If I Could do it all Over Again...

Now that I am in the final days of my graduate experience at USD, I felt it was very appropriate for me to reflect on my overall experience. I have said it many times, and I will continue to say it when I move on to my next institution, this program has been one of the best decisions of my life. I started this program thinking I had everything figured out and that I wasn't really in need of any further development, but I was way wrong! This program helped me grow so much as a person and as a higher education practitioner.

As I am reflecting on my experience, I find myself asking the question, If could do it all over again, would I change anything?

For the most part, I can confidently say that I wouldn't change anything. In thinking about my experience as a Graduate Assistant, I feel so blessed to have had the opportunity to have two different assistantships. Although I did not find what I thought I would out of my experience working with Greek Life, it was very rewarding and a learning opportunity for me. My experience in the Center for Student Success has been one of the best experiences of my life. I find myself being so connected to my job and everyone there. I absolutely love the work I'm doing and I am really sad to leave. This position has helped me determine what kind of work I am really passionate about and it is because of this that I am very grateful for this experience.

My academic experience has been extremely rewarding and challenging. Taking 550 was one of the biggest hurdles for me because it was so unlike anything I had ever taken before. I can't really say the class changed my life or anything, but I did enjoy the experience. The majority of classes greatly contributed to my learning and I could see how they would apply to my work in higher education. I am glad I took the classes that I took, especially taking the opportunity of the international experience in Qatar. The numerous opportunities for reflection took some getting used to, but in the end I really valued it. I would not change anything about my academic experience.

My social experience at USD has definitely been a roller coaster. However, I am now happy with the relationships and friendships that I've built. Eventually I realized that I had to put myself out there to create relationships with classmates and because of this I have made friendships that I know will last a lifetime. It may only be a few real friendships I've created, but these few hold a very special place in my heart. I do have to say that it took me a long time to get to a place where I was happy with this aspect of my experience at USD, but I am glad to be at this place. Although it would be easy for me to wish I could change my bumps in my social experience, but all parts of my experience contributed to the person I am today.

When I first answered the question, I said "For the most part..." which means there are parts of my experience I would change. Actually there is only one thing I wish I could change. I wish I would have come in more open minded about connecting to the institution. Coming straight out of undergrad was kind of a disadvantage to me in this respect. When I graduated from La Verne in 2009 I was legitimately sad to leave. I was not ready to leave everything I had created at La Verne. Since I was still so connected to La Verne, I came to USD not really looking to connect to the university. In my mind, it was just a place for me to get a Masters degree and gain some professional experience. I was not interested in anything beyond that. It actually wasn't until this semester during seminar when we were having a check-in and some of my classmates were talking about how much they were going to miss being at USD. I took some time to reflect on this because I realized that I was not that sad to leave. I have not had any bad experiences here that would make me want to leave. I knew I was going to be sad to leave my office because I feel so connected to everyone there, but I don't really feel any emotion either way about leaving USD. As I reflected on it, I realized it was because of the frame of mind I came in with. I realize there is nothing I can do about it now, but I do wonder about my next institution. Will I be able to go in with an open mind and create a connection to the institution? This is something that I am really sitting with and I am hopeful that since I've acknowledged and realized this now, I will be able to connect to my next institution.

Overall, I am so glad I had this experience and I am very much looking forward to see what my future holds me. Thank you to everyone who contributed to my experience at USD! I could not have done it without you all!

Goodbye to USD and SOLES!

My Action Research

Now that I have successfully presented my Action Research and have submitted my final paper, I feel it's only natural for me to reflect on the whole process of action research. I can still remember the day when I decided that I was going to focus my research on first-generation Latinas. It came at a time when I was personally doing a lot of reflecting about my racial and ethnic background and it was a big step for me in my identity development to choose this research topic. I was very interested in doing the research to learn the different challenges that face these students...well actually I wanted to see what was out there about the challenges that I knew I was faced and what things I didn't have to struggle with.

It was an interesting process for me to be able to reflect on my own experiences as a first-generation Latina. A lot of the research that I did really resonated it with me, specifically all the statisics that that I found about Latina pregnancy rates, Latinos lags in education and the number of Latinos that have a bachelors degree or higher in the United States. This statistics were honestly very surprising to me. However, it was seeing these statisics that helped me move from a place of shame to pride in my racial/ethnic background. I realized that instead of being ashamed of it I should be proud of everything I have overcome in my life despite everything that was in my way.

