Running head: LEARNING OUTCOME NARRATIVE 1

Learning Outcome Narrative:

Areas of Strength

Kaitlyn Vallance

Seattle University
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Introduction

Within this narrative, I will describe the theme of my strength in my work as a student affairs professional:

critical reflection​. In order to best illustrate how the SDA academic content and my co-curricular experiences

assisted me in identifying and growing in critical reflection, I will discuss my strength using the following SDA

Learning Outcomes (LO) and Artifacts from my portfolio: ​LOs #2, #3, #4, #5 & 10 ​and ​Artifacts A, B, C1, C2 and

C3​. Please refer to my portfolio to review these artifacts more fully than they are discussed here.

Prior to the Student Development Administration Program

I completed my undergraduate education at the University of Puget Sound (UPS) - a small, private,

predominantly white, liberal arts college in Washington. At UPS, I received two bachelor’s degrees in English

Literature and History, with a minor in Gender and Queer Studies. Additionally, I graduated a Coolidge Otis

Chapman Honors Scholar after completing an alternative core curriculum program.

At the University of Puget Sound, my four academic programs developed my skills in “​critical analysis,

aesthetic appreciation, sound judgment, and apt expression,” as outlined in the college’s mission (“Mission,” 2019). I

was consistently asked to engage in open discourse and curious inquiry and act with intellectual courage when

defending and exploring my own ideas. Additionally, as I began to integrate my personal narrative into my academic

work, I saw the importance of storytelling and narrative as pedagogical tools.

Strength: Critical Reflection

While my experiences at the University of Puget Sound provided me a foundation for reflective work within

an academic context, Seattle University’s SDA program has honed those skills and expanded my reflective practices

beyond the classroom. As I consider how the SDA program has cultivated my capacity for critical reflection in all

areas of my life, three sub-themes stemming from critical reflection arise: (1) grounding practice in social justice; (2)

honoring lived experience; and (3) developing professional philosophies.

Grounding Practice in Social Justice (LO #4; Artifact C2)

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Two years of study in the SDA program have reinforced the importance of grounding my academic,

professional and personal reflection(s) in social justice values and practices. In order to best serve an increasingly

more diverse college student population, I believe it is crucial to continuously improve my understanding of diversity

and justice, as informed by a global perspective and the Jesuit tradition, (​LO #4​) and critically examine barriers

traditionally minoritized students encounter when accessing and/or persisting through post-secondary education

(​C2​).

LO #4 :Understanding and Fostering Diversity, Justice, and a Sustainable World Formed by a Global

Perspective and Jesuit Catholic Tradition. ​In my work at Cornish College of the Arts - first, as the Student

Activities Coordinator (GA) and now full-time as a Student Success Coach - I support and mentor a diverse

population of students with both privileged and minoritized identities. In SDAD 5400: Student Development Theory,

Research and Practice, I learned about Pope, Reynolds and Mueller’s (2019) Multicultural Competency model for

student affairs professionals, which breaks competency into levels of awareness, knowledge and skills “needed to

work with others who are culturally different from [one’s] self in meaningful, relevant and productive ways.” This

theory is helpful in guiding my self-driven learning around multiculturalism to better serve my minoritized student

populations.

Another dimension of LO #4 that demonstrates my strength in critical reflection would be the importance of

surveying who is part of strategic conversations and demanding that the voices of minoritized folks impacted by

these conversations are included and centered. I was intentional in NPLR 5620: Financial Analysis to highlight times

in our group discussions when we did not think to include students, especially students from minoritized

backgrounds, in fictional decision-making groups around institutional finances. I think it is necessary to provide

traditionally minoritized folks access to the power-laden spaces where huge financial decisions are made since they

are heavily impacted by these decisions in ways the privileged and powerful may not anticipate.

