Geeking Out in Higher Education

https://youtu.be/q9ntZYtrv08 Episode Description On this episode of Student Affairs NOW, our host Dr. Glenn DeGuzman engages in a fun and in-depth conversation about our panelist's nerd identity and their personal and professional experiences with geek culture in higher education. Episode Transcript Glenn DeGuzman:Hello, and welcome to Student Affairs Now I'm your host, Glenn DeGuzman coming to you from Livermore, California, the ancestral homelands of the Ohlone people. Student Affairs Now is the premier podcast and learning community for thousands of us who work in alongside and or adjacent to the field of higher education and student affairs. We hope you'll find these conversations helpful to you and restorative to the profession. We release episodes every week on Wednesdays, and you can find us at studentaffairsnow.com or you can find us on Twitter, and now Instagram. Now I'm particularly excited about this episode because I'm bringing four student affairs professionals who in my opinion, have been leaders and influencers across the U.S. in nerd identity, geek culture and its impact and influence on college and university campus. I happened to be a huge fan of this. So I'm really excited to introduce the four panelists for today's episode. Glenn DeGuzman:I'm going to start with Al Day from University of California, Berkeley. We also have Alex Belisario from the University of California at Santa Cruz, Brian MacDonald from the University of California, Los Angeles, and Dr. Emily Sandoval from the University of Southern California. This is truly a West coast meetup, and I'm thrilled to have all of you joining me. So I'd like to start by having you all introduce yourselves. And and what do you do in higher education? And in the spirit of today's conversation, your background and your areas of interest tied to this topic. Let's go and start with Al. Al Day:Yeah, I'm happy to get started. I'm Alfred Day. Most people call me Al I am the Associate Dean of Students and Director of the Center for Support and Intervention at UC Berkeley. I've been involved in this work with these fine folks for over, almost over 10 years, about 10 years now. And I'm just really, really happy to be here as a as a DC comics fan. I'd like to think of us as the justice league of higher ed and geek ed stuff. Other people might say Avengers, but I would never say that. Alex Belisario:And you still don't hold it against me then after all this time, Glenn DeGuzman:Alex, why don't you introduce himself? Alex Belisario:Hi, I'm Alex Belisario. I use she her pronouns and I'm the Executive Director for College Student Life at UC Santa Cruz. And you know, there's a natural relationship between our work in higher ed and my interest in geeky pursuits. So as a college student, I had these interests as did my friends like scifi and video games. And as a professional, I feel like it helps to make connections with students and faculty and staff. I do still play PokemonGo when people ask that question. And so much of the stories that we get in Saifai in particular, give us a way to talk about real life situations. So it's a natural connection. And then I would also Alex Belisario:Say that there's just two superheroes everywhere who are working with college students right there, their outfits look a little different. They probably don't wear capes if they've seen the Incredibles, but they're out there Glenn DeGuzman:Totally hear you on that. Brian.