HESA graduate students dot the globe this summer

July 20, 2022

KALAMAZOO, Mich.—Seven higher education and student affairs (HESA) leadership graduate students are completing field experiences/internships across the globe this summer. These field-based internships allow students to apply course content to real world settings.

“In working with first-year and pre-college students, I have found myself applying student development theory in my approach to their growth and transition as new or developing college students,” said Eva Hughes, a HESA student completing her field experience at George College & State University in Milledgeville, Georgia.

Students also gain skills to prepare for future career opportunities.   

“Reflecting and taking stock of my professional competencies regularly is helping me find new ways to articulate my growth to future employers,” HESA student Haley Summerfield shared about her field experience at WMU.

Leah Coyle, a HESA student who is completing her field experience at Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts, added “My experience at Berklee has brought many opportunities for me to expand, network, and branch out into new areas of student affairs that I have yet to experience elsewhere.”

HESA students are in six different states and two countries this summer.  The HESA students include:

• Abriana Cardenas at Stanford University, Stanford, CA
• Leah Coyle at Berklee College of Music, Boston, MA
• Remi Greene at George Mason University, Fairfax, VA
• Eva Hughes at George College & State University, Milledgeville, GA
• Kyla Kenar at Franklin University, Lugano, Switzerland
• Haley Summerfield at Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, MI
• Sarah Woolsey at University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, CO

The HESA program

The higher education and student affairs (HESA) concentration in the Master of Arts in Educational Leadership program emphasizes a practitioner-scholar model. The curriculum combines a student development and leadership theory core, diversity and inclusion electives, and individualized field experiences. Students gain awareness and knowledge of historically marginalized and/or underserved student populations in all areas of professional practice as they develop into in-demand future practitioners.  Application for Fall 2023 are now being accepted.  More information, including how to apply, is available on the HESA’s webpage.