Running Head: MY EDUCATIONAL PHILOSOPHY 1

My Educational Philosophy: What Higher Education Means to Me

Samantha Latham

Northern Illinois University

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Introduction

In order to best serve the student populations, educators need to begin by stopping and

asking themselves a set of questions. They need to know what education means to them. How

they want to serve their students population. And lastly, what their goals are when working with

students. Being able to understand those set of questions will greatly assist Student Affair

Professionals in understanding what kind of educator they want to be for the student population

that they serve.

What most people do not understand about working in higher education is that everyone

that works on a campus is an educator in some capacity. It may not be the same as standing up in

front of a classroom and conducting a lecture, but when they interact with the students that they

work with, they are educating them about something. Working in Housing, like myself, I

educate students when it comes to meeting with them in conduct meetings. These meetings are

not just to give them a sanction for their violation, it is to make sure that they learn from what

they have done, and it is my responsibility to educate them about it. Another example is

someone who works in Career Services, their responsibility is to educate students on how to

write resumes and cover letters, among other things that can be taught through Career Services.

Both of those examples are not teaching or professor positions, but both of them work with

students to educate them about something valuable that a student can keep with them for the rest

of their lives.

As mentioned above I work in Housing. I have been working in Housing since April of

2011. I started off my career as a Community Advisors, to working as a Conference Assistant, to

Senior Community Advisor, to finally, my position here at Northern Illinois University as a

Graduate Residence Hall Director. Through these different jobs within Housing, I have been
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able to come to an understanding of what it means to me to be an educator for students. By

answering the questions that I posed above, I am going to lay out what my philosophy is and

what higher education means to me.

Purpose of Education

Education has always been an important part of my life. I can remember when I was in

middle school talking to my dad, and hearing what he had to say about his time in college and

how important of an experience it was to him. I always knew that I wanted to go to college, but I

was always unsure of what it was that I wanted to do. It was not until three major changes, and

one transferring of schools that I was finally able to decide what I wanted to get out of my

college experience. Helping people has always been one of my greatest passions in life. I had

started volunteering in middle school, and that is where my passion of helping people sparked

from. This led me to getting a degree in Human Services Leadership and to further my education

by getting my Masters in Adult and Higher Education.

Seeking a degree from a higher education institution, to me, is a great goal to have in

your life. Through seeking a degree you are learning and educating yourself about the one true

passion in your life. Being able to educate yourself, about something that you love, is the

greatest feeling in the world. Now instead of sitting in classes that do not interest you, you are

able to pick and choose ones that peak your interest. Educating yourself, based on your interests

will lead to a future profession where you see yourself being the happiest in. Knowledge is

power, and by choosing to obtain a degree in higher education institution you are achieving, in

my opinion, the greatest form of power.

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Another purpose of education that can be achieved in a higher education setting, is

usually not learned in a classroom setting. This form of education is how to interact with the

different people that you meet in the college setting. College is a time when most people go out

and experience new things and at times make mistakes. What you learn from those mistakes is a

truly, worthy, educational experience to have. To learn from your mistakes, is at times an even

more educational experience than one you can have in classroom. With mistakes you are able to

decide what you will learn from them, and how the will have an impact on your life.

Serving the Student Population

Working in Housing, how I want to serve students, in turn educate them, is to make sure

that they understand the full meaning behind every conversation that I have with them.

Examples of how I would do this is when meeting with a student that violated the drinking

policy on campus and I will be able to lead the conversation towards educating them, instead of

scolding them. I would not only educate them about the consequences that they themselves will

encounter, but also to get them to see that there are other people that are affected by the decision

that they made. If they came back to the floor intoxicated and made a loud ruckus, they are

affecting the lives of the people that live on the floor with them. I will educate them about how

actions matter, and that everything that you do in your life you can either learn something from,

or just push it in the back of your mind and not think about it again.

An additional way to educate students is by fully explaining the rationale behind why

policies and procedures are in place. Without an explanation, students will not be able to fully

understand why, and they will continue to ignore the policy that they are violating. Another

aspect of explaining can be when we are helping students find the different resources on campus.

Sometimes students do not know how to find the resources that are provided on campus. It is
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part of my philosophy of educating students, to first show them how to look for a resource, and

after I show them I encourage them to go out and try to find additional resources on their own.

This generation of students has a tendency to think that everything is going to be handed to them

on a silver platter, and as an educator in higher education, it is my duty to assist those students in

learning how to obtain the information that they are seeking on their own.

Goals for Working with Student

My main goal when working with students is to assist them in learning how to be

efficient for themselves, and not rely so heavily on others to just give them the information that

they need. This will work differently for each student that I work with. Some of them will only

need a little nudge in the right direction on how to be an advocate for their own lives, for others

this process is going to take a little bit longer.

At times it is difficult for students transitioning into the college setting to realize that their

parents are no longer there to do everything for them anymore. They are now living on their own

and have to learn all these new skills in order to get by on a day to day basis. A huge component

of this is that most student, but not all, have never shared a room with someone else. Here we

run into the issue of having to teach students not only how to be successful academically, but

how to live with someone who they have never met before. The problem that a lot of student run

into is that they do not want to confront their roommate about an issue they have with them.

They would rather ignore it altogether or have someone else, like a Community Advisor or Hall

Director, do the confronting for them. My goal here is to help the student obtain the skills to

confront the situation at hand. This is in the hopes that in the future they will not have to seek

the assistance of others in order confront those they have issues with.
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My last goal that I have for myself when working with students, is for them know that it

is okay to spend more time in school than the norm of four years. This situation is not ideal, but

for some, like myself, the journey to get to the place that you truly want to be is going to take a

little longer than most. My time as an undergrad I was able to obtain the best college experience

through the years that I spent on campus. Those years led me to the discovery of my true

passion, working with students in higher education. Through this experience I will be able to

help those students who are not quite sure where they really want to be in life. Here I will be

able to assist leading them in the right direction, and ultimately helping them to come to their

conclusion of what their true passion, and purpose of seeking higher education is.

Connection to another Philosophy

My philosophy of educating students can be summarized as such; assisting students to

learn from their mistakes and not avoid them, to be advocates for themselves, to know that

sometimes it is okay to not know what you exactly want in life, and it is okay to take their time

to find the path they want to be on. The comparative philosophy that I feel mine compares to is

humanistic adult education. The component that stick out to me the most in this philosophy the

concept of autonomy that is embedded in it. Reviewing the summary of my philosophy, I notice

that there is a large component of autonomy in mine too. As an education, I want students to be

able to rely more heavily on themselves to get things done, instead of the constant need to seek

others to get things done.

The other part of this comparative philosophy that is reflected in my philosophy is the

active cooperation and participation component. Where I see this coming out in my philosophy

is when I am assisting with students in learning from their mistakes. If a students is not willing

to see that they can learn from the mistakes that they have made, then they will not take anything
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from this experience. To get something from this experience, students need to be an active

participant in the educating component of our meeting to be able to obtain the learning part of

what is being said.

Conclusion

As a Student Affairs Professional and an educator in higher education, our philosophies

are always going to be constantly changing. It will also change with each student that you meet,

because in this profession no student situation is going to be the same. As professionals we need

to learn to be flexible and adaptable so that we can best serve the student population that we

work with. Having the groundwork of a philosophy, like the one above, is going to make my

time as a professional more enjoyable because I have the framework done of how it is I want to

serve the student population that I work with.