Student Life Spotlight: USCA alumnus finds perspective, purpose as diversity coordinator
Welcome to the Student Life spotlight! In this series we’ll be profiling the wonderful folks working in our student life office. They are all heavily involved on campus so you probably know some of their faces if you’ve been to any events on campus.
This week we’re highlighting Coordinator of Diversity Initiatives, Travis Hardee.
Travis joined the Student Life office while he was still a student himself. He was involved with Greek Life, Student Government, the Chancellor Ambassadors program, PUB (Pacer Union Board) and UNITY, but when he first arrived at USCA he wasn’t sure how to get involved.
As he started to make friends with older students who were involved with different organizations on campus, they helped him find his way in campus life. He still remembers the day his friend brought him to the Student Life office and introduced him to some of the people he works side-by-side with today.
Travis graduated last year with a degree in Sociology and loves how much time he gets to spend with students through his position in Student Life. As Coordinator of Diversity Initiatives, his primary duties involve on-campus advocacy, including event planning, and facilitating various the various cultural advocacy groups on campus.
The part of his job that he finds most difficult is striking the balance between meeting and talking with students and his more administrative tasks. He joined student life to meet different students from all kinds of backgrounds and help them grow throughout their time at USCA.
He also really enjoys how much he learns from students. His position allows him to interact with people from backgrounds he doesn’t have personal experience with and they help him gain perspective and interact with all kinds of students more effectively.
The various events he’s involved with throughout the year provide opportunities for students to have new experiences. He was particularly proud of how students responded to the drag show last semester. A number of students told Travis how they’d never been to a drag show and had a really good time, while other students who identified as LGBT told him that they felt represented and supported by attending such a pro-LGBT event on campus.
The Student Life Office is full of former students and supportive, patient people who really care about who USCA students are and making everyone feel included in campus life. They love meeting and talking to students and encourage anyone who wants to be more involved to stop by and have a chat.
We’ll be spotlighting members of Student Life all semester so that you can get to know the smiling faces that help make our student lives more interesting and enjoyable.
