March 26, 2017

On behalf of Alyssa D. Humbles

M.Ed. Higher Education Candidate
Loyola University Chicago
May 2017

To E-Portfolio Committee,

It is with great pleasure that I write this letter of promise for Miss Alyssa D. Humbles to the field
of Higher Education. Miss Humbles has been an invaluable member of our cohort and program
at large as well as an irreplaceable friend, supporter and co-creator for me. I have been able to
not only experience multiple courses with Miss Humbles over these past two years, but have also
had the opportunity to partner with her on a few course assignments and a semester-long project.

In a program where the curriculum, course content and classroom dialogue is largely focused on
four-year universities and institutions, Miss Humbles has remained steadfast in ensuring that the
community college perspective and experience is also considered. Leveraging her professional
experiences as a Student Success Specialist at Moraine Valley Community College, Miss
Humbles has brought unique and instrumental perspectives to classroom dialogue that would
challenge the learning of our peers and I and push us to be inclusive of higher education in its
entirety especially if our core value is social justice, which encompassed broadening our
knowledge base to include what we may not be as familiar with. As an expectation of our
program is to connect theory to practice, I am impressed with Miss Humbles resourcefulness,
diligence, and ability to find creative ways to connect the content learned in class to her
professional practices even when the content formal or informal displayed gaps in relation to
the community college.

I am particularly encouraged by Miss Humbles efforts, intentionality, and attention to her

personal development as an extension of and supplement to her professional development. With
what first began as a journey to build knowledge for practice, it has been a privilege to watch
Miss Humbles connect critical self-reflection and concepts of social justice to her lived
experiences and personal narrative. With her faith serving as her core, Miss Humbles has
engaged with in-depth processing of what it means to navigate the privileges of her faith while
negotiating holding both her faith and social justice implications constant. Her commitment to
her spirituality coupled with critical self-reflection of her positionality has truly been genuinely
influential to my own spiritual growth and has modeled the way for me to continue to engage in
the negotiation of faith and other identities with social justice. Additionally, I admire her
transition of critical consciousness from the socialization of the need to solely learn how to work
within systems as a woman of color to a more emancipatory consciousness that draws on her
agency to disrupt these same systems from outside as well as within. This shift in consciousness
did not come easy and required much processing, effort, and co-constructing with others to
challenge and affirm varying perspectives.
Miss Humbles commitment to her faith, continued personal, professional and academic
development, and passion for supporting underrepresented students with marginalized identities
will contribute to her longevity in Higher Education. I value so much of her vulnerability with
me throughout this time, her story, her professional role modeling, and the way she carries
herself with grace and humility. I will always cherish the many occasions over these past two
years where Miss Humbles and I co-constructed what our biraciality means to us and grew
together in spaces of identity development. As a colleague and a life-long friend, the possibilities
are endless for her. As she will continue on to pursue a doctoral degree soon, I know her
contributions to our literature and thus, to our practices, will continue to prove invaluable. I am
forever encouraged to know that skilled, intelligent and resilient social justice advocates like
Miss Humbles will be creating the positive social change that we need in Higher Education.

Sincerely,

Trebby Ellington
M.Ed. Higher Education Candidate
May 2017