Strengths Quest

BlaqOUT Conference

Activity Name & Description: BlaqOUT Conference

BlaqOUT Self Care Workshop

On April 18 & 19^th, 2014, I was able to host a session at the BlaqOut Conference.The conference is for individuals who self-identify as Black/African American or of African descent and as Same Gender Loving, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Questioning or somewhere else on the LGBT spectrum.

I was invited to be an active member in the planning committee of this student conference by Black LGBTQ Higher Education Professionals. As an active member, I am assisting in conference duties, assisting in online meeting sessions and general conference planning duties. At this conference, I will be presenting a workshop entitled “Radical Self-Care-A workshop on Queering Wellness and Cultivating Balance.”

At this time my goals are to provide students with cultivating wellness techniques and as they create personal wellness and self-care plans that relate their individual identities. At this time, I am still developing learning outcomes and learning outcomes, but my workshop request has been submitted to my fellow conference planners.

My workshop consisted of a 60 minute session. As I reflect on the workshop facilitation, I wish I had requested the 90 minute session because the participants found it nourishing.

Students will have opportunities to develop and share resiliency skills with one another. This is personal challenge for myself to negotiate balance, but I also feel I have a keen insight in assisting others in their journeys. My goal is to also connect multiple student development theories into my workshop. I feel this aligns with our course objectives. To connect this workshop to other course goals, I feel that this aligns with the learning goal to assess, design, implement a program. My goal is to include a preassessment and post assessment where I hope to utilize student learning outcomes and through individual participation, I plan to utilize a scaffolding approach to move students from basic to advanced.

      Visual aides were used in the presentation both through the use of a powerpoint but also the written words that students shared in response to the questions proposed in the workshop.

The Learning outcomes for the presentation were as follows:

(1)  Students will be able to share lived experiences and resiliency skills.

(2)  Students will build a sense of community while sharing narratives around their own definitions of self-care.

The presentation consisted carry different self-care and wellness strategies and I was able to lead a facilitated discussion. I tried to use many different methods to have students interact with one another and to also engage them in their own learning.  I asked students to form into discussion groups their students were asked to share their own draft strategy and resiliency skills and report back to the larger room. Groups were instructed to respond to a number of questions that they would report to the larger group. Based on the larger group discussion, I would encourage students to work with me and explain their own experience to not only me, but to all of the positions. I wanted to take a role where I could learn from the students, I didn’t want to just engage in a banking method, but I wanted to really listen to their rich perspectives. This was very empowering for me, not only as a facilitator but also as a participant. I mentioned at multiple times, that I am a learner in this experience and we must work together to drive the session forward.

Date/Semester

April 2014 (Spring Semester)

Learning Domains Addressed (Labels)

X Leadership

X Social Justice & Advocacy

X Education

X Personal Development

Learning Outcomes

 -Student will be able to develop a workshop where students will be able to build a sense of community while sharing narratives around their own definitions of self-care.

Assessment Rubric

	SLO #1
Advanced	I will be able to gather 5 student definitions and strategies from student feedback.
Competent	I will be able to gather 3 student definitions and strategies from student feedback.
Basic	I will be able to gather 2 student definitions and strategies from student feedback.
Poor	I will not be able to gather 3 student definitions and strategies from student feedback.

Evidence (Shown in Notes, Website and Pictures)

http://blaqoutucr.blogspot.com/p/bios.html

Name: DeeJay Brown
Position: Professional Staff
Affiliation:  UC Irvine

"Creating space where we can express how our vulnerability and our resiliency can be radical places both for ourselves as Queer* individuals and how our power and solidarity can create more space for the Larger Queer Community. We have an immense power to transform and self determine who we are and it is awesome to just bear witness of who we are when we join in community."

Reflection

The goals of the workshop were met. In terms of evidence I received both conference evaluations as well as qualitative information that I embedded into my workshop. At the conference, I wanted to bring an issue close to my heart and one that I wanted to work with students. I feel that self-care is one area in my life that I will constantly seek to improve. It also embodies mindfulness and self-growth. One of the goals of the workshop were that students would be able to share lived experiences and resiliency skills. I also wanted students will build a sense of community while sharing narratives around their own definitions of self-care. I feel that both of these goals were met, I also found out in the break after my session, that students continued the discussion with other participants.

