Speaker: Regina Hyatt, Vice President for Student Affairs
What led you to pursue a career in Student Affairs?
Regina Hyatt: I pursued a career in student affairs. Thanks to my advisor who was the director of student activities, was really involved as an undergraduate student and wanted the opportunity to find a way to help change the world and to hopefully create more just and equitable spaces for people and student affairs was the pathway that helped me to do that.
What is the most rewarding part of the work you do?
Regina Hyatt: The most rewarding part of my job is working with our students and having the opportunity to meet with them and to hear about their goals and hopefully being um a small part of their achieving those goals. I would also say uh another part of my job that I find really rewarding is helping our graduate students and new professionals find their place in student affairs and hopefully um lead them to a rewarding career in our profession. I really love um being in the classroom with our grad students and I really love the opportunity to interact with our new professionals as well.
Is there a quote you can share that is especially meaningful to you as it relates to your work?
Regina Hyatt: One of my favorite quotes is from Maya Angelou. And it goes something like this when you know better, do better. And I think that really speaks to me as it relates to the work that we do with students. Um sometimes students just don't know. And so it's an opportunity for us to teach and an opportunity also for us to learn um about ourselves and certainly for our students to learn. Um and I think it also speaks to this idea of grace, which is so important to um how we feel about ourselves and how we feel about others.
If you could give a piece of advice to someone who was newly entering a career in student affairs, what would it be?
Regina Hyatt: One of the best pieces of advice I got early on in my career was this idea that the path is not always linear, meaning that we don't always start in one place and end up in another one. And I think as you think about your career in student affairs, um This is my 27th year uh doing this work full time. When I started 27 years ago, I didn't think that I would be a Vice President of Student Affairs. And so to recognize that this is a career that can take you to a lot of places and a lot of different opportunities. And it's important to be open to all of that.
