When I first applied to Loyola University Chicagos M.

Ed Higher Education program, I

got wait listed. I wasnt that surprised because for me, graduate school was never something that
I thought was attainable. I knew that I wanted to work in student affairs but I also knew that I had
never been the brightest student, so completing a masters degree would be the biggest challenge I
would face to date. When I got the email on March 27, 2013 that my status had changed from
waitlisted to accepted, I knew that my life was never going to be the same. Throughout my time
at Loyola I have felt supported, challenged and everything in between. Because of that, I have
learned more about myself both personally and professionally than I have ever thought possible.
Impactful Course Content
From the courses that I have taken at Loyola, I will take away three very important pieces
of content. The first piece of content came in my first year at Loyola in the Student Development
Theory course I took with Dr. John Dugan. It was in this class that I realized that what I learned
in the classroom I could directly apply to my outside experiences in higher education. Through
this course I learned various theories that related to how students develop throughout their time
at an institution. From Arthur W. Chickering and his vectors to Marcia Baxter Magoldas theory
of self-authorship, we learned a variety of paths that students may take as they learn about
themselves and how they relate to the world around them. Most importantly, however, we
learned that these theories and research arent definitive. Each student and person develops,
learns and grows at a different pace. What is important for us as practitioners and educators is to
support students wherever they are along the journey of their development and use these
frameworks to help guide our work.
The second piece of content that I will take away from my time in the program was from
the Leadership in Higher Education course that is offered your second year taught by Dr. John

Dugan. This course was centered on various leadership theories and their relation to our own
leadership journeys as well as our work with students. Through this course I learned that like
student development theory, leadership theory serves as a framework for the work that we do.
Leadership theories such as Team Leadership and the Social Change Model can help us
understand how to work together to affect change, but they are not stagnant. One of the most
influential parts about this course was learning how to deconstruct the various theories and then
reconstruct them in multiple contexts. Through taking a critical approach to theory in this course
I am now able to not only connect my own personal identities to theses theories, but also guide
students along in their own personal processes. From this course I have learned that it is essential
to listen to and value the experiences and stories of students that we work with, not just what the
research tells us about them.
My final piece of course content that I have taken from this program comes from the
Curriculum Development in Higher Education course taught by Dr. Patrick Green. In class this
semester we have taken time to dissect and analyze not only what we learn, but also how we
learn. From conversations around the work of Dr. L. Dee Fink I have learned the importance of
connecting the learning outcomes that we create for our students with intentional activities both
inside and outside of the classroom to provide students with a significant learning experience.
This course content has shaped not only my practices every day at work as a graduate assistant
for Student Conduct at the Illinois Institute of Technology; but it has also effected the way that I
approach programming and leadership development in the various areas of higher education that
I am involved in.
My Graduate Assistantship

Throughout my time at Loyola, I had the opportunity connect what I had learned within
the classroom to my experiences and develop both personally and professionally at my graduate
assistantships at the Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT). Throughout my time at IIT, I have
learned what it really means to do student-centered work and how to navigate campus politics.
During my first year at IIT, I served as the graduate assistant for Gender and Sexuality services.
As my first position out of my undergraduate experience, I learned a lot about the day-to-day
work of a student affairs professional. In this role I worked with programming large-scale events
that support students who identify as female and/or LGBTQ. In this position, I learned a lot
about how to balance a budget and build effective campus partnerships. I also learned about how
student populations vary from institution to institution. The students at IIT are mostly Science,
Technology, Engineering and Mathematic (STEM) majors and have a different way of thinking
and learning. Finding ways to engage this type of student population was extremely difficult, but
also extremely valuable in building my professional skillset.
During my second year as a graduate assistant I worked in Student Conduct. Through this
experience I gained skills in having difficult conversations with students and that university
policies are there to support and educate, not reprimand. This role is also where I really began to
see the politics of an organization and how they impact our every day work. In this position, my
supervisor went on maternity leave a month early leaving me to fill in as the interim director. It
was when I had the opportunity to work with the Dean of Students and other senior student
affairs officers directly in this role that I realized the politics of the institution and how to truly
get things done. Over time I learned who I need to talk to in order to receive certain information
and how to effectively get things done. I am so grateful for this experience because I think that

having the practical knowledge of how politics work at an institution will help me adjust to my
new professional role.
My Social Justice Philosophy
Due to my experiences both inside and outside of the classroom, my social justice
philosophy has transformed. When I first began my graduate school experience I thought of
social justice as a concept that you can teach in a classroom. This semester I have had the
opportunity to take a class with one of my mentors from Loyola, Dian Squire. Dian is in the
Higher Education doctoral program at Loyola and has been someone who has constantly pushed
me to do better and believe in myself. In the class he teaches, Organization and Governance in
Higher Education, we have learned organizational theories and how to affect change at an
institution. It is in this class that I learned that social justice is a journey.
Social justice, to me, is the understanding that we need to value difference. I also believe
that there is a need to engage with those who are different than us in a way that honors and
respects each individuals identities. Our journeys through social justice are different since that
journey is so personal to each identity. I believe that each path, however, should lead to two key
aspects, equity and a call to action. Through the different classes I have taken and my
experiences at my assistantship I have learned that social justice needs to be infused into
whatever type of work we are doing. It is a journey that is extremely important for every person.
When thinking about how my social justice philosophy is related to my future I have come to
realize one important thing. I have come to realize that my goal in student affairs should not be to
pull students along the social justice journey. My goal is to support students as they learn, grow,
move through their social justice journey and develop their own understanding of the world
around them.

My Personal Growth
Because of my experiences in this program I believe that I have learned three main
things. First, I have learned that the people who support you are as important as the work that we
do. I have also learned that my worth is not defined by the world around me, but by me. Lastly,
but most importantly, I have learned that I matter.
I am very fortunate to walk away from this program with some incredible systems of
support. I struggled a lot in my first year at Loyola with who I was and who I wanted to become.
It was in my first semester that I found a great system of support and one of my mentors in the
field, Dr. John Dugan. Throughout my classroom experience and my personal growth in the
program he taught me to trust what I know and helped me gain confidence in my academic work.
Because of his mentorship and endless support, applying to a doctoral program is now in my
future. I have also found a support system in Tricia Banach, a coworker at IIT. From my very
first day of work, Tricia took me under her wing and helped me develop my professional identity.
She showed me the importance of being authentic to I am and the promise we have to the field to
support our students. She is an incredible example of a strong woman, and someone I hope to
channel every day in my work and in my personal life.
Most importantly, my experiences in this program have taught me the value of each
person and their story. For a very long time I believed that I was not worth much and I let other
people define who I was. Because of my experiences throughout this program, I have come to
understand that I am more than enough. I have also come to realize that I am in this field because
I care for people. I want the people I interact with to know how much they are valued. This world
is beautiful because of them, because of you, and because of me. I ground what I do in this life in
what I value; love. You matter. I matter. We all matter.