Let's Talk UNLV

0:00:00
Welcome to another podcast on Let's Talk UNRV on KUNV with co-host Keith and Renee. Renee, how was your weekend?

0:00:07
It was really good. Sunday, I went hiking. I'm not really a hiker and honestly, I'm really intimidated because a lot of hikers, they're fitness enthusiasts and just the sign of an incline on a rocky road just really overwhelmed me. But I was surprisingly excited for this hike. It was a beautiful gorgeous day on Sunday, not a cloud in the sky and it was a mild hike and I think I'm gonna do this. Keith I can see myself.

0:00:44
How did you all like hike for distance or elevation? You know it was such a good conversation.

0:00:50
I went with a colleague and a good conversation and the view. I think we probably did two hours and just not even realizing it. Now maybe as I get more into this process, I might come out with some goals specifically that we want to reach the mountain peak or we want to go from the 601 to the 602 route, but just overcoming that and just realizing that it was just, you know, put one foot right in front of the other, keep going, breathe, drink your Gatorade or your water, whatever's your choice. But I think I'm gonna like this hiking thing. Are you a hiker?

0:01:25
The military ruined it for me.

0:01:27
Ah.

0:01:28
You know, so I don't enjoy walking anymore. Okay. You know, for eight months, you walked everywhere.

0:01:33
You're a Peloton kinda.

0:01:35
Oh, I'm a nothing kinda. I'm a couch potato kinda guy now, you know.

0:01:38
We're speaking of my weekend.

0:01:40
I spend most of my time on the couch. You know I watch a lot of the NBA All-Star weekend activities. I was a little disappointed with the dunk contest. Okay. But you know the skills competition I'm still a little warm on that new format. But the All-Star game itself on Sunday was definitely impressive.

0:01:58
Yeah, I read LeBron, Steph Curry.

0:02:00
Yeah.

0:02:01
Great match. Steph is shooting from like half court. Yeah, that's a 16 threes right 16 threes and then shooting and not even watching the ball Going he shoot it and he just turned around and walked down the other. Yeah, he was like playing like the guitar Yeah, the ball still in the air. Yeah, that's that's what confidence so that was that was fun So and then I also got to speak at a couple of events over the weekend just with some community events we just really know with with you know, the month of February all the activities going on and really promoting access to higher education, especially among vulnerable, underrepresented populations. And I think it ties in well with our guests today. You know, we have you have we have one of our registered student organizations, the Alliance of Non-Traditional Students. And we have the pleasure of having Tiffany Brewster with us, who's the president. And we have Dana Zadaran, who's the vice president. And then last, we have Sherry Young, who's the secretary. And I guess we'll maybe tee it up for Tiffany first, just maybe just to share a little bit about yourself. And then we'll ask each of the guests to share a little bit about themselves and how you got connected to this RSO.

0:03:07
All right, good morning, guys. I'm Tiffany Brewster. I am, first off, I'm a military spouse, so we travel all over. I am a non-traditional student, of course. I am a criminal justice major here at UNLV. I'm currently a senior. What really got me interested in finding ANTZ or Alliance of Non-Traditional Students was I needed to find a community because when I got here, I really, I felt somewhat out of place. I wasn't a standard student of, I can go home and study and I could probably fall asleep and do the standard traditional things of normal younger students. I was more so, I've got to try to manage making dinner and doing all these different demands for my household and then still trying to juggle schoolwork. And so I was trying to find a community of members or people who understood that and understood what I was going through. And especially in those moments when I felt like I couldn't do it anymore, I needed somebody who could support me, uplift me. And that's when I found ANTS, or I could say Ms. Bev found me. And since I've been with the group, I have to say I've been succeeding in school and I'm looking to graduate at the end of the semester and I'm very proud of that.

0:04:34
And then Dana, could you share similarly? And then after Dana, Sherry.

