Episode Transcript
[00:00:07] Speaker A: Welcome to Kendall speaks.
I'm Dr. Brian Stewart, Kendall campus president. And today we have four amazing guests with us.
First, two of our administrators and faculty. First, Dr. Stephen Johnson, professor of World Language Department and Phi Theta Kappa advisor. Welcome again.
[00:00:29] Speaker B: Good afternoon, Dr. Stewart. It's great to be here.
[00:00:30] Speaker A: Great to have you back. And our director of our Honors College here at the Kendall campus, Ms. Aurora Alonso. Great to have you back.
[00:00:37] Speaker C: Hi, Dr. Seward. Thank you for having us.
[00:00:39] Speaker A: And we have two incredible students with us that you're going to get to learn all about today. First, it's Alexander Cano. Welcome.
[00:00:45] Speaker D: Thank you. Thank you. How's it going? How are you?
[00:00:46] Speaker A: Good. Good to have you here. And then Alejandro Valdez.
[00:00:49] Speaker E: Thank you. Thank you for having me here today.
[00:00:51] Speaker A: Great. You're in your purple today, representing the Honors College in Phi Theta Kappa. Always. Let's first start with Dr. Johnson and talk a little bit about Phi Theta Kappa and scholarships first, if you would.
[00:01:01] Speaker B: It's a great way to kick off today's session because Phi Theta Kappa is an enormous opportunity for scholarships and they really focus their scholarships on students in two year colleges. I know we are a four year college, but many of our students are in two year programs. And Phi Theta Kappa is by far one of the most recognized organizations that provide scholarship to those types of students.
Just a quick overview. There's basically three types of scholarships that PTK offers. The, the one that is most accessible to all students is the University Partnership Scholarship.
And those are either a scholarship, a tuition discount, or a complete tuition waiver that students can apply for. And just by being a member of ptk, of Phi Theta Kappa, they qualify in many cases for those scholarships. And there's not a competitive element to those scholarships. They just apply. They get a letter of recommendation from an advisor, and then they are often accepted for those scholarships. An example in our local community would be NOVA Southeastern. They give about a $2,000 tuition waiver for students who transfer from MDC over to NOVA.
The other two scholarships are. The main category that we're going to talk about today is the competitive scholarship. There are two rounds of competitive scholarships. There's a spring round and there's a fall round. So at this point, we're in the middle of fall semester. So we're gearing up now for our competitive scholarships that will be awarded early in 2026 in the spring semester, such as the All USA Scholarship. There's 20 scholarships that are available nationwide.
We have also the All Florida category, where we recognize a number of students within the state of Florida in Phi Theta Kappa. There are many other categories we won't have time to go into today, but there's height scholarships for transfer, there's nursing scholarships, STEM scholarships. So there's an entire list. Any PTK members who are out there listening. If you go to ptk.org, click on scholarships, you can see a full list of the competitive scholarships. The final category is a small category, but nonetheless very important. It's a need based scholarship for students who maybe they hit a financial barrier, as many of our students do, and they just need a little bit of a financial boost to be able to continue their education.
They can apply for one of the Orb Andorf Fellowship scholarships and those are specifically hardship situations where students will describe the circumstances and then they're often awarded monetary amount that will allow them to continue their semester or perhaps enroll for the subsequent semester.
[00:03:41] Speaker A: You mentioned workforce scholarships. I think in the second category you've worked hard to improve our application for that one as well.
[00:03:47] Speaker B: Exactly. We are always on the lookout for students who are in workforce programs or certificate programs because many of those dollars often go unclaimed simply because the students don't realize that they qualify for them.
[00:04:00] Speaker A: And how long have you been a faculty advisor for Phi Ted?
[00:04:02] Speaker B: I've been a faculty Advisor for maybe 10 to 12 years or PHI Theta Kappa.
