In this episode of Roompact’s ResEdChat, join host Noah and students Chi Truong and Emma Elson as they reflect on their experience at the NextGen Institute and discuss their plans to pursue a career in Student Affairs. The three tell stories, share advice and experiences, and reflect on our field in an honest and thought provoking way.
Guests:
- Emma Elson (she/her/hers), Student at Miami University, Student Ambassador for Civic Engagement in Wilks Institute for Leadership & Service
- Chi Truong (she/her), Student at Miami University Class of 2026
Host: Noah Montague
Listen to the Podcast:
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Show Notes:
None.
Roompact’s ResEdChat podcast is a platform to showcase people doing great work and talk about hot topics in residence life and college student housing. If you have a topic idea for an episode, let us know!
Transcript:
Noah Montague:
Welcome back to Roompact’s ResEdChat podcast, a platform to showcase people doing great work and talk about hot topics in Residence Life and college student housing. So my name is Noah Montague and I use he/him/his pronouns, and today I’m going to be your host. As you all know, if you’ve been watching or listening to my episodes here or elsewhere, I like to say that I’m a storyteller in trade, in my practice, in my research, and of course, here with you all. But today I thought we were going to do something a little bit different today that does still fit in with that goal of being as student-centered as possible in this episode, and that I’m actually joined by two of my students here today. So through my work, I’ve been very privileged to be able to take students to conferences and to different events and things of that nature to help them grow professionally and personally while then applying what they’ve learned back to the residence hall or campus.
The two students that I have with me today attended several of these conferences with me now at this point, one of them namely being NextGen Institute and ACPA, which puts them in a unique position to talk about the field, what they’ve learned about it, and their aspirations for becoming student affairs practitioners themselves. So I’m thrilled then to invite the two of them on here today. I’m going to turn it over to both of them to introduce themselves to the two of you.
Emma Elson:
Well, my name is Emma. I am currently going into my senior year at Miami University of Ohio. I am studying English literature and creative writing with a film studies minor, but I also plan on going into student affairs. I actively do work as a student ambassador in our student life office here on campus as a civic engagement ambassador as well.
Chi Truong:
All right. Hi, everyone. Hi, Noah. Hi, Emma. My name is Chi. I recently graduated from Miami University. I am an international student from Vietnam, majored in international studies with minors in education and Spanish. I am actively looking for a job and also considering grad school in student affairs.
Noah Montague:
Awesome. Well, thank you both. And Chi, way to put in that you are looking for a job. I think that was smart to put that in here from the get-go. But thank you both again for being here. I’m so excited to get to chat about the field and what you learned from getting to be involved in the way that you have been with me and with other professionals. But I guess to get us started, and either one of you can begin this conversation, but what initially started this interest in student affairs for the two of you?
Emma Elson:
Well, I can start. I originally came into college as an English education major for K through 12, specifically high school education. And I kind of just chose to do education because I was like, oh, it’s just the safe option for me and where I wanted to go and who I wanted to be. But I truly didn’t really know exactly what I wanted to do. My freshman year of college, I was in a lot of things. I was in marching band, I was in a ton of weird odd things. And I was just looking for this sense of community, finding my area, what I wanted to do, my place in the world really. And I just hadn’t found that, but I actually found out through our school this really cool opportunity, which Chi is also a part of and Noah used to be the head of, the Scholar Leader Program, which you’ve talked about on the podcast a couple of times.
But me and Chi actually both interviewed to be a part of that and we’re in the same cohort. And basically I found my sense of community through that, but I studied abroad that year. So my sophomore year is the year that we did the Scholar Leader thing. And I studied abroad and I still, this was in what we call our J-term, so it was during January. I studied abroad for about six weeks in France, in Paris. And I remember being around people and listening to new people and hearing what they wanted to do with their lives and how they wanted to be seen out in the world. And I remember coming back from that trip and talking to you Noah and being like, “Honestly, Noah, I don’t know what I want to do with my life. I don’t know anything.” I had just gotten rid of my education major at that point. I was just English literature, writing.
Noah Montague:
I remember. And that was a big change too.
Emma Elson:
Yes, yes. And I was like, “What do I do with this? I have no clue.” And I remember just telling you, Noah, I think we were walking actually. I think it was cold out. I don’t remember. We were walking. That’s all I remember. But basically I remember just being like, “I honestly, I don’t know what I want to do. I just know that I want to work with people. I want to be with people. I want to help students just like me or people who also didn’t know what they wanted to do or where they wanted to go.” And you automatically were like, “Well, I think it’s so great that you’re already coming to ACPA. That’s so fantastic.” And I was like, “Oh, I don’t know, Noah. I still don’t know.” And then obviously I went to ACPA and it was fantastic, but I think that’s kind of where it started was really the, I just needed to look at myself and who I wanted to be first. And that was just wanting to help others and be around other people who also struggled just as much as I did.
