Philip Gilbert's Portfolio

Fall 2020 E-Portfolio Entries

Showcasing my experiences, student learning outcomes & professional development throughout my first semester of graduate school.

Graduate Student Assistant at the Asian Pacific American Resource Center at California State University-Fullerton

• Learning Domains: Personal & Professional Development, Leadership, Assessment & Evaluation

• Learning Outcomes:

  • 1. Student will be able to create virtual programs for students.

  • 2. Student will be able to design engaging social media content for the center.

  • 3. Student will be able to create assessment surveys that accurately gauge interest in APARC programs and participant experience.

• Evidence (click each image to enlarge and read description):

https://tinyurl.com/aparcassessment

https://tinyurl.com/aparcyoutube

^link to APARC assessment survey APARC YouTube channel that I created

• Reflection:

Being new to the role and the CSUF community as a whole, I wondered if I would be able to be effective in my role in an online environment. I am fairly new to virtual programming, but do have programming experience, and hoped I could help to create programming that students would be interested in and met the needs of CSUF’s APIDA / SWANA community. I was able to promote the center’s programs through a variety of avenues such as Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, Youtube, and our weekly newsletter and they all had high engagement numbers. However, I realized that engagement in our social media doesn’t necessarily correlate to attendance as our programs were met with fairly low attendance.

The programs I did create, did have some students turn out and they were engaged in the content, according to the assessment survey responses, but attendance was still on the lower end. I found that students turned out more to events that were hosted by their favorite professor or helped grow their professional development as opposed to fun/creative and social justice advocacy programs. I also learned that even though students are virtual, they have less time to participate in programs online or are so exhausted after their online classes that they do not have the energy to hop into a zoom program. These are lessons that I am taking with me to be able to apply next semester in the way I program to get high student turnout and engagement.

For all SLO’s I would say that I met the learning outcomes to a certain extent. I was able to create a few programs that did have an okay turnout from students and a majority of them did fill out the assessment survey I created after the event. The survey was also used for most of APARC’s programming, excluding my events, and also received participation from students after the programs completion. The assessment survey did accurately capture students thoughts and feelings on and what could be done to improve our events moving forward which has been instrumental in the development of our Spring programming. For creating engaging posts, I could do more in constantly highlighting our events on all platforms, creating events through social media (such as Instagram Live events), and creating/recording more content for our YouTube channel, as students have expressed they would prefer watching our programs on their own time.

Maywood Education fair 2020

• Learning Domains: Education, Social Justice & Advocacy, Assessment & Evaluation

• Learning Outcomes:

  • 1. Student will be able to describe college education access/transition for 11th & 12th grade students.

  • 2. Student will be able to create different tools to support C12 workshop leads for the workshop.

• Evidence (click on each image to enlarge and read description):

• Reflection:

Upon looking back at the workshop we hosted for 11th and 12th grade students, I would say it was great success! I know there were worries from on attendance due to Maywood being virtual, but we were luckily able to have over 25 engaged students in our first session and roughly 20 in the second session. I do know, however, that attendance was lower than expected as compared to the number of students that participate in the fair in person. The students that did come though came prepared with questions, took notes, and some noted they wished there had been more time to continue to have discussion. It was amazing to be apart of an event that brings together a community and showed me that community still exists even in the virtual space. Before this program, I used to work in college access for 11th & 12th grade students and was happy to see that this program cares about the promotion higher education for students and that the city of Maywood also heavily supports efforts to bring awareness to higher education for students. I was also happy to hear how many scholarships we were able to raise for the students of Maywood and hearing their testimonies of just how much they are thankful for the scholarship and how they will utilize it just made the entire experience worth it for me. The aspirations and dreams each of those students had were inspirational and I cannot wait to see all it is that their generation accomplishes. It also solidified for me again my choice to work in higher education to be able to be in a position to one day support students such as them in their educational journey to achieve their dreams.

For my first learning outcome, I would say that I was able to accurately engage in discussions with students on the transition from high school to college and answer their questions. As mentioned above, I did use to hold a college access position a few years prior to me entering this program and I still retain a lot of that information. However, I did ensure not to answer all questions and lead all of the discussion so that I could make space for my team. My team was also more knowledgeable than I on different topics pertaining to the transition process so I am glad we were all able to support each other.

