Office Hours

Kolby:
Hi Bobcats. My name is Kolby. Welcome back to the Office Hours podcast. Today I'm here with Dr. Beverly Woodson Day from the Admissions department. How are you doing today?

Beverly Woodson Day:
I'm doing great, Kolby. How are you?

Kolby:
I'm doing great. Thanks for asking.

Beverly Woodson Day:
Good.

Kolby:
Why don't you go ahead and just kind of give us your title, what you're doing with Texas State University, how long you've been here.

Beverly Woodson Day:
Sure. So Beverly Woodson Day, my title is Assistant Vice President of Enrollment Management and Director of Texas State Admissions. I started here 18 years ago, left for eight and came back four years ago. So I've been here for a while.

Kolby:
Okay, gotcha. Where did you leave to?

Beverly Woodson Day:
I left and went to UTSA for eight.

Kolby:
Okay.

Beverly Woodson Day:
Yes.

Kolby:
And then came back to Texas State? Gotcha.

Beverly Woodson Day:
Correct.

Kolby:
Well, with the Office Hours podcast, we like to start the conversation off with just a little icebreaker.

Beverly Woodson Day:
Sure.

Kolby:
So I would like to hear from you to rank your top three sandwiches.

Beverly Woodson Day:
That's awesome. So my top three sandwiches, I would say a good PB&J.

Kolby:
Yep. That's got to be out there.

Beverly Woodson Day:
I would say a grilled cheese, and then a BLT because you can't go wrong with bacon.

Kolby:
No, you absolutely cannot go wrong with bacon. Yeah, BLT is definitely the number one spot for sure. All right, awesome. So I do want to hear a little bit about your life roadmap and how you got to where you are today. So I guess first off, where I guess did you grow up and where did you go to high school?

Beverly Woodson Day:
Yeah, so I grew up in Texas, of course, Gonzales, Texas, a little small town, about an hour or so from here. And went to high school at Gonzales, Texas, home of the Apaches. So went to school there and from there I was first gen, so first in my family to go to college, the oldest of three. And my sister also ended up coming here to Texas State. But I looked at different colleges across the state and decided to come to Texas State, at that time, Southwest Texas.

Kolby:
Okay, gotcha. And what were you studying at the time?

Beverly Woodson Day:
So studying physics and math. So I started out in accounting and figured, oh, I want to do something different, then I switched to physics as a bachelor's and my minor was math. Because I wanted to be a doctor, I wanted to go into med school and decided not to because I didn't want to be in school that long. But I ended up being in school that long anyway to get my Ph.D. So times change and things change, but I decided to stick with physics. I loved it. It was great.

Kolby:
And how did you know, I guess, when you were in high school, how did you know that college was right for you? How did you know that was your step, especially coming from you being first gen?

Beverly Woodson Day:
Right. I didn't really have a choice. I just figured everybody should be going to college. I wanted to have a clear path and do something great. I think the other is I just wanted to show that my siblings, my brother and my sister, Hey, you can also do this. And so I decided to just jump right in and had a counselor that said, you need to look at college. A lot of my friends were going to college and I thought I might as well do that as well. I was one of the, in the top 10%, so I figured I could look at three or four different colleges. Got into all of those, but decided to choose Texas State.

Kolby:
Oh, awesome. So you said that, did your siblings go to college as well?

Beverly Woodson Day:
My sister did and my brother went right into the Navy. So he retired out of the Navy.

Kolby:
Okay. How much would you say you were an influence on your sister to go to college?

Beverly Woodson Day:
I think a lot, because she's the youngest, right?

Kolby:
Mm-hmm.

Beverly Woodson Day:
So would always, whenever we would come to drop me off here at Texas State, she would come and she would see, okay, this is where I'm staying, this is where I'm going. And so I think hopefully I influenced, that was a big influence for her. She ended up going here and getting her undergrad and her graduate degree as well as she played basketball here for a little bit.

Kolby:
All right. So I guess a little bit more on your lead-up going into college. I want to hear some of the jobs that you worked, I guess through high school, and I want to hear how those jobs prepared you for college and then even post-college. How did it prepare you career-wise?

