The Importance of Higher Education in Developing a Student as a Whole

I have found that the main point of student higher education is that we should consider not just developing students’ intellectual strength but developing them holistically. It is important for higher education to develop students to be part of civilized society, with the necessary skills to contribute to our society (American Council of Education, 1983).

It is key for us to develop students “as a person other rather than upon his intellectual training” because they will need more than just intellectual training for the real world, for example, critical thinking, practical, and technological skills.

When I was working on my bachelor’s degree, I could see that the community college and four-year institution had developed me as a person through establishing relationships with classmates, training myself with physical exercise, and learning vocational skills. The philosophy of developing the student as a whole was established in the early 1900s and has been carried on even in today’s higher education institutions(American Council of Education, 1983).

Resources are another important key to the student’s development as a whole, and they “are allocated to encourage student learning and personal development” (American College Personnel Association, 1996). There are various resources that assist the student’s development as a whole, such as the career center, which can help the student realize what skills are needed in their intended career, and the tutoring center, which can assist in study skills as well as helping students build the skills needed in real-world careers, like reading or note-taking.

My current job is working at Cypress College in the EOPS (Extended Opportunity Programs & Services) Department in which I assist students with challenges ranging from economic, linguistic, and lastly educational.

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I know that my job gives the necessary resource for the student to develop them fully with services ranging from school supplies, specialized counseling, and seminars. I have gotten a fair amount of positivefeedbacks from students from attending our seminars ranging from financial literary, career academy, and basic skills initiativeshave improvedtheir personal development as a person fully with the skills necessary to transfer to a four-year institution, apply it when they are working at there job, or lastly applied it to their daily lives.

As anemployee at a community college, I know that I have made an impact from a fair amount of student lives helping them in a daily life and have students developed into a person as a whole. Sanford’s Theory of Challenge & Support is a theory in which have stated “that students need an optimal balance of challenge and support to for development to occur” (Jones &Abes, 2011, p. 153). In my workplace, we have students who are placed in remedial math and we require the students to finish the whole math sequence each semester until the student reaches to a college level math.

In relationship with Sanford’s Theory, my department want students to challenge themselves to reach to a college level math because many students do not like math classes and more chances to fail. We are challenging the students to take the math course but we are also providing the support with extra tutoring for the student. From the program’s requirement for the student, it have led student’s emotion towards math more positive because many were so intimidated with math. I have learned not to give too much support the student because the student will never development and will be more reliant on others without ever improving themselves.

Overall, the development of a student as whole is necessary in higher education and is needed for student to strive in their education and in their future endeavors. From my personal experience in my undergraduate and in my workplace, it has shown that the development of the student is not just through intellectual training but other emphasis holistically with the support through the resources.