Intro by King Musa
Yo, what it is, you know what it is, it's your man King Musa. Welcome to the Cheat Sheet, where we decode success for creators, professors, and business owners. I'm your host King Musa, and today we'll be diving into enrollment and student engagement and the strategies for shaping the future of student success at Stephen F. Austin. Our guest today is a leader dedicated to enhancing student experiences and enrollment strategy at Stephen F. Austin State University. Joining us is Dr. Kent L. Willis, the Senior Vice President for Enrollment and Student Engagement. He's here to share his journey, insights, and vision for fostering a thriving student community. Welcome, Dr. Willis.
Getting to Know Dr. Kent L. Willis
Kent L. Willis: “Thank you, Musa. I mean, I'm full of energy this morning, excited to be on the Cheat Sheet, got here on time. I'm excited about that, but I'm excited about everything that's going on here at Stephen F. Austin State University. I mean, we're about to paint East Texas purple. We about to let everybody know of what a great student experience you could have, but how you could be prepared and set up for success in your whole life. I mean, in fact, this work that you're doing right here with the Cheat Sheet is an example of what students have the opportunity to do here at SFA.”
King Musa: “Absolutely. And we've been in this for quite a while and the fruition has come true. And getting the chance soon, you know, actually meet you now. Look, this man has been busy since day one. Like his schedule has been crazy, so for him to take the time to, you know, be here, especially at eight thirty in the morning. I really appreciate you. And I feel like I'm moving slowly. I think I'm like, man, three weeks in, that's so much more we got to get done. We got time. Right. We do have time. So before we even jump into that, because I know we got to get through all of this icebreaker, right? It's the January 30th, one more day of January, right? How's your New Year's resolution been going?”
KLW: “Man, oh, so resolved, right? In the last couple of years, I've adopted this ongoing New Year's resolution. And every year I hit the reset button and try to remember the same, and my New Year's resolution kind of ongoing is always the don't be difficult. Don't sweat the small stuff. I mean, I think we get really caught up on things that are really inconsequential. And so I've tried in my own life to kind of reduce stress or simplify things by telling my own self internally, don't be difficult. Let it go, move on, stay focused on the goal, you know, keep yourself locked in on exactly what you want to achieve. And one easy way that I'll do that, sometimes I have to stop and ask myself this question. Will it matter five hours from now? Will it matter five days from now? Will it matter five months from now? Will it matter five years? If it's one of the things that it won't even matter in five minutes, it won't matter in five hours. It won't matter in five days. Let it go. Have some grace on people, you know, don't be so busy being busy that you missed the opportunity to just be human.”
KM: “Okay. I like it. I like it. That that was the exact same advice. And I've talked to a lot of people. That's the exact same advice Dr. Weaver gave me. And so the fact that you're already on that program means we're already on the same, yes. So let's go ahead and dive in. Can you introduce yourself and what you do here at SFA?”
KLW: “Yeah, absolutely. So I'm Kent Willis, the Senior Vice President for Enrollment and Student Engagement here at SFA, and pretty much in a nutshell, that role means working to define or redefine the student experience from the time that a student is recruited to SFA to the time that they graduate and move into careers. So working with a phenomenal team of professionals across the division to make sure that everything from the recreation center to services to the experience that you have in the student center to tutoring and the way you engage with advisors that all those things seem to have some synergy to it and that you can see the light at the end of the tunnel in the beginning. I mean, we are in a new day and age in higher education. We got to make it clear to people what the value of a degree is and let them know that you start you start earning the degree on day one. You don't you don't become a graduate from our forestry program, our communication studies program at the end, right is happening every single day. Everybody you meet, every class you take, every friend you make, every network you join, every opportunity that you have to step out of your comfort zone, you are building the future you right now. And we need to be with you, lock step, locked in every bit of the way so that by the time you get to the end, it's just the icing on the cake. You know, you're not becoming it that day. We've been there, we done that, we ready, we ready to take on the world, that we're going to embrace and we're going to be able to make a positive impact on it.”
KM: “Yes, sir, yes, sir. Man, are you PR trained?”
KLW: “I'm a product of the program. I'm so grateful actually, just keep up Austin. I got my undergraduate degree here. I graduated in 2008 with a bachelor's degree in communication studies. I hold a lot of my professional success to Stephen F. Austin, to faculty members like the Spradleys, Dr. and Dr. Mr. and Dr. M. Spradley as two of them here. I mean, it's been professionals like that man who really poured into me, who saw something in me. They believed in me when I didn't believe in myself. I didn't think I could do college. I didn't think college was for me. My grades reflected that imposter syndrome that I was dealing with, but I had professionals who were like, you know, they believed in me when I'm not sure it was a lot to believe in.”
