Advising and helping is the cornerstone of the student affairs profession due to its increased emphasis on support strategies that validate the needs of our students; it serves to provide counseling and appropriate guidance to individuals and groups in the academic and social setting of an institution (NASPA & ACPA, 2010 & Reynolds, 2009). As a professional, I aim to reflect upon the verbal and nonverbal aspects of interactions with students, and to guide the student along the decision-making process to reach a point that is both comfortable and appropriate for the respective student. 

 

As a human resources oriented professional, I seek to develop harmonious relationships within my current communities at Wentworth Institute of Technology and MCPHS University. This sentiment has been challenging at Wentworth, where I oversee a residence hall with 550 first-year students who are all in various forms of development, maturation, and satisfaction with their college experience. Consequently, there are times where I must act as a first responder; this can take the form of appropriate incident response, managing conflict, initiating crisis intervention techniques, providing outreach to students displaying questionable and/or concerning behavior, and consulting with mental health professionals (NASPA & ACPA, 2010). 

 

In particular, I have worked within my community of Resident Assistants (RAs) to help draft a conflict mediation agreement form for suite mates/roommates to work on together. It was conveyed to me early upon my arrival that many Wentworth students respond best to structure and order; it may not be enough to verbally agree to certain terms to create a more harmonious relationship within each suite. By revamping the agreement form to include write-in sections that explicitly call out areas of improvement and agreed upon terms, I worked to effectively manage conflict in a clear, adaptive manner (ACPA & NASPA, 2010). Here, I demonstrated advanced efforts for my staff to enhance their own helping skills (NASPA & ACPA, 2010). Attached you will find the conflict resolution agreement form my community uses to maintain fruitful inner-suite relationships. This form provides a tangible way for paraprofessional staff members to mediate conflicts on their own. It has proven to be a successful method to mediate disharmony, while also preventing it from even forming in the first place if used in a proactive fashion!

 

In working with my students, I strive to utilize Schlossberg’s theory of Marginality and Mattering, as cited in Evans, Forney, Guido, Patton, and Renn (2010). Students come to respective communities and take on new roles. Often, this leads to discomfort, uncertainty, marginality, and a lack of sense that they “matter” in their new environment. This is especially true for students who do not fit into dominant populations – such as those who identify as LGBTQ+. As someone who felt this lack of mattering as a first-year student, it was the care of others and available resources that helped me form an identity that felt comfortable for me. This made the difference in my community and inspired me to reach beyond my perceived limitations.

 

In my own professional journey, I seek to prove to these students that they matter through working with Wentworth's Student Experience Diversity Committee. I conduct periodic Safe Space trainings for faculty, staff, and students to learn more about related gender and sexuality roadblocks and successes the LGBTQ+ community face. Additionally, I have advised student committee members who program for National Coming Out Day, Trans* Remembrance Day, and Bisexual Visibility Day. Here, myths are debunked, concepts are unpacked, and challenges are offered to members of the community in regards to inclusiveness, allyship, and community activism. This directly aligns with NASPA/ACPA's (2010) emphasis on mentoring students and staff in the workplace. Attached you will find an artifact from the Safe Space subcommittee's celebration of National Coming Out Day. Members of our community pledged to work to create and maintain an inclusive community where unique perspectives and experiences are valued and reflect Wentworth's Leopard's Oath. This banner hangs in our campus center, on display to convey the support our institution embodies for all Wentworth Leopards! 

 

With advising and mentoring comes the understanding that our students will be guided, not handheld, throughout this complex process. As a professional who was on the other side of the advising piece just a little over two years ago, this has proven to be challenging, yet endlessly rewarding. Chetnik and Neville's (2005) Situational Advising Model Strategies has helped me successfully make that transition from student with endless ideas to professional who challenges and supports through clear communication and buildup of accountability.

 

Students will often have the opportunity to "try again" if a goal is not immediately reached, and not every team you help advise will be the "dream team" where the professional acts simply as a sounding board (Chetnik & Neville, 2005). Specific to this idea, I helped advise one program at MCPHS University with students "infancy stage"; as part of Wellness Wednesdays initiative, I advised our Disability Support Services student workers organization of a coloring therapy program. Here, there was very little existing organization present, while students displayed nervousness with planning their first program at an institution where students are often focused on their academics and less on social endeavors. In order for the program to be successful, I had to maintain a high interest in ensuring the program materials were purchased, the date was set, and other crucial details were tended to. Students appreciated my level of care and attention to detail here, and I certainly had to shift from my usual advising method to accommodate my assigned role as advisor. Attached you'll find an artifact from this art therapy program, where 20 students attended and de-stressed by coloring for a couple of hours. It was a smaller program as part of a larger initiative, but the end product served as a support strategy that took into account alleviating stress of academics placed on our students.