Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Anna Crow
Seattle University
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program, I have learned about my leadership styles and how I show up professionally and
personally. I have chosen the theme of Community Builder as my theme for my Strengths
Narrative. I strive to maintain a professional presence as is true to my values and beliefs. I have
developed what this means for me right now through supervising students in my position as the
Welcome Desk Coordinator for Cornish Commons at Cornish College of the Arts. As a Graduate
Authenticity is the first dimension within the theme of Community Builder. I believe that
my communication dictates how I present myself to my peers, colleagues, and networks. I have
demonstrated LO#8 though stories with students, remaining vulnerable, and connection through
that student voices must remain at the core of education institutions. This belief requires me to
advocate and listen to students. Further, I strive to demonstrate to peer’s advocacy on behalf of
students. I am committed to educating peers on how to keep students in the center of decisions.”
mentorship with peers and students who have very different perspectives as I do. As I have
described in my mission statement (Artifact B), utilizing my ability to empower young people of
their cultural capital is how I will spend my professional career. As I strive to be an authentic
communicator, I reflect on my identities and how they are important when I am communicating
with students. I believe that part of my communication is vulnerability, being able to openly
role as a white educator is to understand my privilege and be able to educate and challenge
students on theirs as well. For me, it looks like being a co-creator and presenter of a white
privilege program in the residence hall. It also looks like getting to know my students and
spending the time to understand their worldly context. This authenticity invites deep
reflectiveness to occur for the student. Being authentic has assisted me in this communication to
students.
learned and experienced what it is like to have tough conversations about several topics (Artifact
with compassion, and remaining diplomatic. Related to my ethical leadership, I have provided
When facilitating student conduct cases, my ability to provide an ethical perspective for
For example, two students from China brought accusations to their RA that they were mocked in
the elevator by other students they did not know. An accused student I held a hearing with, was a
student of color. I recognized the complexity of feeling and hurt. After the hearing, we had a
broader conversation about the damaging experiences the student has had on campus. Also, other
conversations lead to a white privilege workshop hosted in the residence hall. This example
competence by being aware, having the necessary knowledge, and skills (Pope, Reynolds, &
Mueller, 2004).
support, and using feedback to better practices. Throughout my internship with the Greater
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Seattle Business Association (GSBA), I was privileged to work with a diverse group of scholars
and create an assessment to fit the organization and scholar’s needs uniquely. I evaluated an
assessment that the organization had in place for the scholarship program and developed new
assessment materials that gathered quantitative data (Artifact A). This project required me to
gain an understanding of the organization, the organizational team, and the scholars.
This project was important to me as it was an ability to get close a group of people whose
identity I shared. This connection allowed me to connect with the students holistically and dig
into what would enrich their experience. I connected with the students around our queer
identities. Specifically, I had a conversation with a student who attends a rural Washington
university. This student’s experience of openness and acceptance around their queer identity is
much different than a student attending university in Seattle. These conversations assisted me in
After these needs were assessed, I was able to recommend holistic support for students.
To do this, I facilitated opportunities for students to connect and being a general resource. Lastly,
after scholars took the weekend survey, I was able to interpret the data and make
recommendations for future retreats and support for students. These assessments went through
doing that is also creating meaning for students. This understanding added depth to my
interactions with students and how I created my assessments. Meaning making and the
connection I hope to assist my students with is the connection of their passion and goals. It is
clear to me that being able to talk to my students about their development is a top priority. Nash
and Murray state this in a way that guides me in my understanding of meaning-making with my
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heart-, head-, and hand-based. It encourages important and what is now in the ongoing search for
meaning” (p.88, 2010). This has influenced how I approach students with my understandings and
how I ask them to reflect and understand their learning and what they are receiving from their
educational experiences and student staff experience. It is about development as a whole person.
Making meaning for oneself exists outside of the classroom and the professional world.
justice events and have integrated social justice into student staff requirements. Throughout my
Student Development Theory course, I was asked to create a plan collaboratively with a group to
further benefit the Seattle University Youth Initiative (SUYI) (LO#4). This plan had to include
recommendations of what the organization should do next to further its efforts and relationship
with Seattle University. When writing the recommendations, we also utilized theory to support
our ideas. Yosso’s Community Cultural Wealth theory was especially important to our group
(2005). This anti-deficit model challenged us to critically propose ideas that would be beneficial
Additionally, this experience required me to ask my peers questions about their ideas and
thoughts on the project while implementing all our ideas. My role in the group was a
collaborative facilitator role. I was able to bring ideas and as well as listen to other ideas and
When I was a Resident Director, I noticed that there was a common theme of many of my
conversations with students of color. Many of my students expressed that there was an extreme
lack of diverse material taught in class; also, the school is predominately white. For example, in
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art class, they would talk about only white artists, and when they did talk about other artists of
color, they were sweeping generalizations of cultures and considered primitive art. I immediately
understood that there was a clear power differential that was not actively challenged. Also, artists
of color hold their cultural capital that should not have to be compared (Yosso, 2016).
After I made this connection and examining my own experiences on the campus, it was
clear that there was a low level of multicultural competence, including awareness, knowledge,
and skills (Pope, Reynolds, A.L, Mueller, 2004). To start a conversation around these concerns,
I collaborated with my peer graduate assistant in student activities, and we decided that would
create an open discussion program. Collaboration reaches beyond peers and colleagues; I
As I reflect over my experience in the SDA program, I reflect on many times in different
spaces where I was challenged to act as a resource or solve a problem that I may not have
necessarily had all the information. This has led me to be a strong supervisor and mentor for my
students. My advising student team skills have increased since I have supervised two teams of
students in my time in the SDA program (Artifact: E). Being able to think through these
situations and apply what I have learned from SDA classes and enrichment, I was able to think
response, direct communication, and student staff support. Specifically, as a Resident Director on
the Professional on-call rotation, I was called many times to respond to a variety of emergency
incidents. In these time-sensitive situations, I had to use what I learned in training as well as
what I knew developmentally about the student to best provide what was needed. The physical
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know-how comes from training and my experience as a student staff employee in housing. My
personable practitioner side was all focused on what I have developed in the SDA program.
student staff supervision, and learning of leadership styles. In Theory (Art. C1), I learned and
applied student development theories to proposed initiatives for SUYI and discussed how I was
utilizing the theories in my practices. This time I had to reflect on my experiences and how I was
actively using the theories and how I could use these theories was beneficial to my everyday
practice and how I could deepen my understanding of the theories and my practice. Artifact C1 is
a theory paper I wrote for my theory class, and I discuss a variety of student development
I have developed in my supervisory role, as I have been able to supervise a few different
groups of students that have challenged my ability and knowledge of what it means to support
students. Using the challenge and support model, I often had to think about what was important
to my students and how I could relate the student staff job into a relevant take away for them as
art students (Sanford & Adelson, 1962). This balance of support but accountability has given me
Conclusion
My strengths outlined are the essence of my professional practice. My values and passions that I
discovered before the SDA program have been made clearer as I have been able to be involved
References
Pope, R.L., Reynolds, A.L., & Mueller, J.A. (2004). Multicultural competence in student affairs.
Nash, R. J., & Murray, M. C. (2010). Helping college students find purpose (1. ed.). San
Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Sanford, N., & Adelson, J. (1962). The American college: a psychological and social
Yosso, T.J. (2005). Whose culture has capital? A critical race discussion of community cultural