Nicole Blackstock

I attribute my success to the independence and hands-on work ethic I developed growing up as an only child in a small town. There wasn't anyone else in my class in my town, so all my friends were different age groups, and I had to do things on my own from an early age. My family - my dad, mom, and grandparents - always taught me how to do things hands-on. They showed me how to garden, how to bake things from scratch, all those old skills, and it was always very hands-on learning. That hard work ethic of just going in and getting it done from the basics is what I've carried with me and taught my kids. I tell them, okay, you want to go do it? Let's go do it. Let's just get in, do it, figure it out. I'm a very hands-on learner - if you're going to tell me I need to do something, I'm going to dive in and literally figure out how it works. I'll ask questions, start looking things up, and figure out how it all works. I just want to learn it all, learn how to do the things, and you just need to keep learning. That persistence and curiosity, that willingness to just keep learning and never stop, is what drives everything I do.

You need to find your comfort spot, find the place that you feel the most comfortable, where you feel that you are the most confident and you don't feel like you've got the imposter syndrome - which I still have all the time, just because it's hard to step into a spot where you're like, am I really in my spot? Do people really see me? But find a place where you're comfortable, find a place where you feel like you've got the knowledge base that you are confident in, and then just do it. If you've got any ounce of confidence in it, take that step. The people that don't see that you have got that confidence, then they're not your people. They don't have your back. They can take a step back, whatever. You take the step forward, go for it, try it, and see what happens. That can be your path. You're not gonna know until you try, so take the leap.

The biggest challenge in higher education right now is artificial intelligence - it's truly a double-edged sword. One of my coworkers was on the edge of it at the beginning and showed it to us, saying there's so many good things that it will do, but you have to be very careful with it. There's good functionality, but then there's bad. You kind of have to use it to your advantages in the way that you need to monitor what you're doing, but yet use it ethically in ways that it will help you do what you needed to do. In the field of higher education, for what students are using it for and the ways that it's not helping them, it's not good. But in the ways that some of us use it in the administrative way for productivity, I can see how it can help. There are times where I need to send an email out and I think, what would be the best way to word this to get my point across in the simplest way so that it's effective? My coworker uses it to run a whole bunch of data and metrics in the background while she's doing other things to make her time more efficient. Our coworker who does a lot of coding has been able to help set that up so she can run stuff in the background that can help her do her job more efficiently, versus the way that other things are happening in other industries and other professions. That's the piece that's making things so difficult - it just depends on how it's being used in different ways and how it's being taught to students right now. The opportunity for growth is definitely there in the way it can be used for productivity and ease, depending on your field. As an executive assistant, if you're able to get things done in a more effective, efficient way, that's fantastic. If you can create a template for an email that you send on a regular basis, great. But if you are doing something that's unethical, then that's a downside. If people don't see which side of the sword they're using, then that's going to create an issue.

Independence and self-reliance are core to who I am. Growing up as an only child in a small town where there was no one else in my class, I had to do things on my own from an early age. But I also deeply value hands-on learning and hard work - my family always taught me how to do things, whether it was gardening or baking from scratch, and they showed me those old skills through very hands-on learning. That hard work ethic of just going in and getting it done from the basics is something I've carried throughout my life and passed on to my kids. I believe in just diving in, figuring things out, asking questions, and learning how it all works. I'm driven by an insatiable curiosity - I just want to learn it all, learn how to do the things. Most importantly, I believe you just need to keep learning. Education and lifelong learning aren't just professional values for me, they're personal ones. Even while working full-time and raising two kids, I'm finishing my bachelor's degree and building a podcast to make public history accessible to people, because I want everyone to have those few minutes to listen to something short and digestible that might make them curious to go learn more.