Running head: JOB SHADOWING

Job Shadowing
Federico R Lastra
Florida International University

JOB SHADOWING

2
Job Shadowing

I chose a masters degree in Adult Education and Human Resources Administration, and
after becoming full-time staff and granted the benefit of having my doctoral costs as a benefit
will pursue an Ed. D. in Higher Education Administration. I have worked at the Center for
Academic Success (CfAS) at Florida International University (FIU) since October 2008. During
that time I have seen many potentially successful programs be built and crumble because of lack
of support from those in positions of power within the university that are not in the trenches with
the students, do not witness their struggles, and, therefore, do not comprehend their value. These
programs have been lost in the red tape of university politics. Because my goal is to combine my
experience with continual educational to support student success, the choice to seize the
opportunity to shadow Dr. Saundra McGuire was inevitable.
Dr. McGuire was invited by the CfAS to speak at the third annual symposium hosted by
the CfAS at FIU on Thursday, October 22, 2015; however, she arrived on October 20th, which
permitted me to find out exactly what it is she does when visiting other CfAS. My interest is
twofold, first because I want to become a director of a CfAS, and second because I already
currently train other centers as an independent consultant, most recently Florida Memorial
University after meeting Dr. Keisha Abraham, Dean of the School of Arts and Sciences, apart
from the campus, discovering that there was a need, and my services were requested. Having
visited another CfAS in Seattle, Washington, at the Association for Tutoring Profession
Conference in 2012, and discovering the CfAS at FIU was worlds ahead of many other centers.
The CfAS at FIU has diligently worked to improve upon our services and level of training, being
the first CfAS in Florida to be certified by the College Reading and Learning Association in

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2012, thanks to the leadership of our Reading and Learning Coordinator, who believes that
tutoring is best trained as a teaching profession. Therefore, she constantly pushes our team of
reading and learning tutors to do more. However, this is hard to achieve without the collaboration
of faculty, which is being achieved slowly but steadfastly. This is the prime reason why she
invited her to the CfAS 2015 Symposium, because as the Vice Chancellor of Louisiana State
University (LSU) she was able to develop admirable collaborative relationships between faculty
and her CfAS. These collaborations were focused on how the CfAS could help the student
achieve academically in STEM courses (i.e., Science, Technology, Engineering, and
Mathematics).
Although, Dr. McGuire has retired from being Assistant Vice Chancellor at LSU, she is
the currently the Director Emerita of the CfAS at the University of West Florida, because her
passion for academic support has not burnt out as witnessed when she presents in keynote
addresses or workshops on improving student learning at institutions such as at CfAS at FIU
symposium, University of Washington, the University of California at Davis, and the University
of Cape Town. Dr. McGuire is an expert is her field before joining LSU in 1999, she was the
director of the Center for Learning and Teaching and a senior lecturer in chemistry at Cornell
University for 11 years. Dr. McGuire was named a fellow of the Council of Learning Assistance
and Developmental Education Associations (CLADEA) in 2012. Named a Fellow of the
American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in 2011, named a Fellow of the
American Chemical Society in 2010l; and, in 2007 received the Presidential Award for
Excellence in Science, Mathematics, and Engineering Mentoring (PAESMEM) in a White House
Oval Office Ceremony. Her educational foundation includes her Bachelors of Science (magna
cum laude) from Southern University, Louisiana, Masters of Science from Cornell University,

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New York, and her Ph.D. in Chemical Education from the University of Tennessee at Knoxville,
where she also earned the chancellor's Citation for Exceptional Professional Promise. Dr.
McGuire was destined for greatness and was an exceptional instructor but eventually she also
became a remarkable tutor. However, the transition was wrought with cognitive challenges, you
see she could explain concepts in multiple different ways, but could not understand why some
students could no learn. Until she finally figured out that she could not teach them how to think
the way she thought, but that she had to teach them how to think for themselves. Metacognition
and teaching metacognitive skills was the key to unlocking their understanding (S. McGuire,
personal communication, October 21, 2015).
Her function in adult education is within academic support in the university environment
and her task is, to do what I desire to do, to run a successful CfAS; her function is to develop
metacognitive thinking based on Bloom Taxonomy. She assesses students knowledge with preand post-testing, she allows them to speak and she listens more, she believes that even the
incapable are capable, and most interestingly she builds on their strengths. I am already familiar
with and have used Blooms, pre-and post-testing myself, and various approaches of applying
reading techniques to content specific areas, However, I have made the age old mistake of trying
to fix students weaknesses instead of developing their strengths; moreover, had been giving
them the fish instead of teaching them how to fish. Observing Dr. McGuire observe tutoring
sessions then share her opinion with the tutor, showed me that no matter how much expertise
someone can have, they can always improve with constructive criticism. She taught me how to
deliver less than desirable news positively. She taught me to put ego aside and address the
problem and not the individual, and to always offer a solution. Dr. McGuire modeled how to run

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a CfAS and share what she has learned, for a profit, with other CfAS. Finally, she taught me to
lead by example, and how I can still continue to work, even past retirement age.