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In 2017, I made a decision that would unknowingly set me on the path I have been walking for the last five years. As a senior in college, I was feeling lost and a bit hopeless - with no sense of direction as graduation loomed closer and closer. I knew that I was passionate about education and working with students, but that I was not meant to be in a classroom...

In January 2017, as part of my senior capstone, I began a research fellowship at the Massachusetts Department of Higher Education working under their General Counsel, Dena  Papanikolaou. My work with Dena ranged from work on sexual assault prevention on college campuses to consumer protection against for-profit colleges - I found the opportunity to make higher education not only accessible, but safe and equitable, to be what I had always dreamed of doing.

What I didn't know then is that Dena would not only help set me on my path, but that she would be there to guide and challenge me for years to come. She would become my first critical friend - someone's who passion mirrored my own, who would challenge and push me beyond my own sphere of thought.

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With my passion for college access and equity firmly established, my professional career began. In June 2017, I accepted a role in the Undergraduate Admissions Office at Brandeis University. The first few years of this professional journey were full of growing pains and opportunities for self-discovery. How would I establish myself as a professional? What power do I have to have a positive impact? What kind of leader do I want to be known as?

While in these early years, I had no formal leadership role - I was gaining the professional development and institutional knowledge  that would be critical as I took the next step on my journey. Thus, the early years in my career were crucial for a multitude of reasons. While I developed technical and institutional knowledge, I also developed soft skills and the practical wisdom as I continued to grow into my role within the institution and my role as an educational leader within my direct sphere of influence. I learned to trust my gut and to not be afraid to make my voice heard.

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"A good leader inspires people to have confidence in the leader. A great leader inspires people to have confidence in themselves...." - Eleanor Roosevelt

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"A good leader inspires people to have confidence in the leader. A great leader inspires people to have confidence in themselves...." - Eleanor Roosevelt

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In 2019, I embarked on one of the most formative and transformational chapters of my vocational journey. As I assumed a new leadership role within the office, I was tasked with restructuring our student program and was to serve as the manager for a team of 20 students. With no prior management experience and a complete lack of support from senior leadership, I was forced to rely heavily on the practical wisdom and institutional knowledge that I had developed as I moved through those first few months. I was terrified of failing them. What if all of the innovations and reforms that I had brought to the program missed the mark? What if my students didn't feel I was an effective leader? What if I failed?

I can't say that I didn't fail, but I learned overtime to see those missteps and mistakes not as points of shame, but rather opportunities for further growth and reflection. During our time together, each of my students served the role of a critical friend in their own way. They challenged me and pushed me to grow into my role, they held up mirrors for me to see myself in ways I never could have on my own, they were my greatest champions, and the first to point out when I had made an error.

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"How lucky am I to have something that makes saying goodbye so hard..."      - Winnie the Pooh

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"How lucky am I to have something that makes saying goodbye so hard..."      - Winnie the Pooh

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How Do You Know When It's Time To Say Goodbye

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How Do You Know When It's Time To Say Goodbye

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How Do You Know When It's Time To Say Goodbye

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6 months ago, in August 2020, I started the newest chapter of my vocational journey when I accepted a position as an Associate Director of Admission and Financial Aid at Colby College in Waterville, Maine.

It was not an easy choice to leave Brandeis - so much of my development [both as an individual and as an educational leader] had taken place there, but after 5 years, I felt that in order to continue my growth as a leader, I needed to make uncomfortable - in a new context, with new people and new opportunities. How do we know when we have outgrown a place? How do we know that our next step is the right one? And what do we do if it wasn't?

The start of this new chapter has been uniquely challenging. While I have continued to employ the practical wisdom that I have developed in these early years of my vocational journey - the pandemic has prevented me from learning meaningfully about this new context.