My 9-11 Revelation

On the evening of 9/11 I was sitting and thinking about that day, and remembering the impact it had on me, and confirming that I was not going be an engineer anymore and I was going to go into Higher Ed... well tomorrow, 9/11 will be my last day working full time in Higher Ed... WOW.

Fall 2001 I was a senior majoring in engineering, the president of IFC and figuring out what I was going to do for the rest of my life. I had finished a successful term as my chapter president and working on more general Latino issues for the college and loved being involved. The morning of 9/11 I had a meeting with the college president at WMU, Dr. Elson Floyd (now president at Washington State). On the way to the meeting the news was breaking about a plane crash in NY.... then while in his waiting room, watching live coverage on CNN we saw the second hit, and he came out of his office and had to reschedule. It would later come out that some of the pilots of that attack had trained at WMU... Dr.  Floyd closed our campus at noon.

Right away, Megan Baker and I started to plan... we knew we had to do something. She was my best friend, and Panhellenic President, both on our phones the entire day we worked to organize a candlelight vigil in the fraternity village. When we got reports a fraternity was drinking on their lawn and partying cause school was canceled, me and a couple guys went and made them stop... We took no lip.

Megan and I enlisted others and we organized other Greek leaders to get the word out. Friends like Doogie and my fraternity Brothers all jumped on board no questions asked. We went to every store in town and bought out all the candles we could find. We got the Director of Student Life (Sandy Barry-Loken) to come, our Greek Advisor (and my mentor) Steve Veldkamp and other administrators came. Even the news stations came. It was one of the largest gatherings we had, and it showed the power of student connection, the importance of a support network in college, and of not just Greek Life, but student engagement in general. We had students in village who had family in the area, students with family in the military, and firefights and it was a major tragedy... and we endured it together.

Over the years I had waned from my desire of being an engineer. I had enjoyed my internships, but I knew that I wanted to do something more enriching than designing cars. I had been working on campus in several different capacities and enjoyed the work. That day really helped me see what impact Student Life had on me, and can have on others. It helped solidify that I wanted to follow in the footsteps of my mentor and go into higher education.

Well fast forward... I have been in higher education since... worked two years at Grand Valley State while earning my masters, then four years at Albion College, followed up with four years at Indiana University South Bend, and now just shy of 2 years at Ivy Tech Community College... tomorrow, 9/11 is my last day working in Higher Education. WOW.

That day changed a lot of things in this country, and it clearly changed a lot of things in my life. I think it is why I always worked to honor it in some special way at each college I worked. I want to thank all the great people who came into my life during my career in Higher Education... grad school mentors, first job and all my Albion folks, my IUSB people who taught me to be an administrator and Ivy Tech that taught me the importance of balance.

Today I will attend my last Yoga session at Ivy Tech, a program I started, then our Black Student Union has a remembrance event, and then close the door on my career as a Higher Education Administrator.

Am I sad to go, yeah a little, am I excited for the new venture... absolutely. Monday the 16th I start full time work at La Casa and I can't wait.

I'll close, maybe with a shameless plug... to keep a little connected in Higher Education, and because I do love working with college students so much... I am trying to do more speaking/consulting/facilitating through my OutSight Consulting group I started years ago. Check out my updated site as I'd love to be connected in higher ed still, just no longer with my campus, but hopefully... yours. www.outsightdesign.com