Running head: STRENGTHS LEARNING OUTCOME NARRATIVE

Strengths Learning Outcome Narrative

Tiff Hayes
SDA Portfolio
Spring 2015
Seattle University

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The overarching theme of social justice-driven leadership has emerged as I reflect on
my time in the SDA program. I have been committed to leading within a social justice
framework for many years now, but my experiences at Seattle University have expanded and
redefined my definition of social justice. I have come to understand how important adaptive
leadership is, focusing on understanding yourself as a system and your role in the larger
system (Heifetz, Grashow & Linsky, 2009, p. 182). In addition to this, my social justice-driven
leadership is a culmination of empowering students, mentorship, and critical thought.
Empowering Students: LO 2 & 5 | Artifacts A2, E, F1 & G
Empowerment is rooted in understanding students and student issues and using this
understanding to adapt services appropriately. L.O. #2, Understanding students and student
issues is characterized by creating a more inclusive campus environment, providing
opportunities to strengthen self-efficacy, and recognizing each students unique experience.
Creating a more inclusive campus environment is one way that I am able to lead with a
commitment to social justice, which has always been part of my practice. During my five years
of experience at Green River Community College prior to beginning the SDA program, I worked
with many students with marginalized identities and I saw what a difference their feeling
empowered made in their success and ability to be self-advocates.
The work I did during my internship at Wagner College provided a fantastic opportunity
for me to delve into this. I was asked to help develop and facilitate an Intercultural Awareness
Workshop (Artifact E) for a learning community during orientation that addressed issues of
racism, homophobia, sexual assault, and other sensitive issues. This workshop introduced
students to the idea of an inclusive campus and showed them that Wagner College is committed
to creating a safe and welcoming campus.

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Through my social justice-driven leadership, I also empower students by providing
opportunities to strengthen self-efficacy and recognizing each students unique experience. As an
academic advisor, I am very intentional about listening and validating students experiences while
also addressing issues of self-efficacy that arise in our conversations. I understand how vital it is
for them to be resilient and believe in themselves and their abilities, academically and in other
aspects of their lives. Bandura (1997) found that self-efficacious students participate more
readily, work harder, persist longer, and have fewer adverse emotional reactions when they
encounter difficulties, (as cited in Zimmerman, 2000). Laura Hauck-Vixie, my colleague in the
advising office and SDA alum who has been a mentor to me during the program, has seen this
work and shared her perspective in my professional letter of promise (Artifact F1).
The other aspect of empowering students that I find strength in is L.O. #5: Adapting
student services to specific environments and cultures by tailoring programs and services,
listening (as I mentioned above), and intentionally diversifying experience. It is only by
intentionally diversifying my experience, as showcased in my polished resume (Artifact A2),
that I can understand how to tailor programs and services in specific environments and cultures.
My only experience prior to SU was at a local community college, so rather than staying in the
area for my internship, I sought out an opportunity on the east coast in a completely different
region and with very specialized student populations. This allowed me to gain more and different
experience in an effort to learn about adapting student services to specific environments.
The research plan I developed in EDUC 500: Educational Research (Artifact G) is
another example of the work that I have done to diversify my experience in an effort to empower
students, which involved conducting a study to determine academic success among transgender
identified university students in the U.S.

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Mentorship: LO 6 | Artifacts C3 & F2
Mentorship is an essential part of my socially just focused leadership as well and
demonstrates L.O. #6: Developing and demonstrating skills in leadership and collaboration
through developing relationships, offering mentorship, and trusting others. Developing
relationships is a building block of leadership, mentorship, and collaboration. I have been able to
develop many relationships during my time in the SDA program, especially through my work as
the SUSDA Internship and Networking Chair. Through this leadership position, I was able to
develop relationships with my peers during the planning process of our events.
Offering mentorship through the SUSDA buddy program has been a great way for me to
develop my leadership skills during this program. I have spent time this year getting to know a
first-year student in the SDA program through scheduled coffee dates, happy hours, and text
conversations, discussing everything from relationships, to classes, to social justice issues that
we are passionate about. I have kept in mind some of the content I learned in Leadership in
Education 1 (EDAD 571), especially the Leadership Identity Development Model (Komives et
al., 2006) that stresses the importance of positive mentors throughout the development process
(Artifact C3). The SUSDA buddy program has been a great tool for connecting first-year and
continuing students in relationships that can take on a mentorship feel, which in my experience,
has been extremely supportive on both ends. These relationships are beneficial because they
provide a relatively safe and supportive environment for us to trust others and be validated.
My strengths in leadership and collaboration are also supported by my colleague in the
program, Alexa Forster. We have worked together on many projects, groups, and committees
throughout the past two years and have come to be good friends. Alexa has been a part of much
of the leadership and collaboration work that I have been involved in, including co-leading and