[00:04:05] Speaker A: Yeah, that's awesome. Well, great description of that. Let's go to Director Alonzo now and talk a little bit about the Honors College. And I know a lot of people know about it, but I run into people in the community that stop me all the time and ask me about it. So this would be a great opportunity for you to talk a little bit about that, if you would.
[00:04:21] Speaker C: Sure. And this is also a great time for that because our application is currently open for the upcoming academic year. So the Honors College is a specialized program within Miami Dade College and it's for students doing their AA degree, pursuing the two year degree with the intention of transferring out to a different institution to complete their Bachelor's. Our goal in the Honors College is to get our students to top rated universities all over the country. Even outside of the country. We have students transferring and applying to institutions in Canada and Amsterdam, for example, in Spain. So that's our goal and we help students throughout the two years have those opportunities with having info sessions with college representatives having info sessions for scholarships, support through scholarships such as the PTK ones. But as I mentioned, our application is currently open. We accept 350 students every fall. This is college wide. So we are at five different campuses.
And our application opened in September, and we're currently taking applications.
So our deadlines are. The first one is in January. That's the priority deadline. And then in March is our final deadline. Once we have completed applications, we interview the students, and that's how we select our incoming class.
So as I mentioned, throughout the two years, our goal is to help our students prepare for transfer. We do that with the curriculum of honors courses, which you are teaching now, math for us. So thank you. And Dr. Johnson teaches our.
[00:05:54] Speaker A: We'll see if you'll bring me back.
[00:05:57] Speaker C: Yes. And then Dr. Johnson has been teaching our IDH leadership courses as well. So those are just some of the examples of the honors classes our students take. But it's the same curriculum for all AA students at mdc. It's just some classes are honors and we have different opportunities for our honors college students as well.
[00:06:16] Speaker A: And this last class we brought in, we were very popular. Right? You had a big list of applicants, as I recall.
[00:06:22] Speaker C: Yes, yes, we get a lot of applicants. We get over 1,000 applications. So you can imagine it's a little difficult to decide on our incoming class. So we do that with the interview process. And we basically, we want to get to know the students. So we're not looking only at GPA and test scores. We're evaluating the students holistically. And we want to know that the students are here to. To be engaged in the community. So it's not just a scholarship program. We do cover tuition for fall and spring terms, but we're not just a scholarship program. We are a community. That's what we're aiming to build. And we want our students to be engaged on campus in the community, doing service, learning. And you know, as we know, that's what sets students apart when transferring to other institutions and when applying to scholarships, internships, things like that. So yes, it's very hard to narrow it down, but we do that every year. We have our incoming class every fall semester.
[00:07:17] Speaker A: Well, now we're going to turn to two great examples of both of what you just described.
And let's start by hearing a little bit about each of your backgrounds. Start with how you got here to Miami Dade College, if you would.
[00:07:27] Speaker D: How I got here to Miami Dade College was. Was interesting, to say the least. Funny enough, I was not very familiar with the honors program until close to the deadline. And lucky enough, I was able to. To lock in and send them application. In high school.
My teachers were, my counselors were telling me about it, and I came across it by doing Research and stuff like that. And I was finally able to apply and get the interview and all that.
[00:07:49] Speaker A: You go to high school?
[00:07:50] Speaker D: Christopher Columbus High School Columbus, Yeah. Yes, sir. Yeah. Because I was kind of set on fiu, but I know there's a lot more stuff. A lot more stuff left on the table for me to grab, and I feel like coming to the Honors Program has really set me up for that.
[00:08:02] Speaker A: Great. Alejandro, what's your journey?
[00:08:04] Speaker E: So, for me, it was a little bit different.
I came from Cuba not too long ago, so I didn't know anything related to universities and stuff like that. So my friend David, he spoke to me about the program, and as soon as the application opened, I believe I finished the application. The first week I was in the priority deadline, I sent my application, and I got in.
[00:08:23] Speaker A: Wow. Well, congratulations to both of you.
[00:08:25] Speaker D: Thank you.
