Meet Eva: Higher education and student affairs

I did my undergraduate degree here at WMU and throughout my time at Western I was involved in a multitude of student organizations and in that I found out about the HESA program. I was then able to connect with faculty from the program during my undergrad to figure out how to apply and what the program was about and how it will prepare me for the future. 

In addition to the HESA courses I'm already taking, I also have a graduate assistantship with the Office of Student Engagement in which HESA was able to connect me with. I get to work with Greek life students and I worked at Bronco Bash as a representative for the Office where I was connecting with students and talking about our services.

In one of my classes last semester we did a cross-border collaboration with some students at the University of Toronto. So, we worked on case studies virtually and connected on several occasions to find out about each other's institutions. Through this, I was contacted to do an international conference and talk about my experience as a student in the cross-border collaboration. It was perfect and I loved the experience. 

The HESA program has definitely prepared me for my career post graduation. I'm excited to enter the field and I feel like I know a lot about it. The faculty does a great job of inviting different guests into the classroom such as the vice president of student affairs and other folks from the university to share their experiences. 

We've also taken trips to other campuses in the West Michigan area to expand our horizons and look through different institutional types. In this, I feel prepared to enter the field having a wider variety of knowledge than I would have just at WMU.

And an opportunity that I had through the HESA program was to do a summer internship. At this internship I did my field experience at Georgia College and State University, which is a public liberal arts institution and I was able to just completely immerse myself in the experience, learn about a new institution,  meet new faculty members and connect with different types of students.

All student affairs professionals work to understand the 10 professional competencies and in the HESA program our classes are specifically designed in each competency area such as a DEI course in which we got to learn more about the topic.

And as part of the program we created a e-portfolio that we can show to future employers. It showcase the learning and opportunities that we have throughout the program and this we get to highlight all competency areas and pull from our course work.