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Final Synthesis Paper

Hayleigh Lutz

Department of Higher Education, The University of Mississippi

EDHE 665: Contemporary Issues in Higher Education

Dr. Kerry B Melear

April 17, 2024

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When I first enrolled in the M.A. Residential Higher Education program here at the

University of Mississippi, I did not imagine that this experience would have the impact on me

and my growth that it did. Through this final synthesis paper, I will be exploring written

examples from three of my core courses and other relevant work that exemplifies my learning

and professional development. I will further explain why each of these items were included, as

well as discuss my personal growth during the program and the impact it has had on my life and

career.

Throughout our program, there are many core courses we are required to take, along with

three elective courses. One core course that had a big impact on my experience was my

Practicum Experience during the spring 2023 semester. Within the University of Mississippi's

Residential M.A. of Higher Education/Student Personnel Program, we are required to have at

least one Practicum Experience where we spend 150 hours in another functional unit to gain

experience outside of our Graduate Assistantships. I completed a practicum within the University

of Mississippi Department of Athletics with their Social Reasonability and Engagement Team.

This department focuses on four areas for student athletes: career development, diversity, equity,

and inclusion, personal advancement, and community engagement. I had a great and

enlightening experience with my practicum. I was able to gain practical experience while

working on many different projects and events throughout the spring semester. These include: a

resume workshop, Shark Tank Networking Event, NIL: Business Luncheon, James Moore Tax

Session, REBS: Financial Literacy Sessions, Major Symposium, Community Service Events,

National/International Student Athlete Day, Rebels Choice Awards, Finals Week Survival

Programs, and many more.

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For my portfolio, I chose to highlight my final journal entry and final presentation. I

chose these assignments because I think it is important to gain experience in different functional

areas and working with specific student populations. I also included my final presentation

because I believe that it serves as a supplemental piece to the journal as it allowed me to

showcase my experience through photographs and explain more about the programs I assisted

with. I focused on two NASPA competency areas, Leadership and Advising/Supporting, during

this experience, which is elaborated on more within the journal entry. Through this practicum

experience, my ultimate goal was to learn more about how athletics operates and how to best

support student athletes. This practicum was very program heavy, and it was a great experience

to work with a specialized student population and grow those connections and skills, and

additionally in the competency areas. It really opened my eyes to a whole new perspective, and I

am very thankful to have been given this opportunity.

My next piece of representative work on my portfolio is my research paper from my

Introduction to Educational Research course from my first semester of graduate school. Within

our course, we developed a preliminary research proposal, which includes a problem statement

or central phenomenon, literature review, and a research hypothesis or research questions. I

chose to focus my proposal on something that was meaningful to me and was relevant to my

degree path which is the correlation between social media usage and increased anxiety and

depression in college students. Mental health concerns have been on the rise, and there has also

been an increase in the number of social media applications and the usage of social media as a

whole. Throughout this proposal, I aimed to identify a potential correlation between the two.

This assignment allowed me to develop my skills in the Assessment, Evaluation, and Research

competency. It also allowed me to be proficient in the usage of citations in research work,

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particularly the APA 7th edition style. It challenged my writing style, as I had never written a

paper like this before, but looking back, I am very glad that I wrote this paper and gained

experience in research. Therefore, I wanted to include it in my portfolio.

The next piece is from our required history course. In our History of Higher Education

course, we were able to choose a significant document to analyze from the University of

Mississippi Library Archives for our final paper. Earlier in the semester, we were each assigned a

historical document that contributed to the history of higher education. I did my first analysis on

Charles Eliot and the Elective System of 1885. I was very fascinated by the three components of

this document, specifically its focus on students’ opportunity for distinction. I decided to tie what

I learned from that document and apply it to my final document analysis. For my final, I focused

on Phi Beta Kappa and Institutional Academic Distinction at the University of Mississippi,

where I analyzed a spread out of the 2001 University of Mississippi Yearbook about UM earning

a Phi Beta Kappa chapter and how it affected our institutional academic distinction. In addition

to the document analysis, I included my final presentation describing what I have learned thus far

about the history of the University of Mississippi from my selected document for supplemental

material. I decided to include this document in my portfolio because I am proud of it. I believe it

has some of my best writing and shows growth from my first semester of graduate school to now.

Prior to this course, I was not particularly interested in history, aside from major events.

However, through this course, I was able to broaden my knowledge about the history of student

affairs and develop more within the Values, Philosophy, and History competency area. I now find

more value in learning about the history of how things came to be because of our History of

Higher Education course than I did coming into the program.

