Student Advocate, System Disruptor: Interrogating My Privilege
In 2023, I navigated a ton of firsts in professional career that were and are honestly incredible things. Before I dig in, let me share a little more about what I do professionally.
I ended up with a career in higher education by accident. During my undergraduate career, I pursued activity after activity — from resident advisor roles to dean’s office work to academic advising. Looking past what was directly in front of me, it really never occurred to me that perhaps my contribution to the world could be in higher education, that this could be my career.
This reality finally slapped me in the face after two important people in my life sat me down: my former dean of students simply said, “you know, you’re very good at this;” and one of my former supervisors emphasized a kind of ethical integrity I was looking for: “our jobs don’t exist without students — we work for them.”
One, a vote of confidence and seeing something in me I couldn’t see in myself, and the other showing me a purity and intention in work that made me feel a part of something that impacted and nurtured others — the bigger picture.
I’ve since worked in various higher ed capacities, spanning student engagement, academic support, community building, and most recently, faculty development focused on teaching quality. But, I eventually left higher education, disheartened at the burgeoning bureaucracy and transactional nature of the student experience. Everything became about graduation rates and checking boxes and following policy and was completely devoid of the journey, the community, and the supports that get someone through this experience.
Two years ago, I switched gears and moved into a role that let me focus on pushing systems to change — if the goal for me was enabling something that was better than just pushing someone through a process, I needed to work outside of the process and influence the overall structure.
Now I work for a nonprofit re-imagining how we center full human experiences, skills, and knowledge within careers and education. Equity requires moving past prescribed educational pathways towards appreciating the whole person — their earned experience, their formal experience, and everything in between. In an ideal world, my worth and value-add shouldn’t be defined by my degree and my pedigree, but instead simply because of me and who I am and what I’ve done. If we can do this, then education and higher education can become about democratic engagement as John Dewey first imagined it instead of a utilitarian measure to drive the economy.
Which brings me to reflect on my own journey this past year 2023… A year of firsts is an understatement. From being asked to speak at conferences at a rate I’d never imagined possible to getting airline status as a result of my pace of travel to giving my first professional keynote — honestly, I still can’t believe it all happened and what that means for me (goodness, did I peak too early? ha!).
But what I wanted to bring out here was something that got released a couple days ago. Sometime in the summer of 2023, I completed an interview about skills and skills-based practices and my own career journey. When I was asked to do this, I pushed back and declined the request.
- Was I the most qualified to talk about skills and alternative pathways? I have pedigree and education under my belt — up to an unfinished PhD! What can I share about skills and pursuing a career without higher education?
- I’m highly privileged. I did the traditional track. I have a well-paying job that has a knowledge premium and exists because of significant experience in the very system I’m suggesting isn’t a necessity for anyone. Am I becoming a “do as I say, not as I do” person?
- What could I possibly to say to someone who is pursuing a trade or vocational path? I never did it. When I did a pathway to becoming an EMT, I volunteered in the role. It wasn’t paid, I didn’t go work for an ambulance agency or a fire department. I was one toe in. I’m not an insider to this community.
… and so much more. But the person who nominated me came back and shared that he felt strongly that I could contribute and others around me shared that I could do it with intention. Again, one vote of confidence and another showing me some purity or integrity I couldn’t see on my own.
Fast forward to today — the site with my edited interview is now live. The interview did indeed let me tell my story, the importance of community, the reality that many jobs we’re in don’t have a direct 1:1 path to an education…that ultimately, what has helped me navigate a variety of jobs through my journey has been grounded squarely in being able to mold my skills and knowledge to meet the needs of a task, and to those around me who help me see what I can’t see. I also look at those who were also profiled and find myself actively humbled to know I’ve shared the virtual stage with them.
Why am I sharing any of this? Well, as I navigate how to scale this kind of reality, one where community can help acknowledge a person’s knowledge or skills and where people can value individuals based on their story of self — their story of life — the whole of their experiences, I wonder how to do this with intention, integrity, and a sense of equity that de-centers my privilege and rather uses my social and knowledge capital as currency for others to exchange. This reflexive process never goes away and it is so deeply rooted in liberatory practices, on acknowledging a person’s way of knowing and being (epistemologies), and about honoring an entire person’s experience as a value-add.
Today, this looks like supporting open recognition of skills and knowledge, using technology like digital credentialing and badging to help translate and prove what someone knows and can do, and considering how we can change the denomination of the someone’s value from having a college degree to the what they know and can do — moving away from how they got their knowledge to simply appreciating that they have it. It looks like focusing on a system that can re-imagine what it means for someone to have potential instead of evaluating if someone meets a threshold of readiness for a job, for further study, or for an opportunity. It looks like using technology to facilitate what people did for me: providing a vote of confidence, and painting the bigger picture.
As I step into new speaking opportunities and engage in unlikely spaces (including here), I aim to lead with the integrity and student-centered ethos that first drew me to this work — prioritizing people over mechanisms of control. If my contributions can support even a few more individuals in conveying their full stories and skills without filter, this amplifies the purpose that compelled me years ago. Though the settings change, the heart remains.
