EDAD students take first place in NASPA case study competition

24 Nov 2015     By Brooke Sullivan

The Educational Administration department sent three student affairs master’s cohort students to the NASPA Region IV-W Conference in Beaver Creek, CO November 8-12 to compete in a case study. NASPA is a professional organization for student affairs administrators and students interested in student affairs.

Second-year students Krystal McCain and Travis Fuller, and first-year student Jaclyn McHugh worked together on the case study that took first place in the competition. On Tuesday evening the team was given their case: Take the role of an advisor and examine a student experiencing difficulties in pursuing a major in Music due to pressures from parents toward a major in Business. The team spent the evening creating a 10-minute presentation for an intervention with the student using student development theories. They presented the next morning, and all three students found the case study to be a meaningful experience.

“Sometimes, in the moment, you don't always think about the tools and theories that you have at your disposal, and it’s always a good idea to get in the habit of taking what we have learned and looking for ways to use it to help students,” said McCain.

“I loved working with my teammates. We're all very different in our approach to theory and practice. Though differences necessarily entail tension, we were able to successfully navigate them, eventually crafting a proposal that uniquely reflected each of our strengths,” said Fuller. “As an aspiring professional, learning to work with others, to dispassionately appraise opposing viewpoints, and to reconcile personal differences into a cohesive whole, are all instrumental skills to develop.”

“As this was the first student affairs conference that I had attended, it provided a means for me to be involved and engaged in the conference and helped me get my feet wet with NASPA,” said McHugh.

These students were joined by fellow second-year cohort members Kyra Flatow, Samantha Kennelly, and Ryan Patterson. They enjoyed spending time listening to speakers, attending sessions, networking, and exploring Beaver Creek.