Whole Students in Higher Learning

If I had to pick one theme that has flowed throughout our entire quarter in CSL 490, it would be the focus on the “whole student”. From the 1937 Student Personnel Point of View to the 2012 publication of “We’re Losing Our Minds”, there was an emphasis on higher education being about more than just walking across a stage for a piece of paper. As Keeling and Hersh said, students should not be the same person at graduation as they were at orientation. Most of the learning that changes who a student is takes place outside the classroom, not inside.

As I browse our group Pinterest board, I see that same theme over and over again. Hardly any of our posts focused purely on academics. Our board, much like our future students, includes students’ personal, professional, financial, social, and academic lives. As a future student affairs professional, I look forward to assessing students from the “whole student” perspective, rather than just their academic perspective.

I think I took the most from the Neuroscience and Emergenetics sections of this class. Sure, I think it’s fun to take little quizzes to find out about myself, but I actually learned from Emergenetics. Firstly, I learned about myself and my analytical/conceptual brain. I know that my first solution to every problem is research. If there is question posed and I don’t know it, I have to look it up. I also learned that sometimes I get so many ideas in my head that I struggle to organize and process them. That brings me to the second thing I learned from Emergenetics: It can be applied in our professional lives. Yes, it can be applied to help ourselves better understand our actions and processes in the workplace, but it can also help us to better understand our students. A student who seems quiet and aloof may just not be expressive and assertive, or they may have a brain type that needs to take all of the presented information in before they provide their input. If we can put aside our initial assumptions about a student and their attitudes, we may be able to better understand who they are and how they function. By understanding them, we can adapt our services to best fit their needs.

Most of all, this class made me excited to become a student affairs professional. My favorite thing about higher education has always been the energy of it. I felt that energy in our classroom every single day. I look forward to working with colleagues like all of you (and possibly even with some of you) because there are so many different people from so many different backgrounds. We can all be a piece of the puzzle to provide the best experience for our students. With our different types of brains and experiences, we are a huge unit that has a passion for students and making their university experience better. I see the energy I love about higher education in our classroom and look forward to learning with all of you in the future.