Running head: COMPETENCIES 1

Competencies Reexamination & Professional Development Plan

Hayley R. Remmel

Western Illinois University

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Referencing back to my first competencies paper, I laughed as well as gasped at how

much I have grown in the past year and a half. First, I laughed because my writing, grammar,

and vocabulary was poor, and I can see my growth in my English writing skills. Second, I

gasped because I am shocked, amazed, proud, honestly, I do not know the word to describe the

feeling that I felt highlighting new outcomes under each of the ten competencies. There is still

room for growth in each of these competencies, which I will describe my professional

development plan for each competency when I discuss my ranking and growth in each area.

Personal and Ethical Foundations (PPF)

Throughout being in the College Student Personnel (CSP) program, I have gained self

confidence and have become more conscious of my personal and ethical beliefs. Before I ranked

myself a four. Now I would rank myself at a six. Through conversations with current and

former supervisors, faculty, and colleagues I have discussed ethical dilemmas I have dealt with

and that I may deal with in future positions. I also have taken charge and prioritized my personal

wellbeing by setting aside time to work out, meal prep, and relax which has helped my personal

and professional relationships.

My professional development plan continues to prioritize my personal wellbeing as well

as continuing to have conversations with others in the field about ethical dilemmas that we are

faced with on the daily. When I move to my new institution and position, I plan on speaking up

and questioning actions that are not congruent with my ethical beliefs to try and understand the

individual making that decision. Also, I plan on incorporating new ways to achieve personal

fulfillment such as journaling and meditating.

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Values, Philosophy, and History (VPH)

My VPH competency is the competency that has grown the most during my time in the

program. I ranked myself a one because I only highlighted one foundational outcome. Now, I

would rank myself at a seven out of ten. First semester, I could not tell you the history of higher

education or student affairs as well as any values or philosophies that our field believed. In forth

semester, I can describe who higher education was created for, have created my own philosophy

and critically examined our practice and how it is shaped by historical context.

How I plan on growing in this competency is getting involved with national and local

associations. Once I get a steady income I plan on re-joining College Student Educators

International (ACPA) and getting involved by joining commissions and serving on different

committees. Also, I plan on reading books that are focused on how others are incorporating

student affairs values into their work.

Assessment, Evaluation, and Research (AER)

AER is a competency that I have also significantly grew in during my time in the CSP

program. My first time ranking myself, I ranked myself a zero due to my lack of experience with

AER. Through my assistantship, practicum, and courses, I have learned the importance of AER

and how to effectively use AER in my practice. I now would rank myself at a four. To deepen

my learning, I can now create learning outcomes and connect them to my organizations goals

and vales as well as how to accurately assess that my learning outcomes were met. I believe

through planning the optional summer internship workshop I created learning outcomes that

reflected the CSP office and throughout the workshop assessed how the participants were

achieving the learning outcomes.

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I will mention this in a later section, but I want to continue my research and expand upon

my independent study. I believe through conducting further research I will be able to grow in

this competency by using various types of research methods besides personal observation and

opinion. By furthering my research, I would want to reach out to students and go through the

IRB process to collect data and possibly be published.

Law, Policy, and Governance (LPG)

The LPG competency is my lowest ranked competency, which has slightly grown in the

past year and a half. Previously, I ranked myself a zero. Through working in the CSP office,

taking the law and ethics course and, becoming more conscious of state and national laws have

helped me grow in this competency. Before graduate school, I did not understand how specific

laws implanted me and the difference between laws. Being in our law class, I am beginning to

understand how laws and their barriers and oppressive was not only affect me, but students I am

working with. Currently I would tank myself a three out of ten.

I believe that when I get into my first professional position this competency will grow.

Also, with looking at positions in different states I will need to research state and county laws as

I will be completely new to the region. My plan is to also stay informed on what policies and

laws are being discussed by reading articles, watching the news as well as reading information

on the officials who are discussing the law.

Organizational and Human Resources (OHR)

Going into my first competency paper, I believed that I was fairly competent in OHR. Due

to this belief I ranked myself a six. Through my summer internship where I gained supervision

skills and worked with a student staff, I started to learn and practice my supervision style. Also,

through my summer internship I learned about billing, hiring practices, and lead professional
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development sessions based on my staffs’ needs. I would now rank myself at a seven because I

still have much to learn about hiring, budgeting, and fundraising.

I believe that once I enter my first professional position I will grow in this competency.

Through job descriptions that interest me, majority of the positions list hiring and training a staff

as one of the main responsibilities, which is an experience I have not directly had through my

experiences. Also, through my professional development plan, I plan on getting involved with

committees either for hiring or conferences that will help me budget and possible fundraise for the

event.