Noah Montague:
Yeah. And I think seeing you both pre that experience and post that experience, and I think for folks who know you as well, would agree with me and just how big of a change it was going from France and then directly a couple weeks later, if I remember, it might’ve even been shorter than that, back onto a plane and back to another experience. But getting to watch you find yourself in that space and in that care for other people and wanting to care for students is just so special. And I’m glad both that we get to talk about it here today and that we’ve been talking about it for the last couple years as well.
Emma Elson:
Yeah.
Noah Montague:
But Chi, what about you?
Chi Truong:
I’m so glad Emma started because there was a similarity between my experience and hers, and I don’t think I could ever put it so clearly as Emma.
Emma Elson:
No.
Chi Truong:
But like I said, my major is international studies, so I came here to pursue that and I came here with a dream of going to law school.
Noah Montague:
Yeah, I remember that.
Chi Truong:
Somewhere along the way, that dream died. I feel like I cannot argue without crying and it might be too much. And at times it felt like somebody else dream because it’s a typical track for students in my major. Then I took a random education class to fulfill the Miami Plan. If you know, you know. And I loved it so much, I pick up my minor in education. And then throughout my times here in Miami, I have been in different student leader positions and I found those experiences very fulfilling. And it’s kind of like what Emma said, I don’t know what I want to do, but I do want to work with people. I just want to help them, help them figure things out themselves as well. And I have my own teaching tutoring business, but at the time, like Emma said, education is a safe path.
It’s just like being a teacher and whatnot. But then being a Scholar Leader and almost forgot to apply to go to ACPA, and then Noah reminded me, I was like, “Oh, I need to log in.” And then just see for me also it’s a process of, I say, figuring things out for myself, what I truly want, what I find fulfilling or what I’m pretty good at, I would say. And for Emma, I can never see the passion for student affairs because I remember you clearly coming into one of our community meetings and pouring your heart out. And for me, just a tiny bit different is something that I seriously am considering because I feel like the intersection for me would be student affairs and international education. My target audience is and has always been international students, and I do want to work in that specifically. I worked with a lot of domestic students. I love that. They’re my people. At the same time, I feel like I am passionate about filling the gaps for international students as well.
Noah Montague:
Yeah. And I love, Chi, for you that this idea coming out of this experience and thinking about your student leadership development and the places that you’ve been through and what you gained from undergrad just strengthened this idea of what you want to do. But this interest in student affairs kind of changed the angle in which you want to do it. And I think that that’s really interesting to consider as well when we’re thinking about these similar perspectives between the two of you, but Emma changing outright and she kind of re-angling, I think that’s really interesting to think about the different ways that y’all are going about this interest. And I talk about this a lot both on here and with students and staff, that no one plans to go into student affairs because you don’t know it’s a thing until you’re in college and you’re involved in something like y’all were in a residential leadership program for years in some capacity involved in this program. And I think that that gave those opportunities to get more involved in those ways.
Emma Elson:
Yeah. I would also like to add-
Noah Montague:
Please.
Emma Elson:
When I first met Chi, I actually, because I think this is important too because we’re going to be talking, when I first met Chi, it was actually in the interview waiting room for interviewing to be a Scholar Leader. So Chi was actually one of the first, if not the first person that I met in that program. And to see her also grow. And she went the second time I went to ACPA, so being able to see you also go through the NextGen process that I did as well, just for me, it made me kind of emotional because I think seeing someone who has been in the same, like Noah was saying, is going through the same mindset and the same process, but albeit a little different, I think it really means a lot to know that there are other people who also care just as much as we do.
Noah Montague:
Thank you for adding that on, Emma. I do think that’s really special and such a unique part of our field. We get to work with students and work with people, to the point that y’all are making, and watch y’all make choices that maybe you would not have made two years ago, three years ago, a month ago, and get to piece together where those choices came from and where that development came from. And I think it’s so unique and special. And probably a big part of why the two of you are interested in this to begin with is getting to see that change and be a part of that.
But thinking about all of that, and we’ve kind of started talking about the NextGen Institute through ACPA as a pivotal moment for the two of you and kind of that center of what we’re talking about today, what were you looking to gain when you made that decision to go to NextGen? Emma, for you to go back to ACPA the following year as well, but what were you looking to gain from attending the conference and what was your biggest takeaway from it, would you say?
