Payton Mentzer

I attribute my success to finding purpose and giving others purpose through my work in residence life. I often say that if I wouldn't have found res life when I did, I probably wouldn't have stayed in college. It gave me something to look forward to every day - I loved meeting new people and being on the staff and helping others. That sense of purpose has carried me through all these years, from being an undergraduate student to now being a Building Director supervising the same roles I once held. I think my biggest achievement is not just making it to being a building director, but finding that purpose and being able to give others that same sense of purpose. The work I do helps students through their transition periods, and knowing that I'm influential for a lot of people keeps me going.

The best career advice I've received came from my mentor, Desire, who is now the Vice President of Student Affairs at Kutztown University. She taught me to never be afraid to take the risk or move forward with something, even if I'm unsure about it, but at the same time, to always trust my gut. It's about aligning your heart with your mind a little bit. I learned from her that moving forward, even though things might feel uncomfortable, doesn't mean it's wrong - it just means it's new. That's something I've carried with me all these years and it's gotten me to where I am today.

I would definitely say know your worth and know what you bring to the table, because the more confident you are in what you know, and what you bring, and what you do, the more you're gonna excel. But that's not to say that people who aren't already naturally confident, or aren't working on finding their confidence, that doesn't mean they're any less valuable. It just means that they still have work to do to find their confidence, to find their voice, and to find their place and their purpose in higher education. I also learned that you don't necessarily need to have all the skills right away. I wasn't necessarily the most outgoing person when I started in residence life, but now I could probably talk to a brick wall and get it to be my friend. I learned through doing, and at some point it doesn't become fake anymore - it becomes who you are, and this is what you put everything into your work, and that just becomes who you are.

I would say higher education in general has challenges because people are deterred from it. It's a lot of work, and a lot of people see it as having too many moving parts. They don't want to work with students, or they think they're not outgoing enough, or they think they don't have the necessary skills to help students in this transition period from high school to college, or transfer students from a different college to this college. But something that I learned is that you can almost fake it till you make it. I wasn't necessarily the most outgoing person when I started in residence life, but I learned through doing, and at some point it doesn't become fake anymore - it becomes who you are and what you put everything into your work. That just becomes who you are, and you're putting in all the time.

My most important values are definitely transparency and accountability. I value transparency so highly, especially because I'm a supervisor right now for undergraduate students who all hold the positions that I once held. It's a relatable situation where I've done their jobs before, and I know what they're supposed to be doing, so I can give them advice because I've done it before. Something that's always been helpful for me is seeing mistakes being made, so I try to make it not super evident, but when I make a mistake in front of my staff, I'm not gonna hide it. I like to be super transparent with them and say, 'Oh gosh, I messed this up.' I want to show them that it's okay to make mistakes, and mistakes happen - it's what you do with those mistakes that are really important. I believe in accountability and showing my team that we're all human and we all make errors.