Leadership
"Addresses the knowledge, skills, and dispositions required of a leader, with or without positional authority. Leadership involves both the individual role of a leader and the leadership process of individuals working together to envision, plan, and affect change in organizations and respond to broad-based constituencies and issues" (ACPA & NASPA, 2015, p.13).
Level: Proficient
Throughout my experience with student affairs, I have valued the importance of leadership. The leadership competency area “involves both the individual role of a leader and the leadership process of individuals working together to envision, plan, and affect change in organizations and respond to broad based constituencies and issues” (ACPA & NASPA, 2015, p. 27). I think that it is important not only to promote leadership skills but also to model appropriate behaviors. By instructing the Bowling Green Alternative Break (bGAB) site leader training and implementing a training protocol for a student organization I advised as an AmeriCorps VISTA, I have been able to promote leadership skills. Through self-reflection, I have been able to foster my own leadership capabilities, which has allowed me to model the way.
Through my practicum with the Center for Community and Civic Engagement (CCCE), I worked a lot on developing proficiency in leadership. Part of my role was to create a curriculum for the bGAB site leader training. A key aspect of the curriculum I developed was to “encourage…students to engage in team and community building activities (ACPA & NASPA, 2015, p. 28). I did this by promoting a team environment. One way I accomplished this was by incorporating team-building activities. At the beginning of most lessons, I organized a team builder that related in some way to the content of that day’s lesson. For example, when I taught about group dynamics, I facilitated a team builder that tasked the students to solve a puzzle and randomly assigned each student to a different role. I gave one student a key piece of information about the rules of the puzzle, but told them they could not touch any of the pieces or talk.
Another way that I have developed proficiency in leadership is through the creation of a training protocol for the mentoring organization, MentorUF. As an AmeriCorps VISTA, I advised the organization and created workshops for the student mentors. By doing this, I helped to “create environments that encourage others to view themselves as having the potential to make meaningful contributions to their communities and be civically engaged in their communities” (ACPA & NASPA, 2015, p. 28). One of the workshops that I developed was on creating meaningful relationships with mentees. I created a curriculum centered on building active listening skills and fostering empathy for mentors to use in their mentoring relationships. Some of the feedback from this workshop and others provided throughout the year was that mentors felt better prepared to engage with their mentees and more encouraged to continue mentoring in future semesters.
In terms of developing my own leadership skills, I used “reflection to constantly evolve and incorporate one’s authentic self into one’s identity as a leader” (ACPA & NASPA, 2015, p. 28). Throughout my graduate school experience, I have engaged with a plethora of reflection activities. Through the CSP 6890 course, I wrote monthly reflection papers that allowed me to synthesize the influences of my graduate coursework and internship experiences to my understanding of myself as a leader. Additionally, in the CSP 6035 course, I engaged in a critical reflection of how my personal identities impact my life, including my leadership abilities and actions. Finally, in the CSP 6050 course, I completed reflection assignments to better understand my values, goals and growth areas.
ACPA: College Student Educators International & NASPA − Student Affairs Administrators in Higher Education (2015). Professional competency areas for student affairs educators. Washington, DC: Authors. ​​