Emma Elson:
Well, so I went my first time my sophomore year of college, so this was in the middle of the Scholar Leader program that we’ve been talking about. At the time I had traveled so much. I went to Arizona for the first time, I went international for the first time, and then two weeks later I went to California for the NextGen conference and I had no idea what to expect. I just know that I was living out of my suitcase for a couple months.
Noah Montague:
You really were living out of your suitcase for a couple months.
Emma Elson:
I think I have a picture somewhere of all my clothes on my bed just being like, “Well, I have to repack.” Whatever. But I think it was just being able to. I think I was already, because traveling makes you exhausted. It does. And I think I was having so many pivotal moments in my life during this point in time, because not only was I a part of the Scholar Leader program, which already shapes you, even if you don’t leave the state or things like that and talk to other people who you may have not talked to previously, I was also going and visiting and seeing people from all over the world. And I think that kind of changes you as a person in general, just because we are in Ohio and Ohio is one place in the broader area of the world. And I think I hadn’t really explored outside of that.
I mean, I had been to different states and whatnot, but I hadn’t talked to people. I hadn’t gotten out there. I hadn’t pushed myself out there. And so when I went to NextGen that year, I believe it’s 2025, that year, I went with another group of Scholar Leader cohort people, and I got to hang out with them and speak with them and have really meaningful conversations with people who go to the same university as me, but have completely different viewpoints and experiences that I would not have known, even though they lived two doors down from me in the hall. And I had never really talked to them. I had not spent time getting to know them, what they thought. And now we were on a plane together. We were sharing rooms together. We were going out and getting ice cream in the middle of California.
I think it was pivotal in the sense of, I kind of talked about it earlier, but I was hearing other people’s unique experiences and I think it really showed me in NextGen in general, being in a room full, and I brought this up when I came back, but being in a room full of 2,000 plus professionals and people who also have so much care for what they’re doing can really change you on an emotional level. And I think the reason why it was so life-changing for me was because I had never been in a room full of so many supportive people and it was during a time where things were changing and we didn’t know what was going on. And a lot of the student body, at least at our institution, was also really scared and didn’t know what they wanted to do and were just wanting to blow things up basically.
So it was just a lot of turmoil. And to go to the NextGen Institute and not only learn about student affairs in general, but go to workshops where you see people talking about their interests, what they care about, the types of people they’ve had the unique experiences of meeting, and being able to connect with them and talk about your experience and how what they’ve learned can fit into your institution. I guess you never really think about it until you’re in it. And I think it might sound very on the common sense type of train, like, oh, you talk to somebody and you learn a new thing because they know a little bit more than you might.
But I think we as people just don’t think about that often. And I mean, I didn’t, I’ll say that at least. And so I think it was really big for me because I was like, “Wow, these people are thinking and enjoying the same things that I do, and they are doing it in such a positive way that makes me feel really great about where humanity is going.” And I think that was really eye-opening for me as someone, I mean, it was my sophomore year of college and I still was trying to figure out who I was. So I think I’ve definitely grown since then, even though it’s been only a year and a half, but I really do think it does a lot when you sit down with somebody who has different and unique experiences. And I think that’s exactly what NextGen was for me. Even though it was a couple of days, I think I met so many people. I got an internship out of it actually, which was really fantastic.
Noah Montague:
That you did.
Emma Elson:
And I still talk with those people. I still meet those people, and I will forever be very thankful for that opportunity because it also brought me to another state and I was able to meet other people and see different institutions, and that was fantastic as well. And I think that really was just so pivotal for me. But, yeah.
Chi Truong:
Again, I will echo that. I’m so glad Emma went first.
Noah Montague:
Chi, you would’ve been fine going first.
Emma Elson:
Exactly.
Chi Truong:
I love literature, but the way Emma just put everything, I’m in love. I’m so grateful.
Emma Elson:
Thank you.
Chi Truong:
At least for me, I do have the same experience. It was really heartwarming to see such a supportive and also, I would say, hopeful community regardless of what’s going on. And at least for me, what I was hoping to get out, which is, I want to see how the field is. Because up until that point before I went to ACPA, all of the student affairs conversations I have had mostly were with Noah and I was just like, it’s a tiny spark of interest. And as someone who tries to make really good decisions, I feel like any pivot in terms of professional development needs to be carefully researched. And so I came in with a very, very open mind. But then like what Emma said, I really resonate with the common sense part because you never think about it until you actually experience it. And for me, it was such, I would say, a wonderful experience to not only learn about the system, but also to connect with people who, like Emma said, find joy, find the joy and the meaning in the work they’re doing.