0:04:38
Hi, good morning. My name is Dana. I am a junior biology major. My concentration is in physiology. And I came back to school after a 10-year gap and I have a 10-year-old, so he's the reason I had to stop sort of going to school, just to sort of focus on raising him. I'm a one-parent household and I didn't realize coming back to school was going to have so many random obstacles. It's not difficult, they just tend to be random as far as he forgets his lunch, so I have to leave school to take it to him. Little things that I don't think feel are such a big issue until you realize like, well, this is really cutting into my time. And so after my first semester here, it was in the beginning of the pandemic, everything was online, I had no interaction with anyone online. I stumbled upon ANTS, the Alliance of Non-Traditional Students, through a search. I started just searching the UNLV website for older students or support groups for older students that had children that were working that weren't just focusing on school. I found the Alliance of Non-Traditional Students and I think my first week in the group I got a book, a textbook from one of the members. It was such a beautiful connection that everyone had, like, oh you need a textbook? You can have my textbook. Oh, you can't make it on time to, you know, drop this off because you have to pick up your son. Don't worry, we'll take care of it. It's beautiful to see so much engagement and so much love amongst all the members. So that's why I fell in love with this RSO. And so now I just, um, I want to give back the same to the other members, the new members, just sort of let them know how the group has helped me, how it's helped me overcome my challenges and I think that's definitely one of the main reasons that I decided to run for vice president just so I can go ahead and help

0:06:39
out the way I've been helped. All right Sherry could you please share too?

0:06:42
Hello I'm Sherry. I am a full-time paralegal and by full-time I mean I usually put in overtime at my job and I started working in the legal field right out of high school always intending to go back to college but just like many others my road back to school included some bumps and also three children. I have a 14 year old, a 16 year and a baby who's now one and a half. And finding support when you return to school as a non-traditional student is so crucial. You know, it can just... If it was easy, I would have returned a long time ago. So, I really value the Alliance of Non-Traditional Students as, you know, a group where we can come together and answer questions and share information that we've obtained along the way. If you look at the RSO page, the Alliance of Non-Traditional Students is one of the first groups that you see, and I'm so glad that I found this group because it's been

0:07:54
an excellent resource.

0:07:56
Could you, Sherry, could you share just a little bit how you all define non-traditional student, some of the characteristics? Gosh, you know, a

0:08:05
non-traditional student is comprised... so many people are non-traditional students. Some of us have children, some of us don't, some of us are returning to school after a long break. That seems to be most of us. Some of us have other things that are going on in our lives while we're going to school, whether it's kids or being married or maybe you're in a position where you have to look after family members and you can't go to school during the day like other traditional students might.

0:08:44
I think it's almost easier to define a traditional student because non-traditional encompasses so many different things.

0:08:52
So you mentioned Miss Beverly Carter, who was the former president of the Alliance of Non-Traditional Students and Recent Grads. So congratulations and shout out to Miss Bev Carter. What was her legacy? What are some things that you're hoping to build on as a result of Miss Bev Carter and her role as former president. So I would

0:09:18
definitely say with Miss Bev Beverly Carter, however many people at the university know her. I would say Bev definitely left, she was a presence in the fact that she was someone who wasn't afraid to make noise for non-traditional students. I don't know if there's a better way of putting it or or maybe somebody who voiced the opinions of ANTS, and letting people know, this is what we need. This is what our students are lacking. These are the things that the university needs to work on. That's what she pushed for for us. And that's what we, as the new board, are continuing to push for, because we know that there are still some things That the members want and need that we still have that still haven't been addressed May I always tell people miss Bev was Miss Bev was the voice for you on LV to finally pay attention to us and to really get Get us on their radar And now we're just we're keeping the gears going and we're plugging in the information that they didn't have before. Now we're talking to like Adult Learners Commission or we're trying to do surveys so you can understand, so the university can understand what it is that non traditional students need because it's no longer that we can just say what we need but we need this data, we need the information so that way you can actually move forward in knowing these are the things that we can do to assist these

0:10:52
students.

0:10:53
And I know you describe sort of the characteristics of the population of non-traditional students as very, very diverse and probably easier to define what a traditional student is rather than the former. And I'm a non-traditional student myself. So could you share a little bit about what resources and supports you provide to your members?

