Professional Practice Competency

Words: 3028
Pages: 13

During my initial review of the ACPA: College Student Educators International and NASPA: Student Affairs Administrators in Higher Education competencies, I was struck by just how much growth I have in many of the ten areas covered. While I do believe there is one area of competency I am strongly proficient in and a number of competencies I feel moderately proficient in, I find growth and development possible in each and every competency area. In this paper, I will discuss each of the competencies listed and where I believe I fall in regards to my skill level in each one. This will be accomplished by rating myself on a ten point scale with zero denoting no knowledge and ten denoting extremely high competency and then providing a brief explanation …show more content…
I believe very strongly in ethical behavior and have developed a code of ethics that I believe align with student affairs practice. The NASPA and ACPA (2010) describe ethical competency as “integration of ethic into all aspects of self and professional practice.” I feel my personal code of ethics is rather developed and I strive to act in an ethical manner in my personal and professional life. While I understand that there room for grey area in regards to ethical action, when evaluating a course of action, I find it rather intrinsic to my nature to reflect upon how the actions I take will reflect on myself and the institution I am representing. This certainly has not always been the case, but the resolutions of various mistakes I have made while developing myself as a leader in my community have taught me a great deal more about leadership than my successes. One incident that I remember to this day occurred when I first became an RA. I posted a joke online with identifying information about our Residence Life department. Though the identifying information did not compromise the integrity of our department, when it was discovered, I was appropriately reprimanded and an educational conversation followed about the appropriate use of social media and how my actions reflect either positively or negatively on the institution of which I am employed. To this day, I …show more content…
In a very functional way, I understand my role in acting consistently with laws and policies in regards to non-discrimination as well as institutional liability due to the multitude of trainings I have had as a student staff member at my undergraduate institution.