And the year that we went to this year too, I wish Emma, you were with us. I wish that could have happened. But what really surprised me for NextGen too is that the international component of it, because a lot of the conferences that I’ve been to were national or local at least. So meeting other international students like me and learning about them and seeing that they are also passionate in this field makes me feel so much less alone because I would say that the majority of international students, they are very STEM focused. And at least for me with my major in international studies and now having this angle of interest is so niche, but meeting people there and actually have really good constructive and sometimes challenging conversations together was super, I would say, both intellectually engaging and also emotionally meaningful.
Noah Montague:
Yeah. I think that one, it is so special for me to get to hear what you all got out of that experience. One, in that I organized it and I was able to make that happen. But coming from the experience of having been a NextGen student myself, I went to the NextGen Institute in 2019, 2018. No, it might have, 2018, 2019, I believe, that I was there in Tennessee. It’s so interesting to hear y’all reflect in this way because what I got out of it was very similar. It was, “This is so interesting to learn more about this field that I’m curious about. I’m not sure about it.” At the time, I was not sure at all.
And to be sold on something so quickly was a surprise. Emma, I know we relate in that, that I was sold on it very quickly, but something Chi, that you said is really resonating with me with this aspect of, I found people. I found people who cared so deeply about this thing that I was just beginning to understand. And I think that only sponsored my interest further because it was, “Oh, you really care about this thing. Let me learn more about that. Let me keep learning more about that, and maybe I do want to do that thing.” And I think that that’s such a unique aspect of what I’ve tried to do in Residence Life here, because I know that the two of your experience pre-NextGen in student affairs was very heavily Residence Life based. And then of course you got involved in other things and were able to get into other spaces due to that living learning community that you were a part of.
But no, I think that all three of our takeaways from this conference so far apart, being this community focus, I think is so special and just speaks to the field itself for me in that we are so community centered in student affairs, Residence Life especially because that is the job, to create a community. But thank you all for sharing that. I think that’s so special.
Emma Elson:
I also think Chi mentioned she wished I was with them this time around, but I also, I do want to say, I think it’s really great that I wasn’t, primarily because based on my first experience with NextGen, I think one of the best parts about it was I didn’t know the people I was with. I knew of them. I had talked to them a little bit and whatnot, but I didn’t know them. And so I think what was really great about it was it kind of pushed me out of my comfort zone. And this year too, because I mean, I was completely alone this year in a big city, and I’m not a city girl, so it was very scary. But at the same time, I think it was so amazing, like you both are saying, because I was having those conversations with people, like I said earlier, that I had never had these conversations with.
And I don’t think I ever would have if I had had someone I’d known or was comfortable or was sticking to my comfort zone because I would’ve just stuck to that person, in my opinion. That’s how I think it would’ve been. And I think the reason why I was able to take so much away from this experience was not only because I was meeting so many new people, but also because I was having those meaningful conversations and reflecting upon it with people that aren’t Noah and people that may not share a similar opinion as me or might have different views, or instead of just conversating with me, they’re also playing devil’s advocate or they’re also asking questions or they’re like… I remember specifically, I forget which one of them asked me, but we were talking about our CSDI on campus and how we thought that that department specifically helped certain students.
And I was asked in my experience how I viewed that department and how it was catering to my experience and things like that. But I also had to tell them that I didn’t feel like it was for me or differing opinions or differing views and so on for that specific department. And that was something that I had never talked about before because it just wasn’t something that I had really thought about. And being in a space where I wasn’t in my comfort zone or things like that, those were conversations that were meaningful for me because like I said, I just would’ve never had those conversations.
Noah Montague:
Yeah. No, I think that’s really important and I’m glad that it allowed you to reflect on it in that way to think about. Because student affairs is so identity focused, we have to be thinking about these things and I’m glad that NextGen creates those opportunities to invite those conversations that maybe you wouldn’t have had otherwise. But I think that kind of sets us up pretty well into another question, funnily enough, thinking about these things that I know, Chi, you spoke to some things that might’ve surprised you a little bit in your experience, but in learning more about the profession, learning more about student affairs, about Residence Life, about international student services, wherever you found yourself focusing on, what surprised you most about our profession from what you learned?
Chi Truong:
I would say truthfully, just the dedication and the fulfillment of the professionals. I don’t limit myself to just the public sector in terms of my involvement or my job search, but I’ve also worked for private companies. I have also been in spaces that are heavily focused with truly non-education work. And oftentimes while I can observe they have passion, the fulfillment that they get out of their work varies greatly. And when I learned more about just student affairs in general, it was just truly, like what Emma said, it felt right, the community here, the people. And what really left, I would say, a lasting impression was the safe space created, especially for difficult conversations.
