Based on the ACPA/NASPA Competency Rubrics, I have done a self-assessment which is a culmination of the skills, dispositions, and knowledge I have acquired through classwork, projects, graduate assistantships, attendance at conferences and symposiums as part of my graduate journey in the College Counseling and Student Development (CCSD) program. These evaluations and reflections are done based on my FOUNDATIONAL competency level and listed below. The Competency Rubrics guide and my full assessment reflection are available at the end of this page.
Competency
Advising and Supporting:
* Foster trust through culturally inclusive listening skills (e.g., establishing rapport, paraphrasing, perception checking, summarizing, questioning, encouraging, avoid interrupting, clarifying).
* Monitor one’s use of nonverbal communication to support people from varying backgrounds in different situations.
* Recognize the strengths and limitations of one’s own worldview on communication with others.
* Know and follow applicable laws, policies, and professional ethical guidelines relevant to advising and supporting students.
* Maintain confidentiality within legal and licensing requirements, recognizing when safety outweighs confidentiality.
* Seek opportunities to increase one’s knowledge and helping skills for students with specific concerns and interface with specific populations.
* Utilize virtual resources and technology to meet the advising and supporting needs of students.
* Challenge and support students and colleagues.
* Establish rapport with students, groups, colleagues, and others that acknowledges differences in lived experiences.
* Facilitate reflection to make meaning from experiences with students, groups, and colleagues.
* Know and use referral sources and exhibit referral skills in seeking expert assistance.
* Facilitate problem-solving.
* Identify when and with whom to implement appropriate crisis management and intervention responses.
Competency
Assessment, Evaluation, and Research:
* Explain to students and colleagues the relationship of AER processes to learning outcomes and goals.
* Differentiate among methods for assessment, program review, evaluation, planning, and research.
Competency
Law, Policy, and Governance:
* Explain the difference between public, private, and for-profit education with respect to the legal system.
* Describe how country and state/provincial constitutions and laws influence the constituents within a college community and affect their professional practice.
* Identify internal and external stakeholders, policymakers and special interest groups who influence higher education policy.
* Act in accordance with country, state/provincial, and local laws with institutional policies regarding non-discrimination.
* Describe the governance systems and structure at one’s institution.
* Know how and when to consult with one’s immediate supervisor and institutional legal counsel regarding matters that may have legal ramifications.
* Describe how policy is developed and implemented in one’s department and institution, as well as at all levels of external governance.
* Demonstrate awareness of the inequitable and oppressive ways that laws and policies are enacted on vulnerable student populations in the institution and at all levels of government.
Competency
Leadership:
* Articulate the vision and mission of the primary work unit, division and institution.
* Identify one’s own strengths and challenges as a leader and seek opportunities to develop leadership skills.
* Identify and understand individual- level constructs of “leader” and “leadership.”
* Explain values and processes that lead to organizational improvement.
* Explain the advantages and disadvantages of different types of decision-making processes.
* Identify institutional traditions, mores, and organizational structures and how they influence others to act in the organization.
* Describe how personal values, beliefs, histories, and views inform one’s perception as an effective leader with and without authority.
* Build mutually supportive relationships with colleagues and students across similarities and differences.
* Identify basic fundamentals of teamwork and teambuilding in one’s work setting and communities of practice.
* Describe and apply the basic principles of community building.
* Understand campus cultures and apply to one’s work.
* Use appropriate technology to support leadership processes.
* Think critically, creatively, and imagine possibilities for solutions.
* Articulate the logic and impact of decisions on groups of people, institutional structures and implications for practice.
* Exhibit confidence in the capacity of individuals to organize and take action to transform their communities and world.
Competency
Organizational and Human Resources:
* Understand the roles partners, allies, and adversaries play in the completion of goals and work assignments.
* Recognize how networks in organizations play a role in how work gets accomplished.
* Adapt to situation-appropriate communication strategies that effectively communicate with various groups.
* Develop and utilize appropriate meeting materials.
* Provide constructive feedback in a timely manner.
* Describe ethical hiring techniques and institutional hiring policies, procedures, and processes that reflect a commitment to diversity and equity.
* Communicate using effective verbal and non-verbal strategies appropriate to the situation in ways that person(s) with whom you are engaged prefer.
* Describe and follow campus protocols for responding to critical incidents and campus crises.
* Explain the basic tenets of personal or organizational risk and liability as they relate to one’s work.
* Describe environmentally sensitive issues and explain how one’s work can incorporate elements of sustainability.
