The education environment has a diverse population of students from different backgrounds, possessing unique values and experiences. The student affairs professionals are tasked with the challenge of accommodating all the students without discrimination to meet both their personal and academic goals. As a member of the student affairs office, I have come to understand that multiculturalism not only includes different cultures but also people of different races, ethnic backgrounds, socio-economic status, different sexual orientation, gender, people with disabilities and international students among others ( Chambers, 2019) . Since it is a multicultural setting, the student population in college is diverse, so is the students' needs, values, norms and beliefs, meaning that there should be competencies required to work in such environment.
As a member of the student's affairs office, it is my responsibility to address the arising multicultural issues. Having socialized and interacted with students from all walks of lives, I have come to appreciate the impact it has had on the student affairs professionals ( Childs, K. (2017) . We have integrated multicultural awareness, knowledge and skills into practice. Working in the student affairs office will allow me to continue embracing multiculturalism through diversity and inclusion of students in the institution. My primary goal in the student affairs office is to achieve equity of representation and outcomes by engaging, developing and empowering all the students, the staff and faculty from all walks of lives. As a result, I will be able to achieve my secondary goal of promoting mutual respect and intersection dialogue through an intercultural lens ( Morris & Parker, 2019) . Together with my colleagues, I will ensure that every individual irrespective of where they come from will be heard and will have a say. The student's affairs office should be there home away from home.
Delegate your assignment to our experts and they will do the rest.
Diversity and inclusion have had a significant impact on the student affairs office in the sense that, we have student representatives from different cultures and ethnic backgrounds working to represent their fellow students ( Michael & Cuyjet, 2017). We have understood each individual to be unique, and for that reason, it is only fair that they are represented. Not only does multiculturalism in the student affairs office help serve those marginalized, but also educates the privileged students to understand, appreciate and respect the minority groups. Multiculturalism has also had a considerable impact on the process of hiring. It has been and should be inclusive of all cultures, races, people with disabilities, among others with enhanced staff and faculty training ( Pope, Reynolds & Mueller, 2019). Through the student's affairs office, the staff and faculty have been educated and trained on how to deal with different students contributing to an inclusive academic institution. As the student's affairs office, we sometimes do face resistance, but instead, we create momentum by partnering with cooperating departments to achieve our new ideas or decisions.
Having dealt with a diversity of students, it discerned on me that working to better and integrate the students with the sustainability efforts on campus did have a significant impact on their lives. Instigating sustainability habits in someone, especially students, encouraged them to live a practical life outside campus ( Pope et al., 2019) . Secondly, people of different cultures and importantly of the mainstream culture learn to understand and accept those from outside because, otherwise it will foster unreasonable and biased bigotry like racism, sexism, among others. Therefore, it is only crucial that we only become aware of other culture as it also allows us to develop academically.
In ensuring that student success is increasing exponentially, it is essential that we, as the student's affairs office/ professionals, strategize to achieve success. We must ensure the students are holistically molded by leading, advising, counselling, and planning their welfare while on campus ( Yakaboski & Perozzi, 2018) . Therefore, we will participate in the comprehensive advising process of the students to meet their psychological, interpersonal and academic needs making them more aware of their multicultural setting. Having a peaceful mind allows one to succeed academically and professionally, which is our goal. Secondly, we are strategizing on offering students co-curricular activities that will enhance their performance outside the class. They will acquire socialization skills as well as develop leadership skills useful in the outside world ( Zhang & Howard-Hamilton 2019). Through these experiences of practical learning, they will gain the knowledge they came seeking.
To continue growing in multicultural competence, we seek to respect all the students for who they are without using any identity. We should not try to demean any cultural group for who they are but ensure our students have a positive self-image and self-esteem ( Mueller, 2017) . To thrive and grow in a competent multicultural environment, the student affairs professional will take into their hands to help students learn to respect the differences among them as well as acknowledge the complexities within ourselves and others. Multiculturalism is all about observing oneself before judging others. We plan to continue responding to the student's needs by providing guidance, advice and support for them to achieve success in their post-secondary education.