Personal Background and Passions
KM: “Now, before we even get into your career, can you tell us, you know, where you grew up, did your parents go to college, how many siblings you have, a little bit about your girlfriend?”
KLW: “So I grew up in Grapeland, Texas, which is a tiny town of about 1,500 people. It's just 50 minutes from here. And so I grew up in rural East Texas. My parents did go to college, but they definitely always had high expectations from us in the household, but I will tell you that in the place where I grew up in geographically, I mean, if you wanted to go to college, cool, if you didn't go to college, cool, it wasn't necessarily a mandate. But I do firmly believe that college is for everybody. And maybe not traditional college in the sense, but learning is for everybody, right, because your growth, your livelihood, your longevity is tied to how much you're able to really impact the world around you. And the only way you're going to do that is being able to have knowledge about the way the world works around us. And so I'm firmly a big believer in that and I believe that SFA has a unique role to play in the region, but also across the state of Texas, we're different by design. You know, a Stephen F. Austin degree is definitely different because the way we engage students on this campus, the way you're able to lead, you're able to take up roles, that maybe you wouldn't in another place. So I know that there are a lot of different options in the world for where you going to choose. Right? But I would say that people who choose SFA are choosing a major advantage because you get to get here and get busy right away becoming who you're going to become. There's no waiting period at SFA.”
KM: “Okay, when you're not doing your job, what do you like to do for fun or your passions?”
KLW: “I like for fun. That's what makes this work natural for me. I love to encounter people brainstorm with them, talk about what's possible, talk about the world that we live in, the world that we will embrace. That really gets me going. Like I'm I'm so extremely just excited about what's possible in my own life, but in other people's life. We need to do this together. I mean, it's nothing short of a blessing to be here in this place at this time with these people. And that's that outweighs any challenge that anybody can bring forward and talk about. We are the people who are going to define our own destiny. The people we've been waiting on is us. So it's it's our time to step up and do things that will make this world the world that we want to be in. And I I have to tell my friends, you were given the problem. If you seen the problem, it was designed for you to fix. Only you see it, only you understand it. Only you're going to get irritated. There might be other people, but they're not going to do anything about it, right? So for me, my biggest problem that I found or yeah, problem was communication between departments. There were so many, we have so many resources. We have so many departments. I have so many wonderful people here, but if you don't know, you can't access it, right? So I'm like, let's get to know everybody. Let's get to know everyone get all of our students to know when you know better, you can do it. There we go. My people perish for it like a knowledge. So if we can get out there and make everybody aware of the resources that are available of the life that you could live after successfully completing this stage, right? Then I think we are living up to what education ought to do for people. And it's clear then what the value is.”
Vision for Enrollment and Student Engagement
KM: “Okay? So I know you just got here. I mean, it's only been three, four weeks, you know, but kind of tell us your vision for, you know, your role as the senior vice president and everything.”
KLW: “I just got here, but I feel like I've been here already. Because it's really strange, but all the prior roles that I've been in and I feel like were preparing me for something. I didn't know what that something was and then I feel like it was this. So I've got here and I've quickly met some amazing students and some amazing staff and we're just sitting having conversations and I'm going, man, it's really strange. Because it seems like we we had these conversations before, right? I felt like I met these people. I feel like we needed each other, right? There was something missing in the work that I was doing and in the experience that maybe some students were having. So I feel like divine told me, everything, you know, things are kind of lining up.”
KM: “And so when you think about the vision for the, you know, um enrollment and engagement and everything, what what do you have for that?”
KLW: “Quickly, it is to engage and empower and elevate every student. When engage them in a way on the campus that they feel an affinity for the institution. Want to empower them to know that everything that they do here has meaning. Every class that you take, every club that you join, every minute an hour you decide to volunteer and give back, it's empowering. It's building who you're going to become. And lastly, elevate them to the point where they leave SFA and they believe they can conquer the world.”
KM: “Okay. Okay. So I do have to know, do you think it starts from inside and then it goes out because it sounds like that's what you're saying. If we engage with the students that are here, you know, we empower the students that are here. Once they leave, they're going to bring people.”
