This is the Spartan Transfer Hub, brought to you by Impact 89 FM and MSU Transfer Student Success. Here's what we've got for you today. Hi everybody. Welcome to today's episode of the Spartan Transfer Hub, the podcast about all things related to MSU transfer students, brought to you by the MSU Transfer Student Success Center, also known as TSSC. I'm your host, Zuhaer Aranya. I use he/him pronouns.
Zuhaer:I'm from Bangladesh. I'm doing mechanical engineering, and I'm a rising senior. With me in the studio today is our TSSC Director, Program Coordinator, and Grad Assistant as usual, but we are also joined by Stratton Lee III, the Director of University Advising. Would you all be able to introduce yourselves a little bit and tell us about what you do at MSU?
Stratton:Hi everybody. Again, my name is Stratton Lee III. I am the director of university advising at Michigan State, which supports our exploratory preference, exploring business preference, and any student in an exploratory status across the university at the undergraduate level.
Dr. Jackson:Doctor Charles Jackson, director of the Transfer Student Success Center. I use he, him, his pronouns. I've been in my role for about three years now, and I was also a former transfer student to MSU.
Ashley:Hello. Ashley Hewlett Lemke. She, her, hers pronouns. I'm the program coordinator with the Transfer Student Success Center, and I was a transfer student to MSU as well.
Lauren:Hi everyone, my name is Lauren Sargent. I use she, her pronouns. I'm in my final year of my master's degree here at MSU in student affairs administration, and I am the graduate assistant for TSSC.
Zuhaer:Since we're on the topic of advice today, I usually like to go around asking whoever I meet a little bit about the kind of advice that they've received. So if I was to ask you guys, what is your favorite piece of advice that you've ever gotten? If you could share that with me, I'd be delighted.
Stratton:Alright. So for me, my favorite piece of advice comes from my grandfather, And he told me to always take your breaks, take your lunch, take your vacations because when you die, they'll replace you. And so enjoy the other aspects of life, not just work, but live the full life that you had to live.
Zuhaer:Wow. That's good advice. It resounds every day, right?
Stratton:Right.
Zuhaer:Yeah.
Dr. Jackson:For me, because I golf, my uncle taught me when golfing, always keep your head down because if you don't, you're gonna miss the ball. So I've I've tried to be consistent with that advice. But, yeah, that's that's the best piece of advice when it comes to just recreation and and playing golf.
Ashley:Nice. I think I need to take that piece of advice and add that to myself.
Ashley:This is Ashley. So I think my piece of advice, I've I've been on kind of a reawakening of, like, a health journey of health, you know, as I'm 40 years old. Yes. Thank you very much. And I'm not a doctor, so I will I will preface by saying that.
Ashley:But some podcasts I've been listening to from fitness experts is best piece of advice is women are not small men. So we need to keep that in mind as we are thinking about workout routines and health advice and things of that nature. So, again, not a doctor, but that is something that I I am leaning into recently.
Zuhaer:Wow.
Lauren:Y'all had such good advice. Mine mine's a little silly, but it's been really practical for me. Have a pair of shoes that you keep only in your house for when you're cleaning. And that way, anytime you put those shoes on, you're psych like, you're psychologically thinking, okay, it's time to clean. And so every day I get home and I'll change into those shoes so that I, like, clean before I do all, like, my relaxing. Because once I once I relax, I'm not getting up.
Ashley:Yeah. Follow-up question. What color are your shoes? Are they fun?
Lauren:Mine are I have pink Crocs. I'm and I have all the what are they called?
Ashley:The, like The little charm y things?
Lauren:Yeah. The little charms.
Ashley:That's awesome.
Zuhaer:That advice is useful to me today because I feel like I gotta go back and clean a little bit. But one of my favorite pieces of advice has to do with the fact that, you know, life has its share of unpleasant times or difficult times. So one of my closest friends, she always tells me or reminds me whenever I'm in a tough spot that this too shall pass. And I've always kind of, even though it's like a simple it's simple wording, it's just a simple piece of advice, it has really resounded with me because, you know, like, if it's a difficult problem, then it's not a big deal because it'll pass. And I try to keep that kind of a mentality about everything I do, and I try to look forward to the next day.
