Inquiry and ANALYTICAL Skills
1. Conceptualize a project
Two other classmates and I were given an assignment which required us to be creative in thinking and create a presentation that would be presented to the president of our respective university. There were many different routes we could have taken, but we choice to create a Living Learning Community which would foster student success and retention. After we chose this route, we all contributed in the conceptualization of what the building would look like and why, but also what the program would look like and how it would help with resolve the issue on campus.
2. Identify problems
The paper below represents the first paper I ever written in graduate school. I choice to focus on why African American Males did so poorly in college compared to other students. This paper challenged me to identify why this population was struggling so much in the college setting. I had to do endless research and read numerous articles to provide the evidence as to why this population was struggling. I was able to find the problem, but also able to highlight possible solutions as well.
3. Employ problem solving strategies
The artifact below displays different solutions that I believe and other researchers have shown to help African American college males succeed. Working with many African American male students daily and being one myself I knew what some of the core needs of this population were. This paper describes a step in the right direction in solving the problem of ending African American college males struggles in higher education.
4. Identify and use appropriate resources (human and
material) for problem solving
Financial literacy is an issue many college students struggle with. I identified the lack of financial literacy for college students as a problem and created a program in my College Student Development Theory class. I was able to read articles that suggested how to help this problem, I looked up what other universities were doing to address the problem as well. I developed this imaginative program so that one day when I had the right resources I would be able to expand on the idea and implement the program at whatever university I am at.
5. Think logically and critically while doing research or inquiry
There is a book written by George Kuh entitled "Student Success in College" and I read different parts of it to further understand what it takes for any college student to be successful. While reading through the book, a consistent theme kept being highlighted. Student involvement on campus played a very important role as to why some students do better than others. I noticed through reading other articles African American males were not as active on campus as their counterparts and the graduation and retention rates reflect this. It was easy to see that the more involved you are on campus the better chance you have to be successful in college because you are invested into what is going on.
6. Recognize assumptions of oneself and others
In my Multiculturalism class, I was assigned to read and present on Multicultural Competence in Student Affairs. This book gave many examples of what others think and how they define multiculturalism. In reading this book and some of the stories and examples in this book I was able to see some of the natural assumptions I make about myself and people different than me. I learned that my thoughts and feelings were not wrong, but that multiculturalism is deeper than what many people in higher education give it credit for.
7. Challenge assumptions of one's self and others
Writing my second autoethnography I was able to see what influenced my thoughts and feelings. I was able to see what people and/or places played roles in my identity and how I viewed things and people. Writing this paper and continuing to learn throughout the multiculturalism class, I realized that to be successful in this profession I had to not only challenge my personal thoughts and assumptions, but also genuinely change my attitude towards different situations so I will be capable of doing my best job as a Student Affairs professional.
8. Analyze and interpret data
My Educational Research class taught me how to interpret data from an educational perspective and understand what the data really meant. I was assigned a special type of literature review which made us students understand the variables of the study, but also comprehend the findings. I was able to see what the authors of these studies had to do as they collected the data and ultimately analyzed as well.
9. Synthesize different perspectives and approaches
Supervising student workers can be rewarding, but it can also be challenging if you know they are not putting forth their best effort. I recall a time, I had analyze what was going on with one of my staff members and suggest possible solutions to unsatisfactory behavior. In this letter, I first noted my recognition of mistakes and also possible solutions to help him do a better job. I met with the staff member and gave him different things that could help him in the future do a better job.