The NASPA-ACPA Professional Competency Areas for Student Affairs Educators (ACPA & NASPA, 2015), reflect decades of scholarship devoted to identifying the knowledge, skills, and dispositions for effective practice.

This document is intended to set out the scope and content of professional competencies required of student affairs educators in order for them to succeed within the current higher educational environment as well as projected future environments. The full range of these competencies is especially important as student affairs educators cannot afford to engage in advocacy efforts without an understanding of how students learn and develop or to demonstrate business savvy while failing to understand the core educational values of the profession.

The 10 professional competency areas presented in this document lay out essential knowledge, skills, and dispositions expected of all student affairs educators, regardless of functional area or specialization within the field.
Whereas effective student affairs practice requires proficiency in many areas such as critical thinking, creativity, and oral and written communication, the competency areas presented here are intended to define students affairs work and lay out directions for the future development of student affairs educators both individually and as a profession.

The reflections I have written for each competency area attempt to snapshot my current mastery of these 10 areas at the time of my graduation and chart a course for further growth in my first year of professional practice.