Preparing the next generation of student affairs professionals for today’s diverse students

By Jenna Somers

Brenda McKenzie

As college student demographics rapidly evolve, higher education and student affairs (HESA) graduate programs must adapt to ensure future professionals are equipped to support today's diverse students. That is according to Brenda McKenzie, associate professor of the practice of higher education administration, and Anna Thomas, EdD'14, Kelly King, MEd'22, and Emelia Dunston, EdD'21, alumnae of the Department of Leadership, Policy, and Organizations at Vanderbilt Peabody College of education and human development. McKenzie collaborated with each of them and other colleagues in the HESA field to illustrate key trends in undergraduate enrollment, current issues affecting students, and strategies to enhance HESA graduate training.

In Student Affairs Professional Preparation: A Scholar-Practitioner Guide to Contemporary Topics (National Association of Student Personnel Administrators, 2024), McKenzie and Thomas co-authored the chapter, "Student Characteristics and the Effects of Higher Education on Students." This chapter examines the dramatic shifts in undergraduate student demographics and the need for HESA graduate programs to adapt their curriculum and pedagogy to prepare future HESA professionals with the knowledge and competencies required to support increasingly diverse student populations.

In this same book, McKenzie and King co-authored "Transitioning Undergraduates into a Student Affairs Career" with Susan Iverson and Darren Pierre, faculty at Manhattanville University and the University of Maryland, respectively. This chapter focuses on the importance of intentionally integrating undergraduate students into the field of student affairs, through curricular and co-curricular approaches, to mitigate high attrition rates in the field and to develop a talent pipeline of diverse, purpose-driven professionals.

In a 2024 edition of New Directions for Student Services, McKenzie and Dunston co-authored the article, "SoTL in student affairs graduate preparation programs" with several colleagues in the HESA field. The authors discuss examples of scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL) projects that integrate contemporary student characteristics and concerns into HESA graduate training. These projects emphasize the importance of highly adaptive, creative, and relevant pedagogical approaches rather than static curricula to prepare student affairs professionals.

Collectively, this scholarship underscores the importance for HESA graduate programs to evolve alongside the students they educate so that future generations of student affairs professionals have the knowledge, skills, and dispositions to meet the needs of increasingly diverse campus communities.

Public link

Please use the above public link if you want to share this noodl on another website.