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Sydney: Hey everyone, and welcome back to Redlands Rundown. We you're the official podcast of Redlands Community College where we tell you everything it means to be part of the Redlands community. Today, we have a really special guest with us, someone who not only helps us with our students, but also plays a pretty big role in all the student activities. And as a student from past here. So an alum, here with me today is Brady Leck Student Specialist, and we're super glad that you decided to join us.
Brady: Well, thank you for having me. Yeah.
Sydney: Of course. So we're going to talk to Brady just about a few different things today. And you guys are really going to get an inside scoop of what it means for him and what he does with his job and just some experiences that he's had while here. So starting off, can you tell us a little bit about your role?
Sydney: Maybe. I know you wear a lot of different hats.
Brady: Yeah. So I am a student service specialist in admissions office that will entail of looking at applications, looking at enrollment and helping students with getting in classes. You know, talking about transfer, maybe when they're where they want to go after Redlands. So I do a lot in that sort of thing. And I also will recruit a lot.
Brady: So maybe going out to different schools or tech schools, whatever it may be, and teaching students or prospective students about Redlands.
Sydney: Awesome. And so the other thing you do is you work with both traditional and concurrent students. Can you maybe tell us some of the key differences between those two types of students?
Brady: Yeah. So one big thing is concurrent students don't have or they do have different requirements for classes. So that's one of the things I have to keep in touch with them and their counselor as well in discussing, you know, this class will be good for you. Take this one. Meet your requirement. I'm a lot more in contact with the counselor than maybe I am with the student.
Brady: Regular students is opposite. You know, I am only in contact with the student, and I talk to them solely about their degree, where they're going after in their classes.
Sydney: And their qualifications are also different for.
Brady: Yes. So the current has a lot more qualifications and they have to meet before taking classes. Regular students in college outside of high school don't have as many requirements for different classes.
Sydney: Which I'm in thinking just about students that you've talked to in families that you've spoken to, can you maybe tell us just some common concerns that maybe you've heard from prospective students? Yeah.
Brady: One big thing is I one big concern that I get from students or especially parents is will the classes transfer? That's one big worry is I don't want to take this class, pay for it, and then go to a bigger school, had to pay even more and it doesn't really. So making sure that the class will transfer before they go to their for your school is very important.
Brady: And I also get asked about cost a lot. So with any college they're always worried about cost, how much it's going to cost for this class. So much for this one. So it always ranges that I need to discuss that with them. But those two are the main ones that I see.
Sydney: And I think Redlands is really great because we do have classes that will transfer very easily to other in-state schools, for sure.
Brady: I find very few classes that do not transfer. Most of them will into in-state schools wherever they go in the state.
Sydney: That's wonderful. And so tell us a little bit maybe about like advising and the way that you support students. So how do you help them navigate that admissions process, especially someone who maybe doesn't have higher ed experience, or even a student who's coming back after some time off?
Brady: Yeah. So typically we do an appointment with them and discuss, you know, we need to do this degree for your career path that you want to do. And you are required to take these classes, walk them through what that may be like. And if they know what four year school they want to go to, we need to discuss that as well.
Brady: Making sure those classes transfer what they're doing here sets up for that, going to that four year school. So that's one big thing, is making sure we're keeping contact with the student and making sure we're keeping them on the path that they want to go, and not surprising them when they're done. That the career path they want to go into is not weeding.
Brady: You know, do what they needed to be.
Sydney: Right? Right. So you talked a little bit about this. Do you go on there any recruiting law? Is that right.
Brady: A lot, yes.
Sydney: Do you like that?
Brady: I do like it. It does get tiring because I get some days where the school's two half hours away. I have to be there at 8 a.m.. But I do enjoy getting out of my office. Seeing different parts of Oklahoma may have never seen before. And just talking to all of, you know, different types of students asking about I have sixth graders asking about cost of classes.
Brady: I have seniors asking about degrees. So it's enjoyable to me to meet different people from different parts of the state and see what they're interested.
Sydney: In, for sure. And when you're having those conversations, what do you feel like is the one thing that stands out to students that you say that they get really excited about?
Brady: Maybe, the course I know I touched that on that before. I would not even talk about further. We haven't raised costs that years. And we're the cheapest in the state. So that typically gets students really excited. And with the transfer credits that we offer to other schools, that combo is so, you know, wanted by students, so beneficial for them.
Brady: Right. So I get a lot of students are interested just based off of those two things and other degrees that we may offer. Right?
Sydney: Yeah. When I was recruiting, because that was my job previously, I had so many parents that were very interested in the cost because of that. And then also the amount of free textbooks that we're able to offer that are embedded in the course.
