NACE Journal / Winter 2025

What is a leader?

With the understanding that any parameters would be limiting, NACE established criteria that focus on formal and specific types of recognition of leadership. The leaders featured here have served as president/chair of the NACE Board of Directors, been inducted into the NACE Academy of Fellows, and/or have received the Kauffman Award or Mackes Leadership Award. Using 1990 through present day as the timeframe, nearly 50 individuals met those criteria and were invited to submit their guidance. Many thanks to those who agreed to take part. In fact, due to the robust response, we are running their guidance in multiple parts. (Note: Read Part 1 in the Fall 2024 issue of the NACE Journal.)

Our Leaders

Tierney Bates 

Mackes Leadership Award, 2021
Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs, University of South Carolina-Upstate

Previous Role:
Assistant Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs & Executive Director for Career Services, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill

Use the five “F’s”—fit, family, finances, freedom, and fun—to frame how you approach your career and where you belong.

• Fit: What excites you? What aligns with your passion?
• Family: We have a work family. How do you create a family environment?
• Finances: It’s not just how much you make, but how much you keep. Be sure you are taking advantage of all the options.
• Freedom: For example, do you have the opportunity to innovate? When you find freedom, you find your voice and can have an impact.
• Fun: It’s important to enjoy every moment of this journey, personally and professionally. Your environment has to be a good one. I think we often take ourselves too seriously. It really is important to dance like no one is watching!

Education, experience, and exposure align with challenges, choices, and consequences. We’re in the education business where our roles and experiences give us great visibility with our students, our colleagues, and our other stakeholders. As a result, every day, we are faced with challenges. We have choices about how to address those, and those choices all have consequences. We need to consider that. Broadly speaking, the choices you make dictate the consequences of your life.

Don’t let anyone live in your head rent free. I learned this from my father, and he was right. Don’t let things fester—they are taking up space in your head, and they affect you physically. If you can’t get a good night’s sleep, those things are throwing off your game.  At the end of the day, you have to let go of them.

You make a living by what you do, but you make a life by what you give. I think about Muhammad Ali, who saw service to mankind as the way to pay homage to God.

You spend significant time with your work family, so help them build to their potential. Think about the influence you have on others and how you can help them reach their full potential. Also, in my own life, I look at how my role with my work family reflects back on my personal family: I want to be an example to them.

Denise Dwight Smith

President, NACE Board of Directors, 1998-99
Assistant Vice President, Alumni and Career Services, University of Richmond

Previous Roles:
Director, Career Development Services, Old Dominion University
Director, University Career Center for Work, Service, and Internships, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
Manager of College Relations, ICI Americas

Falling in love with a purpose is a gift. My 47 years in career development and connecting with others to help them find their passion in life and in their work was born 10 years earlier than that during my junior high summer camp experience in Mt. Gretna, PA. I fell in love with a purpose, with mattering. To this day, I am drawn to connecting with others, sharing in our mutual passion for life, and seeking nature in a continual summer camp. Truth be told though, winter snow camp year-round would be awesome for me too!

What I know is that growth, taking chances (even for those of us with high security needs), and being true to real relationships makes all the difference.

Value the opportunity to learn. I am so grateful for all the good-hearted people in my life but have also learned lessons from those who were not always so. We all have a back story.

Seize the moment. There are times I wish I would have given more space, voice, and time to the creative and insightful sides of me. I have learned not to let those moments pass, so my camera is full now.

Keep in contact with those friends and colleagues who are true, honest, selfless, and fun. Our field is loaded with them! Never minimize truth and integrity either in those connections. And be willing to let hard experiences and mistakes go. We all have/make them.

Lead with respect. Respect those you have learned from, and realize that even your non-favorite people may deserve respect for their role.

Study history. Be willing to learn from the past so as not to repeat our mistakes. These days, I find inspiration and hope listening to the Nation Builders in Colonial Williamsburg—what a vision was had!

Faculty and students are the heartbeat of higher ed. Listen to who each is as an individual.

Do not underestimate that “group think and slick PR can be dangerous.” However, remember that organizations are made up of all kinds of people. Cherish those looking to partner for good.

Let wisdom seeds grow…even if you do not see where the ones you planted took hold.

Good goals and values, at their very core, are all the same, even though everyone seems to want to differentiate them into a top 10.

Faculty often can be resistant to “jobs” language, but are indeed committed to their own.

