-: You could think about social work,
you could think about counseling,
you could think about education.
Those tend to be the ones that fellow colleagues
or colleagues across the globe
have gone into this work with,
but I think there's also been engineers and scientists.
We need folks that understand systems,
organizational management, and how do you do that.
There are degrees that are called change management,
and culture change work,
but I think that they're also a culmination
of so many other disciplines.
So be interdisciplinary as much as possible.
Get opportunities in everything.
Don't be afraid to take on challenges
of things that you don't know,
because I think that will only push you further
in that intellectual conversation to go deeper.
And push yourself to feel uncomfortable
and hopefully understand somebody else's journey.
I would look at, you know,
many of the higher education job alerts.
Those, we post in those.
You know, there's LGBT job career link things
that you could also look in.
I think, you know, familiarizing yourself,
and if you have the opportunity,
so depending on where you're located,
having the opportunity to connect with someone
who's doing this work either on a college campus
or in a local community
that might have other mentoring connections for you,
or might be a mentor to you,
is sometimes some of the best connections.
My mentors are the folks in my life that I can lean on
and learn from, and continue to ask questions to,
but they've also propelled me
into so many different directions
that I would of never taken
unless they nudged or challenged me.
For me it's the expression of
how did an experience affect you,
and how will that experience
translate into the work that you're gonna do in our space.
And so I don't think it's necessarily always the skillset
on the resume that's delivered,
or how many programs you delivered,
or the organizations you've been a part of.
I think I do look for some justice-based things,
or things that you have thought about equity,
you've thought about power and privilege,
or you may have been connected with community organizations,
so you understand, you know,
not always having all the funding in the world,
or those things,
but I think I wanna know the essence of who you are
and what you would bring to this team and this environment,
and really to the communities we serve.
And that's, for me, probably the most important part
of reviewing candidates and bringing someone into the space.