Brady: So.
Sydney: Just saves a lot of money because college is very expensive, and a lot of the time you're probably you may be going on, you may not be going on, but regardless of that, saving money in those two years is really helpful for a lot of students. You're also in charge of the student ambassadors here on campus.
Sydney: Yes. So can you tell me maybe, like, what the mission is behind the ambassadors and how you how do they make an impact here on campus?
Brady: Yeah. So student ambassadors are students who work in our office one hour a week. They may help me with tours for high school students who are wanting to come see Redlands. They can help me with group tours. Really, anything that we may need in our admissions office that we need help with. They we typically go in one fun event.
Brady: One can be a service event each year just to kind of treat them to a fun thing and do support service. They can go on a resume or teach them a little bit about something different. And basically they are the face of Redlands. They are there to help other students who may have questions on how to, you know, get their books or something small like that.
Brady: So they're there to help other students.
Sydney: Awesome. And you kind of touched on this, but how do you feel like your ambassadors helped shape Redlands and that experience for future students?
Brady: So I feel like they are very involved. And I want them to be so that they way that way they are able to help other students. So I want them to be leaders. You know, they're obviously students with other students as well, but they are leaders within that and can tell them, you know, anything about Redlands, help them with any other issues, tell them where to go to.
Brady: I mean, all those things. I want them to be able to help other students right, with any thing that comes up.
Sydney: Right. Just being knowledgeable. So if someone were interested in applying for being an ambassador, what do you look for during that process?
Brady: Typically I look for respectful, I could tell them their leaders first impressions, a big thing to me, if they come in and they are saying, yes, ma'am, yes, sir, to anyone in our office that sticks out with me. I've had one who shook their hand or shook my hand the very first time I met them.
Brady: That stuck out to me. So I can kind of tell based off of personality when I meet them. Also, when they apply, I see qualifications. So if I see they have a lot of award scholarships recipients like that, I know that they probably would do very well as an ambassador and that doesn't mean if they don't have those, I don't pick them.
Brady: But that is one big thing I look for on picking ambassadors who I may have not met yet, or possibly looking at one to me later on.
Sydney: That makes sense. Do you have a favorite memory with working with your ambassadors?
Brady: One of the first events we did, I think I was here for a month. We went and did a trick or treat after Youth and Family Services, and we had kids come up and we made a trunk. So we, you know, decorator van to have a Charlie Brown theme. Well, we put all of the, tri brown action figures on cardboard was blowing 50 miles an hour, and it blew it all away.
Brady: And so we just taped put a whole bunch of duct tape on the van and just had Charlie Brown figures there in layers and lawn chairs saying that candy is. It's such a silly thing. You know, it's my my first time meeting some of them, but it turned out to be a fun event that I remember. And it's, you know, it was my first event with them and they just funny how it turned out, but it was really enjoyable too.
Sydney: And is that one of the community service projects that you all do?
Brady: Yeah. So we each if we could do that every fall in October whenever they hold that, we're doing it again this year where we go and give students in the youth family services candy that may not otherwise get to or trick or treat. And then we do some other things like the fall festival, which is coming up, and some other community service events too.
Sydney: Yeah. And the fall festival is really exciting to us at Redlands. We're pretty excited about all the things that we're going to be able to offer, and just all the people that we're hopefully going to get to see. So it's great that your ambassadors will be there. Switching gears just a little bit, we talked about this briefly, but you were a student here, so you're an alum.
Sydney: Can you talk a little bit about your experience here and maybe what brought you to Redlands in the first place?
Brady: Yeah. So I, I grew about 20 minutes here. So I always knew of Redlands. I wouldn't say I always considered it a place that I was going to attend first after high school, but it's really good change of pace because I grew up in a bigger high school. I came here so much smaller class sizes. I had multiple professors.
Brady: The same, you know, different semesters and different classes. So I knew them. It just offered really good change of pace from what I was used to. And again, it was affordable and helped set me up to what I wanted to do later. Yeah. It turned out being an amazing thing for me, even though it may not been my first choice or a first thought in my head.
Sydney: Yeah, Macy and I talked about that on a previous episode. It was neither of our first choice, really. She had a different scholarship planned out that she was going to go use somewhere else. And I also grew up about 15 minutes from here at a really small school. And so I didn't really want to come to a similar experience that I'd already had.
Sydney: But I think it turned out exactly as we both wanted it to be. Just not knowing. And so even if you're not always planning on it, I think it turns out really well.
Brady: I'm sorry.
Sydney: So when you because of your experience here as a student, do you think that has influenced the way you talk with your students and support your students?