And just building off what Emma just said about really challenging questions, for this year’s NextGen, we had this would you rather, but agreeing or disagreeing with statements, and that was no neutral position. And questions in terms of international student services and stuff came up. And it is very perplexing to think back because I am very cautious when it comes to self-expression because I like to think carefully before I do or say something. But just the instantly comfortable atmosphere makes it so easy to really think hard and critically about something and then form an opinion. And there was some really, I would say, difficult statements, but then I found myself having the courage to choose what I truly believe in instead of choosing what I thought was safe for most people.
I wouldn’t say what it was because I could not truly remember, but I was in the minority of the position that I chose and Janelle was the second person to join me. And it was just so empowering, which is very new to me because in our field too, sometimes we have to be really considerate and just careful with things, but being able to express myself and truly having people to listen intently without getting all fussy about things. And having that ability to express myself, even though it’s really hard and challenging, and having people listening to me and also engaging in those difficult conversations was something that I still think back until today. And I just still recall that empowerment.
Noah Montague:
Yeah. Thank you for that, Chi.
Emma Elson:
Yeah. I will also echo all of that. We did a very similar exercise when I did NextGen. I think you had, I believe, some of the same staff on the NextGen committee this past year as the one I had my first year. So we also had a very similar one. So I really, really echo the empowerment side of that because there were times, like you said, that people were in the minority versus feeling, they were in the minority and they wanted to feel comfortable, but it was a space that made them feel like they could be comfortable being in that minority, like you’re saying. I think in terms of this past year though, for me, the first year I went, it felt very hopeful and very empowering and very like, “Oh yes, this is the field I want to go into. This is exactly what I want. This is exactly what I want to do. I have no quarrels with it. I can talk to my peers about this. I feel informed.” Things like that.
This past year, I still felt all of that, I really did. But I think there was also a semblance of this heavy weight going into these spaces. I mean, Noah is very aware of this because we’ve had multiple conversations about this, but at the end of the experience, I could not speak about it because it was just very difficult to talk about how I was feeling in terms of all the emotions that I had just had for an entire week. Because I was having those conversations with staff and other professionals in the field that were very challenging. And this time around, I didn’t feel like we were… Because we weren’t just in one room, it was like this workshop and this workshop and I was meeting a different person here and maybe someone I met from this workshop also followed me to this workshop.
And having different conversations with the same people or different people, it was kind of hard to hear a lot of them. I mean, there was one workshop in particular that I think about. Noah was actually in that workshop. You were in two of the workshops I went to because they were poetry based. But the second one, which was on the last day we went to, I was at a table with this lovely woman. I forget her name sadly, but she was very open with me and very vulnerable in the space that we had. And we wrote a poem about who we were, how we felt about us. I can’t remember the exact prompt that we were given. Maybe Noah remembers, but I do not. At this point in the time, because it was the last day, I had learned that this field is one that the professionals do not receive a lot of appreciation.
There’s a lot of fields like that. There is. But I think being in the middle of it, like I said earlier with the 2,000 plus professionals in a room, hearing them go from my first year being like, “How do we help the students? How do we empower them? And we’re going to be doing this to make the mood brighter or things like that.” To going to, “Well, now we’ve tried. We’ve tried to help the students. We’ve tried to be there. We have put everything that we have into our jobs, into our careers, into these students, because that is what we care about. How do we now help ourselves?” And it was so difficult to hear as a student because I have the luxury of being in a position here at Miami where I get to work with a lot of pro staff and be in on the conversations that a lot of students do not get to hear.
And I think it’s been nice to be able to be that student voice for students, but at the same time, hearing the pro staff be like, “I just don’t know what to do. I don’t know how to get engagement. I don’t know how to do this. I am staying up really late at night so I can get this thing done. I’m not taking care of myself as well as I could.” Or, “I’m putting so much into this, but I don’t feel like it’s enough.” I think from a student, it hurts to hear because we want the people who take care of us to be taken care of. And it hurts because we also at the same time are like, well, we’re students. We also have to figure out ourselves and we’re in this process of our life where we still don’t know what we want to do. We are trying to figure out where our places are in the world like we have been talking about.
So it’s like this push and pull in this field where it’s like, “Okay, yes, we want to be there for those students because people were there for us in our time of need, but also we’re now at a point that’s like we just don’t know what to do.” And I think being in a room full of those people, and specifically this workshop that I’m talking about, she didn’t want to share her poem with me and that was totally fine. I was so okay with that, but I made sure to tell her that that was okay and that she is welcome to do whatever she wants and that I appreciated the fact that she even took the time to engage in the conversation. And that as a student, it meant a lot for her to treat me as someone on the same level as her because, I mean, I am still an undergrad and I think a lot of people are like, “Oh, well, you don’t know everything.”