Zuhaer:But thank you all for sharing your bits and pieces of advice. I will hold on to all of those advice. Jumping into university advising, Stratton, would you be able to tell us a little bit about what university advising is?
Stratton:Yeah. So university advising is the academic unit home or academic college for students that are, again, exploratory preference, exploring business preference, or any student that is an exploratory status. So what that means is that we are the administrative house for supporting students through the office of undergraduate education, which is our college title. Right? And so in that role, we provide advising specifically through university advising.
Stratton:Some may say we do academic coaching along the way to help support student success, But that is the whole identity of our unit is to support a student success experience. So any student that's coming to the university that's looking for support, that's looking for some guidance, that's just unsure, about next steps. Though they may know what they want to do, or they don't, we are a space that's specialized in helping students navigate those questions and those challenges, to figuring out their future.
Zuhaer:Absolutely. And could you just explain to me what the difference is between university advising and advising for individual colleges?
Stratton:Yeah, of course. And so this is always confusing because some people find our title a little misleading, because they'll see university advising and think we are over all of, advising across the university, which we are not. The difference between our unit and other advising offices around campus is that every college has an advising unit. And so any student with a particular major can go to their advising office and receive academic advising support or any other student success support that they're looking for. Each college has specialists within their areas of foci.
Stratton:So if you are a journalism student, you have a journalism advisor. If you're a psychology student, you have a psychology advisor. If you're an engineering student, right? I know there's a billion engineering options out there. You have an advisor for that.
Stratton:And they are specialists in that work. So they know intimately the curriculum and how to navigate that based on wherever the student is coming into the university from, whether first time in any college or a transfer student. For university advising, we're uniquely positioned because we support those students that are again, exploring their options. And so we don't have any set curriculum in relation to other colleges, but we have to know the curriculum across all the colleges for the first year and second year experiences. And so we help those students that are looking for their academic, their final academic home to identify what majors are potentially of interest, get them connected to the advisors of those majors to have more specialized conversations in that direction.
Stratton:But ultimately we are the specialists in exploration. And so when students are again, unsure, unclear, wanting some support, needing affirmation, we are those people that help them identify if the major, if the career have some sort of connection and the ways and processes of pursuing that.
Zuhaer:Totally. And that's an important clarification. Thank you for that because like it'll help the students understand a little bit better about which is which. And also I feel like it's an important clarification so that we can credit university advising and advising for individual college separately in their appropriate ways. What are some of these specific services that students can receive through your office?
Stratton:So through university advising, again, we will do academic advising. And so we're going to, in that work, have amazing conversations around what is it that is your passion and dream? Where do you see yourself going? We're going to help co- construct and build the pathways forward to explore those opportunities, whether it's taking some exploratory classes, whether it's meeting with faculty or advisors in those respective areas, if it's doing some informational interviews across the profession to see what it is that you like and what you wanna pursue. Again, we do support with some of the student success efforts.
Stratton:And so we will, you know, provide some coaching around experiences when students are struggling within the classroom of ways to take notes, ways to engage with their faculty member, ways to even engage with their roommates or peers when they're having challenges, anything around a student's overall health and well-being. We are one of the first tools that oftentimes students will use to figure out the other spaces on campus. Right. And so we end up serving as, I like to say concierge, some people don't like that word. Right?
Stratton:But we're that first place that you go to that says, Hey, I'm interested in this and, where do I go and who do I work with?
Dr. Jackson:Thank you, Stratton. Again, this is Doctor. Charles Jackson. I really appreciate, just the the services and support for exploratory, you know, advising. I just remember when I was a former transfer student coming to MSU, I had to change my major, but I didn't do that until I was at the community college.
Dr. Jackson:But still, if we had that service or that support once I got to MSU, I think it would have also made it a lot easier for me as well because that way I could have, you know, looked at possibly like other majors, here at MSU.