[00:08:26] Speaker A: Let's turn our attention to Phi Theta Kappa a little bit. Talk about how you first got involved.
[00:08:30] Speaker E: In that, in my opinion. I know everybody from the Honors College is really related to Phi Theta Kappa, right? And it was something.
That's how I learned about the club. But after that, I have a huge passion by giving back, especially places I come from. So I was like, this is a place that I can use my effort to kind of give back to my community. That's why I joined Fight Terracotta.
[00:08:53] Speaker D: And for myself, it was in Club Rush, I came across the table there back to. Alejandro was saying, everybody in the Honors College is, you know, involved with PTK for the most part, everybody. But a good amount is. And in Club Rush, Eric Benzon, who's. Who's currently at Duke now, he really helped me, you know, he motivated me, and he gave me reasons why to join. And ever since I met Eric at Club Rush, I haven't looked back since. And I went to the, you know, the interest meetings that they held, I believe, like a month after or a couple weeks after, and signed up for there, the membership and was. Was happy to give back to the community and stuff like that.
[00:09:25] Speaker A: That's great. Let's now move and talk about the Coca Cola Leaders of Promise scholarship. That's such an incredible scholarship. Tell us a little bit about how that's helped you guys be successful and, you know, give our audience just a little bit about what it takes to. To get that scholarship. Go ahead, Alexander.
[00:09:40] Speaker D: Yeah. Yeah. So it takes a lot to be. To get into that scholarship. Me and Alejandro Fayed are both blessed to be in this position right now that we were able to receive.
Takes a lot. A lot of work. Dedication and, and it's. It helped me a big time because that financial stress of that monetary value that we got has let me focus more onto my school and to my clubs, into my extracurriculars outside of work as well. You know, studying for tests and doing things like that. It's helped me big time because I don't have that burden of, you know, that money. I was blessed to have that money to help me out in other aspects. I was able to devote that time into other stuff such as school and extracurriculars.
[00:10:15] Speaker E: So for me as kano, I want to add something to kano, our financial aid, especially me that I didn't. I haven't been here for too long. That's something that really support me in my journey. Especially for summer terms that I don't get the scholarship from the Orange College. This scholarship helped me out to kind of pay my tuition.
[00:10:33] Speaker A: Tell us about the application process. What did you have to go through? What were some of the requirements?
[00:10:38] Speaker D: So some requirements where you know, you need a recommendation letter and the RAILS REC letter you need to put in your like your transcripts, like your unofficial transcripts and I believe like extracurricular that you're involved in for the most part that was the core of the application. There were some personal questions that they had to ask you, which I do not remember each question right now, but I know the core of it was rec letters, your transcripts, your unofficial transcripts to say that you are enrolled in the two university to your college and you're doing an AA and that you fulfill the requirement for the GPA and stuff like that.
[00:11:10] Speaker E: Also, also they were asking like how involved are you with pdk, especially your campus and your community?
And I think that was something, something else in the, in the application process.
[00:11:20] Speaker A: Professor Johnson or Director Alonzo, anything you want to add about the application that might help our audience?
[00:11:25] Speaker B: Yeah, so this, the Coca Cola Leaders of Promise scholarship is unique in that it targets specifically first year students to give them incentive and motivate them to continue on to the second year. We all know how important retention is and this is one of the scholarships that is earmarked for that very purpose. And so we always encourage, a lot of times we think of scholarships, therefore the students who are about to graduate. But this is a unique scholarship in that it's for first year students to get them through the summer like they mentioned and be sure that they start the fall semester strong. The other scholarships that are often sponsored by PTK are for the second year students and the students who Are on the sort of closer to the horizon of transfer.
[00:12:12] Speaker A: And this is for anyone around the table. You know, the selection process is very competitive. Is there anything that you guys can think that helps you or help distinguish you from other applicants?
[00:12:24] Speaker E: As I always mention, Professor Johnson told me once to try to complete any edges because PTK in the website, they have some kind of edges that help you for some of them are for transfer.
