Episode Transcript

Rebecca Beavers: Hello everyone, and welcome back to Bridging the Gap. My name is Rebecca Beavers, and today we are talking with our administrators who are behind the desk and see everything firsthand with our students. Today I am here with Ms. Tekeya Peterson.

Tekeya Peterson: Hello. Good afternoon.

Rebecca: All right, so moving into our first question, can you describe your role and how it connects to diversity, scholarships and student equity work on your campus? 

Tekeya: Yes. So I currently serve as the Assistant Director of Student Leadership and Development at Howard University, and in this capacity, the role is to essentially, kind of help students be able to cultivate who they are on campus, and also once they leave the university. I was able to effectively execute this when I served in this similar capacity at Morgan State University with working with the Morgan Opportunities for Leadership Development program. It was a six-week certification program for students to be able to learn about different skill sets and techniques to make them effective in class as well as in the workforce. So that's one of my primary roles, and making sure that students have accessibility to what is what we call currently happening in the market. We don't want them to be on campus and kind of disengage from the world. So it's like, here's what the workforce is looking for, here's what your internships are requiring, here's what your professors are requiring. And we want to kind of cultivate that into it, so it's what we call co-curriculum, because not necessarily academic, but it also is beneficial towards them being successful when they graduate from college. 

Rebecca: So our next question, what gaps and student needs were these programs originally designed to address?

Tekeya: Yeah, so definitely with the the mold program, it was the students were seeking opportunities to serve, whether it was on SGA or serving other capacities for their class. And a lot of them needed the skill set of public speaking. So they was like, you know, I have to do class presentations, but I don't necessarily know how to be able to speak publicly or confidently. So we were intentional with the mold program to kind of build that out and give them accessibility to be practitioners, what we call practitioners in the field. So it's more so they learned about it, but they also had an opportunity to kind of engage in it, and to be able to kind of grow and evolve in that. So the biggest thing was building their confidence in their identity and who they are, because once you you know, leave college and go into the workforce, you have to be able to kind of stand firm in what you're saying, what you're advocating for, to be able to whether it's for a raise or for internship or for a job offer. So the goal was to kind of help them become confident in what they are conveying and what they want to be able to share with their colleagues, their peers, their professors. So that was one of the gaps that I saw was confidence in public speaking, resume building, being able to know how to convey what your needs are and what you want, what your expectations are in the workforce. So that was something that we kind of worked on as well.

Rebecca: Okay. Next question, So from your perspective, what outcomes have you seen among students who have received these scholarships or been in these programs with access attention or a sense of belonging? I think you answered this, but if you want to dive deeper on this, you can.

Tekeya: We definitely saw retention. We definitely saw access students. Did feel as if you know, had I not done this program, I don't know if I would have wanted to be able to join student organizations. So it was like an intersectionality between what the program offered, but also, here's what the department offers. So that was a huge theme. So students kind of felt like, well, I'm here on campus, but I don't really know what's happening. So within my particular role, I had the ability to kind of gauge, like, so here is what the organizations consist of, and I held the students accountable, so I would ask them, but they had to feel like a survey when they joined the program, or what they're what they were looking for. But I also encourage them that by the time you graduate from this program, you need to be active in at least one organization on campus to kind of help them bridge that gap between what they want and what their desires are. So a lot of times, students, they are things that are happening on campus, and students don't necessarily have access to it because of, you know, whether it's a lack of confidence or what they feel as if, well, that's not really for me. So the goal was to kind of help them be able to understand what the resources are and what you know, Morgan specifically has, so they can be able to get access to it.

Rebecca: All right. So my next question for you is, how would you describe the current campus climate surrounding diversity and inclusion, and what challenges or pressures does your office face? This doesn't just have to refer to Howard or Morgan, by the way, you can also talk like what you see with other colleges.

Tekeya: So, I definitely think because of the political climate that we're in, the word diversity, equity and inclusion is kind of deemed as negative. So a lot of organizations are trying to pivot from, you know, what that what does that look like? What does that consist of? But I do believe, I always say that, you know, d i stands for, definitely earned it, and that people are not in these spaces just because of needed to meet a quota. But there was a qualification that was there. There was, you know, work ethic, there was an education that was behind it. So I think the biggest thing that I'm experiencing now is like a scarcity in the term, and then departments and universities are having to pivot with how that they, how they, you know, word these things because it's funding all that kind of stuff, political comment things are it's kind of like a scary topic to consider. However, I do think that there is still room, and there is still space in that when you consider diversity, equity and inclusion, when it comes to the students, how are we still meeting their needs? Because we do work with a diverse population of students on campus, and that goes beyond you know, HBCUs or pwd as well. So what are we doing to be able to be able to meet the needs of all of our students and ensure that there is an equitable experience for them across the board.