Lastly, I interpret LO #4’s emphasis on “understanding” as a call-to-action for young practitioners to

critically examine and reflect upon the policies, programs and services at their institution to determine whether they
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are supporting or hindering the access and persistence of students from minoritized backgrounds. I demonstrate this

level of critical examination and reflection in my literature review for SDAD 5590: The American Community

College entitled “Access and Equity for Undocumented Students in Post-Secondary Education” (​Artifact C2​). In

this paper, I place the community college’s mission in conversation with the federal government’s current

immigration policies to better understand the challenges community colleges face in providing equitable access and

services to undocumented students (Renn, K.A, & Patton, L.D., 2017).

Honoring Lived Experience (Learning Outcomes #2 & #5; Artifact B)

Although I utilize the research and findings of other practitioners to inform my professional practice, I more

frequently rely on the stories and perceptions of my students when creating and implementing policies, programs and

services. My emphasis on seeking out and non-judgmentally listening to student’s stories directly influences my

ability to understand student issues (​LO #2​) and then adapt student services (​LO #5​) in response to the challenges

and successes they share with me.

LO #2: Understanding Students and Student Issues​. Central to my interpretation of this LO in the context

of critical reflection is the practice of discernment. During the SDA program, COUN 5700: Crisis Counseling taught

me how to use “​the LUV Triangle​” counseling technique, which includes open, empathetic ​Listening​, paraphrasing

and mirroring to convey ​Understanding​, and ​Validating​ the individual by removing one’s personal judgement,

skepticism and doubt (Presbury, et. al., 2008). By utilizing “the LUV Triangle” when speaking with students, I can

better discern what they are truly communicating to me about challenges, needs and barriers according to their lived

experience.

In considering this learning outcome in the context of honoring lived experience, I have identified two

additional dimensions that are closely related, but organizationally distinct: the importance of working alongside

students and the importance of creating safe channels for students to voice their critiques of higher education

institutions. These two dimensions further highlight the importance of not only amplifying student voices when

understanding student issues, but also deconstructing institutional hierarchies by (1) reframing our work as being
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alongside/with students, rather than “for” students and (2) letting students dictate changes that need to be made

through providing a regular channel for student critique. My mission statement (​Artifact B​) illustrates my

commitment to working alongside students and empowering them through critically reflecting on what they are

expressing when sharing their lived experiences. In my mission statement, I discuss my belief in “lifting as I climb,”

a term for coined by Mary Church Terrell (1904) that I came across in my personal readings outside SDA. The idea

of “lifting as I climb” is important to me professionally and personally as I seek to amplify the voices and stories of

minoritized students whose lived experiences resonate with my own as a first-generation, low-income, queer

individual.

LO #5: Adapting Student Services to Specific Environments and Cultures. ​Similarly to LO #2, I would

argue that adapting services to specific environments and cultures requires a practitioner to speak with and work

alongside the students being served. It is the responsibility and, depending on one’s familiarity with the student

population they work with, the obligation of a practitioner to continually educate themselves about the environment

and the culture of the institution. In EDUC 5150: Multicultural Perspectives, I read the personal stories of individuals

from a variety of backgrounds and cultures and strategize with others about how I could use those personal

narratives to advocate for the creation of flexible, responsive student services.

In SDAD 5900: Student Development Capstone Seminar, I had the opportunity to read Tara Westover’s

(2018) ​Educated: A Memoir​, which gave me insight into the impossibility of creating “one-size-fits-all” support

services for a variety of minoritized student populations. Westover’s narrative was transformative for me as an

educator and, upon reflecting on her work, I believe it is my responsibility as a practitioner to proactively identify

at-risk students and build rapport with them to better understand their story and their needs, rather than relying on

only the most vocal students and student populations to determine how I deliver services and support.

Lastly, I believe assessment and evaluation are critical when adapting student services and that student

satisfaction should guide the development of our services. In order to honor the lived experiences of our students, we

must assess how our adaptations, as dictated by their narratives and stories, have either improved our students’
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experiences, had no impact or resulted in a negative experience. We cannot just simply adapt our services and

conduct no further outreach or analysis; instead, we must stay in a sustained conversation with the students whose

stories guided the changes in our services to ensure their experience has been substantially improved by our work.

Developing Professional Philosophies (LOs #3 & #10; Artifacts A, C1 & C3)

As a new professional, I intentionally used my time in the SDA program to develop professional

philosophies that will provide me a structure to critically reflect on my successes, professional integrity (​LO #3​), and

professional identity (​LO #10)​ long after I’ve left the program.

