oversees supervising

the admissions team. He works closely two make sure that the Director of Admission's needs is

met. He loves his role but is looking into retiring in a few years as he wants to spend more time

with his family. His daughters are growing up fast, and he feels like he has set an example for his

daughters and has fulfilled his duties of giving back to the community.

Francisco is currently enjoying his work as he serves a population of students from

diverse backgrounds. He gets the most joy knowing that he impacts students even when he

doesn't see it. He mentioned that helping students is his job, but the most fulfilling feeling for

him is when students come up to him and tell him he played an important part in their lives (F.

Rosas, personal communication, October 3, 2022).

A piece of advice that he would give anyone wanting to pursue a leadership role is never

to think you don't belong in any position an individual intends to occupy. He dealt with imposter

syndrome just by his appearance at the campus where he works, but after some time, he realized

the value he brought to campus. That motivated him to want to do more and be a great example

of a staff member.

Francisco is surrounded by leadership and holds a position as a supervisor. From his

perspective, from all the leaders he has worked with, a great leader for him is someone who

understands who they are working with and puts the students in the center. The most important

thing he has taken from leaders is leaders who listen to their teams and makes decisions with

their team. Including their team in any accomplishment, as a good leader acknowledges that they

couldn't have done it without their team. Another thing that makes a great leader for him is a
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leader who checks in with their team but also checks in with them individually, leading to each

staff member feeling acknowledged.

Some challenges he has faced in a leadership role are dealing with the different

personalities the different leadership individuals have and finding a way to navigate and work

with them. He deals with a lot of politics in his leadership position. He goes about this by finding

a way to get what he wants while ensuring the other individual in the leadership role works with

him. This ties into how he approaches difficult conversations with a team member. He always

approaches the conversation based on an end goal. He looks for an individual's strengths and

finds a way to best support the individual by offering his support and commitment to helping the

individual grow.

His approach to leadership is more of a servant leadership style whereas a leader he is

willing to serve others and have genuine motivation to help others (Matin et al., 2019). He keeps

his team motivated and working towards the same goal while managing all his duties by treating

everyone he works like family. This is like synergistic supervision which entails a holistic

approach to supervision where the supervisor focuses on the goals of the organization as well as

the personal and professional goals of the employees (Elrod et a., 2019). He always shares his

vision with his team and ensures to ask his team what vision they have and how they can all

work together to accomplish it. He treats everyone with respect and gives them credit when

needed, as he feels people should be acknowledged for their work. He did share that treating

people like family comes with not micromanaging his team. If someone gets sick, he doesn't

hover over them but instead asks if he can take over any pending task, they had due for the day

and wishes them to get well soon. He likes to create a climate of trust which allows individuals

to make efficient decisions, innovate and encourage others to contribute freely and not force
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building trust (Kouzes & Posner, 2018). He does this by doing what he says and listening from

others while sharing information and resources. He shared that he believes in every team

member getting their assigned duties complete, which alleviates the stress of checking

everything they do. His final recommendation was never to doubt yourself and what you can

accomplish in a leadership role, and how many individuals you can impact along your journey to

whatever dream job an individual wants to occupy.

Conducting his interview sure was a fun task to complete. I was able to interview

someone who graduated from the same program I am currently doing. I was able to make

connections from someone coming from a minoritized background while listening to the

different obstacles he faced to get to where he is today and how it's shaped his mission and goals

in life. One thing I noticed from my interview with Francisco is what he struggled with the most,

which was navigating the educational system. He shifted his career goal and wanted to make it

more accessible for students with a similar background. This resonated with me as I wanted to be

a PE teacher when I came to Fresno State because I thought it would be fun, but then I thought of

how I could make an enormous impact on students from similar backgrounds as mine. I

evaluated my family and students from my community. I noticed that intelligent students are not

attending college because going to college seems frightening to them. Some didn't complete

higher education because of their struggles navigating the educational system. During my

interview, I saw how Francisco's background and his experience in the military shaped who he is

today.

While listening to all the challenges he has faced in his leadership role makes me want to

prepare myself as much as I can for when I occupy my first leadership role in higher education. I

understand that I can only become better at handling situations with experience. Still, by
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educating myself, I can have a foundation to better equip myself for when I must utilize my

knowledge and the importance of continuing to learn even after finishing school. Listening to the

duties and responsibilities he must do for his role seemed overwhelming at first. After talking to

him and asking him what he enjoys the most about his role, it all came back to seeing students

succeed and how being a role model impacted the students attending the campus.

His leadership style showed courage and the willingness to challenge the process to make

a change and to make his voice heard. He shared that whenever he gets a chance to give his

opinion to create change, he gives it because he finds value in it and has learned to be confident

with his thinking. He made me feel more optimistic about what I want to achieve in the future as

he told me that students from similar backgrounds as mine need to see more people from their

same community obtaining their doctorate.

Overall, this assignment answered questions and brought up more questions that I hope to

learn more about as I venture into my career pursuing a leadership role in higher education.
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References

Elrod, Haynes, C., Cade, S., Forrest, A., Loch, T., & Schuckman, G. (2019). No Cookie Cutter

Approach: Supervision in Community College Student Affairs. Community College

Journal of Research and Practice, 43(2), 149–152.

https://doi.org/10.1080/10668926.2018.1424664

Kouzes, & Posner, B. Z. (2018). The Student Leadership Challenge: Five Practices for

Becoming an Exemplary Leader (3rd ed.). John Wiley & Sons, Incorporated.

Martin, Williams, B. M., Green, B., & Smith, M. J. (2019). Reframing Activism as

Leadership. New Directions for Student Leadership, 2019(161), 9–24.

https://doi.org/10.1002/yd.20317