Running head: NARRATIVE DESCRIPTION 1

Narrative Description

Patrick J. Correia-Harker

Loyola University Chicago

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Paulo Coelho once said, “be brave, take risks, nothing can substitute experience”. This

quote was a motivating factor behind me enrolling in graduate school, but also resigning from

my full-time job to immerse myself into the Loyola University Chicago Higher Education

program and gain new experiences with an internship. In this narrative description, I reflect on

the content that I have learned from this program, detail what I learned about myself and how I

have changed, highlight knowledge gained from my work experiences, share what I learned

about social justice, and how I sought to implement social justice into my graduate experience

and carry this lens into my future career in higher education.

When I reflect on the content that I have learned from this program, it is truly

astonishing. My favorite course was Multiculturalism for Social Justice in Higher Education.

This class truly transformed me as it was the first time I learned and discussed many of the topics

built within the class curriculum such as oppression, social justice, and privilege. I realized my

privilege as a White male and the unearned benefits, access, and power it gave me in my life

(Kelly & Gayles, 2015). My personal racial identity development is one of the biggest things I

will take away from this program.

From my Student Leadership Development course, I was able to learn about validation

theory and see how it impacts students. I learned to validate student work through Laura

Rendon’s validation theory and see how the students are committed to their work and invested in

wanting to help reach goals. Patton et al. (2016) explained, “active intervention in the form of

validation was needed to encourage students to become involved in campus life and enhance

their self-esteem” (p. 39). I have seen firsthand how validating students creates a better work

environment for students and a richer experience for them.

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Graduate school has been challenging! At times when I was pushed to my limits, I

stayed strong, powered through, and remained successful. Life has presented many ups and

downs over the last two years such as getting married to my best friend, leaving my position at

the University of Wisconsin-Platteville, going on a honeymoon in Australia, losing my grandpa,

adopting of our son Trenton, and learning my Dad has brain cancer. Throughout it all I have

learned to let go of the things that I cannot control. In order to be successful, I had to focus on

the things I could control like supporting my family, completing my assignments, and taking care

of my health. My grades were not my focus, but rather I focused on my learning development

and understanding of the concepts discussed in my courses. Since entering the program, I am

wiser, more introspective, a better facilitator, more aware, a better listener, more confident, a

better advocate, more compassionate, a better writer, more present, more balanced, and stronger

emotionally and mentally.

I came to Loyola with nine years of experience being a student at and working for a mid-

size public institution and was nervous about how different it would be to attend and work at a

private catholic university. However, I found that Loyola is deeply connected with their mission

and empower their staff to uphold their values and live out their practices regardless of your

identities. In my experience, I have found Loyola to be more committed to diversity initiatives,

take a stand on social justice matters, and educate more globally aware students.

I am so thankful for my internship experience with the Student Leadership Development

office. In the past, I have hired, trained, and supervised students, but only over a four-week

period when I was back on campus during the summer. My internship was a worthwhile

experience for me because I was able to work one-on-one with four student facilitators weekly in

an advising and supervisory role. I was able to focus on building relationships and intentionally
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plan activities that centered on getting to know each other, but more importantly discussed how

they practiced self-care, handled feedback, and wanted to be challenged and supported through

our experience together.

When reflecting on what I have I learned about social justice, I keep going back to my

own definition that I created in my Multiculturalism course. I defined social justice as a

continuous process for individuals to recognize their identities and using them to create a world

that is more just. Reason and Davis (2005) informed my views on distributive and procedural

justice when they explained, “those seeking distributive social justice are essentially concerned

with the equitable distribution of benefits among the members of various social groups” (p. 6).

My social justice lens is permanently affixed to me as a student affairs practitioner. This lens

will inform how I establish and evaluate office and campus practices and policies.

Additionally, I am empowered to continue striving to be an effective facilitator from my

experience with the Emerging Leaders Program (ELP) and the White Allyship Community

(WAC). With ELP, I was able to engage students in the leadership process through experimental

learning activities and group discussions. With WAC, I was able to engage peers in critical

conversation on Whiteness and White Privilege to become better allies, advocates, and

educators. In these spaces, I was able to create an environment where the students and peers

could share their ideas and make changes to better themselves, their family, friends, and the

campus community.

In my future roles, I am more confident in having critical conversations to challenge the

systemic oppression in our society. I can no longer remain silent or look the other way when I

see injustices and inaction. I cannot let the fear of losing relationships with family or friends

hold me back. I plan to always give my best to be an activist for social justice causes and to be a
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stronger social justice ally whether it be advocating for more paid time off for LGBTQ families,

re-evaluating student programs to better serve marginalized students by providing necessary

access, and having the difficult conversations with family, friends, colleagues, and strangers. As

Harro (2013) stated, “we need to practice using our skills and tools with others, and experiment

with expressing our new views, and speaking out when we disagree, instead of staying silent” (p.

621).

Overall, my graduate school experience in the Higher Education program at Loyola

University Chicago has provided me with a wonderful learning environment. I have laughed

with peers, stressed myself out, cried with students, vented with friends, worried about papers,

but loved this journey and would not change a thing. Thinking ahead, I want to find a position

that allows me to continue working with students long-term throughout their collegiate careers

and make a difference in their lives. I will carry all of the valuable graduate school lessons with

me as I continue on in my higher education career.

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References

Harro, B. (2013). The cycle of liberation. In Adams, M., Blumenfeld, W. J., Castañeda, R.,

Hackman, H. W., Peters, M. L., & Zúñiga, X. (Eds.), Readings for diversity and social

justice (3rd ed.). (pp. 618-625). New York, NY: Routledge.

Kelly, B.T. & Gaston Gayles, J. (2015). Confronting systems of privilege and power in

the classroom. In S. Watt (Ed.), Designing transformative multicultural initiatives:

Theoretical foundations, practical applications, and facilitator considerations. (pp. 1-

23). Sterling, VA: Stylus.

Patton, L. D., Renn, K. A., Guido, F. M., & Quaye, S. J. (2016). Student development in college:

Theory, research, and practice, 3rd Edition. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Reason, R. D. & Davis, T. L. (2005). Antecedents, precursors, and concurrent concepts in the

development of social justice attitudes and actions. In R. D. Reason, E. M. Broido, T. L.

Davis, & N. J. Evans (Eds.), Developing social justice allies. New directions for student

services. (No. 110, pp. 5-15). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.