I think there is one about financial. To financial support and stuff like that. There are a couple, I believe, six, seven edges.
And Professor Johnson told me to like, try to complete them. I. I believe this one thing that had me away from other applicants because.
[00:12:51] Speaker A: Separated you from others.
[00:12:52] Speaker E: Yeah, because when we went to Orlando last. Last month or a little bit in July. Yeah, in July. And I believe we were there, almost nobody had them complete. So this is something that really makes a difference.
[00:13:04] Speaker B: Yeah. The edges are they're micro courses that are free to PTK students that are online.
And the edges include financial literacy, preparing for transfer, pre med topics. There's a wide variety of them. And so these are all free opportunities that are available to PTK members. A lot of times we get the question, what do I get for my membership? And these free online courses, as well as training for the scholarships to make sure that students are transfer ready and thinking early about transfer to prepare them for that process, which is often more and more complicated than before.
So those are a lot of the resources. And some colleges even give students. Students elective credit for completing those online training modules. So it's a very. It's like a badge system that the students work through and. And by completing those, they set themselves up for success. But also we emphasize community involvement like we've talked about with the Honors College, with PTK community involvement, it shows that you really care about where you come from and you want to give back to the people who have brought you to this point.
So I think both of these students who won the last Leaders of Promise Scholarship, both Alex and Alejandro, they are really involved in the community. They're very involved on campus.
I see them every day I'm here. They're doing some activity. They're presenting or they're involved in some kind of networking here on campus. And that really helps them stand out from a large pool of applicants.
[00:14:44] Speaker A: Right. And then of course, everything that Phi Theta Kappa does also helps support that with the projects and various things. Alex, anything you would give advice to on what helped you? What helped me was separate from others.
[00:14:54] Speaker D: Yeah, just to have that. That mindset of just doing it as simple as it sounds, when I first transferred into Miami Dade College, I was kind of to myself and close minded on a lot of things. And I've kind of flipped my narrative in the sense of just do it. You know, whether it's something you don't even know and stuff like that, just do it. Getting exposure to different opportunities, it's only going to make you better as a person and as a human. And when you put yourself in the situations, only going to benefit you. So for example, like my application process, putting the things that I've done, my extracurriculars, most of those things were just me having that mindset that I just go ahead and did it. Not thinking about why I should do it, why I shouldn't do it, just to do it. To learn and just to put yourself in situations to that you're uncomfortable so you can figure yourself out and ultimately build yourself off top of that.
[00:15:35] Speaker A: You know, I think about last year's officers and last year's year's SGA officers and this year's and I think people think they don't have time to do all this, but you guys find time. You kind of, it just kind of becomes a part of your DNA and it becomes a part of how you get up in the morning and, and I think it helps shape you guys. Yeah. So it's, it's going to be so cool to see you. Just like you mentioned Eric, what he's going to be in five years and you guys in five or 10 years. Yeah.
[00:15:58] Speaker D: It's going to be interesting. Interesting. It's gonna be fun. So excited.
[00:16:01] Speaker A: Let's talk about mentors that you had here. Who helped you guys? Faculty, staff.
I know these two were obviously huge mentors. You can give them a shout out if you want. But any, any people out there that have also helped you get to where you are today.
[00:16:13] Speaker D: Yeah. So first off, you three here, you know, all three of you guys gave me and Ale a huge help and motivation to, to do this. Not just for ourselves, but for you guys as well. You guys motivated us to keep on going and to keep on pushing. But outside of the, outside of the table. Professor Emily Senden, she helped me big time. She actually wrote my recommendation letter for the process, the application and I gave her three days to do it because I was three days, like the due date was three days until like the deadline and I gave her three days to do it. And she was able to do it for me over the summer as well. Because it was over the summer. I know professors and faculty were kind of relaxed and stuff, but she was able to do it for me. So I want to give her a big shout out to her. And the Honors College. The Honors College. We push each other, we motivate each other to be the best as we can and just level up each day as we can.