Brady: Yeah, absolutely. And especially students who may have not had parents who have gone to college or may not know what to do. So it helps. Whenever I talk to them, I'm like, do you know, what classes are you going to take? Do you know you know, this thing you need to do? It really helps me understand it from their point of view.
Brady: You know, one big saying that everyone uses, put someone in or put yourself in someone's shoes, right? And I can do that a lot with a lot of my students now, because I had been through Redlands, I've been through the same process is telling them, you know, for in this situation I would do this, you should go do this, whatever it may be.
Brady: Just getting a better understanding of their point of view.
Sydney: And on top of that, you are currently enrolled getting your bachelor's degree, is that right? Yep.
Brady: So in Chickasha.
Sydney: And so you can really relate, even on the side of being a student still of what they may be balancing and going there and of working full time while also trying to accomplish this other goal.
Brady: Absolutely. And I did that both at USO and while I read those, I work full time, so that helps me. Like you said, you get a better understanding of where they may be coming from, right?
Sydney: Yeah, absolutely. I think that's one of the really great things we do here at Redlands is a there's so many of us who have had similar experiences, but even if we have it, I think we do a really good job of trying to support and reach out to students and understand where they're coming from. Mason, I talk about this a lot, but one of our biggest goals is just breaking down those barriers on an individual level for every student that walks in the door.
Sydney: So being able to relate to them the way that you can is really helpful. Do you have some maybe like favorite highlights from your time here of either mentors or classes or friends that you made?
Brady: Yeah, I so whenever I was here I was an ambassador, and that's what made it so enjoyable for me to come back and do that. But one big thing, when I was an ambassador and then my best friend here, and, you know, we still go and do stuff together today. And I want to meet him otherwise because he was an ambassador.
Brady: Right. So not only things like that, but different events that we went to while we were here, being so close to home, it was enjoyable for me because it was so close. But any of those, I mean, all of it was so enjoyable for me. And getting that experience to come back has been awesome.
Sydney: I think that's one of the things that I've really carried with me since I graduated from here is that I didn't have maybe a ton of connections with. The connections that I did make were so incredibly important to me, and I've still influenced my life to this day. And I talk a lot about my history professor that I had when I was here, Professor Tabor.
Sydney: I just adored him. And still to this day, he is someone that I use as a reference on my applications or my resume or whatever it might be. I use him for like, all my scholarship applications. When I got this job, I used as a reference. And so it's always really neat to see the way that it kind of circles back around.
Sydney: And whether it's a friend or a mentor class or whatever, then. So tell us maybe a little bit about like a piece of advice you'd give to incoming students who might feel overwhelmed or unsure about college.
Brady: One big thing that I did not do whenever I was here is I always did schooling, and that was like all I focused on, even though I worked full time. That's always what I was worried about, right? One big piece of advice is I would make sure you have time, set aside for both school and things you enjoy.
Brady: You know, it's a good thing to be worried about school. Make sure you have everything done in time, but you also need to make sure you have time for things you enjoy, whether that's, you know, going for walks, you know, sports, whatever it may be, making sure you have time for school and things you enjoy to give yourself that break from school.
Sydney: Yeah, it's really easy to get burnt out, especially probably if you're working full time and going to school and trying to balance all these things. So I think that's really important. Would you maybe have the same advice for students returning later in life, or would you tell them something different?
Brady: If they were returning later in life, I would honestly tell them, just take it one piece at a time, because some of those students who come into my office maybe have taken classes for and couldn't with their current life situation. So any time they've taken a long break, I say, you know, take one class at a time.
Brady: Don't overload yourself. Make sure you have time for these classes. Right? It kind of goes the same way. But I always tell them maybe we're in life a little bit more in school. Come as it goes, right? You don't need to overload yourself after taking this long break. Yeah. So that would be one big piece of advice I would give to those students.
Sydney: And I think that's something that you and I can both relate to on a smaller scale, obviously, because you took a little bit of a break before you came, went back to get your bachelor's, and I did the same before I was going to get my master's. And though it wasn't a long break for either of us, I know for my personal experience I can't speak two years, but it was hard to get back in the swing of things, of having homework do and having assignments that I had to work on outside of my 8 to 5, you know?
Sydney: And so I, I really feel for the students who are coming back after like a 20 year long break, whatever it might be, because it would be intimidating. Yeah.
Brady: I had a year and a half long break. I was like, one assignment to do every song was like, do I really have to do it right? Yeah. Which is not that bad at all, considering what some students are taking. But it was hard for me to get back in, and it was only a year and a half or two years.
