Kiah Albritton Statement of Purpose

In 2014, I began my freshman year at the University of Tennessee and truly recognized the

significance of my race for the first time. I attended Ignite, a first year extended orientation program.

During the session, we participated in a series of leadership development workshops focused on

diversity, identity, and inclusion. The Black Lives Matter movement arose in a discussion about current

events during our diversity dialogue. Almost everyone in our group, except the few people of color,

believed “black lives matter” was racist because “all lives matter.” That summer was an instrumental

time for the Black Lives Matter movement as the Ferguson protests ensued against police brutality after

the murder of Mike Brown. A few hours before the discussion, I had accidentally watched the video of

Brown’s murder as I scrolled through my Twitter feed. How did they not understand that all lives could

not matter if black lives clearly did not?

At 17, I began to question what my blackness meant in regards to my safety, to my womanhood,

to my success, to my relationships, to my existence. For the last four years, I have navigated these

questions and many others on a predominately white, Southern, public, Christian, tradition-loving

campus during a volatile time for race relations in our country. The University of Tennessee struggled to

create a welcoming space for minority students after the state legislature voted to defund our Office of

Diversity and Inclusion in 2015. At times, I felt overwhelmed by my own self-development as a woman

of color in our campus climate.

My learning outside the classroom and campus involvement allowed me to explore, define, and

embrace my identities. Supervisors and peer leaders for various organizations guided me through a self-

development process that was sometimes turbulent; I grew close with my supervisors and consider them

mentors now. Through these relationships and various student leadership experiences, I discovered the

field of student affairs and cultivated a passion for developing other people and aiding in both their

educational and personal discovery.

 Two years after I attended Ignite and dived into a transformational self-discovery process, I was

offered the highest student leadership position in the program. In my role as an Ignite Student Director, I

co-taught a leadership studies course for 60 first year Ignite team leaders and developed class activities

related to leadership development content. I also coordinated two service projects for 500 participants

with 40 community partners for our Ignite Serves session. Ignite serves approximately 1,000 incoming

students each year and allowed me a vast array of opportunities in mentoring, diversity and inclusion

training, program logistics, and assessment. I have participated in several other professional

development and leadership experiences in admissions recruitment, leadership and service, student

government, and civic engagement.

A master’s focused in higher education and student affairs could take me several directions. I am

open to many functional areas, and my professional goals are centered around students’ success. First, I

hope to create more opportunities for potential students to learn about and attend college. I am

passionate about more underrepresented and nontraditional groups gaining access to higher education. I

hope to reach out to more students and provide support throughout the entire process, from initial

university recruitment through new student orientation. Additionally, I hope to further enhance

opportunities and experiences offered for college students outside the classroom. We have failed as

professionals if students only grow academically during their collegiate career. It is important to foster

the exploration and pursuit of students’ passions by creating a positive, encouraging atmosphere to

facilitate self-discovery.

I hope to pursue these goals in Florida State University’s Master of Science in Higher Education

graduate program in the fall of 2018. FSU’s Higher Education and Student Affairs program will greatly

aide in my development as an effective and impactful professional. The program’s social justice focus

directly aligns with my personal and professional values. Additionally, the HESA graduate assistantship

program focuses on experiential learning in a collaborative, cohort style model, which is an environment
I will succeed in. If accepted, I know I will thrive at FSU and offer a diverse set of skills and

experiences to enhance the HESA cohort.