Rebecca: All right, okay, so what do you find most rewarding in this work, and what do you think is most misunderstood by the broader campus community?

Tekeya: Specifically in student affairs, what's most rewarding is when students feel comfortable or confident enough to convey you know their vulnerabilities or what their dreams or aspirations are, and then being able to assist them in accomplishing that. I always encourage students to understand that college is only four years, but what you do within those four years can determine the next 10 years of your life. So just kind of helping them to be able to get as much as they can while they're on campus, because the real world doesn't give grace. It doesn't give second chances. So if you mess up on your job, you're terminated. So I try to, you know, give them that perspective, not to scare them, but just to make it, you know, so they won't be ungrateful about what they have access to while they are students. And a lot of universities that I've worked at provide a significant amount of resources for their students. So I try to encourage them to engage in that. And I think that what people don't realize on the outside, because sometimes it's like, oh, well, Student Affairs, they just plan events, or they just do homecoming, but it's so much more than that. A lot of us are mentors, we're advisors, we're counselors, we're therapists, because students literally come to us and we are their family when they are away from home, especially those that are student leaders, they need a safe space to be able to vent, to be able to, you know, understand, you know, this is difficult to navigate, working full time and being SGA president, or being a king or a queen, or being in these positions. So we help them to be able to navigate real-life scenarios as administrators in student affairs. And it kind of helps us to be able to kind of, you know, cultivate an environment that helps them to be able to function, mental health wise, we try to make sure they have stability in that area. So it's a different array of things that we do that goes beyond what people see on the outside. So honestly, the events that are successful is as a result of the work we put in to make sure the students are stable enough to be able to enjoy or even, you know, host these kind of events. So it's a mostly faceted career, and one that you definitely cannot do passively. You have to be passionate about it, because there's so much that goes into it.

Rebecca: All right, my last question for you is, looking ahead, where do you see diversity efforts in higher education heading over the next few years?

Tekeya: I think that diversity efforts in higher education has the potential to evolve significantly. I do think that we have to be intentional to steward that transition well, because if not, we can allow an entire demographic of students to go unaddressed and unheard. So I think universities have to be very intentional to be mindful of who their target audience is and who they are catering to, and be sure to build programs and policies that are not just support those students, but protects them when they come to our campuses. So we have a lot that we're up against in this in this political climate. However, there is room for growth. There is room for transition in a positive manner, in a positive way. We just have to be intentional and strategic in how we build out our policies for the next few years to be able to cater to our large demographic of students.

Rebecca: All right. Thank you so much for joining me today. Is there anything you want to add like this?

Tekeya: I just wanted to, I guess, in conclusion, just share that this field in student affairs is, is not a walk in the park, but a lot of times for me, when I, you know, train students or cultivate them. I was a former student leader, so my experience is kind of different from others who serve in this field, because the things that students are aspiring to do, I've done so. I've served them, SGA, I've been in campus queen, I've done all the other things. So it's just a matter of making sure that students understand that when we step into these roles, a lot of us are not just talking, but we're actually speaking from experience, and we try to be intentional, to kind of encourage them to not take some of the the roles that we have taken, whether that's a mistake or whether that's a hiccup. So the goal is to kind of help to cultivate them. So we don't indoctrinate students with what our beliefs are. However, we do try to help them be confident in what they believe. So I think that outside of, you know, meeting a quota, or outside of, you know, making sure that we can make things look good, it's so much more that goes into that. So if anybody's interested in the field, definitely be sure to reach out to someone who currently serves there and make sure that you know your heart posture is right towards who you call to serve.

Rebecca: All right. Thank you so much for joining me again today.

Tekeya: Thank you for having me. I appreciate it.

Rebecca: So that is a wrap on this episode. So tune in for our next episode, where we talk about policies and legal threats concerning diversity and inclusion. 

This is Rebecca Beavers, and together we are Bridging the Gap.