In conclusion, diversity will make our institution unique despite the student affairs office facing new challenges daily. Diverse students have diverse needs that should be met by student affairs professionals/staff for the students to succeed academically. In this respect, we seek to collaborate with every department in the institution like students' academic affairs to see our students grow holistically. We have created programmes and seek to offer more services to assist students grow personally, intellectually, socially and spiritually irrespective of their gender, sexual orientation, physical challenges, race, religion and class. We have and will continue to create a multicultural competence in our daily practices to address the needs of the diverse student population.
References
Chambers, C. R. (2019). Book Review: Multicultural and Diversity Issues in Student Affairs Practice-A Professional Competency-Based Approach. Journal for the Study of Postsecondary and Tertiary Education , 4 , 279-280. Retrieved from http://www.jspte.org/Volume4/JSPTEv4p279-280Chambers5920.pdf
Childs, K. (2017). Integrating multiculturalism in education for the 2020 classroom. Journal for Multicultural Education . Retrieved from https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/JME-06-2016-0041/full/html
Michael, J., & Cuyjet, M. F. (2017). Multiculturalism. Gender & Society , 20 (4), 441-464. Retrieved from https://s3.amazonaws.com/academia.edu.documents/51814769/TCRecord_Hailu_and_Tuitt_Book_Review.pdf?response-content-disposition=inline%3B%20filename%3DBook_Review_of_Multiculturalism_on_Campu.pdf&X-Amz-Algorithm=AWS4-HMAC-SHA256&X-Amz-Credential=AKIAIWOWYYGZ2Y53UL3A%2F20200211%2Fus-east-1%2Fs3%2Faws4_request&X-Amz-Date=20200211T142410Z&X-Amz-Expires=3600&X-Amz-SignedHeaders=host&X-Amz-Signature=2397baada7a256ab5493bc29653dd399ff662fba1ee838dd265545bb966beac0
Morris, L. V., & Parker, S. (2019). Multiculturalism in academe: A sourcebook . Routledge. Retrieved from https://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&as_sdt=0%2C5&as_ylo=2016&q=Morris%2C+L.+V.%2C+%26+Parker%2C+S.+%282019%29.+Multiculturalism+in+academe%3A+A+source+book.+Routledge&btnG=
Mueller, J. A. (2017). Multiculturalism on Campus: Theory, Models, and Practices for Understanding Diversity and Creating Inclusion ed. by Michael J. Cuyjet, et al. Journal of College Student Development , 58 (1), 118-120. Retrieved from https://muse.jhu.edu/article/646668/summary
Pope, R. L., Reynolds, A. L., & Mueller, J. A. (2019). Multicultural competence in student affairs: Advancing social justice and inclusion . John Wiley & Sons. Retrieved from https://books.google.co.ke/books?hl=en&lr=&id=HYV-DwAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PA11&dq=Pope,+R.+L.,+Reynolds,+A.+L.,+%26+Mueller,+J.+A.+(2019).+Multicultural+competence+in+student+affairs:+Advancing+social+justice+and+inclusion.+John+Wiley+%26+Sons.
Yakaboski, T., & Perozzi, B. (2018). Internationalizing US student affairs practice: An intercultural and inclusive framework . Routledge. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315212142
Zhang, N., & Howard-Hamilton, M. F. (2019). Multicultural and Diversity Issues in Student Affairs Practice: A Professional Competency-Based Approach . Charles C Thomas Publisher. Retrieved from https://books.google.co.ke/books?hl=en&lr=&id=GX-3DwAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PR1&dq=Zhang,+N.,+%26+Howard-Hamilton,+M.+F.+(2019).+Multicultural+and+Diversity+Issues+in+Student+Affairs+Practice:+A+Professional+Competency-Based+Approach.+Charles+C+Thomas+Publisher.