KLW: “This is home base. This is where it starts. Either either you strike out right here or you hit a home run or or you hit a pop fly, but you advance the next person to the next base, that's how life works. So teaching collaboration, teaching team work, teaching every student, not they don't have to be communication majors, because there is a level of communication that everybody's got to have in the world. That's why everybody together, right? We can work and build plans and create interventions or solutions to the world's problems. I mean, I have this dream that on our campus, but but college period that, yes, you come and you pick a major, right? I want students to pick a problem. When you get here, pick a global, a local, a regional a personal or a personal problem. Right. You have finance issues. You have a well got issues, pick a problem. we going to talk to you about how the structure itself is set up to teach you the things that you need to know to make the impact that you want to make in the world. And then all of a sudden, you take ownership right away because you're not seeing the course work as pointless. You're not seeing the engagement as pointless you're like, I am working on something that's very important and you are right. So your point, sometimes working on me is the most important project that I got right now. Yeah. And this is the time to take care of it. This is the time.”
KM: “So, you said you've had other, you know, positions. So how did you get back to SFA and what were some of the challenges you've had in student engagement?”
KLW: “Yeah, so um how did kind of a two-part question. How did I get back to SFA? I have ever since I graduated from SFA kept my eye on the institution. And over the years, a lot has changed, different leadership, um major reorganization, but but in in most recent history, our joining to the University of Texas system is a game changer for SFA. It's major. I mean, we join one of the most renowned systems of education in the world, right? And so now we have these peer institutions across the state. We have a network of high power campuses that are producing research and student experiences that are second to none. So we're able to take what's been historically great about SFA, which is our student engagement piece and couple it with the great work taking a place across the University of Texas system, and all of a sudden, I mean, it's like the stars have aligned for Stephen F. Austin. So watching that and being proud of that as an alarm, uh led me to see that this opportunity had come along. So I threw my name in the hat and and to my surprise, right, uh they were like, yeah, Tell us why you think you're the man for the job. You know, and so the rest is history. I'm here.”
KM: “I like it. I like it now, what what were some of the challenges to your career journey that kind of built you up to be here? You kind of mentioned that a little bit?”
KLW: “Yeah, the challenges to the career journey, I think one was fully embracing in mentorship and really being open to advice being teachable, remaining and learning mode, that was a challenge because I felt like after my formal education was over, I was like, well, I'm done learning. You know, I don't got to learn nothing else. I've got the credentials, I got the degrees on paper. That was a false assumption. You got to always be in learning mode. Everybody can teach you something. No matter what station a person is in a life, they can teach you something because we've all had different life experiences. And so when I was able to kind of flip the coin on that and remember, you got to always stay and learn mode. All of a sudden, I'm benefiting in ways that I never knew I could, because I'm beating people. I'm listening deeply to their stories. I'm hearing what they're telling me. I'm not just sitting there waiting to respond, but I'm digesting it, thinking about it. trying to understand how I need to take that information and let it inform the work that I'm doing. That was big. The other thing, though, is believing in the power of relationships. I had met people all along the way in my life. All those people had extreme value. They were valuable and they had value. And staying in touch with them and keeping the relationship going and being grateful for the time they spent with me paid dividends.”
KM: “Wow. Yes, okay. So it seems like the key element it takes for I'm going to call it public relations because that's why I study were the things that kind of started building up, you know, your strength, which is challenges that you start to realize as you get, you know, older and everything you're graduating and stuff, you're going to start to see, man, I just had a network of 12,000 or plus people for four years, right? How did I use it? How did I spend my time with those people? Did I discover lifelong connections? Did I make the most of it? That's that's the question that we have for every student. Do you realize what's available to you and and you talked about challenges? Everybody, no matter what you think their life is like has challenged. Everybody from the person that that lives in poverty to the person that might be might have grown up in a household where money wasn't a problem, there were other issues, potentially. Right. But the the the real value in the challenge is that you got to grow through what you go through. Whoa, down. Don't be going so fast. Come on now. Growth is sometimes a painful process, but you got to growth through what you go through. It's the people who benefit from understanding the lesson in every one of the challenges that can really get out there and and grab life by the horns if you will.”
Initiatives and Advice
KM: “Okay. Okay. So, wow, yeah, we're going to we have a podcast coming up, y'all. So stay tuned. He got some words of wisdom. But before we get to that part, um I want to know, what are some exciting initiatives that are going on in, you know, student engagement in student affairs?”
