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.

My Identity Development

I decided to take a break from my action research paper for a little while and I thought to myself "I should do something productive." Then it hit me, I should write a blog! Then I wondered, what should I write about? Then that hit me too, I'm working on my action research where I'm writing about first-generation Latina students, so I should write about my identity development, more specifically more racial/ethnic identity development.

I feel like I've said this so many, but this program has honestly completely changed my life for the better. I came into this program thinking I was completely confident and comfortable with who I was. I think I expected to grow somewhat, but I really thought most of my growth had already happened during my undergraduate career. I quickly realized after starting this program that I was going to be reflecting a lot about myself and I might have to start confronting some things that I had kind of avoided before. One of the biggest things this program helped me realize is how proud I am of my Mexican background. I don't think I could have said this 2 years ago. In fact, I know I couldn't have said this 2 years ago.

Coming into this program, I had not ever really thought about my Mexican background and when I did I found myself feeling very ashamed of it. I grew up in an area with a big Latino population and went to high school with a large Latino population. Most of my closest friends were Latinas, but all I could see were the Latino students who were getting kicked out school, getting pregnant, or just being disrespectful to teachers in class. I could not get passed the fact that in my mind (please understand that I was very young at the time) these people were giving our giving us a bad name. The way I saw it, it was no wonder that there were all these negative stereotypes about Latinos because I was seeing it first-hand. Every single girl who was pregnant at my high school was Latina. For these reasons, I was very much ashamed of my background.

Even though I was ashamed of it, I will say that this was one of the things motivating me to go to college, I did not want to be another negative statistic. I wanted to be that one of a small number that actually does graduate from high school. I vowed to myself that I would not get pregnant at a young age. I would do whatever I could to avoid being "just another Mexican girl who gets pregnant in high school." I had dreams and goals and I was not going to let anything get in the way of that. A lot of this came from being raised by a single mom who was the Mexican girl in high school that got pregnant. Don't get me wrong, I love my mom with all my heart and she has been one of my biggest role models, but just knowing her history and stuggles, made me very aware of teenage pregnancy. She also always told me that I could do so much than she did. She also stressed to me that I could go to college and make something of myself. I think it was this constant reassurance from her and seeing all those pregnant girls in high school that made me so confident that I was going to go to college and I was not going to get pregnant at a young age.

I can say today with full confidence that I am very proud of where I come from and everything I have been able to achieve. I don't think I would be where I am today if it wasn't for this program and all the reflectins that are embedded in the program. It was through all these opportunities to reflect that I feel I have truly developed my racial identity. However, I do still feel like I have a long way to go. Even now as I'm thinking about Jeff and I having kids in the next two years, I am so afraid that people will still look at me as just another young Mexican girl who got pregnant because I look so young. I know I should not be concerned about this at this stage in my life, but I can't help it. Part of me wants to have a shirt made that says "I am xx years old, I have a Master's Degree, and I'm married. Stop judging me!" Of course, I'm assuming that people will be judging me, but I think I just think about it so much that I feel like it's going to happen.

Even though I still have a lot of growth to continue to do, I am very happy with where I am in my identity development. I have made it a goal for myself after graduation to become fluent in Spanish. I was surrounded by the language a lot growing up, but I was never really taught it. I took Spanish in high school and I feel fairly comfortable understanding it, but I am not at all comfortable speaking it. I really feel like this has affected my relationship with my grandma because she does not speak English well at all, so I can't really have a conversation with her. I really do want to become more a part of my culture. I want this so badly, I even have a strong desire to learn to cook some good Mexican food from my grandma. If you know me, that's a big deal because I am not a cook. But I want to be able to make those meals for my kids so that they can be in touch with one half of their culture.

