This artifact, titled Graduate Assistant Preview Days Evaluation Plan, was submitted for ELPS 431: Evaluation in Higher Education with Diego Donna.  This project asked us to identify a program in higher education that we could research and propose an evaluation plan.  Using my experience working with Graduate Assistant Formation Council and as a Graduate Assistant in the Division of Student Development at Loyola, we identified the Preview Days program for our evaluation plan.  In this plan, we met with campus stakeholders (Jack McLean, J.D. and J. Curtis Main) in order to identify the various components of the Preview Days program and the areas where the Division could use more feedback.  Diego and I landed on surveying students who attended the program in order to understand if the Preview Days program was providing an environment where prospective candidates could make a more informed decision about choosing Loyola for their graduate studies.

            This artifact demonstrates my learning in Research and Assessment Competence primarily because it required us to identify various evaluation paradigms and structures and find ways to apply them to an evaluation proposal.  In contrast to some other projects in the program, the project was completed with the expectation that professionals in the field could use the information and apply it to their own programs.  Through the formation process of our evaluation plan, we had to consider the various external factors and ethical considerations of our plan and find ways to best administer our survey and interviews in order to procure the best results.  The project itself took a great deal of energy and effort to complete, but we were excited to complete it and present it to the professionals in the Division.  This artifact shows my ability to apply my classroom experiences to practice and will be used as a model as I perform evaluation and assessment in my future roles in the field.