Beverly Woodson Day:
Funny you asked that because I didn't work while I was in high school. I didn't have a job. It is really interesting, because most students, you think, okay, they have a job in high school, I didn't. So I was blessed with that to not have a job. So when I got to college, that was my first job. So I started in, I was in work study and I started in SLAC, Student Learning Assistance Center. And so that was my very first job, brand new to me, didn't know what to do, what that all entailed. So once I did that, then that opened up a lot of other doors. So coming out of high school? Yeah, first time in college, first job ever.
And it was interesting, it was interesting to see how to interact with students there at Student Learning Assistance Center and then professional staff got to know the professional staff a lot and they shared with me, here's some things that you might want to consider. Which then took me into other jobs on campus, like being a resident assistant, an RA. I then looked at being an orientation leader, an OL. So I was an OL for the summers. And then that then catapulted me into staying here because after I graduated I thought, what am I going to do? And so the position came open in the Admissions office and I applied for that as an admission counselor and got that. So that's what took me into the role of being in this profession.

Kolby:
So you went to school here and then you ended up working here after, what about Texas State made you want to stay around?

Beverly Woodson Day:
It was the atmosphere. It was the people. I loved... The campus was beautiful. I mean that hands down. So that was part of it. The other part was just the people. Love the people. You could see that their heart was in the right place and that they really enjoyed working at Texas State. And I was like, well, I enjoyed working here, I loved going here, why not? And I wanted to be able to share that same sentiment with other students that were considering Texas State. So when that position came open and I saw it was a good fit and they hired me, I said, this is it. My whole perspective changed and I wanted to be in higher ed at that point.

Kolby:
Awesome. I want to talk a little bit about your published work, the Future of Enrollment Leadership. I'm wondering if you can just give me an elevator pitch of what that article was about.

Beverly Woodson Day:
Yeah. So I had to do it for AACRAO, which is a national organization, and it was part of a certificate program. So it is the Strategic Enrollment Management Empowerment Program. And so that program allowed me to understand enrollment management across the board. So I got involved in that. And that particular article looks at how enrollment leaders make a difference. What is their path, what are their challenges, what type of characteristics and attributes do they have to have, and how do they impact not only the profession, but the institution that they're at and the students and staff that they engage with. So it was very interesting. I found a lot of great things about how to be a leader and how not to be a specific type of leader, but it was really great to see that when you think about leadership, it's more than just, I'm going to lead this person and that's it. It's more of being a servant leader, being humble, being engaging, creating relationships, just serving, that's important. If you're a leader, you need to serve, you need to give back, you need to be able to get your hands dirty like everybody else and not just sit high looking low.

Kolby:
Yeah, absolutely. No, that's a great definition. So as somebody who works for the Admissions department, what do you think are some things that students may miss when they're applying for college? Or I guess what kind of tips would you have for students who are applying to college?

Beverly Woodson Day:
Great question. I think for them, they need to think about researching, understanding what each institution has. So when I was looking at colleges, a lot of my friends were looking at A&M, UT, Texas State, Baylor, et cetera. And I said, okay, well, I was looking at the same ones. I didn't visit, I didn't visit those institutions, didn't really know a lot. I knew enough, but not a lot, like dig deep down. Like the traditions and all that, didn't know all of that. And so I think for students, they need to understand what they want and what they're going to need to be successful. Not only that, but taking the time to visit the campus. If you don't visit the campus and actually step foot on a campus, you don't know if that's going to be the right place for you.
So I would basically tell students, research campuses, try and visit. A lot of times now students have the ability to do a virtual tour. A lot of schools have virtual tours. We have one. A lot of other schools have one. If you can't visit those, visit. Because if you're going to the Northeast, it snows. So unless you get an opportunity to see it in that respect, you don't know until you're there. And so that may not be the best fit for you. So visit campuses, definitely have a contact there because if you have that contact, you can build that relationship. And if you have questions, you can ask those questions and get in the right frame of mind. But that's what I would recommend is some of those type of things for those students. Now the other thing I think that students don't realize is that you have to start early.
And being first gen, of course I was able to work with my counselor and all the schools that I was looking at had their admission counselors that I was able to connect with them. But a lot of students don't know that. And so when you can connect with a person at that institution, that's going to be important, because they can help get you through some of those processes. So start early.

Kolby:
And as for maybe a student who's coming from a non-traditional background, first gen, maybe a transfer student or coming out from a different country, would you give them any different advice that you would give to maybe a prospective student with parents who've gone to college? Is there anything different that you would tell a student from a non-traditional background?