At the end of the presentation I was given verbal feedback regarding the presentation and workshop. To assess student learning I was able to ask students to develop their own list of self-care strategies. I also emailed this list to all participants and other professionals have emailed me to share the scholarship and articles that I used to frame my presentation.

Naspa 2014 Annual Conference in Baltimore

E-Portfolio Entry

Activity Name & Description: NASPA Annual Conference Baltimore 2014

In the Spring Semester 2014, I was able to attend NASPA Annual Conference. The theme of the conference was: Lead Innovate Transform. The conference addresses the following seven topic areas:

 Accountability

 Changing Demographics

 Citizenship & Civility

 Learning and Community in a Digital Age

 Public Policy & Advocacy

 Student Success & Persistence

 Student Affairs Profession

I flew in right after the National Placement Exchange, where I met Nancy from our cohort and a close friend from the program at SDSU. The department of Student Life and Leadership department at UCI funded the conference.

I was able to attend many different sessions during the conference as well as attend special programs directed at the LGBT Knowledge Community.  I felt that this was an amazing experience for me both personally and professionally. This experience was a great opportunity for me to practice my networking skills as well as share what other professionals are doing in regards to LGBTQ work, diversity and social justice.

I also attended multiple socials at the conference including the Region XI social, the Multicultural LGBTQ social, the LGBTQ Knowledge Community Social, the CSU Fullerton social and the UCI Anteater social. I found each of these great opportunities to network with mentors as well as new colleagues. For example, I felt very welcome the socials and it was great to make connections with folks from around the country. I found this extremely validating as a Queer Professional and member of the LGBTQ Consortium of Higher Education Professionals.

      In terms of workshop attendance a few really caught my attention. Most of them will noted in the attached document. One in particular was: “Inclusive Advising: Opening relationships for our students.” This session in particular was interesting because I did not do any formal academic advising, but I felt comfortable in the session because of my experiences in the courses we’ve taken.

Date/Semester

March 2014 (Spring Semester)

Learning Domains Addressed (Labels)

X Leadership

X Social Justice & Advocacy

X Education

X Personal Development

Learning Outcomes

 -Student will be able to attend 3 workshops that will further his knowledge as a SAP.

-Student will be able to conference workshops that match intentional development competencies that are congruent with my personal/professional development.

Assessment Rubric

	SLO #1	SLO #2
Advanced	I will be able to attend 3 workshops that will further his knowledge as a SAP.	I will be able to match all of my attended workshops with intentional development competencies and take 5 pieces of relevant information.
Competent	I will be able to attend 2 workshops that will further his knowledge as a SAP.	I will be able to match all of my attended workshops with intentional development competencies and take 4 pieces of relevant information.
Basic	I will be able to attend 1 workshop that will further his knowledge as a SAP.	I will be able to match all of my attended workshops with intentional development competencies and take 3 pieces of relevant information.
Poor	I will not attend workshops that will further his knowledge as a SAP.	I will not be able to match all of my attended workshops with intentional development competencies and take any relevant information.

Evidence (Shown in Notes and Pictures)

Mon March 17

******************************************************

Session 2 IM ONLINE LGBT identity develop,net in a social media context

Using YouTube to express and feel emotions

Coming out 

Transition

Where Web 2.0 and identity intersect

Private becomes public

Social media one way for students to become the authors of their own lives 

Macro: self authorship 

Coming out models:

 cass 

daugeli 

trans milestones

Digital identity development and management

Digital media: ability to find narratives that mirror your own 

If I domt see my self do I really exist

Utilization of social media to reach to our students

->articles 

Events

Creates spaces for 

What does that show me?

Social media experience and lived experience 

Dangers of social media

Direct--->!racism apparent in queer community

Instant 

How do we build resiliency for folks affected by pain of rejection from lack of online support?

What do our narratives tell us?

Vulnerability

Development authorship and management of digital identities

"Brand" management 

Anonymity 

Are the boundaries are not as clean as we thought 

******************************************************

Session 3.   1105pm what are you? Challenging identity issues for multiracial students

What are you? What is challenging about this?

What are you?

PSA: what are you? Is not an icebreaker.

Who is doing  the taking?