[00:16:57] Speaker A: We've had Professor Sinden in here twice, I believe, so she's really great for me.
[00:17:01] Speaker E: Professor Frazier.
[00:17:03] Speaker A: Frazier, yeah.
[00:17:04] Speaker E: He's always guided me. Every time I have a question, something related to scholarships and stuff like that, or I come to Professor Johnson or I go to Professor Frazier. They always have my back, and they got me through the ride.
[00:17:15] Speaker A: That's great. That's great. We've got some amazing faculty here. We're just so blessed at the Kendall campus. Talk a little bit about leadership activities. I know Faith Theta Kappa really gives a lot of leadership opportunities, but talk about how what leadership things helped you maybe receive this award? Earned this award. Sorry, you didn't receive it. You guys earned it.
[00:17:32] Speaker D: Earned it. Earned it.
[00:17:32] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:17:33] Speaker E: For me, I have been in leadership positions. I came here, I started by a Spanish club because I didn't know any English, so it was kind of Spanish stuff. So I was able. I always been a leader in my life, and I believe I lead by helping other people succeed as well. And right now, in campus, we have been doing a couple of things. We also. In Fla. We're in PTK, Math4U. I also create, like, some kind of organization back to my high school, where I go and I kind of tutor students that don't know English and stuff like that. I kind of prepare them for the sit, but also help them. Because when I came here, I didn't know any about college and stuff like that. So I kind of go back and explain them the process, everything they need to get done before they come here.
[00:18:18] Speaker A: Where did you go to high school, I wonder? I didn't ask you that.
[00:18:21] Speaker E: Miami. Killian. Right here in the Killian.
[00:18:22] Speaker A: Okay. Yeah. Not very far away at all.
[00:18:24] Speaker E: Yeah.
[00:18:25] Speaker A: What about your leadership activities, Alex?
[00:18:27] Speaker D: Yeah, for myself, I like to say I'm involved on campus a lot. Like we were talking about earlier.
Being the president of FBLA helped me a lot in the treasurer of PTK as well. And now I'm starting a new organization with some fellow honors students called Miami. Excuse me, called Alpha. Like an official organization that FIU has. Um. Has it. FSU has it. So we're in the works now of bringing it over to us here in mdc, and we have our first launch event tomorrow actually at the Wolfson campus. So being involved in fbla, the leadership, and being on the Junior E Board of PTK my first year and being the Junior E board of FBLA as well helped me a lot. I'm also involved in FFL, DSO, Math4U, like how Alifad was talking about earlier. So just being involved in a bunch of different types of clubs and organizations, but yet still being able to give 100% to them because one thing is to be involved in a lot of stuff but you can't devote all your energy into it, which for me personally I don't like doing that. I like to do stuff 100% or I don't do it. So I don't put myself in positions where I know I'm not going to give it my all. And I was fortunate enough that all the clubs that I've been a part of, I like to say that I gave it my all and I will continue to give it my all.
[00:19:30] Speaker A: That's great. I know we're only partway through the fall semester, although it's going to be over here pretty quick, but you guys seem to come in and go so fast and I don't know what we'll do with this podcast, whether we pay it to future Phi Theta Kappa or honor students, but what advice would you give that first year student out there? I know you probably have already given a lot, but think about maybe those that we just talked about earlier about the applications that are going on. What advice would you give maybe those students and those students that actually are in the Honors College right now.
[00:19:58] Speaker E: So I would tell them to speak to second years because we already went through stuff that they haven't done in my opinion. I couldn't go to the seminars that we have in the Honors College, especially to Washington Austria because I didn't know about it. So if I was able to talk to second years, they were able to tell me not only this, but many stuff, professors, letter, recommendations, everything. The stuff that they going to go through probably in spring or summer. Those stuff we already went through. So we kind of have the experience and the knowledge how to solve those kind of problems.
