Jenna Schmidt

I don't take no for an answer, and I don't believe anyone, including myself, if I get the thoughts that I can't do something. I have to prove to myself that I can or can't - I don't just assume. I really attribute that mentality of try everything, and if you fail, it's fine, learn from it and move on. I really attribute that to my success, for sure. I was going to say it's the way I was raised, but really, it's this mindset that has kept me going and helped me achieve what I have so far in my career.

The best career advice I've ever received is that it's not too late to try something new or change your mind. I feel like this is going to sound very cliche, but it has been tried and true in my profession, especially working in higher education. If I would not have listened to that, I would not be where I'm at. I originally thought I was going to be a classroom teacher, teaching kindergarten, and that's what I was going to do for my whole life. And now I'm working on my doctorate and helping to teach faculty members and presenting at conferences across the nation, and so all of those things would not have happened if I wouldn't have believed that it was too late for me to change my mind.

Use your compassion and your ability to listen to your advantage. Especially as you get higher up in the higher education world, it is sometimes a boys club, and sometimes you feel like your voice isn't heard, but sometimes it's more important to listen than to speak. You're going to be able to hear things and utilize that knowledge to help yourself and your own team. So I think utilizing that, in my opinion, inherently female strength of compassion and the ability to listen - I think that'll get people farther than they think it will.

I've been taking more and more of the opportunities that have been presented to me to travel and go network with people in my field that are in different states across the country. And also not just in my field, but talk to people who don't work in the same position as me and figure out how their knowledge can influence my own role. The biggest challenge would definitely be learning how to move in a space that is full of politics - not in the sense of national politics, but more in the sense of there are always other ulterior motives and interests at play. Learning to navigate this space, this very unique space of academia and higher education, has probably been the biggest challenge, and I'm still learning how to do that every single day.

One of the biggest values for me is just open, honest communication. I really value being able to have an open dialogue with both my family, my friends, my partner who I live with, and my coworkers. Communication has been both the highest of highs and the lowest of lows, and when it comes to my working life, it usually always comes back to a communication problem, so I truly value clear and honest communication. I also think I value constant opportunities to learn. I think it's really important to continue to be a lifelong learner, no matter what field you're in. So I value the opportunity to learn whenever it's given to me, and I really try to encourage others to consistently seek out new information and new knowledge.