Episode 14 Transcript

CSU, Chico’s College of Communication & Education

Time: 20:54

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

students, cme, people, shawna, chico state, campus, college, cars, talking, resources, episode, important, bit, programs, person, student success, retention, teresa, ge, faculty

SPEAKERS

He-Lo Ramirez, joshuah whittinghill, Shawna Lucas, Teresa Hernandez, Introduction Music

He-Lo Ramirez 00:00

Heytanayem nikki yam sa He-Lo nikki Mechoopda Maidu. Hello everyone. My name is He-Lo and I’m a Mechoopda Maidu. We acknowledge and are mindful that Chico State stands on lands that were originally occupied by the first people in thisarea, the Mechoopda. And we recognize their distinctive spiritual relationship with this land and the waters that run through campus. We are humbled that our campus resides upon sacred lands that have sustained the Mechoopda people for centuries, and continue to do so today.

Introduction Music 00:27

Introduction Music

Teresa Hernandez 01:09

Hi everyone, welcome back to another episode four podcast verse generation one of my needs. Our mission is to create an archive of discussions with and about first generation student experiences in and out of the classroom, we hope to continue raising awareness and understanding provide voice for students and alum as well as presented resources for faculty, staff and students working for and collaborating with first generation students. So we’re super excited to be back with another episode for our listeners. I’m excited to share this resource with you all as well. And of course, I’m not doing this by myself. Welcome joshuah whittinghill. Hey, josh, how are you?

joshuah whittinghill 01:46

Great today. Hi, Teresa. It’s been a good morning, here I was, I was actually fortunate enough to be a guest on a different podcast. And then I was able to leave and come into this one. So being with you, again, is exciting and fun as always.

Teresa Hernandez 02:00

Yes, I’m ready for today’s episode. I’m excited. And we have to hear a little bit about yours, or share it.

joshuah whittinghill 02:07

And we we’ve been on this right, nice run, you and I with a lot of different resources coming in for our mini episodes, which is great. So I think we have two or three more of those even coming up. And then we’re going to get back into some of our more topic based episodes that are a little bit longer. And that was coming up. The next one coming up is going to be on teaching to cultural strengths. So that’s going to be fun and exciting. And so so to get moving forward, our guest today is Shawna Lucas, who comes from the College of Communication Education here at Chico State. Hi, Shawna.

Shawna Lucas 02:48

Hi.

joshuah whittinghill 02:49

Yeah, glad you can make it today.

Shawna Lucas 02:51

I’m happy to be here.

joshuah whittinghill 02:52

Yeah, yeah. And so Shawna, we’re gonna get to her bio in a minute here. But Shawna is another one of the CARS. If you haven’t heard yet, the CARS at Chico State are the College Academic and Retention Specialists. And I mentioned last episode, CARS are real. And they’re doing great things, right. And so let me see here. So before the episode, I was able to find some quotes and run them by Shawna to make sure she approved that they were good, because I really want we really want the quotes on this show to really represent our guests, and a lot of times their college or the Department of the program, or the or the work they’re doing. And so in the spirit of communication and education, we have two quotes about communication. And they both come from people who work in the self help area, and one of them in more of a business in the realm of business and business management and developing businesses. So the first one is Caterina Rando. Who is the person who works in business area of management and developing businesses, organizations. Her quote says, increase your personal power through positive and powerful communication, recognize and eliminate negative self talk. Now I we thought that was a great one for this episode with, with what people are experiencing, we’re all going through different things now, on the last 10 or 11 months while we’ve been working remotely in the world, you know, it’s not something new. But it does seem like the self talk and working to be kind to ourselves, has exponentially grown for people as we’ve become isolated in different situations. And not everybody is able to even be in contact through zoom with people depending on their situations. And so that seemed like a very poignant and useful and powerful quote right now at this time. And then the second one comes from Tony Robbins also another self help guru of sorts in the field. And he says, to effectively communicate, we must realize that we are all different in the way we perceive the world and use this understanding as a guide to our communication with others. Right? And that seems also extremely important in in this way of how we’re now interacting with each other. And I know for me and Teresa, all of our work in higher education has always been working with a very diverse group of students and colleagues. And so it’s it’s kind of near and dear to what we’re always talking about is listening to understand and learn about people who are not us, because that’s every other person in the world is not me. So, so that’s that’s important. All right. So Shawna Lucas, as we mentioned, is our guest today, Shawna is the like I said, Shawna is the CARS or the College of Communication Education, but also she is the Student Success Advisor in that college. She provides academic advising and support to students in all CME disciplines. She supports students with major and minor exploration, or selection, career information, and community building. She helps students navigate campus policies and procedures and access the resources available to them as students. Through a collaborative relationship, she loves to work with students and create the best academic experience possible. So again, welcome in Shawna, and how are you today?

