Although I am only a month into the College Counseling and Student Development (CCSD) program and my graduate assistant (GA) position at the Advising and Student Transitions office (A&ST), I can already feel a great amount of growth in my awareness, knowledge, and curiosity about the student affairs field. It is not difficult to see how each assignment, discussion, and experience provided through the program and my GA position are purposefully designed to not only inform about the past and present of student affairs, but to open my mind as to the diverse population of students we serve. The question of how best do we serve and support students from such different backgrounds, ethnicities, socio-economic classes, and religions, is something that is reiterated in all of the work we do. Some assignments and experiences have had greater impacts than others, warranting a further illustration of just how important my education has started.
Though I would consider myself an ally to the LBGTQ community, my coursework in the CCSD program has shown me that even in this area, I have room to learn and grow. Writing an article critique on an article called, “Depression and Attempted Suicide among LGBTQ College Students: Fostering Resilience to the Effects of Heterosexism and Cisgenderism on Campus”, brought my awareness to the effects of microaggressions on minority groups. I, like most, was aware of the devastating effects of overt discrimination and victimization on those in minority groups. However, I hadn’t realized that interpersonal and environmental microaggressions can, over time, have just as devastating effects. These microaggressions are often unintentional, yet upsetting. This has helped me to think at length about how I speak and present myself and my office to the students I work with. This article’s message is one I will carry and hopefully expand my knowledge on for years to come.
My experiences in my GA position have also been extremely informative and thought provoking. Taking advice from my supervisors and also shadowing the other veteran academic advisors has taught me a great deal about how even subtle ways of speaking and presenting oneself can have a large impact on students. For example, in our office we do not tell students that their test scores “do not meet the cutoff” for certain courses. Instead, we tell students that their scores place them into another course. Telling students that they did not meet some criteria is a negative and inappropriate way of communicating the situation. It is more accurate and informative to tell the students where their tests have placed them. It is this example, among many others, that has taught me how important it is to extensively evaluate the choice of words or actions I take when helping students.
These experiences have helped me gain a greater perspective as to what my role is as a student affairs educator. On the surface level it would appear that my role is to provide access codes to students or discuss which courses they should take to keep on track. However, this is only the byproduct of what my role actually is. It’s my role to provide a safe and inviting environment that students feel comfortable coming to in order to get the information they need to improve their university experience. This includes always changing and growing my environment to fit the needs of the students, which are also changing and growing.
Though I have learned a lot from my experiences, it has become abundantly clear that there will always be more to learn and explore. I am curious to dive much more deeply into what exact microaggressions effect not only the LBGTQ community, but other racial and religious minority groups. I am also interested in exploring how best to present my office space so that students feel, not only safe, but invited. Finally, I wish to explore how to not only educate myself, but how to best education students on how to also create safe and inviting spaces for their fellow constituents.