Take self-checks. Needing to be liked can cloud the confidence and talent we each have.

Even when we feel invisible, someone notices. So, as Gandhi says, “Be the change you want to see in the world.”

Look for what lifts you. Music (love classical) and nature, the mountains, the sea, a sunset, a puppy hug, and a good walk can always brighten my perspective. So can a good glass of pinot noir (Russian and Alexander River Valleys) with a favorite friend.

Hard work and dedication are worth it.

Be fully present…with your friends, your spouse, watching a sunrise, hugging a child. Not to do so is to miss so much in life.

Lastly, I have learned to let the inner dance and music flow, even when the knees are creaking. Every day can be a nature camp wonderment day!

Glen Fowler

President, NACE Board of Directors, 2017-18
Mackes Leadership Award, 2023
Consulting Principal, 2Advance

Previous Role:
Recruiting & Training Manager, California State Auditor (Retired)

Forge lasting, authentic relationships, not transactional ones. This holds true with candidates, colleagues, and fellow NACE members. These meaningful relationships bring a deeper value to your time together. We’re all in this together!

When considering business processes, look at them through the lens of the customer. Keep in mind that a positive customer experience may not be the most efficient business process. That’s okay. When it comes to recruiting, our customers include the candidates themselves, not just our executive and management teams.

Whatever the project/initiative, paint a clear picture of what success looks like. It’s more than directing your team to “do an awesome job.” Define what “awesome” means in quantifiable terms. By managing expectations, you and your team will be able to recognize it when you achieve it.

Celebrate success—both in work and in your personal life. Taking time to celebrate recognizes those defining moments in our lives. Likewise, take time to learn from mistakes or missed opportunities. It’s a healthy exercise when wrapping up a recruiting season or project. Even the most high-performance teams have room for improvement.

Don’t retreat from challenging projects or assignments. These are the spice of life! Ultimately, your work stands to be more rewarding and impactful when you work outside of your comfort zone.

There is a cost of doing business. Sometimes it’s a cost of time away from home, or a financial cost like parking. Recognize these costs and weigh them before you pursue a position or business. Once you’ve considered and weighed the costs—and if you decide to move forward—appreciate them as a cost of doing business, and don’t be distracted by them.

Quality counts. Be professional and deliver a top-quality product/service. Anything short of high quality can draw attention and call into question those deliverables you’ve completed really well. This goes hand-in-hand with the concept of over-delivering. Consider what you can do in your current role to over-deliver. It might be as simple as taking more initiative and better anticipating your bosses’ work needs, i.e., getting them an analysis before they thought of it or asked for it.

Enjoy your work life. Engage fully—be “all in”—embrace change, and focus on the positive stuff, including your colleagues, the work environment, and the work itself. Stay positive and enjoy the ride!

Norma Guerra Gaier

President, NACE Board of Directors, 2018-19
Kauffman Award, 2022
Associate Vice Chancellor for Career Education & Development, Washington University in St. Louis

Previous Roles:
Executive Director for Texas Career Engagement, University of Texas at Austin
Director of Career Services, Texas State University
Director of Career Services and Service Learning, St. Mary’s University

Never stop learning. This is an exciting time, and there is a lot of change, so it’s important to keep learning. And, you can learn from a variety of sources. For example, I love mentoring, spending time with emerging professionals who are excited, eager, and looking to make changes. I find that I learn as much from my mentees as they do from me! I love seeing things through their eyes.

Trust and dare. It’s important to trust yourself and others so that you can try new things. Trusting yourself enables you to dare to explore. I wholeheartedly believe that you aren’t going to make progress if you don’t try something new. If you try something new and it doesn’t go well, you can still make progress if you are able to learn from it.

Say yes. Don’t be afraid. I remember being terrified when I sat on my first committee. I couldn’t believe anyone wanted my opinion, but I found that I could contribute even though I had more to learn. I’m so grateful I said yes to the experience. Saying “yes” helped me build my career. Others may see your potential even if you don’t—trust that!

Chase the uncomfortable. Most of us don’t say “I want to be uncomfortable,” but I’ve found that I’ve learned the most when I’ve been faced with something new and out of my comfort zone.

Get involved. I have gained a lot professionally through the experiences I’ve had, but getting involved also helped me develop lifelong trusted friendships. I’m fortunate to have a network of friends from around the globe that I can go to with anything—professionally and personally. They are my sounding board, and I value those relationships. I think I would have missed out on that if I hadn’t been involved in the field, and I can’t imagine my world without them.