[00:20:29] Speaker D: And some advice that I'll give to the incoming first years and to anybody really. It's back to what I was saying earlier in the podcast, that mindset just, just to do that, that do it mindset, you know, don't ask questions, don't double, like think of yourself. Just, just go ahead and do it. And having that mindset for me personally has helped Me a lot. And I love telling, you know, younger people that I want to learn from others. It's. It's just to have that mindset. Just to go out there and do it, get your feet wet and ultimately figure yourself out as things go. And another thing is don't worry about like having a perfect resume, if that makes any sense. There's a lot of stuff that builds up to that and I feel like a lot of people are stuck up on, on the resume just to put this on your resume. But there's a lot, there's a lot more important steps before that build up to the resume. So like I said, just being exposed and, and trying stuff different. If you've never done it, just try it and you learn from it. At the end of the day, life is about growing and when, whether you do opportunities and, and stuff like that, you learn from that.
[00:21:24] Speaker A: Yeah, I think you said something very important there. Growth. That's what you got to show is growth when you, you know, it's not with the resume. It's what you've grown, I think. And I think that's one of the things these two people to my left do a great job of. What about future scholarship thoughts? Are there any scholarships out there you think you might apply for?
[00:21:41] Speaker E: Yes. So right now I am in the process. I was talking to Professor Johnson in last IDH class we had last week. I am trying to apply for Jack and Cock. That one related to PDK but also top 20 all USA academic team. I kind of working on that right now. I'm not too far from finish them but.
[00:22:01] Speaker A: Yeah, that's great.
[00:22:02] Speaker D: Yeah. And the same, the same scholarships. The top 20 academic USA team I believe is what it's called. And so as well as the Jack Kent Coke. Yeah, yeah, that one as well. Those two. And I need to do more research on. On the, on the scholarship availability for the. For us to apply to for our next two years.
[00:22:17] Speaker A: Those are really two important ones.
[00:22:18] Speaker D: Go ahead.
[00:22:19] Speaker E: Also, I'm right now working on the Mass Scholarship. Family. Mass Family Scholarship. It is a scholarship that is related to Cuban people like especially your grandparents, your parents or you are Cuban. This scholarship is a great opportunity.
I believe the deadline is in January, beginning of January. So we're working on that right now as well.
[00:22:37] Speaker A: Professor Johnson, you want to mention the Jack kick those deadlines?
[00:22:40] Speaker B: Yeah, sure. The. So Jack Kent Cook is a scholarship that's open for all two year college students. It's a transfer scholarship. It's. It's called a last mile scholarship that they Will fill in any gaps that financial aid is not covering. When a student transfers to another university, they not only pay for tuition, but they pay for students to travel back and forth between their universities and their home to have that connection to their support group, their families. They also provide funding for study abroad if you want to do a semester abroad.
There's many different funding options through Jack and Cook. And the scholarship is open through the Common App. Most of our students are familiar, especially if they're second year. They're very familiar with the Common app. So the Jack and Cook Scholarship is open this fall.
A lot of the professors are doing workshops on that. We're coaching students to write their essays, to get their resumes brushed up, helping them, you know, write their narratives, get ready for the application that's due. I believe it's due in December.
[00:23:48] Speaker E: It's January. January 6th or so.
[00:23:50] Speaker B: All right, so the first week of January.
[00:23:52] Speaker A: Glad you know that. I'm glad you know that.
[00:23:54] Speaker B: Right after we come back from the. The winter break, the students will be submitting that. And then the. The review process runs through the entire spring semester. And we usually find out the semi finalists in eight April, and then the finalist, we find out in May or early June. And we. We had. Do you. Do you remember we had one or two last year? Right?
[00:24:17] Speaker C: Yes, we. We have winners from all campuses in the Honors College every year.
Last year, I believe we had a total of five.
[00:24:26] Speaker A: Five, I think that's right.