0:11:14
So what we have been doing as of late for the new board is we are working on a scholarship, whether it be for books or laptops, because we know that the financial demand, at least for non-traditional students, is we have they have a high financial demand because they have things that they have to pay for their their money isn't all going towards school and things like that. So we, what we try to do is make it a little bit easier for our members. Um, we try to have, um, workshops where we can talk about graduate school, how to get into graduate school. We do mindful meditation. Um, we do that like on Wednesdays, um, once a month where they can just go meditate, release some of the stress that they're under, just get out of that headspace. We also have, right now what we're working on is the professional development day where we're going to be getting headshots for the members and they can work on their LinkedIn and look at their resumes because we know that many of our members have worked before. So we want them to know how to beef up that resume, how to make it look good, you know? Because you have experience. And then even, and some of them worry about, well, is college gonna look bad? We tell them, this is the things that you've done in university, the classes you've taken, these are all things that are gonna better advance you in the workforce. So we're trying to plug those things into their resumes. Those are just some of the things that we're trying to do or we're doing right now.

0:12:52
So Dana, talk to us about, for this current administration, what are your top three priorities? I heard scholarships, but are there other things that you say that this administration, we definitely want to walk away saying that we were able to complete? Yes, of course.

0:13:06
So I think our main goal is to advocate, advocate for all the nontraditional students. And by that, it would be, um, making sure that we can relay the policies that are implemented into the school. I don't think many of the non-traditional students actually know all the benefits of the school. They don't know all the fine print of the help they can get from the academic success center. They don't know that they can go to the, you know, the source room to craft or that they can go to the gym for the Wellness Center. I think a lot of these resources are promoted a lot during the day when everyone's at work or a lot of them feel that they can't come on campus because they are remote. And so one main thing for us is to make sure that we can get these webinars to them so they can know exactly what the university has to offer for them because, you know, I mean, all the resources at the university are for all of us, and I think that a lot of the information needs to be put out there for them. And then another thing is we're running a survey to ensure that we can sort of understand where the needs are for online classes and weekend classes. And I think even on evening classes so the selection of classes that actually sort of accommodate to a working schedule are so low that we sort of want to bring that out there as well. Just you know get a

0:14:55
good amount of sample size see who can

0:14:59
benefit from it. Additionally you know the scholarships are very important because I don't think you know when you're

0:14:52
you expect the contribution is higher.

0:14:54
And that's why we're really pushing for those scholarships for the non-traditional students.

0:14:57
And so this question is for Sherry. When looking at providing these resources, making sure the resources are known, then it becomes when should they be available, right? So all these three answers need to be, I guess, to be available? I mean, should it be available simply, you know, virtually, or should certain offices have extended office hours to accommodate the working professionals who cannot get here, you know, the traditional eight to five? Are there times of the year, you know, such as during Welcome Week? Or should there be something separate that is exclusive to non traditional students? Because, as you know, we've already stated here, the population just covers so many, you know, not just students from not just students or parents who are not parents, those who may be just as impacted, you know, and the gamut. So any thoughts there that you could, you know, maybe share as both Keith and I are administrators who work very closely

0:16:08
with these office that administer student services? I'm so glad that all of us are on the call because Tiffany and Dana and I, we all have some great ideas about what things might be helpful for non-traditional students. And one of the ideas that I had thought would be good to implement is maybe a mixed classroom environment and where some of the students might be able to attend virtually while there's, you know, a class that's happening in person. And that's one thing that I've tried to... I talked to one person at the university about this, and I'm going to continue to spread that message because I think for me, that would be wonderful. There's been certain educational paths that some members of our group are unable to take, certain degrees that we're unable to pursue because, like Dana mentioned, there aren't classes available during the hours that we need them. And kind of having that environment, I would have found that to be very helpful. And I don't imagine that I'm the only one of me. In fact, I know I'm not. I think our group has at least over 200 members. So that's my platform right there.

0:17:34
And I would jump in to give you another point to sort of support what Renee mentioned is just about office hours. Right. And I know like our office has discussed about maybe we need to open at six and maybe do staggered shifts where we can stay open, you know, not just closing at four or five. But we can stay open until like maybe six or seven p.m. to accommodate those students who are coming on campus, taking evening and night courses and also looking at being open, maybe on a Saturday, you know, maybe not every Saturday of the month, but maybe selecting certain Saturdays. Are those types of questions that you would be gleaning from your survey of your members to see if that would be useful?

