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Running head: Student affairs philosophy statement

Student affairs philosophy statement

“My second semester I was part of the orientation team at the New Student and Family

program and is willing to continue till my last semester to help the new students feel and

experience the joy of being a first-time college student.” Therefore, I came to student affairs; this

was the motivation behind my decision to enter a field that exist in a different way where I am

from. I took my opening statement from my personal statement who I submitted to 3 different

schools. At that time, I was part of the orientation team, I did not know what it is like to be a

graduate assistant in a residence hall responsible for 320 residents.

As student affair professionals, we wear all the hats, different hats, different times and in

the most unexpected times. I cannot say I only have one role or two, I would not be fair with

myself, with my students nor with my colleagues. However, I can define my main role which my

main priority; being there for my students, being the person who they look up to, being their

mentor and educator at the same time, this is my passion. My passion is my students, when one

of my students emails me to check on me while I am away, it gives me a hint that I am in the

right place in my life. When I see one of my students struggling in managing her/his time and

they email me or stop by my office, this is when I know I fit into this place and this field.

Everyone fails and everyone succeed in his/her life. I have my ups and downs, during my

career in student affairs, I am aware that I will succeed, and I will fail. However, my challenges

will lead me to where I want to be. The students that I will be working with will be hearing about

my failures and my successful moments, I will share my personal experience to motivate them

and to challenge their way of thinking that not everyone was born successful and skilled. To be

successful and skilled you must work on yourself, challenge yourself and make the decisions by

yourself for yourself. Nothing comes easy and this is what I will work on with the student I will
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Running head: Student affairs philosophy statement

be working with. I will give them as much resources as they need, I will walk them to the

resources and help them with what they need help in, but one thing I will not be, I will not do

their homework for them. Meaning, I will challenge them to challenge themselves and get out of

their comfort zone, but I expect them to be adults, independent enough to make decisions that

will be efficient for them and for their future.

Balance, curiosity, growth, loyalty and honesty. These are the five core values that I live

with, follow and work with in my life. In my work, I will create space to teach others how to

work with my values as well as I will learn about others and their values.

Balance is what makes life worth living if you know how to balance your life in the right

way. I will talk with my students about how to make their life as balanced as possible, they

cannot just be focusing on their education and getting high grades all the time, there must be a

moment where they make time for themselves. I will encourage my students to find a new

hobby, be involved on campus, join clubs and organizations but do not limit yourself with your

classes and major.

Come to me with questions, ask me about this world, ask me about my work, ask me

about your struggles and my struggles, ask me about adulthood, ask me about anything you want,

anything you find interested or your curious about, just ask. Curiosity is a big part of my

philosophy, if everyone I meet is at curious as I am, I would be the most satisfied person.

I will encourage my students to be curious in every stage in their life, be as curious as

they can, if anything they will grow with curiosity, they will learn new thing every time they ask

about something. Often curiosity leads to something they have not thought of or something they

have been thinking of for a long time and could not find an answer. This is how I started and
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Running head: Student affairs philosophy statement

found my passion for student affairs, I was curious what were the graduate assistants who

worked in orientation majoring in, I asked them and I asked more my supervisor and I applied to

this field where my curiosity grows every day more and more.

Growth, my mother always tells me you “everyday you grow, there is no limit for

growth” people grow in different ways, they grow with education, they grow with experience,

relationships, challenges, tough people they come to their life, hard situations that challenges

their way of thinking and they grow by time. I will challenge my students and make sure they

know the importance of growth, when they look for areas to grow in, I will challenge them to go

for something out of their comfort zone that they have not tried or thought they would take a risk

in.

I am loyal to my students and to my work and the most relatable example I could think of

is that when I went back to my home country for a week, I could not think of anything better I

want to be loyal for and get back to other than my 320 students and my two buildings. During

my assistantship and practicum, I will give my team one hundred percent of my energy to show

them how loyal I can be to something I am passionate about. Teaching my students about

loyalty, it does not only have to be with their relationships or family, it is with everything they

are passionate about, with their field of study, their future professional job, their commitments

and their involvements during their education journey or after that.

I consider honesty the most important value, if you are honest with yourself, then you are

honest with who you want to be in the future, you are honest with what you believe in even if it

changes. Honesty is the best policy, I want my students to be honest with themselves and what
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Running head: Student affairs philosophy statement

they want in their life and from their people in their life to have a less stressful life and a more

joyful, peaceful life.

Overall, I will create a space to my students to be themselves with the goal of

encouraging them to make good decisions and help them do that by providing them with

resources and being generous with them by sharing my experience to learn from my failures and

my successful journey. I am proud to be a student affairs professional, always happy to be there

for my students, at the end of the day, I choose this field to spend my life working with students

and be there for them.