Daphne Davis

I would attribute my success to every person that has walked into my life - good, bad, or indifferent - that made me realize what it is I want, what it is I don't need, what it is I should go after. My mom, who's now deceased, was an English teacher, and she was really big on education and instilling the importance of earning a degree so you can have a successful life and better opportunities. Although I didn't take that pathway initially and didn't even finish high school, I came to understand the importance of education because once you earn it, nobody can take that away from you. Once you earn your degrees, that's something you will have for the rest of your life. I worked in K-12 for almost 13 years and met a lot of good people in that industry before I ventured over into higher ed. K-12 was more structured, which gave me that foundation, but when I entered into higher ed, it created opportunities for me to realize that doors can be created and opportunities based on the need of students. That really broadened my horizons to understand just how vast education can be for those that really want to be able to make a difference and impact in someone's life.

The best advice I received is that you have to grow to grow. Another piece of advice would be: be ready, be humble, and be ready to learn. No job is too small. You just never know when your next opportunity's gonna come. Keep your head tucked down, do your work, and let your work speak for you.

Become a walking billboard for what it is you represent. If you want to be able to stand out in your field, make sure you are knowledgeable about best practices and trends so that you can stand up in any space and articulate what it is you are a practitioner in. Know your craft. If you're going to go into education, make sure you are aware of trends and things that impact students, from enrollment cliffs to financial resources, wraparound services, and mental health. In my field of student affairs, we look at students from a holistic perspective - the entire student - their mental health, how they're gonna get to school, whether they need counseling, financial aid, a place to stay, or food. There are so many components that it takes for a student to enter a classroom. Make sure you have a tough skin. Keep emotions out of the conversation - emotions have no place on the job. Be professional. Dress the part. Don't dress for the position you want now, dress for it later. Come to work prepared with that mindset. Change your mindset from fixed to growth so you can really hone in on who you are becoming. Get a mentor. Find you a sponsor. And be able to take constructive criticism and evolve.

The sky is endless - that's the beauty about higher ed. In my world of student affairs, we look at providing students with engagement activities and the resources they need to be successful in and out of the classroom, because studies show that 70% of what a student learned is outside the classroom. There's so much we can do creatively and collaboratively through partnerships, community or beyond, to make sure students have what they need to be successful. I'm a data person, so I look at data because data tells our story. I look at how many students are in-state versus out of state, how many conduct issues I'm seeing, how many students might be at academic risk on our early alert to make sure they don't fall through the cracks as part of that vulnerable population. From those data points, I look at what partnerships we need to ensure we are catching every student as much as possible, what kind of intervention plans or support systems we have in place currently or need to have in place. You have to go to grow - when you work at different institutions that may have more developed processes than others, it gives you an eye opener in terms of how things can really unfold for students and departments. Being able to have been a part of many different institutions, there's a lot of things I've been able to bring to the table to show how we can advance what we're currently doing to make sure students get more hands-on tools to be successful.

Integrity and character are most important to me. Never allow your character to take you where your integrity cannot keep you - that's something one of my dear friends has shared with me, and it has proven to be true in so many different things I've witnessed in my almost 20 years working in education. It's so important to make sure you do things the right way, even when you think nobody's looking, because you never know when something's going to come back to you. Make sure that you are becoming an expert in your area through mentorships, learning more about your craft, going through professional developments and networking, utilizing platforms such as LinkedIn to network on a global scale with others in your field. Make sure whatever major you go into college, that it's something you really see a need for, because our world is changing as a result of AI, and there may be jobs available today that may not be here in the next 10 years. Really think about what you want to go into profession-wise and do your homework, doing analysis on your current income bracket for whatever region you're looking at, whether you're relocating. Look at all those different things, do a cost analysis to make sure that your decision to go into a particular field could still be beneficial to you, even in the world of AI that is rapidly changing our culture.