Running head: FOUR YEARS: INFUSING THEORY INTO MY JOURNEY

Four Years: Infusing Theory into my Journey

Mark E. Campbell II
Western Michigan University

FOUR YEARS: INFUSING THEORY INTO MY JOURNEY

Introduction
This paper has given me the time not only reflect upon my developmental journey
during my undergraduate years but my first semester in graduate school as well. To
continue, it is only during my graduate school lenses and taking this student development
theory class that I have been able to decipher my own experiences and investigate,
attach, and evaluate student development theory in my own experiences.
I am still astonished that I am pondering my development during my
undergraduate years at Calvin College. I attended Calvin College in Grand Rapids,
Michigan from 2009-2013. Like millions of students who enter their first-year at the
various institutions around the country from: public, private, community colleges, and
commuter colleges I did not think that I would develop and change so drastically. My
development from a high school student to an undergraduate was not without doubts,
fears, and areas of growth. During my first-year, I frequently thought: Did I make the
correct choice by attending Calvin College My development as an undergraduate student
into the person I am currently seemed to be an endless journey. This journey felt like
every two steps I took forward to becoming a better self it seemed as though I would take
two back. When I was eighteen years old I was a very impatient person and I would grow
disgruntled with the constant pace of taking two steps forward and one step back. Yet, at
twenty two years old I grow less disgruntled and I am more appreciative of the entire
journey instead of the little step backwards along the way.
From my undergraduate experience I have been able to identify five theories that
were prominent during my undergraduate years. These theories are the following: Cross
Black Identity Theory Chickering, Kegans Theory of Self-Authorship, Astins Theory of

FOUR YEARS: INFUSING THEORY INTO MY JOURNEY

Involvement, and Kohlbergs Theory.Throughout this paper, I will juxtapose my narrative
and theories in order to relate parts of my narrative that corresponded with my selection
of theories.
First-Year Context
My narrative from my first paper is about the struggles I had being an AfricanAmerican with intercultural communication at my predominantly white institution Calvin
College in Grand Rapids, Michigan. My narrative revisits my first-year living with a
white roommate who was very different than I was. On paper, my roommate and I had
many similarities such as being home bodies, devout Christians, the love of computers
games, being voracious readers, and being involved in the stock market while in high
school. Yet, we had larger differences such as our different cultures. He was from
Maryland and I was from Indiana. He had taken a year off after he graduated high school
and he kept to himself. I went to college directly after high school, I tended to visit my
friends rooms and had my friends over to my room very often. The most obvious
difference was that he was tall and white, while I was short and black. These similiarities
and differences were
The Narrative
My development as an undergraduate starts with intercultural communication. I
am a African-American male and I remember that as an adolescent in middle-school my
parents sat me down in our living room kitchen table and quite frankly told me, Mark
you are a Black man in American society. People will look at you differently because of
that status. It will take them awhile to see you for just being yourself. To be honest,
being an adolescent I did not truly understand the sage advice that they were giving me.

FOUR YEARS: INFUSING THEORY INTO MY JOURNEY

My family and I lived in Merrillville, Indiana which is south of Lake Michigan and south
of Gary, Indiana. I went to Merrillville public schools from kindergarten through my
senior year of high school. My high school had over 2,400 students that attended on a
daily basis. My high school was a very racially diverse high school we had white, black,
Latino, biracial, and many other racial and or ethnic groups that attended my high school.
I had this preconceived notion that because I went to an ethnically and racially diverse
high school I was an expert in intercultural communication. I thought I knew how to
effectively talk to various people from various backgrounds.
However, in undergraduate it is totally different living with someone of a different
race than just seeing them in your class one hour a day Monday-Friday. At Merrillville
High School there was a higher percentage of Black students than at Calvin College. I
had grown accustomed to having classes where there were many people who looked like
me, talked like me, dress like me, and shared the same cultural norms as I did. I was one
of two black males that live on our floor. I made up fifty percent of the black population
on my floor. On the other hand, I give the location of where I live because it is a part of
my development. My heart will always be in Merrillville and Northwest Indiana because
that is where I learned so many lessons about life from my family, friends, faith, and
teachers. When I walked on my residence hall floor for the first time, I was the
embodiment of Merrillville, Indiana. I even had an accent. I did not even know I had an
accent until I went to Calvin College and people told me I talked differently than they
did. Furthermore, I knew very little about how I communicated with people who were not
from my area. I naively thought that just because my parents had taught me to be aware
of my race and how people perceived then that would be the same for the men who lived