Zuhaer:Right.
Dr. Jackson:So I I really appreciate just the support and services that we're giving to our transfer students.
Stratton:Yeah. And as you say that, doctor Jackson, it is important to note. Right? When supporting transfer students, we know that they're coming with other experiences. And generally they come with a understanding of what it is that they wanna pursue.
Stratton:So many of our transfer students are already connected to colleges across the university, majors across the university based on their particular interest. However, they still hold the interest in exploring what's available to them. And so whether you're connected to another college already or another major already, again, university advising, our team is in position to help support students in that exploration phase, though they may already be committed to a major at this point, just to see what else is out there.
Ashley:I have a very nuts and bolts question. And so I, at one point, in my transfer journey to MSU, there was a major code that I believe you know, this was twenty twenty plus years ago now. No. I didn't say that out loud.
Dr. Jackson:Hey. It was a little, like, 30. It went
Dr. Jackson:on 40 for me.
Ashley:So We're in it to win it, doctor Jackson.
Lauren:About two for me.
Ashley:I I believe the major code that I had was no preference. So I'm I'm just thinking in terms of, like, what are some other terms that that might be that our listeners might be familiar with coming from other institutions? Like, I think undeclared major, no preference.
Ashley:I think other schools might use some other terminology to kind of describe what exploratory is now called here.
Stratton:That's a great question, Ashley. And so, to that point, there are lots of terms that other colleges and universities in the broader sense use. So undecided, undeclared, exploring, no major preference, and a number of other things. And so what we have chosen to do, is use more affirming language and recognizing that many of the students that are coming to Michigan state university do have a sense of what they want to do. They are aware of generally some sense of their interests, their passions, their dreams.
Stratton:And so we don't think that they are undecided, right? There's a very small number of students that truly would probably fit in that definition. So we use the language exploratory because it helps to center the idea that students are coming with a sense of knowing. It may not be the sense of knowing that we as an institution always get in the immediate moment, but the student knows. And it's our role to help them understand how to translate what's in their mind, what's in their heart, what's in their, you know, I'll even say spirit, to what is actually available at the institution.
Stratton:But yes, you're right. Many students do come to us and don't always recognize that similarity between our office and what offices they've experienced at either their community college or four year institution that they're transferring from because the names are different. But it's all the same. Undecided, exploratory.
Ashley:Well, exploratory is a way better description. Right. You know, just to ditto everything that you just said. So thank you for thank you for expounding upon that.
Lauren:I feel like if they called it exploratory at my undergrad or if I maybe they did and I just didn't know.
Lauren:But I feel like if I knew that I could be an exploratory major, I probably would have done that for a semester instead of jumping right into, like, my premed track that I did not go through with.
Stratton:Yeah, Lauren, you bring up a good point because a number of students are challenged with the idea and identity of being an exploratory student. Oftentimes what they hear, right, is that undecided, no preference, and that doesn't resonate with them. And so the work that we're doing is, to your point, trying to expand students' and family and supporters' understanding of exploratory, and the value of it. Because if you're able to take a semester or two or four, right, depending on how you come into the university, it allows you to be more comfortable and confident around what your selection is and why you made that choice and what it is that you're working on and toward. Not that other students don't have that, right?
Stratton:So, I don't want to make that inference. But it is an amazing opportunity for those that are, I'll say, on the margin of their decision. They have a sense of, Hey, I think I want to be this doctor, I think I want to be a writer of some sort, or I like outdoors, but I'm just not exactly sure what to do with that. Exploration gives students a chance to really consider, you know, how to move forward and in what direction to go.
Zuhaer:Absolutely. And, thank you, Ashley, for bringing it up because I feel like this sort of demystification of these terms will help the students understand a little bit better that being exploratory is actually really cool, you know. You get to learn a little bit more about everything that you could possibly do. And like, I know that us as human beings, we love exploring. We love and we don't like the idea of having something unknown or unexplored.
Zuhaer:Right?