Reflecting on my trip to Qatar

A conversation I had with Jeff last week during lunch got me thinking a lot about my trip to Qatar. He was telling me about his night at his internship in the emergency room at Sharp hospital. He is basically shadowing and working with a current nurse as part of his program. They we headed to the waiting room to pick up a patient and when he read the patient’s name he told the other nurse that he knew exactly how the conversation was going to go. The patient was a Muslim woman and he said that the patient was not going to say anything and her husband was going to do all the talking. Sure enough, he was completely right. He knows quite a bit about the culture since he was deployed in Iraq for a year. I started talking about what I had learned while I was there. Then I started to think back to my reflection paper when I wrote:

“Some of the ones that stick out in my head are the fact that girls/women cannot leave the country without a chaperone until they are 35 years old. I think my mouth fell straight to the floor when I heard that. Another one was that there is no dating there and arranged marriages are quite common…All these things were just so surprising to me and I actually found myself internally criticizing their culture. I kept asking myself how any girl/woman could live like that. I didn’t understand how they don’t just rebel and do what they want. This was actually a huge moment of growth for me. I don’t really consider myself to be a feminist, but I deeply believe in women’s rights and it’s something I’m really passionate about. In fact, for a long time I refused to learn how to cook because I saw that as me fitting into the stereotype of what I’m supposed to be because I’m a female. I’ve gotten over that now, but there are still things I refuse to do because I refuse to fit that stereotype. So when I was hearing about all these things that the girls/women are not allowed to do, it actually made me very angry. I honestly just wanted to know why these girls/women put up with it. Then after thinking about it for a really long time I realized that this is their culture and it’s a part of their lives. They don’t question or rebel against it because they don’t know any different. I realized that just because it’s different than the way I choose to live my life doesn’t make it wrong.”

I honestly do feel like I have grown a lot from this experience because I learned that it was not fair for me to criticize their culture. However, I found it interesting how easy it was for me to have the conversation with Jeff. As I was talking about it and basically criticizing their culture, I realized what I was doing. I was having an internal conflict with myself of I should not be continuing to have this conversation. Instead I should take this opportunity to let Jeff know the reflections I had after my trip to provide the chance for the two of us to have an educational moment together. Even as I’m typing this I’m realizing that even if I had tried that it wouldn’t really make a difference. Because Jeff was in the Army for four years and was deployed to Iraq for a year, he has lost three friends to the wars (in Iraq and Afghanistan). All three of these soldiers are men who he was fairly close with and it was really tough for him to get over their deaths. Because of the deaths of his friends, Jeff has admitted that he often experiences hatred towards Muslims. We have had quite a few conversations about this and he knows that it is not the fault of all Muslims that he lost his friends, but he still struggles not have those feelings come up. I have told him that is understandable that he would have these feelings toward them, but it is still difficult for me to accept. However, I must also recognize that I have not lost anyone close to me because of the war, so I have no idea how he feels. I feel like all I can do at this point is making sure that I am continuing to have these reflections and maybe after some time has passed I can have these conversations with Jeff.

My struggle continues to be that I don’t feel like I’ve completely allowed myself to accept the way the girls/women are treated as their culture. Even as I read through my reflection paper, I found myself getting angry about the way they are treated. During Ethics class a few weeks ago we were asked to think of an example when we went from super-ego to conscience. It was not until some of my other classmates starting giving their examples that I realized my example was. My moment of going from super-ego to conscience is my experience in Qatar, specifically thinking about the way the girls/women are treated in the culture. I realized that I was raised to be independent and never depend on anyone for anything. My mom was raised in a very traditional Mexican household where she would always have to come and do chores and my uncles would get to go out with their friends. My mom made a decision that she was not going to raise my brother and me that way, so we both always had equal amounts of chores to do. I realize that because of this and seeing the way my grandma basically babies my uncles, I have become very judgmental of any woman who follows this traditional way of living. I realized that this was happening way before my trip to Qatar, but it wasn’t until my trip that I realized I did it. It wasn’t until I got into class that week that I realized that it was an example of me going from super-ego to conscience. However, I do still feel there is a lot of work to be done. I still find myself being judgmental, so I need to be very conscience about it and continue to reflect and come to terms with the fact that just because someone chooses to live their life this way does not make it wrong. I may not agree with it and I may feel that it diminishes the power of women, but it is not fair for me to judge someone because of it. Even as I’m writing this I’m realizing that I have a long road ahead of me, but I believe that me realizing it is the first step.