Multiracial students face development issues different from ,moo racial students (Preston)

Kristen Renn (2003) found multiracial identity development influenced by physical appearance, cultural knowledge

Situational identity

King (2008)

-Spaces and programs designated for multiracial students offer freedom in identity development amd self categorization 

- best accomplished when mixed race student were not asked to choose about race

Jones and jones (2010)

Rockquemore, brunsma and Delgado (2009)

Stereotype threat (aronson 1995)

Racial salience 

Social value

Those that see race as socially constructed 

***imposter phenomenon

The belief that ones success is fraudulent amd a reflection of am inaccurate assess met of others or ny simple good fortune vs ability

***marginal mean theory (cheng and lively,2009)

#mixedgirlproblems

Pressure to conform

Lack of advocates and role models

Identiity denial

Categorization threat 

*******************************************************

Session 5.   Redefining leadership 2:35

->Encourage creativity

Collaboration 

Allow for autonomy amd creativity

Set boundaries (scope)

Create a buy in and vision

Let ideas flow

Feedback

->Build communication

Fluid communication

Moving away from silos

Top down communication

Transparency

->Trust

Building relationships

Trust your staff

Trust the process

Trust to make mistakes, 

->Collective decision making

Many voices 

All stakeholders

All voices are heard 

How and do we see these at work and not work in our organizations?

How and when do these fail?

When we are not congruent with what we say and our actions

We need to be intentional and we must have the drive to push forward

Vision

Being sync

Lift each other along the way

We must reposition folks and our ideas and program

Share leadership, ownership and buy in

Words of support and inspiration

->Transformational leadership

Bass & Bass: 2008

-> Intellectual stimulation

Dream big

Encourage creativity

Explore new ways of doing things

->Individualized consideration

Offer support and encouragement

You matter

Foster supportive relationships

Open door policy and open communication

Pay attention to each individuals goals and assets

->Inspirational motivation

Articulate a clear visionary and direction

Inspire passion in those around you

Empower others to feel equal motivation for achieving group goals

->Idealized influence 

Serve as role and possibility model

Earn trust and respect of others

Others want to emulate the leader because of these values and ideas

What can we do for the greater good?

Transformative vs transactional leadership 

Uci and region 6 receptions

Great

Did a lot of mentoring/networking

Need to 

Hippo and Grand central 

Remember to find Chris from Lgbtq life at Vanderbilt university

Next day...

******

Gender queer and non binary students: research and practice

Terms and concepts

->the basics

Spectrum vs binary

Gender identity

Deepening the continuum

Gender identity is a multidimensional 

->Challenges for gender queer students

Self discovery

Inter community conflict-> 

lumping together trans* and gender queer can be problematic

Are folks being served at all the intersections.

Language

Housing

Bathrooms

Admissions and applications

Emails

Surveys (I brought up what we've been doing)

Healthcare

Athletics

Campus language with gender

Gender policing

Campus climate

Classroom environment

Inviting family I'm

Intersectionality

Research and practice sharing

Gender queer students are not present in higher ed students

Predominately...

Binary focused

Emphasis on transition

Feminism

Queer theory

Deficit models

Disorder

Postmodern

Non essentialist

Gender fluidity

Call for development models

Synopsis 

Lgbtq studies with gender queer representation

2010 state of higher education for LGBT people (rankin, et al)

Trans* articles and tips with attention to GQ students

Some basic tips for making higher ed more accessible to trans students amd rethinking how we talk about gendered bodies (spade, 2011)

Bilodeau (2005,2009)

Beemyn and Rankin (2011) 

Gender queer identity and self perception (Evans 2010)

Co authoring gender queer youth identities: discursive tellings and rebel longs (Salzburg and Davis,2010)

New---> UPCOMING article looking at classroom perceptions for gender mom conforming students (rankin)

Students perpesctives

Need to look at cultural elements of GQ students

Intersectionality race ethnicity, ability, ses

Effects of institutional climate, faculty and staff on GQ identity

Positive and affirming/hostile

Service and accommodation sessions

We need best practices

Also check out Megan Benton BOI at UCLA

Things I'm interested in...

