Culturally Responsive Student Support Endorsement
At Ohio State there are a lot of resources to help faculty and staff develop an awareness of identities, appreciation for diversity, and skills for supporting students and creating social change. The purpose of this experience is to provide academic advisors and other student-support staff with a framework to help guide their selection of and engagement with diversity trainings in order to build awareness, confidence and competence when working with students across difference. This endorsement encourages advisors and staff to participate in trainings that will support their growth in specific skills areas and competencies that are associated with improved outcomes of helping interventions. By fostering a culturally informed community, we hope to promote student success through the creation of safe learning spaces that value diversity.
This endorsement is made possible through the collaboration between Undergraduate Education, the ACADAOS Equity & Inclusion Committee and the Drake Institute of Teaching and Learning.
First Steps
The application is now available. Approved applicants will be notified September 6th, and given access the the Carmen shell the same day. Applicants do not need to submit an Endorsement Interest form to the Drake Institute. Late applications will be accepted on a first come-first served basis.
Any staff person in a student-serving role or graduate assistant is welcome to apply. Staff and graduate assistants will be given priority consideration; facutly may apply and will be considered if seats remain in the current cohort.
Applicants will be asked to engage a self-assessment about their current professional proficiencies and how well participation in this program aligns with their goals for both personal and professional development.
Academic Year CRSS ApplicationEndorsement Framework
This endorsement describes a framework to empower particpants to evaluate their own level of expertise and identify opportunities for growth. The framework based on the common elements of cultural competence models developed by counseling, social work, medical, and education disciplines. It addresses the broad categories of
- What we know and how we feel about ourselves, our students and diversity
- How we relate to and interact with others who are different from ourselves
- How we consciously engage in ongoing education, skills-building, and allyship.
In each module a series are considerations are listed to help participants evaluate the probability of potential learning opportunities to address the intended growth-areas. The modules begin by asking participants to examine their own identities; move to strengthening their understanding of key support skills and practices; and continue with ongoing self-reflection, learning, and advocacy. Examples of trainings, diaglouges, LinkedIn Learning, conferences/colloquia, and other learning experiences are provided for each module, but particpants are invited to find experiences not listed that may meet their needs better. After each module participants are asked to reflect on the ways that the information they've gained can be integrated into their current practice with students.
- Reflection on personal competence
- Belief that students can learn and have a variety of learning needs
- Acknowledgement that students use a variety of techniques to navigate the world and can become successful
- Recognition of our own identities and biases
- Understanding that students are responsible for their own behavior and its consequences
- Nonverbal skills: Empathic listening, etiquette, customs
- Verbal skills: idioms, primary language, preferred names/pronunciation
- Seeking to understand other's cultures, identities, and world-views
- Integration of specific cultural issues into interventions
- Skills working with the students' natural support networks when needed
- Skills advocating for institutional change that supports populations of students
- Engaging with literature related to equity, inclusion, diversity, and cultural competence
- Recognition of students' diverse backgrounds and beliefs
- Recognition of the multidimensional aspects of identity
- Meaning making - understanding our own experiences, others' experiences, and what we believe about those experiences that impacts how they affect us
- Identify at least 1 cross-cultural skill that has improved and set at least 1 SMART goal for continued improvement in the next year.
- Articulate their beliefs about the influence of a student's personal context on their learning.
- Demonstrate 2 communication skills that facilitate effective cross-cultural interactions.
- Name a culture/identity/world-view that they meet frequently within their role and describe at least one specific issue they have addressed through modifying their typical intervention strategies or improving their multicultural skills.
The endorsement is managed in a Carmen shell comprised of modules that address specific competencies. Each module contains a core experience(s) and an elective experience(s). After each, participants will be asked to submit reflections on their learning and how they will incorporate it into their work with students.
At the end of the experiences, participants are also asked to submit a final self-assessment and a set of professional development goals related to culturally responsive student support for the coming year to continue their learning and growth as well as to move from information-gathering to action.
It is anticipated that the endorsement will take approximately 15 hours to complete. Particpants can complete the experience in as little as a single semester, or up until the end of Spring semester of the following academic year (see below). Participants are encouraged to maintain proof of their training session attendance in a secure and accessible location.
Dates and Deadlines
Participants in the Endorsement will have an academic year (3 terms, Autumn through Summer) to complete their trainings and reflections.
- Participant Cohort
Applications are currently being accepted for a cohort admitted for 2024-2025 academic year
- Applications due August 30th , 2024
- Experiences and reflections due any time before May 1st, 2025
- Due dates for endorsement applications each semester
Participants can apply for their endorsement to be awarded in any semster:
- For award after Autumn semester, submit before December 1st
- For award after Spring semester, submit before May 1st
- For award after Summer term, submit before August 1st
What if you believe you have completed the endorsement already?
In some limited situations, staff can submit a request to have the trainings they've completed in the past academic year (for the 2024-2025 cohort, this means begining Autumn 2023) evaluated to determine whether they have already completed the endorsement. The evaluation request is located at go.osu.edu/crss-prior-experience-eval. Petitioners should be prepared to provide dates, descriptions, and proof of attendance (when requested) for their experiences. Below is a list of sample experiences for each competency area.
After the evaluation request has been received, reviewed and approved, petitioners will be contacted to submit their reflections and proof of attendance for each experience and their professional development goals. After these materials have been reviewed, petitioners will be notified that they are eligible to submit their final self-assessment.
Thoughts, feelings, & beliefs experiences examples:
- Core: Focuses on understanding identities and intersectionality
- Center for Belonging and Social Change: Who Am I? , P.O.P. Off , Privilege Puzzle , Diversity Basics/Introduction to Cultural Sensitivity (BuckeyeLearn) - or - Other
- Elective: Focuses on Bias, Privilege, Marginalization, Prejudice and Discrimination
- Understanding and Interrupting Implicit Bias (BuckeyeLearn) , Kirwan Institute Implicit Bias training - or - Other
Abilities & skills experiences examples:
- Core: Abilities are strengthened through awareness and learning. In advising, many abilities correlate to NACADA's Relational Competencies. They can include mindsets/approaches/theoretic orientations, creating safe spaces, planning interventions, facilitating problem solving through empowerment, advocacy, practicing cultural humility, and assessment of practice.
- Center for Belonging and Social Change: Why Don't You Understand Me? , Microaggressions 101 , Agent of Social Change , A Glimpse Into Emotional Intelligence (BuckeyeLearn) - or - Other
- Elective: Skills are concrete behaviors easily identified, practiced, and measured. These include creating safe spaces, using inclusive language, engaging in active listening, calling out and calling in, engaging in decolonizing practices, and more.
- Center for Belonging and Social Change: Speak Up , Fostering Inclusive Spaces , How to Facilitate Dialogue , Day of Understanding - or - Other
Intellectual engagement & commitment experiences examples:
- Core: Learning about groups, their histories, cultures, and current policies or events impacting them
- Professional Events: NACADA , ACADAOS Equity & Inclusion , Center for Belonging and Social Change Community Kit - or - Other
- Elective: Learning about skills, movements, research, allyship, and community needs
- ODI Dialogue and Discussion , President & Provost's Diversity Lecture , Kirwan Institute Forums , COMPAS/ETHOS Community Conversations , Recovery is Spoken Here - or - Other
What counts as proof of attendance?
- Follow-up emails sent to attendees
- PowerPoints or handouts provided during the training
- BuckeyeLearn Certificate of Completion
- Images of "swag" awarded to attendees (e.g. - stickers that identify the participant as an ally, etc)
- URLs for websites that include the partcipants' names as a registered contact or ally
- Other