Brady: So I really emphasize on students who were coming back. I for one break, do not overload yourself. Yeah. And take it one piece at a time for sure.
Sydney: If you could go back and give yourself a piece of advice, what would it be?
Brady: I would want to be more involved on campus. Even though I was an ambassador, I felt like I didn't come to many events. I would drive five minutes for class, going to class, leave right after. They wouldn't hang out very much. If I need to be in admissions office, I leave that place. So even though I didn't live on campus, it's still possible to be involved.
Brady: And I wish I did more of that. So if I had to, I would give myself that piece of advice.
Sydney: Yeah. And you and I both serve on the students event committee, and we do a ton of different events for our students with free food and games and everything. And I actually just did a podcast with a student. And one of the things he mentioned was maybe doing more like physical activity as events, because he made the comment like, we're still so young that we can run and we can play these games and do all that stuff.
Sydney: And so I think we're definitely even looking into more different ways to bring more students to be involved. And the nice thing is we also offer them at different times and different days, because we know not everyone lives here on campus.
Brady: Yeah, and that's one thing. Whenever I was soon here, I didn't know there were student events. Yeah. And they may have been sent my email, but I didn't check them. Right. But now I'm working here. I push it so much to student ambassadors or any students I see is make sure you come to these. I mean, you're living on campus whether or not you can make friends that, you know, last a lifetime.
Brady: So it's so important for you to stay involved, even if you're living on campus for and you have class for a short time. Like you said, we have them at different times. So you may be able to come to one, but maybe you can come to one later in the month prior next month.
Sydney: Right. And I think also we love when students just stop by, even if they can't stay for long, even if they just come and grab a snack or whatever it is. And I think it circles back to what we talked about and made about making connections here on campus, because even just that brief interaction may lead to something that you're not expecting.
Sydney: And maybe that's like a reference on your job application down the road, or maybe it's your best friend or whatever it is, but you don't know unless you go do it.
Brady: Exactly.
Sydney: So I also want to do a fun little rapid question round with you. So before we wrap up, we'll do that real fast. What is the hardest class you took while you were here?
Brady: I was pretty lucky. I have to take too many art classes, but probably elementary statistics was my hardest.
Sydney: Yeah, I feel like that's a hard class no matter where you go. So that's fair. One word to describe your current ambassador team.
Brady: I put involved.
Sydney: Involved? Maybe you can quote my heart.
Brady: Not Julie Library. That's my. That's my top one. Okay.
Sydney: Your most unexpected part of working in admissions?
Brady: The recruiting. I know I touched on earlier, but it is. It can be daunting if it's somewhere far and early in the morning.
Sydney: I know I had to do the, like, panhandle route when I was recruiting, which I don't think we maybe go do anymore. Like, are you guys, and it was exhausting. I mean, you're talking all day long to students, and you're telling them the same thing over and over again, and then you're trying to answer questions that maybe you don't always fully know the answer to, because it was a really good one.
Sydney: So it's definitely a harder part of the job. And then for the last one, what is one thing you wish every student knew?
Brady: My first answer was read your email, okay. But your.
Sydney: Student emails.
Brady: My student email. Yes. Okay. Because there is important things like street events that I don't check. Yeah. So there's another piece of advice. But I really wish students knew, like, most of our staff will help you with anything that you need. Like we are so involved and well, net that I wish students knew. You know, if you don't know a question, just ask us.
Brady: I guess so many missing ambassadors are have a question is easier. I tell them the correct person to go to and they were scared to ask me. Right. And I can get that, you know, from a student perspective. But we are so close around it like it is. No problem. Ask us a quick question and I could put you in the right direction.
Sydney: I think that's such a good thing to touch on because I do think you're right. I think so many of us here on campus, if not all of us, just want students to succeed. I know even teaching classes like I am always so I sometimes feel like I want them to succeed more than they do. And not that they don't want to succeed, but just because I am so invested in their journey.
Sydney: And I think that's the same for a lot of us that work here, is we just want our students to do well. And that means if you have a question or if you have a thought or a concern, you can come to us and it can definitely be vulnerable. And I think that that vulnerability is part of it.
Sydney: That makes it very like, good. And want to do that. So I think it's always great when we can touch on come, come do it, come talk to us from tell us whatever it might be. Well, thank you so much for joining us. Anything else you'd want to add or talk to us about?
Brady: No, I think that's it. I appreciate you having me on.
Sydney: Yeah, of course, I really appreciate it. Well, make sure that you're listening to Redlands Rundown on all places that you can get your podcasts. We're on Spotify and Apple and everywhere else, so. And then be sure to follow us for updates for more alumni, students, and community members. Thanks, guys. See you next time.