Beverly Woodson Day:
Probably not because once again, it's still researching, visiting, trying to connect. Scholarships is a big one as well. So a lot of students think, "I can't afford it." And for first gen I thought I can't afford to go to school. But I found a way, so it was financial aid, it was scholarships, things that I applied for. So I probably would say look at the various scholarships that are there, that are out there. There's $500 is something that you didn't have before. So check and see what is available. Local scholarships, national scholarships, regional scholarships. That would be my recommendation.

Kolby:
So as a tour guide, I've done a lot of events with Admissions, Bobcat Day, BASE as of most recently. I want to hear from your perspective, what was your favorite event that we've done or what was your favorite part about setting up these kinds of events?

Beverly Woodson Day:
That's good. It's hard to choose because they're all different, right? So Bobcat Day, I love Bobcat Day because we do it four times a year and it's just this massive visit day where students come, parents come, they bring their siblings, their abuelas, everybody you can think of, right? I like it because it gives that student and that parent an opportunity to see what college is like, what the campus looks like, how to engage, how to walk up the hills, all of that.
So putting it together. We have a great team that puts this event together and it's a lot of moving pieces. And so I love the fact that it never slows down. You start early in the morning, you go until about two o'clock in the afternoon. And there's always something going on and there's always movement, always this engagement piece. So I like that one because it's constant and you have so many people coming from so many different areas of the state and even out of state. So just seeing that excitement of those students coming to visit. That I think I love.
I love BASE. We did BASE this past year, Bobcat Admitted Student Experience. And so that was fun because those students were accepted. They brought their parents, they did all the fun things and you could just see the excitement that they're like, "I'm going to Texas State. I'm going to be a Bobcat." So that was fun and just seeing everybody engaged there.
I think the other one, and I know you said one, so it's hard. I think the other one is academic visits, and that's where it's college specific. And that allows those students to really see what each college, if they're interested in engineering or business, they can actually see what that college looks like. They can engage with those professors and some of the students there. And not only that, but they can actually tour some of the facilities. So that I love as well. It just gets people engaged and connected to Texas State.

Kolby:
And I just thought of a question you may be able to answer pretty well. What do you think you would tell to a student who was like, "I want to go to college, I just have no idea what I'm going to study. Do I still go or do I maybe save money and figure out what I want to do?" What would you tell to that student?

Beverly Woodson Day:
Yeah. Well, I would say, first of all, I'd want to ask them if they don't know what they want to do, perfect world, what would they want to do? What could they do? There's options for them go to college. It may not be right away. They might need to take a gap year to work. I think it's going to depend on their situation. For me, I went right in, right into it, right? Others that I've talked to, they've taken gap years. They've gone to work and saved money because that's what they needed to do. There's others that go to the community college because it's right there. They know they can save money once again and then transfer in. So there's so many options for students now that when they say, "I don't know if I can go to college." And college is not for everybody, but even if you know there's ways to get to college, there's different avenues and different ways, and I think that's what students need to realize is... And even if you can't pay for it, there's ways to pay for it. There's scholarships, there's financial aid, there's jobs, there's work study. So there's opportunities for students. Hands down.

Kolby:
Yeah, absolutely. And then I have one last question here for you.

Beverly Woodson Day:
Sure.

Kolby:
If you were applying for college for the first time, again, we'll put you back in your 18-year-old self.

Beverly Woodson Day:
Oh my gosh.

Kolby:
What would you tell to yourself with the knowledge you have today?

Beverly Woodson Day:
That's a really great question. Don't follow the crowd.

Kolby:
That's a great quote right there.

Beverly Woodson Day:
Don't follow the crowd. Because in high school, you're influenced by your friends. You're influenced by what other people say. And if you feel like that particular school is not for you, it's not. Don't follow the crowd just because, follow it because that's where you need to be, and that's where you're going to grow and that's where your life is going to change.

Kolby:
Yeah, absolutely. Very, very powerful.

Beverly Woodson Day:
Yeah.

Kolby:
Well, I want to thank you so much for coming on the podcast with us today.

Beverly Woodson Day:
Of course.

Kolby:
I mean it was really great talking with you.

Beverly Woodson Day:
Same here.

Kolby:
But yeah, thank you so much.

Beverly Woodson Day:
Thank you, Kolby. Appreciate you.