0:18:12
Yes, those are exactly the kind of questions that we are going to be asking on the survey, because we do want to know how can the university better serve this group of students because we're not a small number of students. We're such a large number. One study says that more than 40% of students tend to be non-traditional students and the numbers continue to increase as more people continue to come back to school even in later years or after their breaks. And we do want to, we do tend to reach out to the different organizations or the different departments, and we do ask when we have different events, hey, can you do something at 6 o'clock? And I would say many will try to accommodate us, and they'll say, okay, we can do a 6, or maybe we can do a 530, and we do, we even reach out to different RSOs, and we let them know, hey, we're here and we want to do volunteer. And we know that most, like for example, the big volunteer that's going to be happening for campus is going to be on Friday in the morning. And I reached out to them and I told them, hey, we can't do that. Most of our members aren't able to act. Either they can't come or they're in class or they're working. So they'll be flexible and they'll be flexible enough with us to be like, okay, we can have a volunteer on a Saturday So they're very understanding for the most part But we do want to be able to have those departments like you said maybe the advisor They're different the different Academic areas where we can actually come in and we can be will be able to talk to people and be able to get assistance Where we need it. So trying to see if we can have those departments open later would be great. Having those classes later on in the day would be phenomenal. I know for me as a criminal justice major, my department doesn't have many classes in the evening or I don't think we have any Saturday classes at all because I haven't seen any options like that. So those are things

0:20:28
that yes, we're going to be working toward. Could you share a little bit

0:20:36
about how organization promotes like all the things that you do to the universal community to make them to make them aware that you are available? We typically will reach out. We have our social media, so we go through our Instagram, we have our Discord, we have our Facebook group, which is where we have talk and get the assistance they need and ask for help. We also have our Twitter and we also use the involvement center so we can put out news and things like that and the different events that are going to be going on. We post it for the school to see. And then we also will email the other RSOs and say, hey, can we work together? Hey, can you share this information?

0:21:16
Could you also, I mean, speaking of events, could you talk a little bit about some of the most successful events that ANTS has conducted and then also maybe speak about some of the upcoming events that you have for this semester for students to get involved in?

0:21:31
As we mentioned, we're gonna be trying to go toward getting those scholarships for our members. So we started, we had our Panda Express fundraiser that actually raised about $200. Then we had our another, we had our Valentine's fundraiser that was also another successful event that raised around $300 as well for our members. And that's all going to be going towards scholarships. So those are some things that we've definitely marked as successes. While they're not large amounts of money, they are for ants, if it's just a book scholarship where they don't have to pay for a book, that's a big success for our members. Other events that we've had that people come to are when we do like our big swag giveaways and all our members love to come and they like to get together and they like to sit sit down and eat and talk together. And those are, they are really good events. Um, coming up though, um, we'll have the professional day, which is going to be March 22nd. And they have it right now set for in the SU and they're having a tool eight C, but we're trying to get a bigger spot. So don't, don't quote me on that yet. Cause I, I'm trying to push for a bigger room. We also have coming up mindful meditation that's also going to be happening. And that one happens on March 10th. And then we've got our drive-in movie night on March 19th. We've got Luck of the Irish on March 17th, which is St. Patty's Day, we're going to have everybody coming out and just enjoying St. Patrick's Day. But in this next weekend, which we are inviting all members, faculty, or what may have you and other RSOs, we're going to be having a bowling day on Saturday at Santa Fe Bowling Station at 3 o'clock. And then we're also going to be going to the we're going to be going hiking with rebel vets at 9 in the morning

0:23:44
Wow, you have a lot of events planned quite a mixture from Professional development. I know we try to keep it

0:23:50
We try to keep it where everybody can participate because we have so we have members with so many different types of personalities So we try to do a little bit of everything you can bring your kid or you can just go out and hang out with some and have some adult time.

0:24:05
Absolutely.

0:24:06
Give them a little bit of everything.

0:24:07
Absolutely. So this is the last question. Maybe Dana or Cher, you might want to answer this is, who is your advisor? And then when you want to go to an official UNLV non-traditional students list of resources and information, you know, beyond the Facebook and the other ways that you've mentioned and Twitter that you reach out to folks. But where is the official UNLV site that you can go to find out what you all are about and the resources that you talked about? And then who's your advisor? I want to give them kudos because this is a lot of work, and we know that organizations need all the back end they can. And so oftentimes we want to don't forget about the advisors that are supporting you.