Zuhaer:So I think it's a pretty cool thing that being an exploratory student, you can, you know, kind of put your fingers everywhere around and then, you know, you can get to decide. So thank you for bringing that up. I feel like this is a important clarification for students as well.
Ashley:Maybe one other piece, you know, going back to our icebreaker question, what piece what's the best advice? I guess if I were to give advice to transfer students, you know, come to Michigan State as an exploratory student. Give yourself that that space for, you know, maybe a semester or two.
Zuhaer:I read on you guys' website that university advising is designed specifically for any student who's interested in exploring majors with focus on first and second year exploratory students. Do you see students who fall outside of that first and second year exploratory scope? How does the assistance your office provides those students differ?
Stratton:Yeah, so you're right in the sense that our primary focus is first and second year student. That is how we've been designed and structured. You're also right. And again, we support any student in any undergraduate student in an exploratory phase.
Stratton:And so for transfer students coming in that have a higher credit load, but have marked exploratory as their incoming major, we will see those students, generally during new student orientation. If they are, you know, somewhere fifty, fifty five, you know, 60 credits even they will often appear on our list. We will meet with them, we'll talk with them. And again, we, as a unit are able to allow that one semester of exploration and transition. The university, right, wants to ensure that every student thrives and graduates.
Stratton:And so part of that is ensuring that students find their college, their major as soon as possible so that they can continue to complete the academic requirements toward degree completion. And so while I wish we had an opportunity to keep students a little longer, we also get the value of students, that are coming in as transfer students with a higher credit load of having at least that one semester to really figure things out, figure out the lay of the land with, you know, campus and just figure out what they're doing. And if they're commuting or they residing in the area and where do they get to eat and who are going to be their new peers. It gives a little bit of a settled space for that. Students that have a higher credit load than generally about the 60 or so will probably find better utility in being in a set college.
Stratton:By that time, they've taken so many credits and had so much that they've already explored that they know and are committed to what degree programs they want to proceed with and are great in doing that. And we celebrate all those students as well. Absolutely.
Zuhaer:And that's very important, of course. From the advising side of everything, is there anything that new transfer students should do as they prepare to join MSU the MSU community?
Stratton:Yeah. So as, transfer students are coming in, it's always important to recognize that though you have experience at another college or university, you're coming into a new community. And whenever you're joining a community, it's important to understand the people, the places, the things, right? And so doing the research to figure out, again, what are they joining into? What college or university academic office are they joining into?
Stratton:They should ideally get to connect with the people. So you can email, either your advisors or your, faculty of your classes if you already know what classes you're taking. Looking at the campus map, it's helpful to understand really, what are the spaces and places that are available to students. So knowing, where, where the classes are going to be that you're enrolled in, knowing where your college is housed physically, knowing maybe where you want to eat. Parking can be a big thing if you're a commuter student, on top of being a transfer student, right?
Stratton:Really understanding the resources that are there. And so using the language that you're familiar with and searching our site to see what is the language that we use here. And so sort of what we talked about earlier with Ashley, if you're coming from a place that says, no preference and you type that in and you don't see, maybe it means it doesn't mean that we don't have it. It just may mean we use different language. And so it gives you the ability to write that question down and ask those people that you engage with, whether through the transfer student programming, or your advisor or admission, or even, you know, or the operator.
Stratton:That means you can just ask questions and receive support and guidance on who to go to and where to go. And if you're just unsure, they can at least get you to, people, generally your academic advisor that will help you identify what it is that you're really trying to get to and where that's located on campus. Absolutely.
Zuhaer:So Stratton, how might advising appointments look different when comparing university advising and advising by college?
Stratton:How do they look different? People would probably argue with me on this.
Ashley:Say what the matter is.
Stratton:Because they're actually they look very much the same. However, the kinds of questions that we're able to ask and the time that we have to do some of the explorational work is going to look and or feel different. So in the colleges, you're going to get great, amazing advising, and they are going to deal with the exploration within that specific field of interest. And so, again, I'll use journalism because I used to be a journalism advisor. And so students would come in and say, I like writing or I wanna be a broadcaster or I wanna do a podcast.
