LEADERSHIP INTERVIEW Vega 1

Leadership Interview Paper

Lisset Vega

HEAL 225

Higher Education Administration and Leadership

California State University, Fresno

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Gabriela Encinas is the Director of Student Success Programs at Madera Community

College. She currently oversees a federally funded grant and five state categorically funded

programs; CAMP, EOPS, CalWORKS, Foster Youth Program, and another she did not name at

the time of the interview. Madera Community College recently became its own institution

separating themselves from the State Center Community College District being the youngest

community college in California. Gabriela shared with the college being awarded the CAMP

program, the position for director of student success programs was created and she was able to

apply. She hoped to continue practicing the knowledge and experiences accumulated throughout

her academic and professional career in this position.

Gabriela has gained a plethora of experiences that have supported with navigating the

opportunities and challenges her current position has. Gabriela started her work in higher

education student affairs while in her junior year of her undergraduate career by giving back to

the programs that supported her in her journey.

Gabriela initially pursued the pre-med track with a chemistry degree and was a part of the

Health Careers Opportunity Program (HCOP), a program designed to help students in STEM, at

Fresno State. With the identities she held she was able to receive additional support with her

undergraduate career and was the beneficiary of CAMP as well. Gabriela realized she received

the academic support through HCOP for her degree but through CAMP she was able to receive

the additional support she needed to fully submerge herself to matriculate in her undergraduate

career. In her junior year she began holding positions as a chemistry tutor, peer mentor, and

summer program coordinator in these programs. Through providing the services to individuals

like herself, she realized she was able to support others through this avenue. “I wanted to become

the college advisor I needed for myself” (G.Encinas, Personal Communication, August 19,
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2023). Gabriela found a special connection to student affairs and found herself wanting to

continue to support individuals like her.

Gabriela gained many professional experiences while at Fresno State. She oversaw the

DREAM center, the advising center for the school of agriculture, and was the college counselor

for CAMP. Upon graduating with a bachelor's degree, Gabriela started off as a recruiter for

HCOP to seek incoming students in possible need of additional support in their fields. She later

progressed into being a college counselor for CAMP. Through the experiences accumulated she

was able to support the advising center for the school of agriculture after academic advising at

Fresno State decentralized and was a key part in creating the DREAM center on campus

following California’s legislature. Gabriela shared she thought she would stay at Fresno State

forever but felt the need to develop upon her skills and sought to gain a masters degree in pursuit

of leadership positions within student affairs.

When asked “Can you describe one of your first experiences where you demonstrated

leadership qualities?” (L. Vega, Personal Communication, August 19, 2023). Gabriela

highlighted her experience as a student coordinator for summer bridge programs for

STEM/Pre-Med students. She shared she knew she was responsible, took initiative, and sought to

challenge herself as she identified this as an opportunity for growth. Gabriela states this was the

first time a supervisor and colleagues held her in high regard and took the lead in these positions.

Towards the end of the program she received reassurance from her supervisor who informed her

they would see her directing the program one day.

Through interviewing Gabriela, I was able to connect the four-stage cycle of learning

adapted from Kolb’s model of experiential learning (Janosik et al., 2015, p 16). She shared her

educational trajectory and personal experiences prepared her for her current position. Through
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her personal experiences she learned she was able to receive support through various avenues

and solidified how she learned best. She was able to reflect on the services she received and took

into consideration how she could apply the practices and develop upon the principles guiding the

work to form her own style to support the communities she served in her roles. Gabriela shared

the experiences she gained throughout her undergraduate career, helped her experiment with

multiple methods collaborating with colleagues to obtain the same objective in her

post-graduation positions.

In her current position she has been able to collaborate with other departments to ensure

her students are connected to additional resources the college offers. She shared you cannot

support students without collaboration as there is always a need for continuous and evolving

support. The biggest suggestion she provided was to build personal relationships with

departments. By creating the relationships and trust with other departments, she has been able to

foster her team's network and ability to take initiative on projects supporting the overall purpose

of the student success programs. She recognizes in her position she can be a key into the

professional development of her staff. Beyond connecting them to other departments, she shared

she encourages them to partake in the leadership programs offered to staff and conferences

supporting the work. She states she can share the knowledge and experiences she has obtained

but it is always great for them to learn their styles and identify what truly speaks to them.

As she spoke, it was easy to identify the type of management style she tried to apply due

to the actions and approaches she has taken to encourage herself and the team she now manages.

Gabriela shared her leadership style consists of having an open door and providing the skills to

hold people accountable with navigating through the process. Based on what was shared, on

Blake and Mouton’s [leadership] grid (Northouse, 2021, p 157), Gabriela would fall under the
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Team Management grid section as she prioritizes and emphasizes both tasks and interpersonal

relationships to foster the potential and development of the program and staff.

Gabriela shared she utilizes the servant leadership approach as her leading professional

philosophy. She believes she is contributing to the bigger picture and in order to do so, she needs

to be of service to support her staff to support their students. When discussing navigating

difficult situations at work, she provided insightful points to keep in mind. Part of her decision to

obtain a masters degree was to practice her strength of speaking up. She shared that although she

loved the work and the time she spent at Fresno State with student support programs, there were

logistical challenges such as budgets that limited services and opportunities. Gabriela highlighted

how she still does take risks and advocates programming or excursions her and her team have

identified to support their students but taking a different approach. She suggests continuing to try

and challenge the norm with purpose and integrity.

When speaking about challenging the process, Gabriela suggested to always walk into the

meeting expecting “no” as the answer. With keeping the “no” in mind, you are able to better

prepare yourself to continue practicing to resolve and improve the situation (Kouzes and Posner,

2018, p 133). Being a leader does not constitute being confrontational or an immediate problem

solver, in Gabriela’s words, being a leader can consist of taking care of the overarching goals and

developing from there to meet the objective as a team. “When the answer is no, you still have to

figure out how to complete the work” (G.Encinas, Personal Communication, August 19, 2023).

I selected to interview Gabriela because of her title and the type of institution she

currently works at. Throughout my undergraduate career and time working with non-profit

organizations, I saw the work community colleges created in the communities they serve and the

services they provided their students. I believe my experiences in Upward Bound encouraged
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me to pursue my master’s in HEAL to gain the theoretical knowledge to support and justify the

rationale behind the actions taken to support students with their whole needs to succeed as

students.

Speaking with Gabriela, I was motivated to continue challenging myself to work upon the

areas I scored low in my student leadership practice inventory, particularly with challenging the

process. She was transparent and shared how she has advocated for herself to continue to receive

opportunities to develop upon her leadership style and reflections. Reflections would be the key

to continue growing as it is the intentional time to deliberate on actions and planning. She shared

self-work can appear through one-on-one check-ins, project reviews, attending conferences,

volunteering, and continuing to explore the field of higher education and student affairs as a

whole. The biggest point was to be patient with myself and when working through the system for

our students, expect the disappointment but live to fight another day.
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Works Cited

Janosik, S. M., Cooper, D. L., & Saunders, S. A. (2015). Foundations and Philosophy of

Supervised Practice. In Learning through supervised practice in Student Affairs (pp.

16–19). essay, Routledge.

Kouzes, J. M., & Posner, B. (2018). Commitment #5: Search for Opportunities. In The

Student Leadership Challenge Five practices for becoming an exemplary leader

(pp. 132–133). essay, The Leadership Challenge.

Northouse, P. G. (2021). 4 - Behavioral Approach . In Leadership: Theory and practice

(pp. 154–157). essay, SAGE Publications, Inc.