1) The document reflects on how the author's understanding of student development theory has grown through taking a college student development class. Initially, the author believed they understood theory through their experience as an undergraduate resident advisor using Chickering's vectors, but realized there was more complexity to learn. 2) The class helped the author understand why administrators questioned them during their undergraduate transition, relating it to Schlossberg's transition theory. This new understanding will help the author guide students through similar experiences. 3) The author wants to work in residence life and use theory knowledge to help students learn from judicial hearings by considering developmental levels and positive growth. Identity theories will also help the author support LGBTQ students.

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College Student Development Learning Reflection
Marcus D’Iorio
Kent State University

2. College Student Development Learning Reflection 2
When I first started the class, I thought I had a small foundation of student development
theory as I was exposed to Author Chickering as an undergraduate. During my time as an
undergraduate student I used Chickering in my paraprofessional experience as a resident advisor.
In that setting, Chickering was used to help the resident advisors understand how the seven
vectors could be used in our programing function. This allowed me to gain a foundation for
developmental understanding of how college students grow. In addition though, I originally
believed that Chickering was one of the best theories and was my go to theory when trying to
explain development in college. However, when the semester started, I realized that while I had
a foundational experience during my undergraduate years with student development theory there
was still a lot more complexities involved with understanding different theories, and how they
describe student growth and development in college.
Look at the course as a whole, the theories that the course covered has allowed me to
reflect back on my undergraduate work, and why advisors and administrators that I worked with
had pushed me the way that they did. Before this class, I thought that they were just asking me
questions because they wanted me to figure out the answer on my own instead of being told the
answer. What I did not realize that was this was intentional. During that time I was going
through major changes in my life trying to figure out who I was as a person. This class has
shown me that Schlossberg’s Transition Theory was being used, due to the advisors and
administrators questioning who thought I was, what I thought I needed, how I thought I could
improve, which led into them talking about this and what they saw in my answers. This enabled
me to develop my own voice and self-thoughts to modify my surroundings to improve the future.
Understanding this theory in particular has allowed me to gain the knowledge, but also the skills
to enable myself in the future to guide students though a similar path to enable them to develop

3. College Student Development Learning Reflection 3
as a student. In addition the course work has enabled me to look at a situation or program and
figure out what the best course of development for the student(s) may be. This would come in
the form of analyzing what issues were at hand, figuring out the theory context in what the
outcome trying to be accomplished is, and finally developing these outcomes based in theory to
promote development of students.
Looking towards a professional role in student affairs the main function area in which I
would like to work in is residence life. Within this area we are able to work with students in
both the one on one situational context but also in large group settings. One way that I see
myself using the knowledge from this course is in judicial hearings within the hall. In these
hearings, I would look at the situation as what can be learned from the student getting in trouble
and how can we use the judicial as an educational opportunity to influence positive change in the
student. Allowing the student to think about why they committed the offence, what they
committed, and how they think it could hurt a community will enable me to help the student see
how their actions can hurt others. This would be through using theory, to see where the student
is developmentally, and to see where they should be heading to help influence the positive
change. An additional way theory would be applied in both my current and professional career
would be the use of identity theories. Working with a large population of LGBT students has
enabled me to look at identity theories that illustrate the development of students in this
community. By looking and incorporating these theories into professional practice, I hope to
create a level of comfort to enable the students to develop freely without the fear of being
targeted. Overall this class had enabled to me to think about what is best for students by looking
at proven theories to help make decisions to influence positive developmental growth in them.