Shawna Lucas 06:20

I’m good. I’m good. I’m excited to be here.

joshuah whittinghill 06:23

Awesome. All right, Teresa, you’re gonna take us away on this journey, aren’t you?

Shawna Lucas 06:27

Yes, we’re gonna get to know a little bit more about Shawna. So Shawna, can you tell us how long you’ve been on campus and what your current role is? And how long you’ve been in that position? Yes, so I am, my official title is College Advising and Retention Specialist (CARS) for the College of Communication and education. I do prefer the title of CME Student Success Advisor, just because it’s not quite as long. I have been on campus for almost six years. And I have been in this role this CARS position since August of 2018. So a little over a year.

joshuah whittinghill 07:04

So that is also just right before we got sent home, and work remotely, so you didn’t get to do a whole lot in person. It sounds like

Shawna Lucas 07:12

No, I was like, seven months, I think.

joshuah whittinghill 07:15

Okay, wow. So that’s your, the the third CARS person that we’ve been talking with, that started right before this process of working from home. And so how has that challenge been trying to support students in in the fact that you had a short, you know, personal relationship with some of them and meeting them? What’s that been like?

Shawna Lucas 07:39

It’s definitely been challenging. I mean, the connection piece is really big for me, that is my absolute favorite part of the job is connecting with students helping students feel connected to campus. And that’s not super easy to do virtually. I mean, building those relationships, I’ve still done it, I do have a number of students that I pretty like consistently work with. So that’s been really nice, but it’s not the easiest. That’s, that’s for sure. Just especially because with CARS position, it requires really working collaboratively with a lot of people on campus. So I mean, thank goodness for email. And zoom makes it a little easier because we at least can see each other. But it’s definitely not the same thing as having a student walk down the hall of Tehama and just stop by and say hi, right. Now, it makes a little bit harder. And yeah, but it’s at least one thing that I do appreciate about this experience is it helps us kind of, you know, take those things and appreciate them more like the ability to get to know students in person and even just to have them walk into the office or just hang out there for a second something that I really missed. And so you’ve mentioned a little bit about, you know, collaborating with other programs on campus, which really helps you to be able to support your students. What other aspects do you do, or in terms of what is your program also do to help support students as well?

Shawna Lucas 09:10

In CME, we’re a little bit unique, in the sense that we don’t really have high fail rate courses, and our students often graduate within four years. So we’re seeing a lot of these success centers, which are awesome pop up in different colleges and around campus, but we don’t necessarily need that traditional Success Center. So what I do is a little different. In CME, you have your major advisor, so if you’re a kinesiology student, you have a faculty advisor within kinesiology that helps with everything that is major related. And then the university has GE advising and they advise on GE requirements and graduation requirements. And then you have me and I kind of live in that in between space. And so there’s a lot of hidden curricula in higher education, and it’s my goal to help students navigate that. So if they have a question, and they just don’t know who to answer, or who to ask that question, or if they’re not sure where a certain resource lives or whatever it may be, that doesn’t necessarily fall within that major requirement, and it’s not a GE requirements, then I am happy to help with that. I also can help students like, identify and establish strategies for Success, if they’re looking for that connection piece. That’s so again, that’s so big for me. And in CME, we really want students to find their academic home. So we want them to know that we are here for them that we support them. And I kind of again, work is just that, that like navigator, I can help you find what it is that you’re looking for, whether that’s within your major, if that’s something that you need, just for like your personal well being, and you need to maybe access a resource for that. Or if it is, in fact, something within GE or your point five units short, who do I talk to about that? Let me get you to that resource.