Having the opportunity to conduct the individual interviews with my participants was one of the most rewarding and eye-opening experiences in my graduate school career. Hearing their stories and being able to relate to each of them in a different way was an incredible feeling. It was so difficult not to continue the conversation outside of the interview and tell them about my own story. When I think about the creation of the discussion group, it legimately dissapoints me that I cannot be the one to implement this group and to see it all the way through. I would have loved to have been a part of this group and hear the stories of even more women from USD's campus. I really do hope this group ends up living up to the expectations of the participants and that it creates a space to begin to be able to make some effective changes to improve these student's experiences at USD.

When it came time to put my presentation together I had the hardest time because I had so much information that I wanted to include. Specifically, there were so many quotes from my participants that I thought were so effective in expressing the tensions they were each experiencing and I obviously could not include all of them. In fact, I ended up only being able to use five quotes in total, which was so difficult for me. However, I really did feel like I did a good job of effectively telling each participant's story, which was realy important to me. I still feel like I left out so much valuable information from my presentation, but I feel like I made the most of the time I had.

Now that the process is over for me, I can honestly say that having the opportunity to do this research has impacted me as a person, as an older sister, as a daughter, as a fiance, as a research, and as a higher education practitioner. Even though the process was draining and stressful, I am so grateful for this experience. I remember thinking when I first started writing my proposal last spring that this process was never going to end. I even remember questioning if I could actually carry out a research project this big. I am now very proud to say that I have completed an action research project and that it has made a difference in my life.

Thank you to everyone who helped me in any way get through this research!

My Outlets

I have been thinking a lot lately about balance. A lot of it has been centered on work/life balance, but as I reflected on it more I realized it is more life balance. I started to think about the different things that I do to maintain balance in my life and I realized there are a lot of things that I have. I decided to call these my outlets because all of them help me take my mind off of whatever is stressing me out at the time. These are my outlets:


My Love
When Jeff and I first started dating, we had a date night every week on Wednesday. We decided this would be a day just for the two of us to hang out no matter what he had going on. Once he joined the Army that obviously could not continue. Since we've moved in together we haven't been able to do it because we are both so busy. However, we have tried to do a good job of going out on dates together even if we are busy. The one thing we have been doing a lot lately is playing games together. We both dedicate a chunk of time to do homework or study but then we set out time before going to bed to just spend time together. This has been really important to me because it helps me decompress and relax before going to bed. Plus, it always reminds me why I am in love with him.

My Family
Anyone that knows me even a little knows how important my family is to me. I feel very blessed to have such a wonderful family that I can really count on. Since moving to San Diego, Jeff and I have made it a point to go home as often as possible. When I get the opportunity to go home, I find that it really energizes me to keep going. There are some people in my family that are especially important to me:
My Mom
My mom has been such an inspiration to me in my life and I just want to make her proud of me. She has been through so much in her life and she has managed to overcome it all. I look up to her so much and when I am able to spend time with her, I find that she inspires me to reach for the stars.


My Baby Girls
My two younger sisters are the most beautiful teenagers in the world. Even though they may have attitude sometimes and we fight sometimes, they are so important to me. Everything I have done in my life has been for them. I wanted to show them that they could achieve all their dreams despite everything they will have to overcome. They keep me going and inspire me to achieve all my dreams because I want to show them that it's possible.


The Babies
One of the big reasons why Jeff and I like to go home a lot is to see the babies: my nephew Tristan and his niece Nathalia. We absolutely love to spend time with both of them and try to take them fun places, like the park, as much as we can. Right now they are both three years old and it is hard to be away from both of them because we feel like we're missing out on so much of their lives. Spending time with them really forces me to forget about anything that is stressing me out because they are so much fun and I am able to bring my inner-child out when I am with them.