Stratton:Right? And so I would do the aspirational experience in that space to say, okay, what are all the things that you can do with this career path? Okay. So you can do writing and you can be in the field or you can do broadcast. And what does that mean?
Stratton:And there's different kinds of broadcasts and what are the markets and talk to these particular faculty because they have these experience. So that happens in that space. In the university advising space, our exploration is more broad. And so generally students are coming with multiple interests. And so they want to be, again, I'll just pick on journalism because I've been there, right?
Stratton:They want to be a journalist. They want to be a doctor, right? And they want to work with journal articles. And when you hear those things independently of each other, you say, okay, well you have to go into the sciences to be a doctor and you have to go into some sort of writing area to be a journalist. And these other things, I'm not exactly sure what you have to do, but maybe, you know, you do something that's focused on human development or maybe there's something you do around, human resources.
Stratton:So in our area, we take those individual things and talk about them, but we also overlay them. And so can you do all? Yes. Can you do all in one program? No.
Stratton:Right? And so what are the various programs that you need to pursue to achieve those goals? So again, if we had this idea of a journalism student that wants to be a doctor and wants something else, what are the pre med requirement? Do you have to have a whole science degree? Yes or no?
Stratton:So generally no, you just have to have the requirements, right? But for journalism, it's great if you have the journalism degree because there's a lot of technical things you need to do in that field. And so you would pursue the journalism degree, you would complete the medical requirements, admissions requirements, and you might add in some minors or a second degree, concentrations or whatever available through the various programs to build that out. And we recognize you're going to have to pursue a medical degree, right? In the other areas, you might need a master's degree or a PhD or, you know, a DO opportunity.
Stratton:So we have to layer those and help students see the path that you're taking is available to you. What are you willing to commit to and how much energy do you wanna put in to achieve that goal? And is it an immediate thing? Is this we're going to school for fifteen years or more? Or do we want to start with one step and when you complete that one step, we move to the next step.
Stratton:And so that's really going to be some of the difference in the advising. The other piece, I mean, we're going to talk to you about your We're gonna get you in classes. That's a given. We're gonna talk to you about ways to be successful as a student. That's a given.
Stratton:But we have a little more time to do and build out some of those deeper explorational pieces so that once you go to your college, you're clear around, I know I need to complete this degree. I know I will need to pursue something else. How do I grow grow forward from this? And now that advisor is prepared and equipped to say, oh, let's do this work. Let's do that work.
Lauren:There were so many, like, really great just pieces of like, things for students to think about when they're thinking about these things. And I am a little jealous of any student that gets to meet with your office because of, like, those great questions. But I do like something that on the when we're thinking about advice that we're giving people. The piece about, like, knowing how much energy you can give to your degree or your program. Because for me, that was, like, a big reason of why I didn't go into, like, medical school after I graduated, even though I have all of the pre med requirements was because I didn't have the energy for it.
Lauren:And I wish, you know, four or five years ago someone had sat me down and been like, do you have the energy for medical school? And I would have been like, no, I don't. I'm running on fumes already.
Zuhaer:Right.
Lauren:So I I just wanted to point out that that is a really good advice for students.
Stratton:Yeah. As you're talking about that, I think about my experience. So I came in animal science. I wanted to be a veterinarian. And in the classes, I thrived in the creative work.
Stratton:I struggled in the science piece, but I wanted to be a veterinarian. Right? And I got into organic chemistry and that changed my mind. Changed a lot of people's minds. But with it, the idea of what was available in my career path was I was either set to be a bench scientist, right, or I was going to work in sales.
Stratton:And that was the big thing career wise at that, in the time when I was in school. I'm 42.
Ashley:Woo hoo. On COVID-nineteen. So
Stratton:in the early 2000s, that was, you know, the direction. Having a space and having a place that I too wish I knew was available to help me explore what the options were, I would have probably realized that, I could have gone into, you know, the field of working with animals through writing for a magazine publication or designing, creating ads. But no one helped me see the connection of you're passing all of your animal science classes, but your work is all creative. How do we transition that to what a potential career is? And so it left me doing what looked like was my only option.