A Rewarding Conversation

I had a very rewarding conversation with one of my students today. This student is one of our peer advisors and is going through a really hard time right now. She has a lung disease and is in a lot of pain right now because of it. She is not sure what to do because there is only 3 weeks left of school, so she has a lot of work to before then. However, the only way for her to get better is to get a lot of rest. She doesn't have the time to rest because she is so stressed about school. This conversation was very rewarding for me for two reasons, I was able to help her make a plan for what to do and I was able to use the counseling skills with someone who is not a client. Basically, this conversation showed me how I could use my counseling skills to help any student who needs it.

As soon as the student came in I could tell something was wrong, so she came into my office and we talked for almost half an hour. She told me what was wrong and I asked her a lot of questions so I could understand exactly what she was going through. I made sure to ask open-ended questions to allow her to tell me what she wanted. She mentioned that she has had a cough for a couple of weeks and would go to the doctors if her cough didn't better soon. I asked her how long she was going to wait before going to the doctor's. When I asked her that question she made a comment about how she felt like she was in a counseling session with me. I don't know if she meant that as a compliment, but I sure took it as one because it was at that moment that I realized that all of the skills I've learned are starting to pay off.

I think this conversation stands out to me because it was an unplanned conversation. I know I use my counseling skills all the time when I meet with clients and I find helping them very rewarding, but this was different. This was not a planned conversation and it was with a student I work with almost everyday, so it was rewarding on a whole new level. As I'm writing this I'm thinking back to my post about making an impact and I realize this is another moment where I made an impact on a student's life. It may not have been a major impact, but I did help her and that makes me proud. This was such a big moment for me because I just did a post about having a conversation where I wish I did have the skills to help a student. Now that I've had this conversation, I know I have the skills to make a difference.

I think another reason why this conversation really stands out to me is because these types of conversations are the reason I wanted to go into the field of Higher Education. I wanted to be able to help students on all levels and since I started this program I don't feel like I've had a lot of those conversations where I've really felt like I've made a difference with students. Again, I've had conversations with clients where I do feel like I've made a difference, but I haven't really had any where a student comes to me randomly and I'm able to help the student. This conversation really did help me solidify that I am in the right field and I really look forward to helping more students.

More tough conversations

There is a particular conversation I had with a student last year that I have been reflecting on a lot. The conversation happened last Spring semester and I continue to think about it constantly. The conversation centered around the topic of the multicultural sorority that Panhellenic voted on and passed. I'm not sure how the conversation started, but basically the student did not understand why a multicultural sorority was necessary. He felt that all women should feel welcome in the sororities that are already on campus and didn't see the purpose of bringing on a new sorority that was only for a certain group of women on campus. I tried to explain the reasoning for bringing the new sorority on campus and he continued to struggle to understand the purpose of it. Finally the student just said "Maybe I just don't understand because I'm white." At that point I had no idea where to take the conversation, so I just let it go. This is why I've been thinking about it ever since it happened. I keep hoping I had taken the conversation further and explored the issue with him more.

I have been thinking about this conversation for two reasons, (1) It makes me wonder how many other members of the Greek system, or even on the USD campus, feel this way and (2) I wish I had the counseling skills I have now when this conversation happened.

It is no secret that USD is a predominantly white campus and that underrepresented students on this campus struggle to feel a sense of belonging. In thinking about the multicultural sorority on campus I wonder how many students really understand the purpose of having a group like this on campus. I know a very good job was done during Panhellenic meetings to help them understand why a multicultural sorority was necessary, but there are many other students on campus that were not a part of these meetings. Specifically the men in IFC clearly don't understand why this is necessary. Looking back at my conversation, I wish I had used it as a reason to have a discussion during the IFC meeting about the multicultural sorority. I think it would have been a good discussion to hear what their opinions were and try to help them understand. The idea of diversity and inclusion is obviously something that continuously needs to be talked about and I should have taken that opportunity to have a discussion about it. This is another moment for me where I recognize that I missed an opportunity for growth for myself and my students. I hope that if an opportunity like this comes up again, I will recognize it and initiate the conversation.