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In addition to the three documents from three of my core courses that I selected for my

representative work, I knew that it would not be the only pieces that showed my growth

throughout my program. I have included four additional documents in the portfolio under “Other

Relevant Works” that showcase more of my personal and practical growth outside of my core

courses. I included two documents from my Crisis Management Elective course from my spring

2023 semester. One focused on a personal reflection and analysis of my leadership style.

Through this document, I reflected on my top five Clifton Strengths and how they show up in the

work I do as a graduate student. I also analyzed how I would be able to use these five strengths

in a crisis situation. Another document that I chose to showcase from my crisis management

course was one of our case studies, where we were able to choose different crises by type,

describe what happened, and analyze things that could have been done differently. In this

particular case study, I focused on Hurricane Ian and how it impacted life at Florida Gulf Coast

University. I chose this crisis because I was born up the road from FGCU and still have family

members who live there. I also knew I wanted to focus on a crisis that I might have to experience

one day. It was a great opportunity to learn what university leaders did during these tragic events

and to analyze what could have been done better. I originally took this elective to gain more

knowledge about crisis management, and it was one of my favorite classes. I had minimal

experience working in crisis management prior, and I believe that the course prepared me well

for transitioning into my next role as a full-time professional.

I chose two additional pieces of representative work that I created during my graduate

assistantship. I work in the Center for Community Engagement as the Graduate Assistant for

Student Leadership Programs where I work primarily with our Bonner Leaders Program and our

Voting Engagement Ambassador Team. My supervisor, William, has truly poured into me and
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has invested in my growth since I started in July of 2022. When I first started in my role, my

three main goals I wanted to accomplish were: 1. To have more one-on-one time with our

students, 2. To grow in my facilitation experience through our Bonner Community Engaged

Leadership Courses, and 3. To gain more supervision experience. I worked consistently with

William to find ways for me to have the opportunity to grow in these areas, and I excelled in

them. With our Bonner Leaders Program being only in its third year, I have been able to build

and develop this program over the past two years to leave a lasting impact for the future. This

position has allowed me to gain a range of different experiences including co-instruction of three

community engagement leadership courses per semester, budget management, event and project

management, service learning excursion logistics, and supervision experience. One main

workshop that I have had the privilege to facilitate the past two years is a resume workshop for

our Bonner Leaders, which is the first of the last two additional documents attached in my

portfolio. I have such a strong passion for providing professional development for our students

because that is what is going to help them succeed once they graduate from this institution. Each

of our Bonner Leaders are partnered with local community partners in a paid internship centered

around transforming campuses, communities, and students through service. We put an emphasis

on how to talk about their experiences with their community partner site in their resume through

this workshop, which is why I wanted to include it in my portfolio.

Another part of my role is to serve as the advisor and supervisor to our Voting

Engagement Ambassadors, which is a small coalition of students who have a similar passion for

increasing civic engagement on campus. During my time with our Voting Engagement

Ambassadors, I have increased productivity among our members by instilling a student

handbook with clear expectations, which is the last additional document shared in my portfolio. I
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chose this because I had never written a student handbook before, and I am proud of its creation

and the skills I have developed from it. I am also working on creating a Voting Ambassador

Manual, but it is still a work in progress. Our team has worked tremendously hard through our

Voting Engagement Roundtable efforts to increase our engagement with people on and off

campus. We have been able to allow our center to serve as an address for students who live on

campus who would like to be registered in Lafayette County but do not have a physical mailing

address. We have also been able to start our progress for implementing voter education into our

university’s orientation program and first year experience courses, beginning this fall 2024

semester. In addition to these responsibilities, I have assisted with recruiting, interviewing,

selecting and training new students for both of our programs and within professional staff search

committees. I gained a variety of different skills through all of these roles including interpersonal

skills, management skills, and leadership skills.

One reason I was drawn to this masters program was its focus on gaining practical

experience while in graduate school. I have been able to do this not only through my

assistantship and practicum experience, but also through my summer internship as an ACUHO-I

Summer Camps and Conferences Intern at Texas Christian University this past summer, as a

Graduate Senator on the University of Mississippi's Associated Student Body, as the Vice

President of Promotion and Outreach for the UM Student Personnel Association, and as the

Presidential Scholar Intern for the Southern Association of College Student Affairs. Through

these experiences, I have grown more as a professional and individual than I ever imagined I

would. I have been able to cultivate change in these communities through my dedication and

service to our institution and field, and I am very proud of everything I have been able to

accomplish in these two years as a graduate student in this program. I look forward to taking all
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of these skills and experiences with me onto my next role as I transition to Old Dominion

University where I will be serving as a Residence Hall Director. To the faculty and staff reading

this synthesis paper, thank you for pouring into me and believing in me. I would not be the

person I am today without you.