Stratton:I just completed a degree and then figured it out. But looking back, I would have been benefited by at least having a conversation to say, Hey, I like animal science. I just don't want to be a bench scientist. What else can I do? And working with career advisors and working with academic advisors to help do that would have been great.
Stratton:But you know, when you're 19, 20, 21, right? You don't always know that all the options are there for you and people are available. So you do the best that you can, but this podcast is changing that.
Zuhaer:Yes. Absolutely. And if I can share my experience a little bit as well, I like, from a long time ago, I realized that I really enjoyed talking, presenting, public speaking, and all of that. So I have an interest in that as well as my interest in, like, engineering. Like, I want to design stuff.
Zuhaer:I wanna build stuff. Right? So I wish coming into the coming into MSU, I had more knowledge of university advising so that I could come to you and come to the team and everybody could help me kind of like gather all of my interests into one line. But now that I'm further into my degree than ever before, just being able to talk to people who are involved with university advising and people who work in the realm of advising as a whole, I've gathered knowledge of how I can involve those two two things together, you know, like, if I go into engineering, but I do sales engineering sales or engineering management, then it's a combination of all of my interests. So all of these things, I feel our minds wanna do go separate ways, but you guys gave a go gave multiple good examples of how university advising can help students or incoming students kind of merge and mesh all of them together into you finding exactly what you need.
Zuhaer:And I think that's beautiful work from you guys.
Stratton:Yeah. Thank you. And Zuhaer, you bring up a good point. Right? When students have those multiple interests, it's great that you're thinking about how to connect them and merge them.
Stratton:Sometimes it's important to remember that they are unique and separate and they hold different values in and of themselves. And so in your case, if you go into sales and you're still in engineering, that might be great. However, you may still choose to be, I don't know what kind of engineering you're doing, but be in that field and let that fund the passion to talk and connect and serve in the communities and do all that sort of stuff and encourage and motivate people. And so you might have your day to day job of being an engineer that allows you to do the side thing of maybe being a host for another show. Right?
Stratton:And, you know, speaking to young people and doing that work. And so some things don't always have to be tied together. It's just knowing that they're both there or multiple things are there and they can be true at the same time. You just end up having to pick and choose when to express them and how to express them.
Zuhaer:Like, wow. I mean, Stratton, you're the expert here. This is such good advice because, like, again, you gave me a completely different perspective on how, like, how to think about that, and I appreciate that. So that's really good advising. So anybody who's listening in, you know that university advising is legit.
Zuhaer:So connect with them.
Lauren:This conversation feels very like it's healing something. Yes. Like, all of the things
Lauren:in my
Lauren:head, oh, I can do all of that.
Ashley:I I think all these conversations, just thinking about everybody's stories and the stories that haven't been shared but I'm aware of, you know, major and the degree name that you have does not necessarily mean career path. And Mhmm. So that's just something that really important to keep in mind. And I think there's always a joke of, like, a lot of people go to college and then they don't actually do what they went to school for.
Ashley:Like, that's actually, like, amazing. Mhmm. You know? Like, you're bringing the the interdisciplinary, experiences that that we all have enrich the, the areas in which we we end up pursuing.
Stratton:And I wanna say that that's completely normal. Mhmm. Yeah. Right? And to normalize that for students, that are really wrestling with this idea, that this is the path and this is the journey and we're groomed from such a young age to what you want to be?
Stratton:What do you want to be? What do you want to be? Right? And we try to find those paths, that are quickest and fastest. However, to that point, right, that your degree does not equate to your profession and where you're going to land in.
Stratton:So again, for example, myself, started animal science, thought I was going be a veterinarian, didn't like people. Right? In the midst of undergrad was doing a lot of mentoring and coaching and my, specialty advisor through the Charles Drew Science Enrichment Laboratory, shout out to them, caught me in senior year and said, Hey, you're not doing this animal science thing anymore. You're not going be a vet, but you're really good with people. You should do counseling.
