As part of my work in the Division of Student Affairs at the University of Memphis, I am tasked with helping staff to take advantage of professional development opportunities provided in our division, on our campus, in our community and (inter)nationally. I believe when it comes down to it, professional development is an opportunity to:

1. Increase competence: learning the skills that can be applied in your work (possibly even non-work life).

2. Increase confidence: having the belief that you are now able to successfully apply these skills.

This blog will focus on competencies of student affairs work, provide resources on how to develop/strengthen those competencies, and offer some questions to help you increase your belief that you can do this! For example, I think people ultimately get why we should conduct assessment in student affairs work, so they have some level of competence. The problem is that they often don’t believe they can do it well, so they have little confidence. I want this blog to help people to understand how they can develop competence and confidence!

Posts will come at least weekly. I look forward to sharing thoughts with all of you and hope you’ll contribute as you feel compelled.