0:24:49
So our advisor is Esther Herrera. I'm sorry, Esther kind of... Herrera. Okay. H-E-R-R-E-R-A. Alright. And she's amazing, you know, and definitely I do believe that for anything, it takes a village, and I think with the Adult Learning Advisory Board, that's definitely the direction that we're heading to, you know, for a village of all of us to sort of support all the non-traditional students on campus and to get connected with us officially through the Involvement Center. We have the Alliance of Non-Traditional Students on there. That's where the members can join the RSL and this is where they will be directly connected to getting the mass email newsletters that go out every month. This is where they're going to get the survey links. This is where they're going to get all the updates. In addition, we also post these to social media, but the involvement fair will have everything on there at all times. And then also, so if you go on to the UNLV website and you type in non-traditional students, there's a list of articles. There's a list of information on there and that will link you to sort of make sure that we're not just engaging on Facebook on Instagram you know we want to make sure that we can provide the outreach that's needed for everyone not just for those of us that enjoy social media or those of us who have access we want to make sure that we can get to

0:26:19
everybody. Well Tiffany, Dana, and Sherry thank you for being such great guests and thank you for all the work that you're doing. And thank you just for sharing all the opportunities and resources that are available through the ANTS program organization. I know that as a non-traditional student when I started, I would have certainly gravitated to these services and it certainly resonates for me and I know that there is a very high and growing percentage of UNLV students who fit into this category. So I applaud you all for the work that you're doing and just the sacrifice it takes to organize and sort of carry this forward, the baton forward from when Beverly started.

0:27:04
So, Renee, what were some of your takeaways from today's session? Just to proud this registered student organization. I'm always blown away at how registered student organizations are answering the call and filling in the gaps and how they're developing community. I just want to give out one resource, though, to the Alliance of Non-traditional Students I don't think they're aware of, which is the Minority Serving Institution Student Council, and that is an opportunity for a member of this registration organization to look out for the application to apply to be a part of the council. And through the council, they can come up with an idea, a platform that's going to help non-traditional students, particularly those who are historically underrepresented. And through the council's representation, they get to interface with so many campus leaders and partner with the campus office that is best able to bring their vision into fruition. And not only that, the Minority Student Institution Student Council will fund the initiative. And that's separate from all of the things that they're pursuing. And so I really hope that, you know, Tiffany or Dana or Sherry will look into this opportunity or at least, you know, really promote one of their members applying, because the Minority Student Institution Student Council will be likely bringing on five new council members for the FY22 or fall 22 school year. And so I think it's a great resource and a way to tie in some things that they're doing. And one of the ways the Minority Substitution Student Council has been very helpful is providing scholarships and using the funds to promote for scholarships. That might be a win-win. But all in all, really proud of this group and love their events. I wish I could attend some of them. I know, but I think you have to be a student, right?

0:28:48
You have to be a student in all categories.

0:28:50
They do that boundary very carefully. Very clearly, right?

0:28:52
Right, right.

0:28:53
What about you?

0:28:54
And, you know, I'll go the route that you shared, Renee, is that, you know, I would offer my office as a resource to the group as well, Center for Academic Enrichment and Outreach, where we have the TRIO programs, we have McNair, we have the Title III MSI program, and APISI in our offices. And our offices are located in the students for services complex building a and we're on the third floor room three or one. And we offer a lot of services and we particular focus on non-traditional students and we offer scholarships. We actually give away almost three hundred thousand dollars a year in scholarships. We also give away we also purchase books for students who are struggling to afford the books. And we do a host of workshops, and we have spaces that could be an additional space for this organization to convene and do different things, and certainly invite them to our workshops or invite us to come to some of their workshops and talk about some of the things that we do around graduate school preparation and different things. So I just applaud all the things that they're doing, and I think it's great. And I can certainly resonate just having—searching for that sense of community when you come to the university campus as a nontraditional student. when you come to the university campus as a nontraditional student. you know, just having, searching for that sense of community when you come to the university

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