Leadership

The leadership competency is defined as, “the knowledge, skills, and attitudes required of a leader… in both an individual capacity and within a process of how individuals work together effectively to envision, plan, effect change in organizations, and respond to internal and external constituencies and issues” (ACPA & NASPA, 2010, p. 22). My competency level in this area is at a proficient level. I have advanced in this competency through my experience building relationships and developing an ethos of collaboration in the Program House community  at Oberlin and through demonstrating leadership through my practica in the recruitment for the CSP program.
 

The program houses at Oberlin College represent the institution’s commitment to honoring diverse communities through creating programmatic and residential spaces that allow for those communities to flourish. They also represent student activism and the struggle against oppression on campus. The students that were involved in the program house spaces were proud proponents of them. However stereotypes and myths about the spaces and the students who participate are in abundance on campus. In my opinion the institution was missing an opportunity to engage students in developmental dialogue regarding why these communities exist and failed to provide the students who were deeply rooted in these communities with a forum to express their pride effectively.
 

During my first year of graduate school, I earnestly learned about the spaces through building relationships with stewards of institutional memory on campus. Through building relationships with the ombudsperson and faculty on campus, I became acquainted with the complex and political space the learning communities occupied between all of the constituents on campus. In addition to building relationships, I uncovered knowledge through attending the archives and promoting that my students do the same. I created several assignments for my student staff members to research the formation of their community in the archives. In doing so, I empowered my students to learn about and share the knowledge they uncovered regarding the creation of their learning community, why it was created and for what purpose, and how that has shaped the contemporary iteration of the community today.
 

I then wrote a proposal for the “ I <3 PH” campaign. The conception of the “I <3 PH”  program was a display of my understanding of the complex relationship that the program houses have with Oberlin College. The imagery was commissioned at my request by an alumni who was a strong proponent of the program house experience. The campaign provided and image, language, and platform for students to share why residential communities were an integral part of their education at Oberlin. In promoting this, my students gained a platform to share what they loved about the spaces with their peers. The campaign was supported by my department who invested in shirts with the logo. The logo has been utilized on the website and upcoming department produced literature that will showcase the program house spaces.

​

I also grew in my leadership competency for the recruitment of applicants in the College Student Personnel program. I worked together with my Interview Days team in order to create a interview and on campus process that was educational in nature and emphasized our program's commitment to diversity and social justice.. It was important to convey this message consistently throughout the communication process with applicants. I treated my interactions with candidates as educational opportunities and sought to provide our candidates with the tools that they needed to successfully navigate the interview process. I created new handouts that helped candidates prepare for professional interviews, and updated alumni profiles to include diverse alumni that represented geographic, gender, sexual orientation  and racial/ethnic diversity. I was mindful that our publications, voice, and personal interactions all contributed to the overall assessment of climate and support. I was also sure to engage the various hiring stakeholders in this process by creating support systems for hiring managers to feel comfortable in the hiring process of graduate interns. Through these experiences, I worked with a variety of stakeholders, navigated institutional politics to influence change on Oberlin's campus and for the CSP program. .