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My Professional Development Plan

As a lifelong learner, I want to continue growing long after attaining my masters degree.  In my Professional Knowledge page I identified four knowledge areas and four skills areas in which I want to develop further.  Specifically, I want to increase knowledge of student learning, contemporary student development theory, non-traditional students, and sustainability in higher education.  I want to develop my skills with assessment, higher education law, supervision, and mindfulness.  Below, I will outline a tentative three-year plan to develop these areas throughout my career.  With each new time period, it's assumed I am adding these things onto the previously listed activities.



I hope there will be many adventures that present themselves over the next few years that I can't predict for now.

0 - 6 months (plus)
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  • Read for 30 minutes every day.  10 minutes reading relevant higher education news (especially those related to the knowledge areas I mention above) and 20 minutes reading different books, including what Steven Sample deems as a "super text"-- works that have captured audiences for decades and still provide us with guidance today.  Books I want to read (and re-read) include: Thinking Fast and Slow (Daniel Kahneman), ï»¿Academically Adrift, The Tao of Leadership, The Signal and the Noise (Nate Silver), The Upside of Irrationality (Dan Ariely), The Invisible Gorilla (Christopher Chabris), The Art of War, and The Book of Five Rings.
  • Write for 30 minutes every day.  Ideas are no good staying inside my brain.  Writing these thoughts down can stimulate better thinking, creative ideas, and take me one step closer to action.  I intend for a lot of writing to be tying in the things I've read into the work that I do: what wisdom is to be gained from things I've read and what will I change as a result?
  • Maintain membership to ACPA (or a state chapter).  Community is an important aspect of this work, and to stay in touch with a concentrated group of folks who are also dedicated to student growth is an effective way to keep exposing myself to different ideas, mindsets, and research.
  • Continue monitoring Twitter chats.  As I discussed in my knowledge paper, I enjoy the community and knowledge-sharing nature of Twitter feeds.  I'd like to continue looking at #sachat, #satech, and #acadv hashtags to keep connected with other professionals and share in the wealth of ideas across the country.

1 Year - 3 years
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  • Re-evaluate my place in life.  Most things should be revisited to ensure that you get value out of what you are doing.  Now that it's been a year and more, is this what I still want to do? How much have I grown? How much more can I grow? What am I getting out of this? Is it worth what I'm putting in?
  • Get married. And enjoy it.  Society really builds up this 'wedding' thing, and I am trying really hard to remember that the wedding should pale in comparison to the marriage.  I want to remember how important this part of my life is, and to honor it properly in harmony with work and relationships.
  • Go to technology seminars.  Being an avid tech user, I love learning about how new applications or ideas can be integrated with my work and teaching.  Students are definitely online, so how can we reach them more effectively with technology?  
  • Take some psychology courses.​ It turns out I really like psychology, so I want to explore this further by taking courses in cognitive psychology, motivation, persuasion, and others.  Perhaps I want to pursue a doctorate in this area. 
  • Serve as a committee member/chair for a national conference.  At this point, I should be able to offer my time to being a leader in the national student affairs organization.
  • Teach.  No matter where I end up, I want to be teaching or facilitating some kind of experience.  Through this experience I will continue honing my teaching style/persona, different theories, and techniques.

6 months - 1.5 years



  • Attend â€‹a conference.  Intentionally choose session programs that pertain to the knowledge and skill areas I have outlined previously.  The key for me is to write ideas down and see where they are applicable in my own work.  Share my knowledge with my colleagues.  What do I want to change? How will I know it is working?
  • Look at the assessment structure of my work.  Where is there evaluation? Where is there assessment? Why? What is "success"? What is "effective"? How do I measure that? Where are easy areas in which I could add meaningful assessment and evaluation pieces?
  • Read one new research article a week.  My focus would be on student learning, contemporary development theory, and non-traditional students.  As per the pattern, I would read and write down the key takeaways and how I would change my approaches based on the research.
  • Reassess my work footprint.  By the end of the first year, I would look back on how I've done my work.  Can I be more sustainable? Do I need all this paper and clutter? Cleanse and be new again.
  • Have lunches, coffees, walks with other professionals once a month.  Being a relationship builder, this method is the most effective way for me to explore a wide variety of work and ideas.  What are others doing? How do they work with non-traditional students? What trends are they seeing? How is that relevant to my work?
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