Identity Development

Who Am I

Hi everyone! My name is Ronnie and I'm an aspiring singer-songwriter who's pursuing a career in Student Affairs. I love working with students. I've been a RA for the past two years and social justice extremely important to me.

Identity Development

So I'm in this student affairs program for undergraduates called the NASPA Undergraduate Fellows Program (NUFP). This program gives students with underrepresented identities in the field a community, mentors, and the opportunity to do research. My research project for this semester is on identity development. I'm kind of obsessed with this area of study. College is a time when people are allowed to explore who they really are and be who they want to be. I know, for me, coming to college was a time to really explore my queer identity and what it meant. My area of research for this semester is on how the QPOC community navigates its identities in both online and offline spaces. For offline spaces, I'm interested in racial spaces, queer spaces, the classroom, and professional settings. I know for me it is sometimes difficult navigating my various identities depending on the space, but I think it could be extremely interesting.

Further in my career

Eventually to future my career as a Student Affairs professional, I'll have to get my doctoral degree. For that I'll have to do research and identity development research will be the way I go. I for sure know that I'll be looking at how college students' identities change over an extended period of time. I'd want to look at it at least two years, but four years would be preferred. I know just in my undergrad career, I've know people who've come in identifying as gay or lesbian but later identified as trans. Personally, I know that I've come in identifying as gay, but have recently realized that my identity may actually fit somewhere under the bisexual umbrella. Who knows what will happen further down the line. Aspects of one's identity are constantly changing. It doesn't matter if your identities change, it's who you are at any given moment that is important. If you identity a certain and then that identity changes, then others have to respect it because that is who you are at that moment.