Because we aren’t privy to those conversations and a lot of students are aware of that, but I think it feels nice to be one-on-one and respected almost. It brought me at least, a sense of how we’ve been talking about that safe space, that comfort, but it just hurt. It really did to see so many people who… Because this is the career field that I want to go into. I have already decided that that’s where I’m going. So seeing all these people who I care about, who I’ve met, I talked to Dr. Anthony Prewitt, who was one of my mentors or supervisors during my internship when I worked at University of Tennessee Knoxville, which this is the internship I got from NextGen.
I got dinner with him and I also told him because I was like, “Hey, I want you to know how much your mentorship has helped me.” I mean, he was able to be vulnerable and open in that space as well. And I just think it is difficult to see someone in the career that you want to go into experience such a low and know that that might be you. And I think what really hurt was that I couldn’t do more than tell those people, “I appreciate you. I don’t go to your institution as a student, but I appreciate you as speaking for the student body.” And I think it meant a lot to those people. And I mean, I also had this conversation with you, Noah, so you could speak on that, I’m sure.
Noah Montague:
I’m sure I could.
Emma Elson:
But I think it just… I mean, we got dinner on our last day and I just bawled. I just started crying because I had no clue what to say. I had no clue how to feel. I was upset, I was angry, I was happy, I was excited. I was feeling all of these emotions and I just didn’t know what I was feeling. I didn’t know how to take away what I’d gotten from this amazing experience and take it back because I just needed that extra time. I think that’s really what surprised me the most was because the first time I had went, I left and I was like, “Oh, this is exactly what I want. This is fantastic. This is so amazing. This community is so great.” And like I said, I still felt all those things, but there was that extra level of like, well, now I have an extra year under my belt.
I’ve worked in Res Life, I’ve worked in student life, I’ve dabbled in these things as a student and now I’m seeing a little bit more into the cracks of the career that I hadn’t expected previously. And so I think being able to have a week, especially because I wasn’t alone because Noah was there, but I was going to things on my own. I was meeting with people on my own in a city I had never been to and a state I’d never been to. I think it was just another eye-opening experience that I still think about every day, which sounds like a lot, but I do think about it every day because it is the job I want to go into and it is something I have to think about When applying for jobs and positions. Is this something that is really for me? Is this something I’m going to be able to handle? Is this something that I can put 100% of myself into and keep that up?
I don’t think I went to a single workshop this past year where someone I talked to did not cry. And I think that really says something about the community because, and I might cry myself talking about it, sorry. It gets me a little emotional, but I think seeing so many people feel comfortable talking about their experiences and how they were feeling. I mean, there were so many professionals saying, “I’m not positive that this is where I want to stay anymore. I’m not positive this is where I wanted my career to go.” But at the same time, people are seeking it out at institutions or just sticking it out because they have students, they have students that they know are counting on them and they know will only come to them to talk to. And as a student who is one of those students, it means so much to hear those professionals care so much, but at the same time, I want them to take care of themselves just as much as I would take care of myself.
Noah Montague:
For sure. I think that one, I want to own the vulnerability it took for both of you to talk about the experience that you had and what it felt like and what it didn’t feel like and the changes that existed in that space. Student affairs is a very fascinating field for a variety of reasons, and it is the one that is my home and that I love so dearly. And a caring field, and I will not be the only profession who will say this, I imagine those listening will agree with me immediately, caring fields are the ones that don’t get thanks in the way that they should. Nurses, doctors, medical professionals, teachers, educators, that is a very common trope of caring fields to not receive that.
That said, what I’m hearing from both of you is that one of the things that surprised you about the profession was how honest it can be, was how upfront that we can be and work to be. That this could be better, this can be better, this is how this could be better. And these are the reasons that we’re struggling with why it can’t be right now, or this is the thing going on that’s making that difficult. In my experience with student affairs, that is a uniqueness of our field is that in a room full of 2,000 plus professionals, to the point that y’all are making, we’re talking about the things that make it hard. I think that that for me has been inspiring and for Emma, I’m hearing it interestingly be both emotional and inspiring for you as well. Chi, you do not have to raise your hand here, my friend. We’re not in a classroom today.
Chi Truong:
I feel like I need to raise my hand to remind myself to speak because I have my notes. I was just listening to the experiences that you both shared, and especially I heard a lot from Noah, but Emma, it has been super fulfilling also to hear about your experience. I just want to touch on the cultural differences when it comes to the caring field, because where I came from, we are very community-based culture and teachers get a lot of, or just education professional gets a lot of appreciation. But coming here, and I feel like Emma, you would feel me on this too, being so passionate about something and being able to love it so much to show that person the appreciation is just not a common practice for some reason. And after NextGen, I also went to some workshops and one of the workshops were about study abroad. We love studying abroad. And also for those-
Noah Montague:
We are very pro studying abroad.
