CAROLINE (CARLY) TRAYNOR
Student Affairs Professional
STUDENT AFFAIRS PHILOSOPHY
My student affairs philosophy is rooted in strengths-based, trauma-informed practice that not only challenges dominant systems and perspectives, but also supports minoritized students by accounting for the trauma such systems and perspectives cause, and emphasizing the strengths and resilience practices minoritized students use to navigate their environments.
Trauma-Informed
This perspective considers the multitude of ways in which trauma affects students cognitively, socially, emotionally, physically, and academically. It also accounts for the numerous ways in which traumatic experiences manifest, both inside and outside of higher education environments, including through generational trauma. Through trauma-informed practice, I take notice of the manner in which students interact with their environments and am aware when students behave in ways that indicate potential trauma. Additionally, I take into account the potentially re-traumatizing nature of certain institutional practices and work to eliminate the problematic characteristics of such practices so that students can maximize their higher education experiences with minimal risk of re-traumatization. This perspective also allows me to frame social inequity and injustice as traumatic, in addition to being socially and economically damaging.
Strengths-Based
This perspective recognizes that, as a result of dealing with trauma and potentially traumatic experiences, minoritized students often come into higher education environments with skills and adaptations that they have learned to help deal with such experiences. Rather than focusing on what minoritized students “lack” in environments that were created for students with dominant social identities, the strengths-based approach places emphasis on the resilience practices students use to navigate and succeed in higher education. With this in mind, I am able to help students recognize their strengths and use those strengths to gain academic and social capital. Strengths-based work allows me to push against the deficit-based perspectives that can come with trauma-informed practice and merge the two approaches into something that takes difficult experiences into account while simultaneously emphasizing the capabilities students bring to the table.
EXPERIENCE AND RESUME
Download my full resume:
SAMPLES OF MY WORK
ISAA Poster and Executive Brief
My project team and I displayed this poster and distributed this executive brief during a poster presentation for the Indiana Student Affairs Association in 2017. We presented on mental health in student populations and the ways in which higher education institutions can employ best practices to ensure destigmatize mental health issues and encourage help-seeking among students.
ISAA Poster:
ISAA Executive Brief:
Technology Competency Report
Through this report, I outlined the multitude of ways in which I use technology in both personal and professional contexts. I highlighted various software and social network sites, and detailed my skills in terms of utilizing these things as tools to support students and build a professional profile.
Technology Competency Report:
Group Assessment Project Report
My research team and I worked on the Group Assessment Project (GAP) over the span of the Fall 2018 semester. We assessed the Kelley FUTURES program – an initiative to support traditionally underrepresented students in the Kelley School of Business at Indiana University – and provided suggestions for future practices to the program’s leadership. Additionally, we presented our research at to IU faculty, staff, graduate students, and other stakeholders during the GAP symposium in November of 2018.
Group Assessment Project Report:
Promising Practices Report
My project team and I spent time learning about the Fostering Success Program, which serves independent students (including former members of the Foster Care system) at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis. We interviewed program leadership and gathered information about their practices. We were then able to compare IUPUI’s practices to practices geared toward similar student populations at other institutions and develop a series of promising practices for Fostering Success to consider implementing.
Promising Practices Report:
RA Pre-Orientation PowerPoint
This PowerPoint outlined the agenda and activities for RA Pre-Orientation (a day of team-building and professional development for newly hired Resident Assistants) at Marian University in 2018. I organized the Pre-Orientation program and used the time to emphasize issues related to diversity, equity, and inclusion, and how those elements applied to creating a cohesive RA staff.
RA Pre-Orientation PowerPoint:
Carefrontations PowerPoint
I created this PowerPoint for Mid-Year Resident Assistant Orientation at Marian University in 2018. I presented on the topic of “Carefrontations,” explaining how RAs might approach other students or staff members when problems arise. I also connected the concept of Carefrontations to Marian’s Franciscan values.
Carefrontations PowerPoint:
Trauma-Informed Student Interactions PowerPoint
I made this PowerPoint and presented it during a staff meeting in the Office of Student Conduct at Indiana University. I explained how to apply components of Trauma-Informed Care philosophy to the work the office does with students who have endured traumatic experiences.
Trauma-Informed Student Interactions PowerPoint:
Marian University RA Staff T-Shirts
I designed T-shirts for the Marian University RA staff. The shirts feature several terms, phrases, and attributes related to the RA position, formed into the "RA" abbreviation. They were distributed to members of the 2017-2018 and 2018-2019 RA staffs.