Seek out and listen to different perspectives, different voices. No one knows it all, but collectively, we can be a powerhouse of new knowledge and discoveries to move our work forward. We need to fuel our work with different talents and perspectives to meet the evolving diverse needs of tomorrow. As you engage in your work, ensure that everyone has a voice, but recognize that people express their voices in different ways: Proactively create time and space for these different voices, which are often expressed in very individualist ways.

Don’t compromise your core values. Perhaps the most important practice for me has been to adhere to and live out my core values. Be yourself and design your own path as you engage in your work. The body of work we have the privilege to contribute to in higher education and talent acquisition provides the perfect opportunity for us to ground our work in our authentic values. Keep shining your light!

Tim Harding

Chair, NACE Board of Directors, 2024-25
Assistant Vice President for Career Development and Engagement, University of Tampa

Embrace the present. Life is fleeting, and if we're constantly focused on what's ahead, we risk missing the beauty of the here and now. The urge to multitask can prevent us from truly living in the moment.

Find joy in both your professional and personal life. It's easy to take ourselves too seriously, but it's important to enjoy the journey.

Laugh often! It's a powerful antidote to stress, pain, and negativity. Laughter draws in positive energy from others and fosters deep connections.

Surround yourself with a select few who are completely honest and offer constructive feedback, even when it's difficult to hear. Good friends want to see you succeed and will be transparent. There is an Irish saying, “Best friends are like four leaf clovers. They are hard to find and lucky to have.”

Be authentic. We all have unique gifts and imperfections. Impostor syndrome arises when we compare ourselves to others. Embrace who you are, and celebrate what you bring to the table.

Don't just seek what's right for me or you, but for us. It can be tempting to fill a team with people who only share our perspective. My Quaker upbringing teaches me that we each hold a piece of the truth. By sharing our truths, we discover the greater good.

Marcia Harris

NACE Academy of Fellows, 2004
Director, University Career Services, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill (Retired)

It’s all about relationships. You can’t have a successful department without the cooperation and buy-in of your stakeholders. Good relationships don’t just automatically happen; you have to work at developing and nurturing them.

Be patient, and don’t give up. It took me a very long time to finally correct every one of the many deficiencies of my office that existed when I first began (staff size, operating budget, physical facility, not one computer!). Keep proving your department is worth the investment, and it will pay off.

Engage in out-of-the-box thinking, aka “If it’s not broken, break it!” Don’t be complacent. Dream big; dream crazy. It takes a lot of bad ideas to come up with the few great ones that will really make a difference. Encourage your staff to brainstorm, and never shoot down an idea.

Be student-centered. Never forget the real purpose of your office, which is to help students. I like to use John Holland’s model of RIASEC (careers that he names realistic, investigative, artistic, enterprising, social, and conventional) as an easy check that the career office is providing programs and services for the variety of fields in which students may have interest. Don’t just focus on business, engineering, and technology.

Be active in professional associations. No effective career office can operate in a vacuum. The contacts (as well as friendships) you make through professional organizations are invaluable, and the ideas and programs you will learn about will help keep your office current. If you return from a professional meeting with even one new idea and one new contact, it was worth the time, effort, and expense.

Have fun! Career services is one of the best fields there is. How fortunate you are to be working in it. Enjoy the ride!

Catherine Neiner

NACE Academy of Fellows 2022
Executive Director, Career Services, Georgia State University (Retired)

Serendipity will have its way with you! I have not met anyone along the way who, when asked as a child what they wanted to do when they grew up, said, “I want to work in a university career center!” Most of us “fall” into this vibrant profession.

Thirty years ago, I was a young mother looking for a “mother hours” job. I got a call about a part-time job with the newly established M.B.A. career center at Georgia Tech. Seems they were hiring a half time (!) director, and would I be interested? I jumped at the chance for a job that matched my first priority: mother hours. I had no idea what career services was. But the head of the search committee had worked on a big volunteer project that I chaired and thought that, if I could run that endeavor, I could do this! Now, obviously, that would never happen today. BUT it got me started on a long, productive, and remarkably fulfilling career. What serendipity to fall into this profession!