For my second learning outcome, I was able to receive guidance and direction from C12 workshop leads, Jahi and Tebraie, in creating different tools that could be used to support the students in attending the workshop and accurately obtain assessment. From their detailed information and expectations of what they would like to see, I was able to create detailed info-graphics for students to refer back to after the fair to assist them in their transition to college as well as create a qualtrics survey to assess participants thoughts and feelings of the workshop. I was able to engage in active communication with Jahi and Tebraie on how these items should be structured, what should be included, and how we can effectively assess participants. I know how much C12 had on their plate to effectively pull off a successful virtual fair, and I am glad I was able to support them in these efforts to deliver a great workshop for students. I also learned a lot from their guidance as well.

NASPA Western Regional Conference 2020

• Learning Domains: Education, Personal Development

• Learning Outcomes:

  • 1. Student will be able to gain professional development through workshops and sessions to apply back to their graduate student assistant work.

  • 2. Student will be able to network with higher education professionals.

• Evidence (click each image to enlarge and read description):

• Reflection

The NASPA regional conference was the first professional development conference I have ever attended since high school. Being this was my first conference, I was excited to learn and grow professionally, but nervous to network in a virtual space as I have never done so before. Before attending the conference I attended workshops on how to make the most out of my NASPA experience and best ways to network online (which did not ease my nervousness in the slightest), but remained confident to be able to meet my learning outcomes. For a virtual conference, I thought it was designed and structured incredibly well and thought that the organizing team did an amazing job in adapting a physical conference to the virtual space. I am sad that it could not be in person from the stories I heard from attendees of getting together and how they connected in person, but I remain hopeful for the next conference that I attend can be in person so that I can get the full experience. I saw the many different types of people that work in student affairs, learned of roles and departments that I did not know existed, and saw how different institutions worked and cared for their students My goal was to make sure that I attended different workshops that can help me do better in my role as the Graduate Student Assistant for APARC network with different professionals who held positions that I wanted to learn more about or could see myself doing one day.

For my first learning outcome, I attended workshops that I believed would help me in graduate assistant role and apply what was learned to my work. I choice this because I wanted to ensure that the work I do for the rest of the semester and for the Spring were more intentional in their programming as well as more engaging for students. I also wanted to learn about the different ways community was being built in online environments so that I could more in establishing community with students that are a part of APARC. I first attended a workshop hosted by CSUF’s faculty, alumni, and previous APARC coordinator. Both myself and the current coordinator for APARC were in attendance and we learned a lot about the history of APARC, theories usesd, programs to help serve APARC’s mission, and work to build its community. From this I learned about many different ways to serve APARC’s community and how I can best continue the great work of everyone that came before me. I then attended a workshop on programming and how to best program in a virtual environment. I then attended a workshop on how to work with and connect student orginizations together and to the community as there are many student organizations under the APARC umbrella and I wanted to learn different ways to connect them to more of our programs. Lastly, I attended a workshop on how to build community in a virtual space so that I can apply those lessons to my programming and work with students. After the conference, I brought what I learned to our weekly staff meetings and am working to apply what I learned for everything has in development for the Spring 2021 semester.

For my second learning outcome, I was able to connect with at least four higher educational professionals. I made connections with professionals who are in roles that I can see myself working in in the future or who I could see help me develop in my current graduate assistant role. After each workshop, I either messaged the host of the workshop for their contact information or messaged someone privately through the chat to connect afterwards. I was lucky enough that the professionals I reached out to were willing to connect with me and meet for a zoom meeting in the future. I was able to learn about the role of student affairs from these individuals, their work with students, and the ways they build community. My educational philosophy is that institutions should strive to build community for students, so I learned a lot about the ways various professionals and institutions do that for students. One of them told me that as long I stay committed to my philosophy, then the work I do will always be intentional because goal of building community will be there. After connecting with these individuals, I am more motivated to continue in this program and earn my degree to become a higher education professional myself and build communities.