My professional career after receiving my Bachelor of Arts from Saginaw Valley State University (SVSU) began in South Carolina, teaching high school Spanish and coaching boys and girls Cross Country. When I looked at myself in the mirror then, I saw a confident, somewhat naïve, excited young educator. After two short years of teaching, due to family needs and relocation, I found myself in a very different educational role as a financial aid specialist at a private art school with basically no contact with students or families. This is when I started to look in the mirror and vaguely recognize my professional self. Yes, if I really tried, I could say I was practicing my passion for the arts by helping students afford their education and make this world a more beautiful place… but let’s be honest, processing documents and loan records behind the scenes at an art school is a far stretch from educating students. I began a graduate program at that university and the first few courses taught me some valuable things about organizational structure, strategic plans, and professional writing, but it wasn’t quite the right fit as it was geared towards artists starting up their own businesses. “El fingir no es vivir” in English, “Pretending is not living.” This was the first glance in the mirror that started my search to continue my education and get back being an educator.

Along with family needs, finances, and fixing that “reflection”, I accepted a job in the Financial Aid Office at MSU all the way back home in Michigan. Taking a look at my reflection, I saw a financial aid advisor who genuinely cares about the students and families she is advising on federal grants, loans, and other campus resources. My reflection was looking a little more like my true professional self, but still not quite right. I knew pursuing a master’s degree in the field of education would help me (stealing a line from The Beatles) get back to where I once belonged. After much research on different graduate programs at MSU, I landed on the MAED for the opportunity to structure my own courses while focusing on a “Sport Leadership and Coaching Concentration” as I wasn’t sure which direction to take: a leadership position in a university’s Student Athlete Support Services department or a leadership position in a public high school as an Assistant Principal or Athletic Director.

Reflection became a quickly recurring theme in my MAED program; the Mulan, Mi Reflejo song by Christina Aguilera kept playing in my mind. Many of the courses required reflection on times when I was a teacher or a coach. So, it makes sense that a song I used to play for my high school Spanish students as a part of a series of studying different accents and lyrics in Spanish, would keep popping in my head. At first, it was just a superficial memory, but throughout the program it slowly evolved into my theme song for my master’s program and professional journey. Similar to my Graduate Showcase, I would have to group my experiences in the MAED program into the following:

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• Reflection – understanding self, biases, opinions and using that awareness to form better communication

• Policy & Process – understanding the creation of policies and procedures, the importance of research, how to conduct it, and use it to continually improve those policies and processes

• Reaching All Learners – by building upon a prior knowledge base, seeking out resources, and exploring and implementing new technologies