We are educators. Yes, we are administrators, but what we teach, unlike professors, has, I believe, a more far-reaching ripple effect. When our students go out into the world with the knowledge and skills we have taught them, it is for the long term. It impacts their family, their community, their organization, and their industry. For the rest of their life.

A sense of the absurd will get you through situations in which those who think they know how to do what we do—and are not shy about telling you—do not become the frustration they have the potential to turn into.

We have to have a Netflix strategy. You know how Netflix has millions (trillions?) of titles to choose from? They know that there are one or two that will compel you to keep paying your monthly fee so that you will be able to watch them. Those one or two are different for each person. That’s the strategy we should embrace in career centers: There should be one or two offerings that a student feels compelled to take advantage of. That student does not have to do everything that we offer, but each student must be enticed by one or two things so that every student will engage.

Something sweet has to go into the blender. It is a fine line between what students want and what students need. You know how, when you are making a smoothie, you throw into the blender all the stuff that is good for you—greens, proteins, fiber, vitamins—but when you add something sweet, it makes it more delicious and therefore easier to drink? There is a lot of stuff we need our students to learn, but we have to entice them to want to know it.

People will think that everyone else around them has it all figured out. That is never true, of course. So, our job is to help them navigate instead what motivates and what demoralizes, and put that in perspective for them.

Make as many deposits in your “goodwill” bank as you possibly can. Do this by being a thoughtful, considerate, kind, and gracefully knowledgeable colleague. There will be times when you need advocates or someone to kick a zany idea around with, or just plain someone to rant to. The goodwill you earn will serve you well.

Colleagues become friends. This is one of the few professions where we genuinely work together, share and support others, and respect each other without (too much) competition. Some of my best friends are those I met in this work. How wonderful is that?

Stephanie Pallante

Chair, NACE Board of Directors, 2023-24
Early Careers Recruiting Leader, The Cigna Group

Previous Roles:
Early Career Recruiting & Program Leader, Aramark
University & Diversity Recruiting Leader, Merck
University Recruiting Manager, Unisys

Don’t underestimate the impact you make to collegiate talent.  We play a pivotal role in students’ career journeys, as we help shape future leaders, provide a path to financial and personal success, and bridge lasting connections. 

It’s not always the “right” major! It’s our job in partnering with our hiring leaders to look beyond the major and see the value of a student’s potential through transferrable skills, diverse perspectives, and a growth mindset!

It’s OK to ask for help!  This is true for advising students to lean into their network during their job search, but we need to take our own advice and lean into our networks to benchmark our own functions and learn from others who are in our space.

Allyn Powell

Mackes Leadership Award, 2022
Director, University Career Center, University of Maryland, College Park

Be grounded in your voice and values. Leaders lead from the core of who we are. You can’t be something that you are not. There is a lot that will come at you. Trust that who you are and what you possess within is what you need to move things forward.

Get involved. Raising my hand has been important to opening doors I would not have considered. The willingness to put yourself out there and make yourself available to serve, be known, and connect with others is essential.

Staying connected to your people really matters. Leadership can be lonely, but ours is such a committed and connected profession. I have been fortunate to always work on great teams—and I have always been intentional about cultivating my support network outside of my campus community. My journey has been enriched by the colleagues I can call and lean on. Find your people and remember you are never alone in the work; others will invest in you.

Challenge yourself. I may not have felt ready for every role I’ve taken, but it turns out that most people don’t! My preparation, however, has always equipped me to step into opportunities. Acknowledge the fear, but take the leap. Remain curious and commit to your continuous development.

Be holistic in your approach. I believe we are whole people who show up daily, as best we can, and do good work. It matters that we model such for our teams and our students. We carry with us what happens in the world around us, and it deepens our humanity. Others are paying attention and want to see us as more than the work we do.

Happenstance can be a good thing. My journey into the field was a result of my graduate assistantship in the career center. I had previously worked in higher ed within a different functional area and found myself curious and quite excited by employer relations work. I ultimately took a step back to enter career services, but it was the right decision, and it has been a fabulous journey. Our work touches every aspect of the institution; thus, our interconnected network and influence truly make a difference.

We really are in the business of transforming lives. It’s an honor and a privilege to walk alongside students, to help them with pathways that lead to social and economic mobility, and to support them in gaining the confidence and competence to manage their careers and launch their lives.