My "Artistic" Side
I am not a very artsy or creative person, but I do enjoy having the opportunity to do artsy things. A few weeks ago Jeff and I went to Walgreens and I saw a box for tissue art. This instantly popped out at me and I wanted to buy it. It reminded me of a tissue art project I did in kindergarten for my mom. I bought the tissue art and when I am doing homework I take breaks from it to do some tissue art. I find it very relaxing and it makes me feel like I'm a kid again.


Each of these things is very important to me for different reasons. They each help me maintain balance in my life, which leads to me being a much happier person. I am grateful that I am able to maintain balance in my life and I hope that I can continue it. I am not saying I am an expert at it because I am not at all. There are definitely times when I don't put these things first and I can tell that it affects me. However, I do feel I have a good sense of balance and I am able to recognize the importance of it.

My NACADA Experience

It has been a couple of months since I attended the NACADA (National Academic Advising Association) Regional conference in San Diego, but I wanted to take the opportunity to reflect about my experience. Once I had made the decision not to attend NASPA I knew I wanted to attend the NACADA conference and I am so glad I chose to attend it. I do think I would have benefited from attending NASPA, but thinking about what path I want to take after graduation, I knew NACADA was the right decision for me. Before I attended I was really nervous that I was going by myself and I was even more nervous about putting myself out there and getting to know people and networking. I am normally a very reserved person, but I knew that I had to open myself up and talk to different people. I was ultimately really proud of my ability to get to know a good amount of different people. I really did learn a lot from the conference and that is what I want to reflect on:

1. I realized how much I really do want to have a career in academic advising. In talking to all the different people at the conference and attending the different sessions I see that I really am passionate about this work and it is something I could see myself doing for the rest of my life. I just get really excited about working with students to ensure a successful college experience and working toward graduation. I also feel that I implement my passion for Student Affairs, and specifically student life and campus involvement, into academic advising. This passion became very clear to me during the conference and I appreciate having the opportunity to attend the conference and I'm so grateful it was in San Diego, so I didn't have to pay for lodging.

2. I learned about my listening style: people centered. One of the sessions I attended discussed all the different types of listening styles and we had to fill out a short questionnaire to see what our listening style is. It was just interesting for me to learn that I am people-center (even though I kind of expected it) and to learn the pros and cons of my listening style. It actually made me quite happy to learn what I was people-centered because I really do feel that it's really important when working with students. I am so interested in learning about different students and hearing their story, so it made me feel good to see the pros of my listening style. It was also helpful to see the cons so I know what I need to work on when working with students.

3. One of the cons of a people-centered listener is the amount of time that it takes. This was my third and final major realization from the NACADA conference: If I do get a job in academic advising, I am really going to struggle with not being able to talk to students for an hour at a time to learn their story. I realized this during the same session actually during a role play activity that we did. We were in groups of three and each person took turns being the advisor, the student, and the observer. I was the first one to play the advisor and I had a student who was a Biology major but was not doing well in her biology classes. We had like three minutes to talk to this student. I spent time getting to know the student's story and barely had time to even begin to resolve the issue. When the other two women, who are currently academic advisors, took their turns as advisors they actually came close to reaching a solution in the three minutes. I realized right then that I am going to have to adjust the way I work with students because I am now going to have as much time with students as I do now. When I meet with a student right now I have an hour for the first session and thirty minutes for follow-ups. I know this is not going to be the case when I'm working with students as an academic advisor because I am going to have a lot more students that I'm working with. I need to find a balance between appreciative advising (which is basically what I do now) and academic advising. I do still see value in using some appreciative advising but I am going to have to be very aware of time. The other issue I know I will face is letting myself tell a student what to do more directly. Right now in the work that I do, we are not supposed to give advice to the student. We are supposed to let the student come up with solutions on their own and guide them along the way. Since this is what I'm used to, I need to get used to telling the student, you might consider doing this and that, basically being more direct. I know I can do this, it is just going to take some getting used to. Plus, I'm saying all this not even knowing if I'm going to get a position as an academic advisor, but at least I am aware of the challenges I will face and I'll be prepared for that question during an interview if it comes up.

Overall, my experience at NACADA was very rewarding. I learned a lot about the field and about myself. It was difficult to figure out which sessions to go to because I don't know what populations of students I could be working with, so I just tried to go to a variety of sessions so I could information on a little bit of everything. I am glad I took the opportunity to attend the conference.