Leadership (LEAD)

LEAD was another competency that I felt competent in while writing my first

competency paper. I ranked myself at a seven and now I would rank myself an eight. Being a

student leader in at my undergrad institution was the reason I ranked myself high. Through my

practical experiences I have grown confident in my leadership by going the extra mile on

projects and by stepping back and helping someone else establish their leadership style.

Recently in my assistantship, I have let my new co-grads take leads on projects we are working

on together to help them learn and be confident in their abilities.

My professional development plan encourages me to continue going the extra mile as

well as reading the situation to identify if I need to be the leader or if this is the time to allow

someone else to shine. I plan on attending webinars and workshops at conferences or through

websites that challenge my personal leadership style. My other goal is to use feedback more

instead of just collecting the feedback and not growing from it.
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Social Justice and Inclusion (SJI)

SJI was another competency area that I ranked myself at a zero. SJI were buzz terms that

I would use in my practice and in class but did not know what they meant for me. After

completing third semester, I have begun to understand privilege, systemic barriers, and

oppression and how it relates not only in my practice, but in my personal life as well. Working

on CSP Days this year I have began to question materials we use as well as our communication

and how that affects candidates. One example was our attire guide that we send to candidates to

help them prepare. While reviewing it, I began to question the purpose of the attire guide and the

message we are sending to the candidates. When updating the guide, I included two new

sections, one about the purpose of the guide and to remind candidates that there is no need to buy

a new wardrobe as well as a slide on outlets current students use to buy new clothes to serve as a

resource for those that needed it.

In my professional development plan, I plan on learning how to be a better advocate for

my identities as well as for my students’ identities. I acknowledge that my identities hold some

power and I want to use my power to empower others and speak up. How I plan on doing this is

by connecting and building relationships with others whose intersecting identities are similar or

different than me own. From there creating action steps to create change in our field and my

workplace.

Student Learning and Development (SLD)

In my previous paper, I ranked myself a zero out of ten. I was not aware of student

development theories prior to entering in the CSP program and felt behind compared to my

cohort-mates. Through my experiences, I would now rank myself a six out of ten. After taking

courses such as both theories, counseling, and, student characteristics to name I few, I have
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learned various theories about student development. I believe the assignment that helped me

grow the most was the Theory to Practice presentation. I created specific learning outcomes,

reached out to stakeholders, incorporated theory into my practice, and created an assessment to

assess my project. This assignment truly helped me put theory into my practice.

My professional development plan for this competency is simple. My plan is to articulate

and present theories through conversations and presentations to and with supervisors, mentors,

students, and colleagues that highlights to importance of backing our work with theories. This

by no means is listing theories out, but explaining their use, history, and benefit to our work as

practitioners. Also, I would be interested in doing more research and diving deeper into my

independent study on entertainment media and how students develop their personal identities

through the media. It would be cool to have my name in a book.

Technology (TECH)

A person would assume that a member of my generation would be tech savvy, but my

tech savvy was being able to update my phone and connect to Bluetooth. Previous I ranked

myself a three out of ten. Through my assistantship I have been able to grow my TECH

competency through recruitment using social media and email communication. As well as

creating a website for new students to use throughout orientation which allows students who do

not have a Facebook account to access all the information that will be posted in their cohort

Facebook group. With this experience and plenty more such as presenting at the Student Affairs

101 conference about the importance of visual and interactive media for recruitment I would

rank myself a six out of ten.

My plan for improving my TECH competency is by taking free or cheap workshops that

teach me other technology software and programs. One goal is to learn how to use source code
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for a website. It would have been nice to know how to code while creating my website as

sometimes the website would have a mind of its own and the way to figure out what was going

on was to look at the source code.

Advising and Supporting (A/S)

Through advising Alpha Sigma Alpha sorority and serving as a Building Connections

Mentor, I have become more confident in my advising skills. Previously, I ranked myself a four.

Now, I would rank myself at a seven. My definition of advising previous was associated with

being an Academic Advisor, which I had no interest in. Working with the sorority and being

their advisor, I have helped these women navigate conflict, create mentoring relationships within

the sorority and, shared my knowledge of campus resources.

My professional development plan for this competency is to attend more trainings on

topics that I have no or little knowledge in. I have already attended a Suicide Prevention

workshop, but want to attend a Safe Space, Bystander Intervention, and Interpersonal Violence

Prevention Initiative trainings. This will involve me reaching out to colleagues on my new

campus as it is not only beneficial to me but, also to my students.

Throughout my two years in the program I have shifted and grown from the individual

who entered the program. I have grown in my self confidence and have become aware of my

own areas of growth. I am excited for the new opportunities that are to come that will only

continue my growth in each of the ten competencies.