What did we want to see

Discussion for next steps

Q & A

Where is the research around gender queer students I'm higher ed

Good practices

Genny beemyns trans policy clearing house

Nondiscriminalization

Housing

Intramural athletic policies

Name and gender policies

Healthcare

Gender queer initiatives

Student groups/orgs

Online presence: can I be who I am

Personal history projects: sharing narratives

Training sessions on gender queer identities

Conferences

UCR 

Trans figures poster projects

NYU trans@nyu there clearinghouse

Wisconsin Madison LGBT campus center- separating trans and gender queer on website

Gender inclusive and gender equity gender integrated vs the term gender neutral because it can be sanitizing

Insights from SA practitioners

Research needs to guide practice

Expand beyond restroom and residence halls-other programming

Empower students-advocacy skills

Consider gender queer faculty and staff

Climate re-emphasized 

**********

Session: Inclusive Advising: Opening relationships for our students 

A student and an advisor walk into a room. The advisor thinks ____ and the student thinks _____.

How can I best serve students ...

Transactional... You need to do _____ the basics  (technical)

Transformational...how are you _____ (relational)

Advising---> engagement of two people...

How much time do we really want to spend with our students?

With whom can I best serve and why?

Sometimes the technical and or

-------->Inclusion: 

Power- taking a value (like diversity) and translate it into action 

Verb like- open self and accept others

Purposeful,relational interactions...

Open, safe, collaborative/partnership

Mutually open and progressive

Replace hate, prejudice bias, assumption and experience....with Ilene's and understanding and appreciation of EACH individual person in the relationship

Two people 

Literature amd extrapolation:

Relational  (o'bamion)

Bias ( burmeister)

Self knowledge (Arrendondo)

ADDRESSING (hay)

Age /developmental Disabilities / acquired Disabilities/ Religion/ Ethnicity/ Social Class/ Sexual orientation/ Indigenous background/ National orgin/ Gender

---->Action:

self revelation:  who we are as an educator and person

Self examination:  mini assessment

care to ask and to receive:  may I ask ____? Student provided realities

CASE Study

******

After Ellen,Before  Raven Symone: working with Lgbtq students of color

Learning outcomes

Components of identity development

Intersections of identity

Unique challenges that give students 

How can we serve and advocate for

Queer

POC

Intersectionality

Complexities of identity 

d'augelli

Poc development theory

Queer theory

Model of multiple dimensions of identity

Constructivist identities

Borderlands

Challenges faced by QPOC

Loss or self esteem increase  in body image issues

Disconnect between queer community

Lack of representation

Anger frustration and depression

Internalized homophobia

Disconnect from predominately white Lgbtq community

Lacked ability  to care for our families- financially lack of social support

Lack of legal protection

Failed bystander effect

Living gunner constant threat

Tokenization

Media and Cultural Representation

Qpoc mediated representation

Sitcoms/ dramas vs reality tv

Cultural impact and challenges to queer ideology

Out celebrities and community leaders

Role within overall LGBT civil right movement

Region 6 folks

Big issues

Cross campus collaborations

Advocate/support QPOC students on campus

How do you 

Is there collaboration between 

Siloed effect

Qpoc lunch

Safe space 2.0

-> create intersectional Qpoc sections in safezone and ally training

blacOuT and Qpoc shoutout

*****

Session: the trayvon Martin case and implications on students of color

Perceptions vs reality of the experience of students of color

Allies

Advocacy and persist

******

->Racial battle fatigue

-Racial micro aggressions, full-on racist assaults and blocked opportunities

-Occurred under mundane environmental extreme stress (MESS)

-Results in psychological physiological and emotional behavioral distress

(Smith, Allen & Dabley, 2007)

-Microgaggressions, while subtle, are just as damaging as the gross and obvious racist acts

-Black missandry and black misogyny (raced and gendered oppression) are real and systemic

CRT

"Race, white supremacy, supposed meritocracy and 

Astin ideology model

The visitor complex

Around the us many institutions have celebrated their 

AA staff and faculty presence 

AA student orgs

Do famous police meet with AS males to develop positive rapport?

----

How are we working with students to create partnerships?

Who will you choose to fight for?

Using emotional intillegence as a means for predicting retention

A transformational leader leads with the heart of service

Vision

Exceptional work ethic 

Reflection

In terms of what was learned, the evidence of the knowledge will be in my attached notes. I feel that what is yet to be learned is how I can get involved with the LGBTQ Knowledge Community at a later time. I would like to submit work into their publications in the future. I feel that I will be ready in the next few years. I also want to work with mentors to develop a workshop or session that I can present at NASPA. I feel that my colleague Vincent Vigil will be a great mentor by helping me get involved every year.  It is my plan to continue to attend conferences every year. I can’t wait to go to New Orleans!