Her Story
About Simphany
My journey in higher education began as a student leader on my college campus, where I found myself in rooms with campus leadership very early in my college career. This experience inspired me to pursue my graduate degree in higher education so I could continue working on my college campus. I took over the same first-year mentorship programs that I participated in as a freshman, building out that program and working with incoming freshmen every year to connect them with mentors. This work included training our student leaders and mentors in the program, teaching them the mindset of a mentor and what good mentorship looks like. I've continued working with our first-generation and underrepresented student populations on campus through various programs and organizations, getting involved in community mentorship. Now I've transitioned to our access and engagement unit on campus, where I focus on getting these same students into international immersion experiences. I get to mentor them through that process, helping them experience other countries and mentoring in a more informal role instead of it being a formal part of my job description like my original role. My goal for the next five years is to become a Dean of Students at a public university, which I believe is one of the most influential roles on a college campus because you're part of large-scale decision-making conversations while maintaining close proximity to students so you can genuinely advocate for them and their needs.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Simphany
01What do you attribute your success to?
I attribute my success to so many people along my journey, dating back to my elementary school years, who genuinely saw things in me before I saw them in myself. That confidence they instilled in me at such an early age really helped me push myself all the way up until now. I think about my basketball coach Shanae Batchelor, who was the first person to teach me that what I was learning wasn't just about athletics or being a team player, but about being a good person, a resilient person, a strong person, somebody who sees a problem and fixes it, whether that's on the court or in life or with my friends. I think about my first supervisor in my college career when I became a student leader on campus, Sierra Burnett, who gave me my first shot and recognized that the biggest way for me to grow was to be put in positions and have experiences to continue to hone in on those skills. I think about my supervisors for my first professional role who saw me as a graduate student who had only been there for 7 months and decided that I had the skill to become a professional staff member in the office because I had done so much more than what they had expected of me. My community is one of the biggest pieces, but my faith is also a major contributor to my success. If I didn't have anything to hold onto or believe in, it would have been a lot harder when the work days were harder, or relationships were faltering, or when I might not have gotten something right. My faith has held me stable and given me a foundation to know that whether I make a mistake or things don't go the way I would like them to, at any point things can turn around. My partner has also been a big part of what's been going on lately as I continue to try to climb and grow through my career, having somebody who's there right beside you pushing you and always seeing a lot more in you than you can sometimes see in yourself. These main things continue to push me to be better, and that's the same reason I pour into and mentor the young professionals and individuals that I get to connect with on a regular basis, because I've literally seen what that can do for somebody's life.
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