AANAPISIs: What Can We Learn from Program Directors?
By Willa Mei Kurland, Thai-Huy Nguyen, Nestor Enguerra, Bach Mai Dolly Nguyen
This piece is a part of our Spark series What are AANAPISIs?
Meeting commitments to students requires talented and committed personnel, staff, and faculty leaders. These individuals can help their campuses define and achieve their vision as Asian American and Native American Pacific Islander Institutions (AANAPISIs). Those dedicated to better understanding and improving the capacity of AANAPISIs should look directly to campus leaders — such as program directors — who hold a wealth of knowledge in navigating organizational bureaucracy. Their perspectives on institutions can often explain how student success can be achieved and, most importantly, sustained. In the first post of the series, we largely discussed the need for greater research on AANAPISIs. In this post, we focus on program directors because we believe they play a crucial role in shaping the AANAPISI research agenda. Thus, it is essential to understand their unique insights, roles, and contributions, if we wish to understand AANAPISI programs themselves.
Program directors — professionals responsible for overseeing day-to-day operations of the AANAPISI funded programs — are in tune with their AAPI students, including how their outcomes, successes, and challenges are differentiated by the rich diversity that lies within their community. The success of program directors in implementing and managing AANAPISI programs is often contingent upon their relationship to departments and divisions across an institution. Unlike traditional staff roles where personnel are committed to a functional area (such as academic advising or student activities), program directors often operate within a broader domain of achievement. They must consider the students’ entire educational trajectories and identify the many mediating factors that shape their pathways to degree. AANAPISI programs and interventions may include financial literacy and social services, partnerships with community organizations or developing new curricula that are coordinated with student services. Leading an AANAPISI program is an enormous undertaking in large part because program directors must negotiate what they believe will be helpful to their students with the policies, processes and capacity of their institutions. This also begs the question, What do program directors, many of whom are staff/administrators and faculty, consider when leading and developing an AANAPISI program?
No two AANAPISI programs or schools are the same. And regardless of the amount of planning that goes into developing and implementing an AANAPISI program, on-going changes and priorities of the institution may create unexpected barriers. Based on our collective scholarship and professional experience either serving as or working with program directors, we offer three key practices that exemplify the importance of program directors to AANAPISIs:
- Program directors are student centered: To be student centered means including student representation in AANAPISI program decisions — paying attention to the student body/demographics, and being sensitive to student situations. AANAPISI students are often carrying more than a “student” identity — they are also parents, breadwinners for their families, or caretakers for their parents, serving in roles that require much of their attention. Program directors understand who they serve and what resources are required to support their students holistically. Honoring these unique student narratives allows program directors to make well informed decisions.
- Program directors consult experts: It is impossible to be an expert in everything that falls under the AANAPISI umbrella. A lack of expertise, however, should not be an excuse to develop a class, workshop, or event that is unresponsive to students. Program directors often reach out to representatives of local communities and organizations, either to learn more about student needs or to develop wrap around services. Local communities are often willing to share their expertise for the benefit of their students. Additionally, program directors center student voices in their decision making. Students have a wealth of knowledge — above and beyond what is available through institutional research data — that can inform the effectiveness of the programming.
- Program directors are open minded to the results: AANAPISI programs are just as diverse as the population they serve. When things do not work out, program directors do not think of it as a failure, but instead as an opportunity for change and improvement. Just because an event or program succeeded or failed does not mean the work is over. While most imagine AANAPISIs as temporary grant funded programs, that stunted timeline should not be a limitation. Program directors see this as the beginning of the creation of sustainable resources for our students, even beyond the grant. The work is ongoing and an open and flexible disposition can make the process more manageable.
As we look forward to the next 10 years of AANAPISI practice and research, it is impossible to predict the needs of increasingly diverse students. Yet, program directors are already sharpening the skills it takes to be ever more responsive to the emerging and shifting demands of students stepping onto their college campuses. Using their contemporary lessons to inform the future of work on AANAPISIs is critical. This requires a commitment between practitioners and researchers to share in this endeavor of capturing and reporting effective practices and strategies. Together we can sustain the future of AANAPISIs.
Willa Mei Kurland is the graduate success and awards officer in the Graduate Opportunities and Minority Achievement Program at the University of Washington. She recently graduated with a MA in student development administration from Seattle University, and spent two years as a graduate assistant at South Seattle College.
Thai-Huy Nguyen is an assistant professor of education at Seattle University, and a member of the Diversity Scholars Network at the National Center for Institutional Diversity. His interests are anchored in racial minority student achievement in STEM education, workforce diversity, and minority serving institutions.
Nestor Tupufia Enguerra Jr. has been working with an AANAPISI school for over three years as an advisor, retention specialist, and interim director. His interests are in ethnic studies and multicultural education and hopes to develop and build on knowledge in regards to Pacific Islanders and Pacific Islanders in education.
Bach Mai Dolly Nguyen is an assistant professor of education at Oregon State University, and a member of the Diversity Scholars Network at the National Center for Institutional Diversity. Her research examines inequality in educational opportunity, with particular attention to racial stratification, racial heterogeneity, and organizational change.
