Welcome to Student Affairs Administration (SAA)!
For almost 50 years, the Master of Arts in Student Affairs Administration (SAA) at Appalachian State University has prepared reflective scholar practitioners to work in various areas of student affairs to serve students and institutions of higher education through collaborative, equitable, and inclusive practice.
Our in-person, cohort-based, 45 credit hour program has a theory-to-practice framework and an applied learning emphasis. The curriculum requires at least three different practice-based experiences (assistantship, practicum, internship), with the option to engage in two additional experiences (second practicum, summer experience), to infuse an applied learning element that allows students to graduate with over 1700 hours of working with students, colleagues, and groups.
Recent graduates have secured employment in Academic Advising, Career Development, Diversity & Social Justice, First Year Student Programs, Fraternity & Sorority Life, Leadership Development, Orientation, Residence Life, Service Learning, Student Activities, Student Conduct, Student Learning Center, Study Abroad, and many other areas. We consistently receive positive feedback from employers about our gradutes' preparation for and success in their roles and the broader field.
Mission Statement
To prepare reflective scholar-practitioners to work in various areas of student affairs to serve students and institutions of higher education through collaborative, equitable and inclusive practice.
Learning Intentions
The Student Affairs Administration program fosters four overarching learning intentions, each with several components. Faculty and educational partners strive to create learning environments where students will:
Overarching Learning Intention | Specific Components |
Expand and challenge their thinking about themselves, others, and student affairs through theory, research, and reflection. |
|
Experience multiple functional areas of student affairs through practice and reflection. |
|
Develop their professional philosophies, values, pathways, and communities. |
|
Cultivate their abilities to be change agents in higher education. |
|
Program and Department Commitment to Diversity, Inclusion, & Equity
The Student Affairs Administration (SAA) program and Counseling, Family Therapy, and Higher Education (CTH) department seek to educate practitioner-scholars who serve with humility, reflect on their own identities and positionalities, embrace equity and inclusion, and navigate the complex realities of doing social justice-based work. We are committed to creating a learning environment among students, staff, and faculty that fosters critical consciousness, values diverse identities, and engages in purposeful action toward dismantling systemic oppression in our fields. We also recognize the tension between diversity, inclusion, and equity efforts and the practices, policies, and systems within our institution and broader society that are barriers to cultivating this kind of environment. As such, we strive to be transparent and responsive, reduce our role in perpetuating injustice, and work towards equity and justice with and on behalf of the students in our programs and in the communities that we serve.