KLW: “You know, we're relatively early still with me, so I'm in learning all with the team, but we we are right away right now doing a refresh of the student center. So when you go in there, there are some social changes that we're making to really bring forward the level of pride and spirit that we have on this campus. So some of that stuff, you got to look forward, but you'll notice in there now that we've changed the uplights on the walls to purple. That used to be white for the history of the of the place. We've also put a fresh coat of paint on some things and we just kind of refresh it. We're trying to we're trying to make sure that our students feel like SFA is a place where everything that you can dream of having them will come true. We don't want people's dreams to die on the pillow where it's conceived. We want people to wake up and be as energized as they could possibly be about the ideas, the thoughts, the the innovation, the creativity, Everything that you are and everything that you can be. We want to do our part of helping make this the launch path for your success.”
KM: “Right. Okay, then so then if you are the person who's, you know, man, I don't even care about college. You know, it's just memes on my page. Dr. Willis is on my page, things like that. I don't I just happen to watch this video, right? But they're listening to you. They happen to make it this far. Why should they come to college? Why should students engage on campus, you know, I could just take it online, things like that. Like what's the purpose of being here? Why should you do it?”
KLW: “Why should you be here? Why should you have this experience? Because you're worth it? Because you're worth it? And because you can't expect other people to see your value if you don't see it. And so it's really an investment in yourself. Your your legs can't take your place as your mind when go. You can conceive all day of what you hope to become and what you want to do and how you want to see the world be different. But until you meet them dreams halfway and come to a place where you can engage and you can test theories and you can create potential products, whatever you got to get yourself into an environment where you can grow. Right? The grass is not greener on the other side. The grass is green where you water it. Come on And so right here is the place where we water the grass. Have you ever heard it where it was like, man, we eating on this side and you don't want to eat? And you mad the table and say we got a seat for you. We' not asking you to serve. We' not asking you to eat it. Everybody is hungry for success. The table is got a seat for you at the table. Win win.”
KM: “So what advice would you give students who are actually on campus they're here and they're just like, Dr. Willis I don't know if I want to be here. I'm not really seeing SFA as the place to be, you know. I'm even thinking of transferring.”
KLW: “Come talk to somebody. Come talk to us. Tell us what's going on, why you feel that way, right? Because some of those thoughts and feelings might be valid. It's validity to why you feeling the way you feel. And there are adjustments that can be made. There are problems that probably need to be solved. You might have some type of campus operations type of issue that you just need to connect with the right person. And so we need to start now by connecting you with the right people so that you can have the support that you need and you will be able to understand how your journey to success is through Stephen F. Austin State University.”
KM: “Yes, yes. And I and I think one thing is we always mentioning this is your home away from home, but and Andrew would tell you about tethering students and most people in like student engagement tells you every student needs to be connected to some part of campus, you know, so it's the environmental wellness. You know, like if your environment, you don't feel safe. You don't feel it as fun. You don't you don't feel like coming home, you're not going to want to stay home, right? Do you see what I'm saying? So we want to make this home right now. So quick, you know, sidebar, how did Stephen F. Austin become home for you?”
KLW: “Stephen F. Austin became home for me because it was a college campus where I felt like I could be successful. And that feeling came from the fact that other people thought I could be successful and they were willing to give me the resources. They were willing to give me second chances. They were willing to have grace. They were willing to invest. That's how it becomes home, a place where you feel supported, you feel safe. You feel comfortable, all the things that that you just talked about in the opposite, right? It's got to literally feel like it's a place where you can be successful. You can be peaceful. You can be supported. We can make it then. And it's it's that same excitement like a lot of students had when they came in and and they should have that throughout the whole way."
KM: "And so my final question before we go, do you have any advice? I mean, yeah, do you have any advice, any shoutouts you want to give before we go?”
KLW: “I mean, I just want to give a shout to the amazing faculty members that are still here as well as the staff and the division of enrollment and student engagement. There are a lot of people who are doubling down on student success on this campus in this very moment. They are out there working hard to close the gap to make sure students' needs are met, and I am extremely blessed to be on a team with them. It's been exciting to just embrace a new opportunity, but doing it with people who are equally as excited as me. And I mean, if we all match each other energy right now, something great is bound now. Dude. And I already seen it from the jump of this interview. The mindsets are the same, the attitudes, the same, the purpose, the same, we're going the same way. That's right leave you with this. It's my singular goal in this work that we're doing to engage in and elevate the every day.”
Outro by King Musa
KM: “Well, thank you, Dr. Willis, for sharing your expertise to drive enrollment and engagement at Stephen F. Austin. It's inspiring to see how your leadership has impacted the lives of students. To our listeners, remember that success starts with involvement and taking advantage of opportunities around you."
Subscribe to the Cheat Sheet and follow us on social media and stay tuned for more conversations. This is your man King Musa, signing off, encouraging you to stay encouraged and make the most out of your day. Have a great day.
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