* Articulate how physical space impacts the institution’s educational mission.
Use technological resources with respect to maximizing the efficiency and effectiveness of one’s work.
Competency
Personal and Ethical Foundations:
* Recognize and articulate healthy habits for better living.
* Articulate wellness as comprised of emotional, physical, social, environmental, relational, spiritual, moral, and intellectual elements.
* Identify positive and negative impacts on wellness and seek assistance from available resources.
* Describe ethical statements and principles of relevant professional associations.
* Utilize/consult with resources to assist with ethical issues.
* Articulate personal code of ethics informed by ethical codes.
* Explain how one’s behavior reflects ethics of profession and address lapses in one’s behavior.
* Identify ethical issues in the course of one’s job.
* Work with mentors to identify effective means of dissent or critique institutional actions.
* Recognize importance of reflection in personal, professional, and ethical development.
* Broaden perspective by participating in activities that challenge one’s beliefs.
* Craft a realistic, summative self- appraisal with ongoing feedback.
Competency
Social Justice and Inclusion:
* Able to articulate one’s identities and intersectionality.
* Identify systems of socialization that influence one’s multiple identities and sociopolitical perspectives and how they impact one’s lived experiences.
* Articulate a foundational understanding of social justice and inclusion within the context of higher education.
* Utilize critical reflection in order to identify one’s own prejudices and biases.
* Participate in activities that assess and complicate one’s understanding of inclusion, oppression, privilege, and power.
* Integrate knowledge of social justice, inclusion, oppression, privilege, and power into one’s practice.
* Connect and build meaningful relationships with others while recognizing their multiple, intersecting identities, perspectives, and developmental differences.
* Advocate on issues of social justice, oppression, privilege, and power that impact people based on local, country, and global interconnections.
* Understand how one is affected by and participates in maintaining systems of oppression, privilege, and power.
Competency
Student Learning and Development:
* Articulate theories and models that describe the development of college students and the conditions and practices that facilitate holistic development.
* Articulate one’s own developmental journey in relation to formal theories.
* Identify one’s own informal theories of student development and how they are informed by formal theories.
* Identify the dominant perspectives as well as strengths and limitations in applying theories and models to varying student demographic groups.
* Construct learning outcomes for daily practice, teaching, and training activities.
* Design programs based on current research and theories of student learning and development.
* Able to describe an assessment and evaluative process.
* Assess learning outcomes from programs and services and use theory to guide and improve practice.
Competency
Technology:
* Remain current on adoption patterns of new technologies and be able to articulate the purpose and functionality of those technologies.
* Demonstrate adaptability in the face of fast-paced technological change.
* Troubleshoot basic software, hardware, and connectivity problems and refer more complex problems to an appropriate information technology administrator.
* Assess the accuracy and quality of information gathered via technology.
* Accurately cite electronic sources of information respecting copyright law and fair use.
* Model and promote the legal, ethical, and transparent collection, use, and securing of electronic data.
* Ensure compliance with accessible technology laws and policies.
* Model and promote equitable and inclusive practices by ensuring all participants in educational endeavors can access and utilize the necessary tools for success.
* Demonstrate awareness of one’s digital identity and engage students in learning activities related to responsible digital communications and virtual community engagement.
*Engage in personal and professional digital learning communities and personal learning networks at the local, country, and/or global level.
*Utilize social media and other digital communication and collaboration tools to engage students in programs and activities.
* Design, implement, and assess technologically-rich learning experiences that model effective use of visual and interactive media.
* Demonstrate how one’s work with and service to students is inclusive of students participating in online and hybrid courses and programs.
Competency
Values, Philosophy, and History:
* Ability to synthesize the profession’s history.
* Identifies historical context of the profession from various perspectives (i.e., role of student affairs within the academy, inclusion and exclusion of diverse peoples, institutional types).
* Describe the foundational philosophies, disciplines, and values of the profession.
* Supports various philosophies that define the profession.
* Explains the public role and societal benefits of student affairs and of higher education generally.
* Articulates the similarities and differences of varying international student affairs philosophies.
* Explains the role of the academy and student affairs professional associations and the importance of service to those organizations.
* Articulates the principles of professional practice.
* Able to role model the principles from the profession to colleagues across campus.
* Demonstrate responsible campus citizenship.
The ACPA/NASPA Competency Rubrics guide is available HERE and my Full Competency Self-Assessment and Reflection is available THERE.