R. Samuel Ratcliffe

President, NACE Board of Directors, 2014-15
NACE Academy of Fellows, 2016
Kauffman Award, 2018
Work-based Learning Specialist, State Council of Higher Education for Virginia

Previous Role:
Director, Career Services, Virginia Military Institute (Retired)

I have learned the value of servant leadership in achieving results while building great relationships.

Lead by example through a focus on continuous engagement/improvement, inclusion, and lifelong learning.

Moving the focus from success to significance can be very rewarding. While numerous standard success metrics are important in a rewarding career, I am learning to focus on becoming more significant in ways that truly matter to others in my work, community, and family.

Spending time mentoring professional colleagues, especially those with less experience, helps shape the future of our profession. Making people development a top priority and giving help that is unconditional lifts others up and makes their future and that of the profession much brighter.

My life and work experiences have taught me to expect nothing and appreciate everything. Many of my richest blessings, professionally and personally, have been unexpected.

Appreciate the past, but focus on the future. The rear-view mirror is merely a reference tool, not a directional guide.

Kindness, humility, and empathy are among the most powerful human behaviors. Practice them daily.

Speak less and observe more. Listening first helps one choose responses wisely to be most helpful.

Jack Rayman

NACE Academy of Fellows, 2000
Senior Director Emeritus, Career Services, Penn State University

Relationships are the “stuff” careers are made of. As Alex Haley put it in his classic novel Roots, “When you see a turtle on top of a fence post, you know it’s had help.” It’s probably presumptuous of me to think I’ve ever been near the top of a fence post, but however far I’ve gotten in my profession and in my life, it’s because I too had help...sometimes that help came from people who, although they may not even know or remember me, touched my life. Other times the helper was more obvious and predictable. As a student of career development, these relationships are the “stuff” that careers are made of, so with your indulgence, I’d like to share some of my significant “stuff” with you.

Perhaps one of the most important influences on my life and career was my three-years of Peace Corps service, which provided the experiential basis for a profound truth first identified by Thoreau which is that “Man is rich in proportion to that which he can do without.”

My career as a counseling psychologist and career services administrator began during my study at the University of Iowa in 1970, where I was accepted into the doctoral program as an underachieving farm kid with good GRE scores. Influencers at Iowa were Al Hood, chair of the counselor education department; Jack Crites, professor of counseling psychology; Gustav Bergman, professor of philosophy of science; and Fred Harcleroad, president of the American College Testing Program. 

My first job as associate director for Project DISCOVER with Dr. JoAnne Bowlsbey at Western Maryland College (now McDaniel College) in 1974 afforded me the opportunity to assemble a national advisory board. It was through this assignment that I came to meet and interact with another group of career psychologists who significantly impacted my life and career—John Holland, Donald Super, and David Tiedeman, among others.

It’s true that you can take the boy off the farm, but you can’t take the farm out of the boy, and in 1978 I succumbed to the tug of pigs, corn, and the family farm and moved from Western Maryland College back to the corn fields of Iowa where I accepted the position of career development officer at Iowa State University. There I had the good fortune to become an affiliate associate professor, and I became a professional colleague of Fred Borgen and Don Zytowski, professors of counseling psychology, and Paul Muchinsky, professor of industrial psychology—all influential.

In 1983, I accepted the position of director of career services at Penn State University, which became my destination career. There, I built what was widely regarded as one of the best and most comprehensive career centers in the nation, including the 40,000 square foot Bank of America Career Center. President Graham Spanier was a strong career development advocate, and I honed my administrative skills based on Peters and Waterman’s classic management text, In Search of Excellence. Furthermore, the academic environment at Penn State inspired and supported my research and scholarship, leading to the publication of five books and more than 20 journal articles in the career field. 

My mother and father, Iowa farmers, taught me about the dignity of work. My wife, Barbara, has been a rock upon whom I’ve leaned for 57 years. As a dual-career couple in a small market (State College, PA), she made many career sacrifices, some of which qualify her for sainthood! And our two daughters continue to make us proud both personally and professionally.
Career services at Penn State was good for me, and I believe I was good for Penn State. Throughout my career, I tried to take my work very seriously without taking myself too seriously. In my professional work, I endeavored to be a social and political liberal while remaining a fiscal conservative, guided by John Kenneth Galbraith’s admonition that, “It is the responsibility of the liberal not only to comfort the afflicted but to afflict the comfortable.”

