3232Phil

To truly discover my philosophy of student affairs it is important for me to think back on my entire higher education experience. From my first view of a college campus to now as I get ready to end, or at least pause, in my formal educational experience. I was raised to believe that college and being a continual learner was vital to understanding the world around us. This was never more true until I came to college my freshman year. I will admit that that first semester wasn’t my best. However, if it hadn’t been my resident assistant and the other residents of my building I wouldn’t be where I am today. Getting involved was my ticket to experiencing how important college truly was for everyone.  Throughout my entire undergraduate experience I allowed myself to bask in the knowledge around me and to truly see the impact that those within the field of student affairs truly has on the students around them. As we learned in our Student Development class, college is usually the students first exposure to life outside of their hometown. The shock of this exposure can have a positive or negative impact on students. Will they embrace these new experiences or bulk and seclude themselves? It is our job as student affairs professionals to be there as students are making that decision to bulk or embrace. Our job is to bring an easier exposure to these new things allowing students to understand those different from themselves and be able to embrace those differences.  I was never more aware of this than during my graduate assistantship experience. I was a residence director at a small liberal arts college. It was during this experience that I was able to truly understand the scope of student development within a residence hall community. While the college environment is supposed to be an environment in which there is a free flowing of ideas. What this means is that students and faculty have the chance to explore their beliefs and share their ideas. While this is not necessarily always a easy thing to accomplish it is this openness that allows the students to hear other perspectives and possibly learn more about where their fellow students are coming from. Whether that is another country, another state, or another tax bracket. This openness to communicate with their peers is in hopes that students will be able to learn and adapt their own thinking to the world around them and be able to see the world as the much larger thing than one town, one race, and one culture.  While the classroom and the faculty play an important role in the development of the student, it is the student affairs professionals job to take it one step further and allow for these experiences to extent beyond the classroom. Whether it is in student organizations, programs, or within the residence hall community. The student affairs professional is at the institution to encourage students to gain some kind of connection with the institution. This is done by creating programing that is interesting to the student body and having student organizations in which students can be involved.  When a student goes to college, very often they are entering a very different environment from their home town. This will often times lead a student toward seeking out individuals who are similar to them, whom they have things in common and will remind them of the friends and family they left behind. It is the job of the student affairs professional to assist these students in finding their niche within this environment. This is done by asking who is best to room with this student, what type of living community would be best fitted to assisting this student in their learning objectives, and also what else are they interested in accomplishing. As a student affairs professional, and someone who has spent much time working with students, it is very easy to pick out a group of students or a specific group. However, as a new student, it is not always easy to see that, nor is it easy to see that connection at first. As such it is our job to assist the student in identifying their likes and dislikes. Their interests are not always as obvious as they might think. So by encouraging that students participation or at the very least encouraging that student in conversation will allow the professional to better understand the needs of that student.  If a student is unable to identify their niche within a campus, they are more likely to pick up and leave to discover somewhere else that they can be happy. Even if that is forgetting about college as a whole.  I see student affairs as playing a very vital role in the students time on campus. Regardless as to the type of institution, there will always be a need for student affairs. While a student might be able to get some of their interaction and development through interaction with peers and faculty members within the classroom. It is important that the student be able to use those same skills outside of the classroom environment. Student Affairs provides opportunities for students to utilize those skills and fine tune them in a more forgiving environment. College is typically looked at as the place to make your mistakes and to learn from those mistakes. This thought is due to the fact that once out of college life, the professional world is not always so forgiving.  Student Affairs plays to the role of the mediator. Where students are able to air their prejudices in hopes of learning about those particular stereotypes. Student Affairs exposes stereotypes for what they are in hopes of once students graduate they will be able to battle those stereotypes in the professional world. Students will hopefully take the lessons they have learned and be able to create a more informed and educated populace.