Chi Truong:
And for those who are listening, the reason why I didn’t join Emma for the first ACPA, because I was studying abroad in Spain, sadly. I was so hyped for California. And just in one of those workshops too, that I learned that one of the people I’ve been talking to, his colleague was traveling nonstop, conferences and everything. And when she finally came and we had a lovely chat as always, and before I left, I said to her, “I’m manifesting a wonderful rest for you.” The way she showed me her appreciation for me saying that really stuck with me too. It’s also reminded me of all of the little things that we can do as students. I really feel Emma when she said a lot of people express the difficulties that they are experiencing, because that is one of the things that I thought long and hard about too, is that do I want to save the world or save myself? You have so much to give, but at the same time, is this really my battle in a way too? I’m just saying I’m so happy that Emma felt this way too, because it just-
Noah Montague:
I think that’s so real.
Chi Truong:
Yeah.
Noah Montague:
Something that one of my mentors told me recently that I think is pretty salient in this conversation as well, and you never know where a conversation is going to go, but I’m kind of grateful that we ended up getting here, is that she talked about, she said that, “What I am capable of and what I can handle are very different things.” And I think about that a lot. Emma, I’m seeing you nod, so I think that that feels a little bit salient right now in that I can do it. It’ll happen, but will it bring me joy? To Chi, your point, talking about joy and finding that in one’s space, but I think that is something that with my mentors and my advisors and that I have tried to put onto the two of you as well, the amount of joy that one can find in what we do is there and you got to find it.
You have to make it for yourself in a lot of different ways. But I think moving into my next question and to kind of start wrapping us up as well, we’ve gotten into what we learned, some of the takeaways, some of the things that were maybe unexpected are a little bit harder to hear and how we got through them. But thinking about what excites you about pursuing this field, y’all are talking about despite some of the harder things, despite some of the things that you might’ve learned, or even keeping them in heart as well, because it is important to be reflecting on in any job, what might be hard about this job? But those are good things to be thinking about. But what excites you about pursuing this career? And maybe if there’s something that you took from NextGen that then you put into place at school that excited you that you want to keep going with as well?
Emma Elson:
Yeah, not to go back a little bit, but after this conference, this second one that we went to, I mean, there was weeks where I was at my all time lowest every time I thought about the conference. Not because it was bad or anything, but because I had all of those emotions just running through my head. And we talked a little bit about what Noah just said, it’s like, what are you capable of? And what can you handle? What makes you happy? I had a meeting with Noah that was, I literally just came into his office and just cried the entire time because I just needed to let it all out after that. And at the end of that, I went literally five minutes afterwards, I went to a meeting with the English department where the English department was sitting down with selected students who they wanted to get to know and, well, they already knew us, but to get to hear what types of changes we wanted.
Because there are a lot of changes happening with this career field and the institutions, and that is what is bringing a lot of turmoil, I think, to a lot of people who are already in the career and us as students who want to go into it. And it brings up a lot of the questions of, do we want to do this? Are we capable of doing this? Is this going to make us happy? Like we’re saying. And being able to sit down with pro staff and as well as faculty and hear them say that they want to hear us and want to hear our opinions and what we want and what we’ve seen not work and what we want to see work just meant so much. And I think it goes back to that first time I went to ACPA, the NextGen, that whole, this is the optimism of humanity.
And I think at the end of the day, everything has its cons. There’s pros and cons, everything has its cons. Everything has its turmoil, everything has its oddities and whatnot. But like you were saying, Noah, you have to find the joy in it. I think what I originally wanted out of my career was to find people like-minded and hear their stories and be able to use my position or whatever I go into to help share those stories and bring advice and help students who are in similar situations as me or Chi or other students. I think after our conversation, Noah, that was something I really thought of when I was speaking to the English department because it reminded me that, yes, I can have a meeting where I just cry and it’s the worst thing ever and be in a safe space to do that, but at the same time, I can go and talk about the amazing things that people can do. I think sometimes we are always at that high of a low that we can forget that there’s a high of a high.
Although I spent weeks thinking about all these emotions I felt, I also now am able to sit here and talk about it in a positive light because this is the career I still want to go into. And have I experienced conversations with professionals that I did not care for or did not enjoy? Yeah, sure. But everybody has their different way of going into it and they have their different enjoyment. Not everybody goes into student affairs thinking the way that we do or the way that I do. And that’s okay because everybody has their own enjoyment like Noah was saying, and everybody has to give themselves a little bit of grace or a little bit of a leeway really in that field too. I think it comes with trying to figure out how much of yourself can you put in while also enjoying the work that you’re doing.