Stratton:And so I knew I wanted to go to grad school, so I pursued counseling. Took, you know, two summer classes, applied and got in, thankfully. Thought I was gonna be a school counselor. And when I graduated, the economy tanked, the housing market blew up, schools were no longer hiring counselors, but I still had bills that needed to be paid and ended up doing property management for a period of time and trying to pursue that. That ran into some barriers.
Stratton:And ultimately a friend reached out to me from my grad program that said, Hey, are you looking for a job? We're looking for someone that has a counseling background that is, familiar with academic advising. Why don't you come over here and give this a try? So I applied and got in. Ultimately getting in, I found my career path.
Stratton:Had you told me that at 18, 19, twenty, twenty one, I would've laughed in your faith and told you I'm gonna be an Olympian, veterinarian. Right? Because I rode horses. So you don't know the journey ahead, but you take all the skillset, you take all the knowledge, you take all the experience forward and use that to become the specialist in your particular area. And that's what makes you unique.
Stratton:And that's what helps you to be the best and be, the world changer that is a Spartan.
Ashley:Thank you for sharing that. I think I also just wanna honor the the reality of a lot of our undergraduate students are coming here pursuing majors with heavy influence from their family or their supporters, and just recognizing that I think that college is an amazing opportunity to find, you know, what what do I need to do to honor my family's, my maybe my familial obligations, to pay the bills and things like that. But this you know, there's also the opportunity here to expand your horizons and find some of those passion projects as well.
Stratton:This is exciting because you're you're touching on my areas.
Stratton:and that is a real, reality for many of our students, especially, what I've experienced, our our international students or students that have an internationalized experience, where family is greatly connected to, the direction that students are going to pursue, and the degrees that they're going to need to accomplish. Also students that have that background, that have, family businesses, or just really invested family and supporters that are guiding them. And that is a challenge for a number of students that come in and say, well, I was told that I'm going to do this I'm not passionate about it, but I need to do it. I have the energy for it and I'm smart enough to do it, but I really like this. So if we say, I'll pick on engineering just because you said engineer.
Stratton:I want to be an engineer or my family wants me to be an engineer, but I really love the art, right? How do you wrestle with that, and how do you help support a student through that where you have these expectations and needs? And so many students do have to, navigate that balance of figuring out how to meet the unique needs and interests and competing interests that are there. It's easy to say, right, in this sort of Americanized context, Well, just do what your passions are, do what aligns with you. But for individuals that don't come from that view and perspective, that's very odd and different.
Stratton:And so we have to do a lot of work and students have to do a lot of work of figuring out, again, what's the blend? So what? Okay, maybe you pursue that, you earn the degree, you get a career in this area or, right, you may figure out new opportunities that still help the family or still help you accomplish the goals that you have. And so I think about it in the sense of if there's a family business that you're wanting to support, having a degree in something that still allows you to go back and help in that way, it doesn't have to be the specific thing that they say, but still allows you to provide the resources and support into growing a business. That's an amazing thing.
Stratton:If it's just, hey, we want you to ultimately be able to support yourself and not come back home and sit on our couch, There are many ways in which we can do that because everything is promising, nothing is guaranteed. So even if you got, you know, I always hear students say, I'm gonna be a doctor and make a bunch of money. Oh, okay. You can make a bunch of money in other ways. One of my friends went off into human resources and immediately was making great money.
Stratton:And I did counseling. And so my pay was a little different. But we were both fulfilled and we both were meeting our interests and needs. And so as students are thinking through those challenges, we're here to help you with that, whether through your college advisor or through university advising.
Zuhaer:Absolutely. And you bring up such an important point of sometimes you as a student feel like that familial sort of pressure sometimes or that expectations that are so high, even if it's not direct, it can be indirect that you got to do this, you got to do that. But the fact that university advising does such a great job at really listening to the students and figuring out what they can do with having those pressuresexpectations as well as counting for what they wanna do. I appreciate you mentioning that. Lastly, how can students get in contact with university advising?