LO #3: Exhibiting Professional Integrity and Ethical Leadership in Professional Practice. ​One

dimension to this learning outcome would be the importance of taking ownership over one’s work - in both good and

bad situations. PUBM 5110: Understanding Organizations profoundly shaped how I define ethical leadership in a

non-profit context. In that course, I analyzed one college’s staff performance evaluations (​C1​) and described how

student affairs supervisors can better facilitate a developmental approach to performance evaluations through

reframing failures in a way that encourages employees to be open and honest about their performance overall. My

professional philosophy around staff appraisal centers around their value as primarily development tools, rather than

purely evaluative.

A second dimension to this learning outcome, particularly around integrity, is having the courage and

humility to seek out guidance when confronted by a complex problem. Interestingly, reading Yosso’s (2005)

“Community Cultural Wealth” in SDAD 5400 helped me realize my personal feelings of anxiety over professional

difficulties were directly connected to my belief that I was deficient overall because of my low socio-economic and

first-generation status. After critically reflecting on my internalized beliefs, I developed a professional philosophy

focused on mentoring other professionals from minoritized backgrounds to provide them a safe place for unpacking

failures and celebrating success. My desire to mentor and empower other new professionals like myself touches upon

the third dimension of this learning outcomes: using my power within an institution to advocate for those with few

resources and little power of their own.

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LO #10: Establishing and Enhancing Professional Identity. ​In my mind, the act of establishing one’s

professional identity requires the unconscious and conscious formation of professional philosophies. Therefore, in a

recursive way, one dimension of LO #10 is the sub-area it supports: continuously developing a professional

philosophy. In SDAD 5900, I produced an aspirational resume with a “professional summary” that described my

professional philosophy (mission, values, beliefs) in order to define my unique identity as a professional (​A​).

Critically reflecting on my professional philosophies helps me better “ claim” my identity as a professional because I

am able to name what it is that constitutes that identity.

While in SDAD 5640: Internship in SDA I, I worked with Dr. Tim Wilson as a Graduate Assistant

Assessment intern. During my internship presentation (​C3​), I spoke about how I used this internship as a way to

build skills in an area I was lacking​ - an important dimension to this learning outcome. I also used this internship to

expand my circle of mentors, given I was working full-time outside Seattle University and wasn’t connected with

many administrators there. My decision to strategically identify and connect with a mentor who could support my

growth demonstrates the important third dimension of LO #10.

Conclusion
While I was did enter the SDA program with a strong foundation in critical reflection, the SDA program

expanded my skills and use of critical reflection in all areas of my life and studies. As discussed in this Learning

Outcome Narrative, I began using critical reflection as a way to strategize and develop practices to improve the

experience of students I work with, rather than staying stuck in the theoretical and abstract world of reflection.
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References

BlackPast, B. (2011, November 21). (1904) Mary Church Terrell, “The progress of colored women”. Retrieved

from https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/1904-mary-church-terrell-progress-colored

-women/

Pope, R. L., Reynolds, A. L., & Mueller, J. A. (2019). ​Multicultural competence in student affairs​. Jossey-Bass.

Presbury, J.H., Echterling, L.G., & McKee, J.E. (2008). ​Beyond brief counseling and therapy: An integrative

Approach (2nd ed.)​. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson Merrill Prentice Hall.

Renn, K.A., & Patton, L.D. (2017). Institutional identity and campus culture. In Schuh, J.H., Jones, S.R., &

Torres, V. (Eds.), ​Student services: A handbook for the profession (6th ed.)​ (pp. 58 - 72). Jossey-Bass.

University of Puget Sound. (2019). Mission & core values. Retrieved from https://www.pugetsound.edu/about/

mission-statement/

Westover, T. (2018). ​Educated: A memoir​. New York: Penguin Random House.

Yosso, T. J. (2005). Whose culture has capital? A critical race theory discussion of community cultural wealth.

Race ethnicity and education,​ ​8(​ 1), 69-91.