In thinking about the counseling skills that I have learned since starting my position in the Center for Student Success, it is clear to me that this conversation would have looked very different if I had the skills then. The way the conversation went, I spent most of the time explaining to him the purpose of the multicultural sorority. If I had the counseling skills I have now I would have asked him more open-ended questions to fully understand where he was coming from. Instead of trying to hear him out, I automatically tried to get him to understand the purpose. It is obviously not realistic for him to change his mind in the matter of one conversation. Once I heard his story I would have offered him a little perspective and self-disclosed a little based on my experiences as an underreprested graduate student on this campus. Then when he made the comment of him being white and not being able to understand, I would have simply asked "Can you explain to me why you think as a white male you cannot understand the purpose of this sorority?" I think this would be the best question to ask because it's open ended and it allows him to tell me what being a white male means to him. Based on how he responds I would follow up with more open-ended questions and hopefully help him begin to see why it is so important. I recognize that I cannot do the conversation over, but I feel it's important that I recognize how valuable basic counseling skills are. I am grateful for the skills I've learned this year and I know they will help me where ever I end up after graduation.

Tracking my Development One Tough Phone Call at a Time

I have been thinking a lot about a phone call I had to make to one of my students earlier in the semester. Basically, the student, who is one of our Peer Advisors, called our office to let us know that she would not be able to make supervision, which is the time for peer advisors to talk about their clients and get advice or guidance about it. Her reason for not being able to make it was that she had a paper she needed to finish by that night. My gut reaction was that finishing a paper was not an acceptable excuse for missing supervision, but I checked in with Stephanie about it to make sure. She let me know that for legal reasons, our peer advisors must attend supervision otherwise they are able to advise students. She also let me know that school was not an acceptable reason for missing. She gave me some talking points and I made the call to the student to let her know that if she missed she would not be able to advise. I was really nervous and anxious about making the call because I didn’t know how the student would react. When I made the phone call, I got the easy part over with, I told the student that for legal reasons, she had to attend supervision every week. She completely understood my point and said she would be there. It would have been really easy for me to leave it at that, but I knew I had to let her know that even though we understood that school was her first priority, finishing a paper was not an acceptable reason for missing. I let her know this and she totally understood my point. When she came to the office she actually thanked me and said, “I just needed someone to give me a wake-up call.” This was a big growing moment for me and I really appreciate that Stephanie had me make the phone call because I know this will not be the last time in my career that I’ll have to do something like this.

I think the reason why I’ve been reflecting about it recently is because I’ve been thinking in general about how much I’ve developed into a stronger professional since starting this program. In my first semester working in the SLIC I remember I had students who would just not show up to our meeting. They would not call or send an email and I would just let it go. I know this was not the right thing to do, but I just didn’t know how to approach the situation. I talked to Mandy about it and she let me know that it I just needed to let them know that it was inappropriate to miss our meeting without calling or sending an email. After that, I would approach my students and ask why they missed and I would ask them to call or email next time, but nothing beyond that. I am fully aware that I missed out on a development opportunity for myself and my students. Looking back on it now, I do wish I had taken advantage of it. The experience with the phone call earlier this semester has helped me tremendously for my future because now I know that I can make those tough phone calls or have those tough conversations. It definitely helped lift my level of confidence.

My Career Path

I have been reflecting a lot about what I want to do after I graduate and there are two areas that really get me excited, Academic Advising and working with underrepresented students. I've obviously been thinking a lot about it because I am aware that my job search is going to be starting soon. I find it very interesting how much my passions have changed since I started the program. When I started this program, I was so passionate about working in student life: clubs/organizations, Greek Life, student activities, or orientation programs. I was so sure that this is where I would end up working after graduation. After getting experience working with Greek Life during my first year, I realized that this is not where my passion is after all. I realized that I was passionate about my undergraduate experience with student life and I thought this passion would translate to any university. I learned that this is not true after all. I am not saying that my experience in my first-year working with Greek Life was not fulfilling, but it became clear to me that this is not what I want to do for the rest of my life. This reflection brought me back to a conversation I had with a student affairs professional at USD at the beginning of the semester. She mentioned that many students in our program apply for positions in student activities or Greek Life because of experiences during undergrad. This was a definite "Ah ha" moment for me because I realized that this was why I thought I wanted to have a career in Greek Life. I got so much out of my experience in Greek Life that I thought I would want to continue working with it. I now know that my experience with Greek Life will continue as an alumnae advisor to my sorority.