FOUR YEARS: INFUSING THEORY INTO MY JOURNEY

on my residence hall floor. My parents had taught me that you talk to white people in a
certain way and you talk to black people in a certain way. Again, I thought if my parents
told me how to communicate with people differently than other peoples parents did the
same thing. I was severely incorrect with those thoughts.
As previously stated, my first-year roommate was white, he was from Maryland,
and grew up in racially monolithic town. He had limited interaction with people of color.
He was not a very well versed communicator in general and not to mention intercultural
communication. I tried to communicate with me as much as possible on numerous topics
I would talk to him about computer games, theology, women, sports, regardless; we had
numerous communications break downs in our room. I come from a culture that can be
very straight-forward about getting tasks across in conversation. For example, I would
say, The room is getting pretty dirty we should clean it so people will feel welcomed. I
thought I was being clear when I said the room I meant both sides needed to be clean and
not just my side or his side. He would just nod his head and say, Yup will do that this
weekend. I would ask him the day before about cleaning and he would confirm, Yes,
we are cleaning this weekend. Unfortunately, he rarely cleaned as much as I did. The
communication break-down grew worse and deteriorated to the point that we barely
spoke to each other at all. We had very little in common at all. Sadly, selfishly, and
naively I blamed our lack of bonding on myself. I internalized the problems and thought
if I could not communicate with my roommate then I cannot communicate with anyone
else. Graciously, I was wrong about not being a good intercultural communicator.
Living with my first-year roommate challenged me in how I viewed my education
from home. Did my parents teach me the right things to survive in society? Did other

FOUR YEARS: INFUSING THEORY INTO MY JOURNEY

people learn about how to talk to various backgrounds? As I completed my undergraduate
degree at Calvin, I started to learn the answers to these difficult questions. I learned that
my parents are not experts on societal norms. I adored my parents but going to college
helped me develop and see the world around me. It helped me realize that even in our
best intentions to learn about the world around us as individuals we learn a vast amount
about the world that we live in from our parents and how they view the world.
Fortunately, I learned my first-year that my parents taught me lessons that they
taught were important to me and the area that we lived in. In contrast, my first-year
roommate did not experience the same lessons because he did not live in our area nor did
he have the same parents as I did.

FOUR YEARS: INFUSING THEORY INTO MY JOURNEY

Identity Theory
From my first-year roommate situation I learned a vast amount of myself, where I
came, my family, values, culture and beliefs. I did not know it at the time but I was
developing and learning more about who I was, am, and who I was going to be.
Furthermore, I started to explore what being black was to me. At a young age, I
remember both my parents sitting me down and telling me that I was a black male and
that the world would perceive me in a certain lenses. They taught me that I would be
stereotyped and that I would have to learn to speak to all different races of people. During
my first-year at Calvin I was clearly aware that I was a black male. Yet, it was not clear to
me that I had constructed what being black meant to me. For example, I knew I was black
because my parents told me, my skin was not white, and people around me treated as
black. In college and living with a white roommate I started to explore what Mark
Edward Campbell II being black, living with someone white, and communicating with
someone white meant to me. Now I realize that I was going through stages of nigrescence
as stated in the Student Development in College, Evans, Forney, Guido, Patton, and Renn
(2010) in their interpretation of Cross theory of black identity (1991) nigrescence is the
process of becoming black (Cross, 1991, p.147). I would categorize my first-year self
dealing with the confusing conundrum of intercultural communication with my roommate
in Sector Four: Early Adulthood. As Evans et all state, In short, the nigrescence
experience is not a conversion for these individuals because they already have a high race
salience, but nigrescence helps them personalize their sense of blackness (p. 258). The
intercultural communication with my white roommate helped realize to personalize my
own blackness. I had to understand to communicate with someone on my own level

FOUR YEARS: INFUSING THEORY INTO MY JOURNEY

without my parents helping me complete the task. I knew I was black yet I had to
personalize my blackness when talking with my white roommate.
Chickering
To be honest, in class when we first discussed Chickerings theory (1969) and
how students can move from vector to vector in a non-linear fashion, and how students
take upon themselves two vectors at the same time; I could not believe such anomalies
were even possible. It was not until I started to reflect upon my undergraduate experience
and most especially my first-year experience then I realized.