Zuhaer:Because at this point, I'm waiting to get out of this office and then just start contacting more more more people just to get some advice. Could you let us know about that please?
Stratton:Yeah, so to contact University Advising, we're available online. You can see, advising, abvising. Msu dot edu. Our website has all of our advising, hours available. Right now in the summer we're remote.
Stratton:And so we'd be available for Zoom advising, phone calls, things of that nature. During the fall and spring semesters, we're in person and in a hybrid schedule. And so we're both available in person and virtually. You can also email us at universityadvisingmsu dot edu, universityadvisingmsu dot edu. And our office coordinators are watching that feverishly to
Zuhaer:ensure
Stratton:that we get fast, responses to students and getting them connected with advising. Again, if you already know you're part of a college and you're already connected to a major outside of exploratory preference or exploring business preference, then we encourage you again through our site, if you're unsure what website to go to, you can visit advising.msc.edu. And we have a tab that says advising by college and it'll have the college listed. So all you need to know is what college you're in and it'll take you to their advising page. You can find your academic advisors there and, be able to reach people that are ready to support you and your success and growth forward.
Zuhaer:Perfect. That is all of the questions that I have for you today. But I still want to ask if you have any last thoughts, last pieces of more advice or anything that you want to mention.
Stratton:Yeah, this has been a great conversation, and an important one, especially for our transfer students again, because they come to MSU with varied experiences. A big piece for me and encouragement for me for our transfer students is to remind you all to get connected. Connections, relationships, friendships, mentorship is important. I always do an activity for our new student, as they're coming in and asking them, who's your support network? But I frame it with this question, who's your favorite artist?
Stratton:And people blurt out whoever their favorite artist and we pick that. And so when you think about whoever that favorite artist is, they are not great in and of themselves. Right? And so Beyonce, Taylor Swift, you know, whoever the big pop icons are right now that people generally call out, if it's Drake or Kendrick, right, whoever, right, they are not great in and of themselves. They are surrounded by people that help them be great.
Stratton:And so as a student, you have to think that you are your favorite artist. And who do you have in your network that is helping you to be great? Who's helping you with your writing? Who's helping you with your scheduling? Who's helping you with your brand identity?
Stratton:Who's helping you in those midnight hours when you're up late and you're just unsure what to do? Who do you call? What is the role that your family plays during this time? You have to intentionally think about that. In addition to where are the places to be?
Stratton:People are here on campus. You don't have to recreate anything new or different. You can ask great people around you, Where are the study spots? Where are the hangout spots? Where can I go if I just need a mental break?
Stratton:Who helps with these sorts of things? And if you can get connected in those ways and find the people that help you be great, you'll thrive. You'll achieve. You'll reach every goal and every dream that you have, in spite of any challenges that come up. When you isolate and you stay on your own, you can still succeed and you still be great.
Stratton:There's people that do it, but it's harder. And so as a university, we're here for your success. We're here and invested in supporting the dreams that you come to us with. And we wanna do that work with you and alongside of you. And so I just ask every student to give us that chance to be there in this part of the journey so that you know that you're you're supported and that there are people beyond your family, beyond your immediate supporters that are actually invested in your success.
Zuhaer:Man.
Ashley:I'm not Yeah. She left. Lots of snaps happening.
Zuhaer:Man, once again, with the excellent, solid advice, like, this episode has been a gold mine for advice for college students, I hope that the transfer students who are listening in can take so much from it. But please do check out university advising because if this conversation has been a reflection of how much university advising can do for you, how much Stratton and his team can do for you, then I'm sure that you would love to be engaged with them. Thank you so much, Stratton, for joining us today and having this wonderful conversation with us. And with that, we're going to wrap up today's episode of the Spartan Transfer Hub. If you wanna hear more episodes like this, make sure to tune in on the Impact eighty nine FM website, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or all the other available platforms listed in the description below.
Zuhaer:Go green. Go White. Thanks for stopping by the Spartan Transfer Hub brought to you by Impact89FM and MSU's Transfer Student Success Center. See you soon.