Running head: NARRATIVE REFLECTION 1

Narrative Reflection

Frank Inglima

Loyola University Chicago

M.Ed. in Higher Education ePortfolio

March 29, 2018

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Several big changes in my life have happened during my time in Loyola’s Higher Education

Master’s Program. My wife and I bought a house, we had our first child, and the conclusion of my

graduate education is near. I can say with certainty that I have changed personally and have learned

a lot about myself and the world around me during my time in the program. In this paper, I will

reflect on: things I consider to be the most impactful content I have learned from the program, how I

have changed since entering the program, the most impactful things I have learned from my

experiential learning, and lessons I learned about social justice and how those will inform my

current and future practice.

Lessons from the Program

Theories and models like the re-conceptualized Model of Multiple Dimensions of Identity

(MMDI) (Abes, Jones, & McEwen, 2007) in ELPS433: Student Development in Higher Education,

helped me understand how meaning is subconsciously assigned to our lived experiences and shape

the identities we hold. I learned that context plays a crucial role in student development and that

interventions I employ are sometimes not applicable or effective for all students. I can take these

lessons into consideration by tailoring my strategies and ways of interacting with students based on

different individual learning styles and ways of perception. I also learned that no one theory or

model is sufficient to explain the complexity of student development, structures of institutions, or

any other phenomena in higher education.

From ELPS431: Evaluation in Higher Education, I learned the importance of program

assessment in higher education. The semester-long assessment proposal on which my partner and I

worked for the class made me realize the value of having concrete and explicit goals for a program

and using assessment methods to measure the extent to which the program is meeting those goals.

This project also taught me how to construct assessment instruments like surveys and focus groups,
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which are skills that can help em in any future research or assessments I propose or conduct as a

student affairs professional.

Most recently, I learned from ELPS459: Organization and Governance in Higher Education,

how intentionality in my actions is important as a student affairs professional (Harper, 2010).

Constantly assessing what I am doing and how I am interacting with people and surroundings in my

sphere of influence can help me improve my job performance. Often asking individuals for

feedback on how I can be more effective for a greater number of people in my job functions and

researching ways to implement these strategies will help me grow personally and professionally.

Using systematic inquiry to improve the quality of my interactions in every aspect of my life is an

important, and very recent lesson I took away from ELPS459 (Harper, 2010).

Transformational Education

As stated before, a lot has changed in my life from the start to the end of the Higher

Education Program. The biggest change to happen during this time, by far, was becoming a father.

My experiences in the program and becoming a father have intersected in ways I had not anticipated

nor, in fact, even thought about. Some of the concepts and theories taught in the program have

actually made me consider how they would inform the way I raise and interact with my son.

Throughout the time spent in the program, the subject of performativity of masculinity and

patriarchy really struck a chord with me.

As a youth, I felt pressure to perform masculinity by hiding emotional responses or not

revealing that I may prefer watching Aladdin or the Little Mermaid as opposed to the latest Arnold

Schwarzenegger or Sylvester Stallone film. From ELPS433: Student Development in Higher

Education, we learned about the Harris (2010) conceptual model of the meanings college men

ascribe to masculinities and contextual influences such as parental influences in the precollege
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gender socialization stage. He cites the father as especially influential, which makes me feel an

even greater responsibility for helping my son become the truest form of himself. The concepts

from this course have informed a dimension of how I will parent my son by encouraging him to

make his own choices and to help him disrupt what his environmental influences may dictate what

gender and masculinity “should” look like.

Lessons from Internship and Profession

Chance brought me down the career path on which I currently am. Upon graduation for my

undergraduate institution, I was unable to find a job in my chosen field. Eventually, I secured a

part-time reception position at a small college in downtown Chicago. At this college I was exposed

to a lot of different departments and aspects of an institution of higher education. Being part-time, I

took every opportunity for extra work for different departments that came my way. I did extensive

records work for the registrar’s office, scholarship applications for financial aid, and enrollment

processing for admissions. Eventually I was promoted to a fulltime position in the Registrar’s

Office and was assigned as one of two Veteran Affairs Certifying Officials. While acquiring all this

experience, I started to realize that I love working with students witnessing their development and

excitement as they achieve their goals. Making small impacts in their lives grew to greater and

greater impacts I was able make. I became more and more passionate about student affairs, even

though I had little vocabulary to articulate what was happening.

With the combination of my time at that small college and working for Loyola’s Biology

Department, my total time of working in higher education (going on eight years) has only furthered

my interest in student success. Sometimes, working in an institution like Loyola, I feel very siloed.

My department, while large, seems like its own little world with very little contact with people

outside of the department and little opportunity for work on initiatives across campus with other
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departments. My internship last summer brought back some of the feelings of satisfaction I had

when I worked with so many other different departments back at that small college. In my

internship, I worked for the Pre-Health Professions Office at Loyola and have since been involved

in their weekly team meetings and I have been a pre-health advisor for this year’s cycle of students.

My internship has taught me about the agency I have, even in my small role, where I can work to

expand my experiences and make opportunities to work more with students.

Lessons about Social Justice

The concepts of social justice, privilege, and oppression were something that were

particularly impactful for me. These concepts were introduced in one of my first course in the

program, ELPS432: Multiculturalism for Social Justice in Higher Education. The identities I hold

are White, heterosexual, cisgender, Christian, temporarily able-bodied, male; all of which are

dominant identities. This is something of which I was mostly unaware before starting the program.

This class introduced me to oppression and a system that is designed to benefit some and not others.

I connected this to the old saying I knew of “being born on second base and thinking you hit a

double”. I never gave my identities much thought because I had that luxury of not being

discriminated against because of them.

I will carry with me the concepts I learned about social justice in my future work in higher

education. The fact that I am now more aware of my and others’ identities and how these are

factors that might affect my interactions, I can adjust my approach to fit or reflect each individual

situation. Understanding systems of oppression and the inequitable access to higher education that

comes with that, allows me to be an advocate for turning that around. Whether being an advocate

means pushing my institution to adapt to learning norms and encouraging the value of different

types or knowledge, or simply focusing on retention of students at higher-risk of withdrawal, I can

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strive to do what I can in my given role to ensure that more students have the option to not only

pursue a degree, but follow it to completion.

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References

Abes, E., Jones, S., & McEwen, M. (2007). Reconceptualizing the model of multiple

dimensions of identity: The role of meaning-making capacity in the construction

of multiple identities. Journal of College Student Development, 48 (1), 1-22

Harper, S. R. (2010). Strategy and Intentionality in Practice. In Student Services: A Handbook for

the Profession (5th ed., pp. 287-291). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Harris, F. (2010). College men’s meaning of masculinities and contextual influences: Toward a

conceptual model. Journal of College Student Development, 50 (3), 297-318