Trudy Steinfeld

NACE Academy of Fellows, 2015
Americas, Strategy and Partnerships, Cappfinity

Previous Role:
Early Careers Higher Education and Corporate Consultant
Associate Vice President, New York University
Executive Director, New York University

Dream big. Don’t accept defeat. You can always make progress and get something done. For example, resources are always an issue: Make a business case, show the data. Take small steps toward your end goal to make meaningful change.

It’s super important to work with people who are engaged. Work to find commonalities with others to motivate and engage them. Find whatever is going to get them excited and you’ll find that they produce great work.

Don’t be afraid to fail. When I was at NYU, we ran a series for first-year students called “Failing Forward”; it featured alumni who were in high-level positions but who had failed multiple times previously,  including being fired from jobs and high-level organizations. You can learn from failure—not only in your career, but also in your personal life and learn how to succeed in the future.

Stay on top of technology. I have been an early adopter throughout my career and that has been a positive. Working with developers has served me well—it’s been my tech bootcamp. For example, when I was a young director at NYU, we had an electronic job board long before there was a Monstertrack, Symplicity, or Handshake. I’m not a techie, but I can translate, understand, and problem solve to make technology solutions work for all.

Integrating student employment into the career office was an amazing project. I highly recommend it! You can make it easier and fairer for students to compete for jobs on campus and provide them with a framework to understand that they are gaining real skills that they can use in future positions.

Give back. One of the things I’m most proud of is the mentoring I’ve done over the years. It’s exciting to see so many of those I mentored do well, including people who are in leadership positions in career services and early talent recruiting.

Take your own advice and explore other paths. I had a great career in career services, but realized I needed to take the advice I had been giving students and others over the years: “Try something different. Take the skills you have and do something else that has impact.” You want to be excited every day; sometimes that means a career shift. You can have impact no matter where you sit in an organization.

Shawn VanDerziel

President, NACE Board of Directors, 2009-10
Kauffman Award, 2014
President & Chief Executive Officer, National Association of Colleges and Employers

Previous Roles:
Chief Human Resources Officer, Field Museum
Manager of Recruitment, Norrell
Associate Director of Student Enrollment, National-Louis University

I was the first in my family to attend college—a large state university. (Go Green!) I had no idea how to navigate this new world.

The first time I left home, I fell in love with my college campus. So much so that I became a tour guide. Eventually, I oversaw the entire campus tour program. Who would've thought? I wanted to inspire others like me. I still do.

My career has become all about careers, but starting out, I had no clue what I wanted to do with my life. Since I thought I understood college campuses and admissions like the back of my hand, I took a chance on a career in admissions. Helping students make choices about their futures was incredible. The chance to grow and take on more responsibility was motivating. The burnout? Not so much.

Chicago is a yes! I wouldn’t have landed my first higher ed job if I hadn’t said “yes” to moving to Chicago on a whim. I can’t imagine what life would have been like without Chicago.

The start-up world is wild. I cut my teeth in recruiting in the untamed landscape of a start-up division of a staffing company that catered to Fortune 500 clients. Crafting their college recruiting strategy was the best part. Launching careers is a big responsibility—whether it's part-time, full-time, or management positions.

Recruiting is both an art and a science. Getting creative with sourcing and convincing managers to take a chance on new talent can be exhausting, but also exhilarating.

When the labor market favored my employer, my job didn’t get easier—it got more complex. Too many resumes, too many decisions, too many people to turn down, and some really odd situations.

Managing recruitment for a Fortune 500 company isn’t all that different from doing so for a nonprofit museum, which I did later on. The nuances are in the job types, the internal politics with a fresh context, the unique intensity, and the resource constraints that push your mental limits.

Get feedback to give feedback. So many candidates want feedback on their applications. I want to help. But I’ve had some bad experiences, especially in my early years. Not everyone is ready to accept the gift of feedback. We all have our unique perspectives. I’ve gotten a lot better at this the more I’ve done it, but it takes practice. And, it took getting feedback on how I was giving feedback.

Privilege is a responsibility—please handle with care. Candidates are unique in many ways, but they are all alike in this way: They yearn for a chance to prove themselves, are eager to gain experience, and hope to chase their passions. I get to play a critical role.

As an admissions counselor, a recruitment manager, a chief HR officer, or a CEO, I’m in a position of privilege. I am committed to using that for good. I can help others succeed. I can cultivate passion. And, I can turn dreams into reality. I choose that path.