Julia Heck, CI’s Dean of Students, in the Dean of Students Office on Sept. 3. Heck set aside time in her day to meet with The CI View
and participate in a short interview.
Photo by Madelaine Brown
By Kaylee Holsworth
On Sept. 3, Kaylee Holsworth, Editor-in-Chief of The CI View, had the opportunity to interview Julia Heck, CI’s Dean of Students. The interview took place in the Dean of Students Office in Bell Tower East 1780. At the beginning of a another fall semester, with new and continuing students alike, the interview served as a chance to introduce Heck and discuss her involvement at CI:
Q: What is the Dean of Students’ role on campus?
A: Yeah, that’s a great question. And I think there’s a lot of different pieces and parts to it, but overall, I like to explain to students that we’re here to help students navigate their student life experience on campus. Everything from providing support to being able to help navigate policies and processes, to guiding students through just experiences they’re having on campus, but also trying to advocate for the student experience in different spaces and places across campus to make sure that this is an area that students can find a place to belong. They can thrive and be able to lead across our campus.
Q: In your bio on the school’s website, it states that you are “at the forefront of student success, conflict resolution, and organizational transformation.” Can you go into more detail about what that looks like in practice?
A: It’s not only helping students and their individual experiences, but being able to think about our institution and how are we either helping support a student successfully moving through their experience here, creating barriers, obstacles, and how do we find opportunities to make sure that we can support our students in the best way? So, for me, that comes down to helping students navigate questions and concerns…[making them] feel like they can self-advocate and have the ability to kind of learn how to navigate a situation and build a skill set…And being able to ensure that it’s not only helping one individual student, but thinking about the whole and making sure that we’re building an institution that supports our mission, works to support students’ ability to achieve their educational goals. And like I said, belong here, thrive here, and be able to lead in different spaces across the campus.
Q: Do you have a memorable moment of supporting a student’s success?
A: I think the ones that I’ve appreciated the most are where, you know, being able to help the students see maybe an opportunity that they didn’t before or help think through a vision or a pathway that wasn’t one they had thought about…And I think with that, I have supported a number of students who maybe run into some bumps along the way or just felt discouraged along their educational journey and being able to, help individuals think through the idea of failing forward. So, the ability to say one bump in the road or a mistake or a learning lesson that they experienced. How do you pick yourself up from that? How do you rethink, retool, and be able to build a positive pathway forward…[I] fundamentally believe in exponential potential…And so, when I can help have those conversations with students or be able to offer a different perspective, it’s great. I appreciate those moments.
Julia Heck (left), Dean of Students, and Kaylee Holsworth (right), Editor-in-Chief of The CI View, in the Dean of Students Office on Sept. 3. Heck and Holsworth discussed the Dean of Students’ involvement on campus.
Photo by Madelaine Brown
Q: What is your advice for making the most out of your college experience, especially for our incoming freshman this year?
A: Ooh. Greatest advice. I think, you know, a student’s experience is what you make it, and so we offer tons of different resources, opportunities to get involved, activities, research, all of these things across campus. But we can’t make a student engage in them. It’s about how do you seek out things that are of interest to you as a student…And so, I think my biggest advice is just try new things and reach out, take advantage of the opportunities that are here, because I think college is one of the places where you can try all of the things and have access to all the things that you don’t necessarily have access to once you leave and are in different spaces, places, in the same way that you do while you’re here…I think in that having conversations too, seek out, go to faculty office hours and have conversations with your faculty. If you interact with a staff member on campus and learn a little bit about their story or get to know their experience getting to the seat that they’re sitting in, all of those pieces can help build your network and then make your net of people work for you as you’re moving forward.
Q: How can students get in touch with you for support?
A: I will say, as the Dean of Students Office, we try to be as accessible as possible to students. So, definitely stop by our office here in Bell Tower. We’re in 1780. Any of our staff that are in here, we’re all here to help support students who stop in, but also students can reach out via email, our phone. Our contact information is on our office website. We also do have a Dean of Students’ Instagram account. We’re working on building it, our social media space, and being able to promote our opportunities via that too. But also, we have a 24-hour online reporting form…Any of those opportunities, we will get back to students, connect with students and make sure that we can provide that level of great support.
Q: I have one fun question for you: If you could combine 2 animals to ride into battle, what would they be and why?
A: Ooh! Two animals…Okay, one, I think, would want to be a turtle. For the space of protection. It’s not a fast animal, but sturdy protection as I navigated different spaces. So, let’s see, a turtle. What could I combine with a turtle? Hmm. I’d be intrigued. I don’t know how this would actually work in practice. But combining a turtle with a hippo? Because they are faster than people think. But they are big. And so, I think some of the different qualities of those two put together would make a pretty formidable force, but also, like, have a level of resonance or steadfastness, as you navigated that challenge.
Q: What would you name it?
A: Oh, my! These questions! Uhh… A tippo! [laughs]
Interview lightly edited for length and clarity.
By: Madelaine Brown