Teresa Hernandez 11:09

Right. Awesome. That’s perfect.

joshuah whittinghill 11:11

So just like we’re learning from all of the CARS and success advisors who are coming in for these programs are trying to get all of the colleges to have, you know, this this episode to hear because each college is doing something different. But at the same time, it sure sounds like you’re all doing a lot of things. And and when the when the development of the CARS position came about. Even I wasn’t involved with it. But I can imagine, people had many ideas of what they would hope for this CARS position to do and and I think before the episode, we were talking a little bit that it seems like you’re doing much more than maybe even ever anticipated. Because of the evolution of just questions that come up situations that come up. Looking back at that quote from Tony Robbins talking about we all have different experiences are coming into it from different experiences and understandings. And so so it’s really great to see and hear all of this that is happening out there. Now, we’ve talked about all those things, but it’s extremely important. How are people accessing you now? And and what are some ways they can get to the resources and information that you have to share?

Shawna Lucas 12:26

Absolutely. So our websites, just CME, you know, CSU chico.edu, slash CME is we use, we use our website a lot, so you have a lot of resources available on there. For me, personally, the easiest way to get a hold of me is via email. And that is just s m, as in Mary Lucas. So smlucas@chico.edu. And I also have an Instagram page that I’m using quite a bit at this point. CME has an Instagram page as well, we do post on them pretty regularly. I like to do important updates. So I actually started a new series called sessions with Shawna and once a month and coming in with just important updates, deadlines, resources, whatever it is, I think that students really should know at that specific time. And so I would say check us out on Instagram. I’m trying to remember what my handle is here. It’s just Chico State Student Success underscore CME.

joshuah whittinghill 13:33

I’ve already put the link for that in the shownotes right to your website, or CMA for the college one that takes them right to your Shawna Lucas Student Success advisor page on there. And then also put your your email, and I love your email. I love the emails on campus, or I see in general and emails where it’s just the person’s first initial, and then the lesser name that actually spells some sort of word possibly. smlucas might be something new, that could be in a children’s book, or who knows how you would use it, right? But I like those kinds because because mine doesn’t do it. So I don’t I don’t, it’s not as fun but the other ones like yours is fun to see a word actually come out of it.

Shawna Lucas 14:17

I love that.

joshuah whittinghill 14:18

Alright, so that’s all the information and time for this episode. Unless there’s anything else that you really think we’re missing out that students. Oh, we mentioned one thing. It is important, right that the CARS that you’re not really there just for students. We were talking about this a little bit before that you are intricate in the the development of faculty and staff within the college and cross college as well. I know you all work together on things that are helping support faculty and staff when it comes to advising because some faculty are new faculty and they’ve never advised students before to they’re new to campus, or they’re new to being a faculty member period, and others who have been faculty for a number of years, but advising always been part of what they were doing. And now they are doing it. So I think that’s important that people know that faculty staff can also utilize your services, if they have questions about what they’re doing in the new role or a role that’s evolving and changing for them. Because the academic success and retention of students can’t be on one person for the college. Right? We were joking with Jen McKee, who is on our last episode, of one of our previous episodes, the CARS in the engineering, computer science and construction management, we’re talking about like, oh, wouldn’t that be like crazy if there was just one campus in higher education. So So it’s the same sort of thing, like it wouldn’t be effective or useful. And so we can’t just have one person doing academic and retention, for academics, and retention. For students, it is the entire group of people. I think it’s been great for me after 20 years on campus to see people evolve at different paces, and a lot of people realize, like, Oh, I am doing more than just teaching my material, I am important, and I am crucial to the students success outside of class even, it may not be course material, it may be something else around personal growth, or situations that are going through. So that’s always good. And I loved hearing from the CARS over the winter break of what you all are doing. And that really, that really struck me as an important piece to it. Because a lot of my work is in social emotional development and learning. And so it’s great to see that because that’s so needed for us as people period, because one day people are not going to be students. And they’re gonna have to take all the stuff they’ve learned and developed and understand about themselves and how they interact with other people, and how the skills they have, and then go use it and be able to do it outside of school. So I always I’ve always said even despite being an educator, I’ve always said, you know, like, education is tough to be the number one priority in your life, because all the other stuff is going to continue and go on in your life after you leave school. So yes, there are those days where school is very important. And it’s number one for a while. But the other things are are so much more impactful on who we are and what we’re living through. So right to the recommendations. I am not going to have any today. But I know Shawna and Teresa will be set and I’m gonna have to say goodbye. I am like I joke with people and I’m sharing with you. I have been hired as an Uber driver to get my daughter to school every few days now. So I’m going to have to leave and go do that. But thank you so much, Shawna, for being here. And Teresa, I will miss you until I think Friday. We get to meet again. Yeah, and then record an episode then. So take care out there. And I will talk to y’all later.

