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PROJECTS & EXPERIENCES

Below are projects and experiences I have been a part of and how they connect to the ACPA Professional Competencies for Student Affairs Practitioners. 

This competency requires skills in crisis managment, helping, resources and advocacy, colllaborations, and ethics and confidentiality (ACPA, 2015). I consider myself intermediate in this area. I have been able to gain more experience in this competency area through my work with the Latino Enhancement Cooperative and the Office of Student Ethics.

 

Latino Enhancement Cooperative| Advisor 

  • The Latino Enhancement Cooperative puts on the annual Indiana Latino Leadership Conference. Through my position as an advisor, I have been able to guide 20 Latino students through the conference planning process and help them better develop their problem-solving and decision-making skills. This position has allowed me to become a mentor to many students, which is part of the competency requirements (ACPA, 2015). I have been working in this role for two years.

 

Office of Student Ethics| Hearing Officer

  • As a hearing officer, I spend most of my time providing students with the appropriate amount of challenge and support. I challenge and support my students by helping them reevaluate their ethical decision-making through our one-on-one meetings and through the seminar I teach. I also refer them to appropriate campus resources to help them with their academic and personal life. 
     
     

 

This competency requires skills in identities, difference, perspectives, social justice, bias, engagement, and structures (ACPA, 2015). I consider myself advanced in this competency area. As a first-generation Latina college student, I am very passion about this topic area and have taken many courses throughout my graduate career to improve these skills.  

 

Introduction to College and University Administration | Fall 2014

  • This is the introductory course for our Higher Education and Student Affairs master's program. One of our projects was on a student population of our choosing that was to be presented in poster format at the Indiana Student Affairs Association conference. My partner and I chose to learn more about how socioeconomic status affects college student’s experiences. 

 

Diverse Students on a College Campus | Spring 2015 

  • In this course, we learned how to better support and advocate for students from underrepresented backgrounds. For our final project, my group advocated for better orientation practices for international students. This helped me grow in the social justice, bias, and engagement skills. 

 

Environmental Theory and Assessment | Fall 2015 

  • In this course, we were able to research a part of the campus environment and how it affects a particular student group. My team and I researched the experience of Latino undergraduate men on IU's campus. This allowed me to grow in the structure skill that requires understanding how to advocate for system-wide changes (ACPA, 2015). 

 

Other relevant course work:

  • Multicultural Counseling | Spring 2015
  • Special Mission Institutions: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives | Fall 2015
  • Sociology of Education | Fall 2015
  • Race and Racism in Higher Education | Spring 2016

 

This competency requires skills in development, building teams, mentoring, comunity cuilding, planning, decision-making, personal development, and institutional knowledge (ACPA, 2015). I would consider myself intermediate in this competency area. I still have room to grow in helping students become successful leaders. I have been able to practice this competency through my internship with the Groups Scholars Program Summer Experience and by teaching a course on residential leadership. 
 
Groups Scholars Program Summer Experience | Graduate Supervisor 
  • Through my internship with this program, I was able to develop staff training that would facilitate leadership development for our staff. I was also able to mentor students and help them work through various staff conflicts that helped them grow in their professionalism. 
 
Residential Leadership Course | Co-Facilitator
  • This course was for perspective resident assistants. It taught them how to become leaders in their residential communities. As a co-facilitator, I helped teach students how to apply what they were learning in their course work to the work they would be doing in the residence halls. Ten out of nineteen of our students were offered resident assistant positions for the upcoming school year!

Advising & Helping

Leadership

Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion

Groups Scholars Program Residential Staff

Summer 2015

Residential Leadership Class

Spring 2016

Group Assessment Project,

Mattew Cramer, Carlely Cruz, Moique Ellefson, Rafael Gonzalez, Kyle Hovest, & Stephania Rodriguez

Fall 2015

Advocating for Students Project

Brittany Collins, Carley Cruz, Emily Davis, Gloria Diaz, Li Pietruska

Spring 2015

Student Population Poster

Carley Cruz & Brittany Collins

Fall 2014

Past Indiana Latino Leadership Conference Logos

2014, 2015, 2016

Reference:

ACPA. (2015). Professional competency areas for student affairs practitioners: Rubrics for professional development. Retreived from http://www.myacpa.org/sites/default/files/professional-comp-rubrics.pdf

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