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co-hosting the SDA Graduation Celebration in 2014, and has shared about them in my current
student letter of promise (Article F2). Alexa and I have acted as mentors to each other in a
wayI have significant professional experience in the field, and Alexa has experience in
functional areas within student affairs that I know nothing about, in addition to the fact that we
both have very different strengths and are able to support each other in their development.
Critical Thought: LO 4 & 8 | Artifacts A1, A2, B1, B2, D & E
Critical thought is integral to social justice-driven leadership in the higher education
context and something I engage in regularly. To me, critical thought shows up in L.O. #4:
Understanding and fostering diversity, justice, and a sustainable world formed by a global
perspective and Jesuit Catholic tradition. I have demonstrated my competency through critically
examining structures and process, increasing awareness and understanding, and
incorporating my own salient identities into my work.
Critically examining structures, especially in relation to social justice issues, is a
cornerstone of my leadership. My personal and professional missions (Artifacts B1 & B2) both
showcase my commitment to examining structures and beginning to dismantle them in an effort
to increase access, equity, and inclusivity, drawing much of my inspiration and motivation from
Yossos (2005) concept of community cultural wealth. At the heart of critical thought and social
justice-driven leadership is redefining societal standards to slowly change the fact that, White
middle class communities [are] the standard by which all others are judged, (p. 82).
Critical thought is also the catalyst for increasing awareness and understanding of those
who hold different identities than our own. This work has been important to me for a long time
and my dedication to increasing awareness and understanding has grown during this program.
My commitment can be seen in the IAW presentation I discussed earlier (Artifact E) that I

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facilitated at Wagner College, and also in my role as Volunteer and Registration Co-Chair for the
ACPA Institute for Social Justice that was held on Seattle Universitys campus in November,
2014. I jumped at the chance to be involved in this institute because it was a new and different
way for me to engage in social justice work, combined with my passion for professional
development through events and conferences.
Most of my development in this area during the SDA program has been in incorporating
my salient identities into my work. I am a queer, first-generation, female student from a lowincome familyconnecting with these identities individually and examining how their
intersectionality shapes who I am has been extremely powerful for me. Understanding these
important parts of my identity has allowed me to explore how these identities play out and show
up in my interests, work, and interactions with students. In my EDUC 520 Social Justice in
Professional Practice course in spring 2014, myself and a group of my peers collaborated with
the Pride Foundation to do a research project and offer recommendations to the Pride
Foundations board. Our project, An Exploration of Leadership Programs for LGBTQ Leaders in
the Pacific Northwest (Artifact D) examined leadership development and social justice training
opportunities that were available for Pride Foundations volunteers to engage in. This project
was especially important and special to me because it embraced two things that are at the core of
my being: leadership and my queer identity. Critical thought guided us through the research,
analysis, synthesis, and recommendations that we did for the Pride Foundation, all in an effort to
support the development of their volunteer leaders.
A different vein of critical thought is seen in L.O. #8: Communicating effectively in
speech and in writing. To me, this encompasses understanding the intended audience of your
communication, facilitating conversations and programs, and intentional discussion. When

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communicating something to people, it is vital to know and understand the intended audience of
the communication because it can help to adapt the information thats being shared in a way that
the audience can understand and increase the likelihood that the audience will engage in the
intended way. A perfect example of how powerful this can be is in resume development. When I
applied to the SDA program, the resume I submitted (Artifact A1) wasnt adapted for a graduate
school application, it was the standard resume I used at the time. Throughout my time in the
program I have learned just how essential it is to adapt my resume for each position I apply for,
focusing specifically on the information shared and job duties listed. You can see what a huge
difference this has made in my current resume (Artifact A2).
Facilitating conversations and programs is another aspect of communicating effectively
that I consider a strength, especially as it relates to social justice-driven leadership. The
experiences I have had during the SDA program in this area are plentiful, including the IAW
presentation (Artifact E) I facilitated at Wagner College during my internship, and the Pride
Foundation presentation (Artifact D) I discussed above.
Intentional discussion is the last communication strategy that shows critical thought. This
concept was the backbone of my role as the SUSDA Internship and Networking Chair this year
as I led my committee to plan and execute the largest Internship and Networking Fair our
program has hosted. Intentional discussion of goals, learning outcomes, recruitment, and
marketing ideas drove our meetings and plans for the fair.
The opportunities, projects, and work that I have detailed here are what have made my
SDA experience so fantastic and prepared me to be an effective socially justice-driven leader.

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References
Heifetz, R., Grashow, A., & Linsky, M. (2009). The practice of adaptive leadership: Tools and
tactics for changing your organization and the world. Boston, MA: Harvard Business
Press.
Komives, S. R., Longerbeam, S. D., Owen, J. E., Mainella, F. C., & Osteen, L. (2006). A
leadership identity development model: Applications from a grounded theory. Journal of
College Student Development, 47(4), 401-418.
Yosso, T. (2005). Whose culture has capital? A critical race theory of community cultural
wealth. Race, Ethnicity and Education, 8(1), 69-91.
Zimmerman, B.J. (2000). Self-efficacy: An essential motive to learn. Contemporary Educational
Psychology, 25, 82-91.