The Assessment, Evaluation, and Research competency area (AER) involves an
individual’s ability to create, conduct, and review an area in the profession and incorporate those findings into their practice. The five proportions listed in the ACPA & NASPA (2016)
competency rubric that makes up the AER competency area terms and concepts; values, ethics,
and politics; AER design; methodology, data collection, and data analysis; interpreting,
reporting, and using results. I believe that I am at the intermediate proficiency level of this area due to my experiences working on the Campus Life Commission as well as the work that I did in my internship in SUNY Fredonia’s Intercultural Center. I also believe that my experience in HEA 650 has solidified my intermediate proficiency in this area.

​

In my experience working with the Campus Life Commission, I was able to solicit critical information from stakeholders for use in departmental and unit strategic plan development during the fall 2018 term.  The commission worked and kept the institution's goals for student engagement in mind, which were to engage each student to achieve academic and personal success through a challenging and supportive environment; create academically engaged learning environments with applied learning opportunities; increase community engagement opportunities for students; increase student engagement in co-curricular programming; and invest in and promote student wellness. Keeping the institution's goals of the student experience at Fredonia, the purpose of the Commission was to examine the current state of Campus Life at Fredonia and look for areas of improvements and opportunities for unplanned engagements. In addition, the Commission examined best practice concepts and benchmark programs implemented at Fredonia. I was able to get experience with assessing these programs and services currently in place and examine which ones were working and beneficial as well as which ones could be eliminated.

​

The work that I conducted at my internship as the Graduate Assistant at Fredonia’s Intercultural Center serves as the cornerstone of my intermediate proficiency in this area. I worked on and developed a procedure list and bias-response team that will be implemented and followed in the division of Enrollment and Student Services. The need for a response team and procedures on how to handle bias-related issues came about through a personal experience that I encountered as a professional at Fredonia. After realizing that there was not anything put in place to support and help students, I moved this idea forward by voicing my concerns and met with campus administrators. With this work and experience the development of the response-team, I am also assisting in conducting focus groups and campus climate surveys that will provide a better understanding and viewpoint on the need for an outlined process, procedures, and response-team. Although this is an ongoing experience, I am learning how to conduct research and assessing the findings from the research.

​

I solidified my intermediate proficiency in the AER competency area with my experience conducting an actual assessment project for the Buffalo State College Say Yes program. My classmates and I worked with Buffalo States’ Say Yes program coordinator, Stanley Simmons, to explore how Say Yes students at Buffalo State felt about the program and the University at large. Stanley stated that many of the Say Yes students at Buffalo State would question why they were labeled as “Say Yes students” and why they had to take the first-year seminar course. With a qualitative research approach, our team conducted focus groups with first-year students in the Say Yes Program to determine whether or not these students felt a sense of belonging on campus. Also, our team of researchers wanted to gauge the students’ feeling of support or lack thereof from Say Yes and the SUNY College at Buffalo State. After we gathered all of the information from our focus groups, we transcribed and coded the responses from the students. At the end of the class, we presented our findings and recommendations to stakeholders.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________

​

                                                   Artifact 1:

 

Completing the CITI Program proves that I am knowledgeable and able to conduct ethical research on human subjects. 

​

____________________________________________________________________________________________________

​

                               Artifact 2:

 

During my internship at the Intercultural Center at SUNY Fredonia, I was able to conduct focus groups to obtain information about bias related incidents on campus. Also, I was able to develop assessment tool to understand how students felt about bias related incidents on campus. 

​

____________________________________________________________________________________________________

​

                                       Artifact 3: 

​

I was able to work with colleagues to conduct research, analyze our findings, interpret the findings, and report/present on the results that we found.

​