Reimagining an Antiracist Career Center Based on the Professional Identity Development Model for Black Students and Students of Color

The Vermont Connection Volume 42 Black Lives Matter: Centering Black Narratives in Higher Education Article 14 2021 Reimagining an Antiracist Career Center Based on the Professional Identity Development Model for Black Students and Students of Color JAKE Small University of Vermont Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.uvm.edu/tvc Part of the Educational Methods Commons, and the Higher Education Commons Recommended Citation Small, J. (2021). Reimagining an Antiracist Career Center Based on the Professional Identity Development Model for Black Students and Students of Color. The Vermont Connection, 42(1). https://scholarworks.uvm.edu/tvc/vol42/iss1/14 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the College of Education and Social Services at ScholarWorks @ UVM. It has been accepted for inclusion in The Vermont Connection by an authorized editor of ScholarWorks @ UVM. For more information, please contact . Small • 125 Reimagining an Antiracist Career Center Based on the Professional Identity Development Model for Black Students and Students of Color JAKE Small As a Black college student studying at a predominately white-serving institution (PWI), many departments were not built for me. Learning models, development theories, and functional services were not developed with students like me in mind. In this paper, I will start by articulating my audience and positionality in order to ground where I enter this scholarly conversation on the topic of Black student engagement with career services in the college context. I will then examine the ways professional standards have largely been exclusionary for Black students and students of color. Next, I’ll offer my own professional identity development framework for students with minoritized racial identities. Finally, I will conclude my paper with a list of demands for the change agents who are well-positioned to define professionalism at colleges and universities: The National Association for Colleges and Employers (NACE), professionals in offices of career services, employers, and future researchers. Keywords: antiracist, anti-Black, professionalism, career services, Black, professional identity development As a Black college student studying at a predominately white-serving institution (PWI), many departments were not built for me. Learning models, development theories, and functional services were not developed with students like me in mind. In this paper, I will start by articulating my audience and positionality in order to ground where I enter this scholarly conversation on the topic of Black student engagement with career services in the college context. I will then examine the ways professional standards have largely been exclusionary for Black students and students of color. Next, I’ll offer my own professional identity development framework for students with minoritized racial identities. Finally, I will conclude I am who my ancestors fought for. I am who they dreamed we could become. I am a young, Black, queer boy with so much life to live and so many things left to do. I am JAKE Small (he/him), a proud scholar-practitioner with something amazing to say! 126 • The Vermont Connection • 2021 • Volume 42 my paper with a list of demands for the change agents who are well-positioned to define professionalism at colleges and universities: The National Association for Colleges and Employers (NACE), professionals in offices of career services, employers, and future researchers. Dedication This article is dedicated to Black students and students of color (SOC) who bravely persevere through college contexts that were never designed to serve them. You are the capable and magnificent future leaders who are paving a path for countless young people of color to come. I salute your courage and proudly stand with you as a Black scholar-practitioner hoping to give voice to our struggles as a community and highlight our unique and individual experiences. Although this paper is dedicated to Black students and SOC, I hope it may reach a broader audience of change agents inside and outside of the field of higher education. Positionality Statement I am called to acknowledge that this paper is being authored and will be published during numerous and compounding social justice crises in our nation. Firstly, the Black Lives Matter racial justice revolution founded by Patrisse Cullor, Alicia Garza, and Opal Tometi has reached a new level of national and global recognition. The Black Lives Matter movement serves to secure a more equitable and just life for Black global citizens and is in response to a national and global disregard for Black lives and Black bodies. Secondly, our world is amidst a violent fight against the most formidable modern-day pandemic. The novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has taken millions of lives and drastically altered the way we exist inside and outside of educational contexts. Of the lives lost, socioeconomically disadvantaged folks are among the most severely impacted. Thirdly, the insurrection on the US Capitol that took place on Wednesday, January 6th, 2021 further highlights the need for deep healing and restoration in our nation. The riot, which is being called a failed coup, was motivated by the white nationalist ideals of our 45th United States president. As educators, our work both reflects and is reflected by the socio-cultural contexts at play around us. We affect and are affected by the national and global landscapes we exist in. My professional philosophy leverages critical theory and transformative justice to positively impact my work and the communities I serve. I respond to the social justice crises of our nation and world with a dynamic approach. Grounded in equity and social justice, my professional focus on antiracism work supplements my lived experiences as I strive towards uplifting transformative and innovative cultural practices. I operate with a praxis of love and liberation to decenter oppressive organizational ways of being, knowing, and existing. My Small • 127 educational experiences have foregrounded restorative practices as a way to inspire intercultural competence and establish commitment to social justice. My greatest skill is my ability to orchestrate opportunity by building strategic partnerships and mobilizing individuals to act collaboratively. I am a transformational leader with an eagerness to pioneer culturally responsive practices while leveraging community. It is a privilege to critique the racist practices of colleges and universities especially when we, as Black intellectuals and Black scholars, are minoritized, marginalized, and over-policed continuously. It is a privilege to contribute to scholarship at a time when many folks are simply trying their best to stay alive. I am a Black student and graduate career counselor at a predominately white-serving institution. I operate first-hand from within the very professiona (...truncated)