It is now clear to me where my passions really are. This has become even more clear to me with my current position. Although I am not doing academic advising per say, I am working with students on academic skills and it has made me realize how much I enjoy working with students in the area of academics. I think what really draws me to a position as an academic advisor is that I can work with students on their academics and tie in my passions during my undergraduate career of getting involved on campus. I envision myself being an advisor that students can come to all throughout the semester, not just when it's time to make their schedules. I also want to tie in my work in the Center for Student Success for students who may be struggling academically. I want to be a holistic advisor to students and a resource for them to turn to. All of these desires translate to my work with underrepresented students as well. I would love to work for a TRIO program of some sort. In these positions I would be working with students academically as well, which is what really draws me to a position like this.

It is clear that my passions fall into the field of academic affairs and not student affairs. Because of this, I have been struggling a lot lately with whether or not to attend the NASPA conference in March. I always just assumed I would go because I felt like I had to go, but now I am wondering if it is even worth it for me to go. I have talked with everyone in my office about this, but I do feel it's still something I need to think about. I just feel like there are other opportunities out there that I would get more value out of. I just need to find those opportunities.

I am grateful for all the opportunities that I've had so far because they have allowed me to realize where my passions really lie.

What is my Professional Identity?

Dedicated Relating

Support Impactful


In class last week we had to come up with words that describe our professional identity by looking the four quadrants: Individual/Interior, Individual/Exterior, Organization/Interior, Organization/Exterior. These are my words!

Dedicated-Originally when we did the activity in class I had the word "compassionate" but after thinking about the work I do with students, I decided that dedicated was a better word to describe me. I have a strong dedication to working with students and trying to make a difference in their lives.

Relating-I have a strong passion for listening to students' stories. I love building relationships with students to hear how they got to college, why they are here, and what struggles they had to overcome to get here. It's important for me to be transparent and share my story to show them they are not alone and normalize their experience. I want to be able to relate to students to help them overcome anything they might be going through.

Support-When I think about what I expect from supervisors and colleagues the first word that comes to mind for me is support. To me it's important to be in a supportive environment and allows me to grow and also make mistakes and learn from them. This is something that has become very important to me during my time as a paraprofessional. I have learned that I will make mistakes and I need to be in an environment that will support me through my learning process of my mistakes.

Impactful-When I was trying to come up with a word to explain what type of organization I wanted to work for, the only thing I could think of was small private or community college, I couldn't think of something to represent what the organization does. Then one of my classmates suggested "impactful" and instantly I knew that was exactly what I wanted. I want to be somewhere that makes an impact on the lives of students. This word impactful really struck me because I realized that in order for the organization to be impactful, I need to take initiative an make an impact as well. I need to make an impact on the students and on the organization itself. Am I doing that right now?

This is something I'm really struggling with because I don't know if I'm really making an impact with the work I'm doing. Most of the students I work with are struggling academically, so I know I'm helping them come with a success plan to ensure their academic success. Am I making an impact though? How do I know if I'm making an impact? Then I think about my organization (Center for Student Success) and I wonder if I'm making an impact there. Something that has really stuck with me is hearing that every GA in that office has implemented some kind of change to make the work that comes out of our office better. Basically, every GA has had an impact on the organization and I really started to worry. How can I make that same impact when I'm only there for a year and every other GA has had two years? Have I already made an impact and I'm just not aware of it?

This made me think of the meeting the MUSE group had last month about intentions and I remember we were asked to write our Professional intentions and I just pulled out my note card and this is what I wrote:

"My intention is to do what other GAs have done in two years time in one year.
I WANT TO MAKE AN IMPACT!"

This is clearly something I have had on my mind for some time and it continues to come up for me. I know I won't know until my time is done in Center for Student Success what kind of impact I'll have, but I will continue to reflect on it as the year continues.

For now, I'm happy knowing that I have a good idea what my professional identity is:
I am a dedicated person who loves relating to students and I want to be a part of an organization that provides support and is IMPACTFUL!