T-Shirt Back (pictured below)
NASPA/ACPA COMPETENCIES
PERSONAL AND ETHICAL FOUNDATIONS
I began developing my personal and ethical foundations prior to entering graduate school, but both foundations evolved rapidly throughout both years of my experience in the program. Working at multiple institutions (Marian University, Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis, and Indiana University) provided opportunities for me to explore the ways in which various institutional values, cultures, and practices interact with my own perspectives. Experiencing the ways in which these institutions both matched and diverged from my values allowed me to better define myself as a professional and to identify the qualities I desire in future institutional work environments. Additionally, I learned to adapt quickly to the various paces, procedures, and expectations of the various offices in which I worked and had to figure out how to balance my own self-care and ensure my needs were met in the process. With each paraprofessional experience, I created new ways of practicing self-care and seeking support when needed. I adapted to environments in which varying levels of support were available and was able to navigate all environments in ways that contributed to my personal and professional success. I advocated for myself when needed and modeled the importance of self-advocacy and work-life balance to my RA staff during my time at Marian and to the students in the cohort below mine during my second year in the HESA program.
LAW, POLICY, AND GOVERNANCE
I became familiar with the law, policy, and governance during my first year in the HESA program, but my competence in this area flourished during my second year when I assumed the role of Graduate Hearing Office in the Office of Student Conduct at IU. Since I spent my first ten months of graduate school working as a Resident Director at Marian University (a private Catholic institution), I learned about the roles that religion and private institutional status play in deciding the policies that govern student conduct at institutions. I also discovered limits of those policies when the institution was awarded federal funding (for example in regards to Title IX adherence). Working in conduct at IU opened my eyes to the ways in which institutional policy is enacted and enforced, and the ways in which policy poses a variety of effects on students with diverse backgrounds. IU is a public institution, so federal legislation has a much larger impact on what the university can and cannot do. Additionally, IU cannot create and implement policy on religious grounds. Even though I performed some conduct-related work at Marian, my conduct caseload was not nearly as large as it has been during my time at IU. Therefore, I have had more opportunities to work with students possessing a variety of backgrounds and social identities than I did at Marian. In this way, I have been able to see first-hand how these factors impact different students differently and the ways in which inequities exist, even in systems that are intended to treat all students equitably.
One example of this entails the fact that international students are vastly overrepresented in IU’s Academic Misconduct process (typically because those students do not have as much exposure to citation methods used in the United States). As a result, many international students are required to take the Academic Integrity seminar that the Office of Student Conduct assigns to all students charged with Academic Misconduct. The seminar costs $208 to take, but students are eligible for fee waivers as long as they are eligible to receive Pell Grant funding. Unfortunately, international students are ineligible for Pell Grants and have therefore been unable to receive fee waivers for the Academic Integrity seminar, even though they represent a large portion of students who are required to take the seminar. This year, my co-grad and I pushed for a new fee waiver policy that would be more inclusive of international students. The office created a new policy that allows students – regardless of Pell Grant status – to apply for fee waivers for the seminar by expressing the reasons for their financial need. While not all fee waivers are guaranteed to be granted, the new system makes more room for international student eligibility as well as for the eligibility of domestic students who may have financial need, but who are unable to receive a Pell Grant.
TECHNOLOGY
Technology was a major component of all paraprofessional positions I held during my time in HESA. I learned how to use a variety of information management systems and was able to adapt to vastly different systems between institutions and functional areas. Exposure to many different systems helped me navigate the complexities and nuances of additional systems and software as I learned how to use them.
In addition to technology use at work, I began reconstructing my social media presence in a way that better reflected me professionally. I became more careful about what I shared on Facebook, set my personal Twitter to private (and changed my Twitter name to something only close friends and family would know me by), and created a public Twitter using my real name. Additionally, I deleted old blogs and YouTube videos that I created in high school and college, creating a more polished and professional Internet presence. Currently, I am proud of the information and images that appear when I search my name on Google.
ADVISING AND SUPPORTING
The Advising and Supporting competency brings to mind the advising practicum and internship I held during my time in HESA, but skills affiliated with the competency have come into play in every position I’ve held as a graduate student. Providing direction and guidance to students has been central to each role I have occupied, though the ways in which I provide that direction and guidance have differed between roles. I approach my advising and support work from a holistic perspective that accounts for students’ social identities and experiences with trauma.
In my Resident Director position, I often found myself providing advising and support to pairs or groups of students, such as through roommate mediations and RA staff meetings. I learned how to navigate the complex interactions of student needs, desires, identities, and opinions while working in the best interest of all students involved. The advising and supporting elements of my advising practicum and internship were more pronounced than they were in the Resident Director position as the purpose of my work was to provide advising services for students. Through the practicum and internship, I strengthened my active listening and appreciative advising skills. Lastly, my current conduct position incorporates elements of advising and supporting in most conversations with students. Typically, I meet with students in a one-on-one setting and discuss all factors related to their conduct case. This often leads to discussions about life circumstances, identities, and mental health. In all advising and support conversations, I work with information students have disclosed about their personal identities to decide what information might be useful to them and what frameworks will help me best serve their needs.
PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT PLAN
NATIONAL & REGIONAL PROFESSIONAL ORGANIZATION MEMBERSHIP
Short-term: Years 1 - 5
I am currently a member of ACPA, but am considering joining NASPA instead in the future. I want to be a member of one or both of these organizations because I think it is important to remain up-to-date on strategies and developments within the field of student affairs as a whole, across institutions, regions, and functional areas. Additionally, I would like to build and maintain relationships with colleagues who work in other parts of the country. As a member of NASPA, I would be able to attend the NASPA Strategies conference – which covers a number of special topics I am interested in – for a reduced “members only” fee.
Depending on my functional area, I may also join an organization that is specific to that particular type of work. For example, if I go into academic advising, I would like to become a member of NACADA and be involved with the organization at the regional and/or national level. If I did Title IX work, the same would be true, but with an ATIXA membership
I would also like to join a regional or state organization, but have not yet thought of which ones because this will depend on my functional area and geographic location.
I do not necessarily plan to join all of these organizations immediately upon entering the field, but would like to be active in them within my first five years as a professional. Starting out, I think a regional membership would be the most beneficial because it would allow me to become acquainted with other professionals working in the same general vicinity, would be less pricey than a national membership, and would require less distance when traveling for conferences.
INSTITUTIONAL PROFESSIONAL ORGANIZATION MEMBERSHIP
Short-term: Years 1-2
If the institution at which I work has its own organization for student affairs professionals, especially if it is specific to my functional area, I will become a member and will actively participate in meetings, events, and other related initiatives. This kind of organization would allow me to get to know other people working at the sae institution, particularly if I work at a mid-sized or large institution and may not communicate as frequently between offices as I might at a smaller institution. This kind of membership might also provide opportunities for leadership within the organization, even as an entry-level professional.
COMMUNITY ORGANIZATION INVOLVEMENT
Short-term: Years 1-2
In addition to the organizations I hope to join in the realm of higher education, I believe I would benefit professionally from involvement in local and community organizations outside of higher education or my place of work. For example, being an active participant in a local chapter of Black Lives Matter or an LGBTQ+ organization would provide opportunities for me to further advocate for social justice and grow as a social change agent both in- and outside of my career. Skills learned in environments outside of the institution will likely transfer directly into my position as an advocate for students in higher ed.
Additionally, I would be better informed of local resources and could refer students appropriately, should they wish to seek support outside of the institution.
Involvement in this type of organization would likely occur during my first or second year of full-time employment.
SOCIAL JUSTICE ADVOCACY WITHIN MY INSTITUTION
Short and long-term
I would like to start, advocate for, or join a staff-led social justice group within my future place of employment. I understand that institutional values, cultures, and resources could impact my ability to do these things, but I think it is important for professionals to continue learning about the social justice issues that impact our work.
In conjunction with (or in place of, if a formal group is not possible) a social justice group, I hope to attend or conferences and events related to social justice on campus. These events might include speakers, dinners, town halls, etc.
Additionally, I hope to show up for students in spaces that center marginalized identities. My ability to do this will depend on my title, functional area, and visibility within the field, but I think it is important – particularly as an entry-level professional – to be present for speakers and events that support underrepresented students and speak out against oppression.
More passively, I will make sure to include decorations and imagery in my office that indicates my support for underrepresented student populations (e.g. the equivalent of a “DACA Jags Welcome” button at IUPUI or a miniature rainbow flag).
MENTAL HEALTH FIRST AID AND GATEKEEPER TRAINING
Short-term: Years 1-3, and Beyond
I have participated in Gatekeeper and suicide prevention trainings as a paraprofessional, but hope to increase my proficiency in the areas of supporting students with mental health difficulties or experiencing suicidal ideation. (Short-term)
I would like to be a member of a Campus Assessment Response and Education (CARE) team, attend a NaBITA conference, and become certified in violence risk assessment. (Long-term)
REMAIN UPDATED ON CURRENT EVENTS
Ongoing
I will be intentional about staying up-to-date on institutional, local, regional, national, and global news. I plan to subscribe to news sources such as Inside Higher Ed (to which I am currently subscribed) and the Chronicle of Higher Education, and to follow institutional newspapers, newsletter, and other publications. This way, I will be able to discuss current events with colleagues and supervisors, as well as make it known to students that I can talk about current issues affecting their lives, if needed.
BE MINDFUL OF MY TECHNOLOGICAL AND SOCIAL MEDIA PRESENCE
Current - Ongoing
I have already started becoming more aware of my social media presence, including the ways in which I present myself on social media, which of my accounts are public and private, and who I allow to follow me on social media. My LinkedIn and professional Twitter are accessible to anyone, regardless of if they follow me on those platforms, so I need to be intentional about keeping those platforms updated with my professional statuses and commentary on certain issues. However, I must be careful about what I say and how those things might be interpreted. Because of this, I am more active on my private social media accounts than I am on my public ones. I have also restricted who can follow me and what kinds of content are viewable to people who do not follow me.
In regards to technology used at work, I will make a point to attend trainings and workshops on technology at the institution. I also hope to learn how student affairs professionals can use technology to better communicate with students.
