Candice Maria Webb

Honestly, my personal life and growing up, I had a really hard childhood, and I realized that I think I kind of give to the students what I didn't have myself. I had some coworkers who would say, you know, I think you're doing too much, and I'm like, no, we're here for the students, what do you mean? It just comes natural - I want to make sure everyone is welcomed and feels welcomed and can be their best, because they're here for a reason. This is college, so it's not something that they have to do, they want to do, and we are here for that. Without them, we wouldn't have a job. So I have to care about their experiences as well. I attribute it to giving them what I didn't have myself. That's something that just came to me one day when I kept having coworkers saying, you don't have to do that, you don't have to do that. I'm like, it's for the students, what do you mean?

I'm gonna be honest, something that I kind of learned on my own, and very recently - give yourself grace. Step back a sec, evaluate everything, process everything, and then you can move forward. Understanding time management is very important in different roles, especially these, so just knowing everything you got going on, and then just making sure you know how to handle it, and then just sticking with it. I have my little post-it reminding myself, you know, you have a task, put it on your calendar. You can check your messages about every 15-20 minutes, but get back to your task. This way, you don't get behind in your own things. That's something I just recently learned, and it's helping me stay afloat.

The biggest thing I could say is really give yourself grace, because I feel like us women, we carry it all, from personal to work, you know, children, husbands - I take care of my father as well. Give yourself grace, give yourself time, pour into yourself, because if you don't pour into yourself, as we know is cliche, but it is the truth, you're not going to be a help for anyone. So I think give yourself grace, pour into yourself, and just take it day by day. I write my little to-do list every morning, and I get started. I check it off one by one. Put it on your calendar, stick with it. Yes, check your messages every so often, but try to stick with what you know you have to do. This way you don't bring your work home, and then you also don't bring the personal to work, so it separates the two.

Honestly, the challenges I look as opportunities to find different ways - I like to problem solve. The challenges are opportunities, number one. But it's a new role. I've been in higher ed for so long, and I've been in different departments. I've never been in this kind, so I'm in a foundations department right now called Advancement and Partnerships. The challenge would be it's a new role - I'm used to the direct student engagement, which I love. But the opportunity part of it is, you know what? The work we do is so rewarding to these students, so seeing the end game of it all. We get people who donate millions. We just had someone donate $50 million, the highest we ever received in history. And so just seeing where it goes and the students being so delighted. My particular challenge is, oh my gosh, I support 3 different people, 3 different directors, 3 different colleges that they belong to. You got three different personalities - who likes this, who likes that? So just kind of learning each other and what's a good fit. It really works out, and so I think that's what the mix of the challenges and opportunities would be.

Caring about what you do. Because if you care about what you do, you're going to really value it and make sure it's important, and you're gonna work hard doing it. You're gonna like what you're doing, you're not just going to a 9-to-5, you're actually enjoying what you do. I enjoy knowing that I'm able to touch someone and help someone. Understanding I'm from out of state, and a lot of the students I work with and for are also out of state and their families are not here, so I actually became known from the students as Office Mom. They would come and open their mail with me and see if they got accepted for their masters and things like that. They all still stay in touch with me, they text me, they tell me they miss me. So really caring about what you do, not just going to a job.