Teresa Hernandez 17:53

Bye. Bye, josh. Perfect. Yeah, like josh mentioned, we’re gonna go ahead and talk a little bit about recommendations. For me personally, one of the things I want to recommend to our listeners is the podcast The Joe Rogan Experience. I think there’s at least one episode that our listeners are you often find interesting, he is able to interview just a variety of different people and a bunch of different places in terms of career or what they do. So definitely recommend that you listen to that podcast. And Shawna, what do you have to share with us?

Shawna Lucas 18:25

So one of my favorite Shows of All Time is Schitt’s Creek, um, all of it, the whole series is on Netflix at this point. It has been like one of my saving graces through this COVID time because it’s seriously just like, a warm blanket of joy. That’s what that show is.

Teresa Hernandez 18:44

That’s perfect. Maybe that’s something that we’re all kind of looking for and don’t really know where to find it. So

Shawna Lucas 18:49

Absolutely

Teresa Hernandez 18:50

Going to take a look into that for sure. Perfect. Well, we’ll definitely share those links. With our listeners, they’re going to be on our show notes that we’re going to be able to access if you want a direct link, apart from TV shows in the podcast, we’re also going to share with you links to Shawna’s email. And as well as the different links to the graduate advising and the college itself on our show notes so you know kind of where to go and navigate if you do want to reach out and ask any questions. And then if with that there’s anything else you want

Teresa Hernandez 18:50

Going to take a look into that for sure. Perfect. Well, we’ll definitely share those links. With our listeners, they’re going to be on our show notes that we’re going to be able to access if you want a direct link, apart from TV shows in the podcast, we’re also going to share with you links to Shawna’s email. And as well as the different links to the graduate advising and the college itself on our show notes so you know kind of where to go and navigate if you do want to reach out and ask any questions. And then if with that there’s anything else you want to share on it?

Teresa Hernandez 18:50

Going to take a look into that for sure. Perfect. Well, we’ll definitely share those links. With our listeners, they’re going to be on our show notes that we’re going to be able to access if you want a direct link, apart from TV shows in the podcast, we’re also going to share with you links to Shawna’s email. And as well as the different links to the graduate advising and the college itself on our show notes so you know kind of where to go and navigate if you do want to reach out and ask any questions. And then if with that there’s anything else you want to share on it?

Shawna Lucas 19:21

I think there is one thing I want to add really quickly that I really wanted.

Teresa Hernandez 19:25

Yeah.

Shawna Lucas 19:26

Which is I do a lot of major and minor exploration with students. Our programs in CME are often pretty misunderstood and have it so so much to offer that not everyone is aware of. So if there are any students out there, faculty, staff, anyone really that has questions about our programs, I am always super excited to talk about them. And then my last little plug is just because again, I think that our programs and our colleges sometimes misunderstood we do have these second largest number of alumni millionaires. So, yes, I just throw that out there.

Teresa Hernandez 20:11

No, that’s really I had no idea. And that’s actually really interesting to know. If our listeners are just as interested as me go ahead and reach out and find out. I love that point with major exploration too, because a lot of the times you may meet someone who does something and you know, that their major was has to do is related to CME yet, you know, it doesn’t really define exactly what it was that it was their specific area of study. So go ahead and look into it. Ask these questions, or also you will never get the answers if the question is in mass. So, reach out, don’t be afraid to do so. Um, and with that, we’ll go ahead and wrap up this minisode again. So once again, thank you, Shawna so much for taking your time being here with us and sharing these resources with our students and we hope to see you soon.

Shawna Lucas 20:50

Yeah, thank you.

Teresa Hernandez 20:51

Bye

Shawna Lucas 20:52

Bye.