I think it takes a really, really long time to figure that out. I think there’s a lot of professionals who maybe have not figured that out, and that’s okay because I think at the end of the day, as long as they are going into their job and they’re like, “Well, I get to work with this student who I am really happy to work with or I get to work with my other pro staff and talk with them and speak with them, and maybe we’re going to play volleyball together as a team bonding activity or something.” Even if it’s as silly as that, I think at the end of the day, there are always really good things about the people you’re with. Maybe the job itself can be really hard and very challenging and always constantly changing, but the people are going to be changing with it.
I think we are all changing together and figuring it out together that we have to give each other that leeway that I was talking about. We have to find that enjoyment within each other, crack jokes in the office. I’m working on campus right now with a bunch of different pro staff, and I mean, they come in and we talk about these things because it’s still actively changing even over the summer, but I’m still having these really funny conversations and I really enjoy the people I work with, and that’s all that matters to me. I think that’s what excites me so much about this field is that even though everything is changing, I know for a fact that the people I will work with are going to be changing with it, and they also care just as much as I do about the students it is affecting or the people it is affecting. That’s all I want out of my career is for people to care about people. At the end of the day, that’s what this career is. And I think-
Noah Montague:
Yeah. I think that’s a great way to put it.
Emma Elson:
I think that’s just what excites me about it.
Noah Montague:
No, I don’t think I could sum up student affairs more than people who care about other people. What a cool takeaway to get from this all. Chi, no hand raise this time, but I can see you wanting to hop in.
Chi Truong:
I did jot down some notes as well, and I, again, really wanted to say, I really liked what Emma said about just faith in humanity restored, just being in this supportive, attentive community. And this is definitely a profession where you need to have a lot of intrinsic motivation. I think the biggest application for me after this NextGen or ACPA is truly to find your value. As I mentioned right at the start, I am looking for a job.
Noah Montague:
You got to say it.
Chi Truong:
I got into a lot of contact, a lot of interviews with people from different, I would say, fields, and a lot of them are in the private sector. After a lot of conversations, a lot of reflection, I do still stand firmly on the fact that I want something fulfilling. I don’t want something that maybe allows me some financial comfort room, but if it doesn’t give me the amount of just meaningfulness I have in my life, I don’t think I would take it. And that’s why I have said no to a lot of opportunities that really did not feel aligned with myself. I was just thinking about the article that I was featured in as one of the three graduating seniors for the Miami Student Newspaper, and the interviewer just asked me about just how I go about life or the mindset I’m having right now is truly just to find something like a long-lasting value that I can ground myself on and that can be the basis for me to have a sustainable career.
Because what I really love when Emma said, it hurt to see so much struggle because as a student who helps other students who also receive helps from peers and also from pro staff, it is truly so life-changing when you have such support in your life, but at the same time, you cannot ignore what is going on with the people that you cherish so dearly. I just think that is something that truly is a personal battle, but at the same time, if we can also be there for each other, it’s such a great gift, and that is the two things that I got out of this.
Noah Montague:
Yeah, I think that funnily enough, just everything y’all have talked about today for me and my continuation, because this is, counting my RA years, this is my 10th year in student affairs in some capacity, which is very exciting. But I think that what continues to keep me excited about my career is things like this. It’s you all. It is the communities we’re able to build. It’s the care we’re able to see. Emma, to your point, it’s the honesty about what’s going on and that it’s allowed to be both. Things are allowed to be hard and we are allowed to still love it. I think that that is something very unique about education in general and very unique in particular about student affairs or even Residence Life in that I don’t like many of the things that I have to do for my job, but they’re a part of my job and I understand why I have to do them.
I think that earlier today I was talking with another colleague about this nature of other career fields, Chi, to your point, don’t really think about joy in the same way that we do in student affairs. It’s just, “Go to work. What do you mean you’re not happy at your job? Why should we care about that?” But then you go to a conference where the entire room is allowed to feel, and that is so, it’s jarring, and I’m hearing that being jarring, but I’m also hearing it being inspiring in a lot of ways as well. I know it continues to be for me, and I hope for those of you listening, that it is for you as well, the care, the commitment, the honesty that exists within our field. And for that, I thank you all for listening, and that kind of wraps up our time together today.
Emma and Chi, thank you so much for being here for me and for joining. I hope you had fun, and I hope you enjoyed the conversation we’re able to have today. Thank you all for joining us on today’s episode of ResEdChat. If you have an idea for a topic or a person that you would like us to have on the show, please feel free to reach out to Roompact to let us know. But for now, keep taking care of each other, and I’ll see you next time. Bye, folks.