[00:24:28] Speaker C: So it's always a really, really exciting time. The semifinalists, we always get a lot more. So we. We have, like I said, across all five Honors campuses. And, you know, a lot of these. We're speaking on behalf of the Honors College because that's what we're a part of. But they are open to all students, as Dr. Johnson mentioned, and that's something that we are really hoping to get the word out as well. Our students are involved in a lot of things on campus, and we're hoping that, you know, they can open the rest of the Kendall campus and MDC community to these opportunities as well, because we have had semifinalists who aren't in the Honors College in the past. So, you know, I don't want it to seem like it's only for honor students, but yes, we are proud to say that we always do have winners. And it's very exciting when they find out.
It's always a surprise when they find out that they got the scholarship. It's very exciting. It's with the college president.
So it's a big Exciting moment for all of us.
[00:25:27] Speaker A: Well, we'll look forward to that in the spring and hope both of you, too, are in that important day. Well, last question for you. And I hate to ask this question because I don't want this semester to go, but talk about after graduation plans. Alejandro, you go first. What do you see? Where do you see after graduation in the spring, where do you want to go?
[00:25:45] Speaker E: I see myself in Boston or Pennsylvania. I want to go Harvard or UPenn. I am hoping to get in the. In the business school, if it is not the business school, the social science school, and doing economics. And I want to continue my. I want to take my talents over there and let's see how it goes after.
[00:26:03] Speaker A: All right, that's some great goals, great plans, great plans. What's your plans?
[00:26:07] Speaker D: Yeah, my plans, hopefully I want to be in the University of Miami School of Herbal Business. That's been the dream since I was. Since I was 3 years old, until I knew what, um, was. I want to get into wealth management. So I see myself hopefully getting into the University of Miami, excelling there as well, and breaking into the wealth management circle of things, and start working and getting my name out there and ultimately.
[00:26:27] Speaker A: Building my career and stay here as a Miami boy. Yes, sir.
[00:26:30] Speaker D: Born and raised, man.
[00:26:31] Speaker A: Born and raised. All right, well, this has been a great conversation. We like to end our podcast by turning the microphone around on me. So if you guys want to ask me any hard questions, I'll give you the opportunity to do that. You can, too. You've done it before. If you have any. You want to, I'll answer anything.
[00:26:46] Speaker D: Yeah, I have a question. I always think about it. You're super involved with the students. You know, teaching an honors class and just walking around and being involved. How do you do it? Like, how do you find the time and the motivation to continue to do so?
[00:26:58] Speaker A: Well, my sister, the president, asks me every day where I get the energy from.
You know, I love being around students and faculty. I was at the medical campus for a long time, and Kendall was sort of a dream in a way, and to actually be here. And I've told Director Alonso this.
[00:27:16] Speaker D: When.
[00:27:16] Speaker A: I finally got to work with honors students and we had Phi Theta Kappa Medical. But not like, you guys do it here. That just.
[00:27:22] Speaker D: It just.
[00:27:23] Speaker A: It makes me wake up in the morning. It's fun to be here. You know, this campus, to me, gives me energy to go. And I just love being here. I mean, I love faculty, I love students, and, you know, you guys are the product of what we get to turn out. So thank you. I don't know if I answered the question.
[00:27:38] Speaker D: Yeah, no, you for sure did. You for sure did.
[00:27:41] Speaker E: You stole my question. But I want to ask you the same as Canoe, but also, what's the thing that you like the most about KANO Conference?
[00:27:48] Speaker D: Wow.
[00:27:50] Speaker A: The honors college is really way up there because that was the very first thing I got to do.
I did play college of basketball, so athletics is kind of close to my heart. But just, you know, being at the medical campus, we had very different focus. You know, we had very dedicated students, just like we do here that were gonna be nurses and PAs and so forth. But here you get to see a student grow in a little different way. And that's my favorite thing is to.
Cause now that this is my second year, I remember you guys last year, and now I see you leading and then I look at the group behind you and who's gonna fill your shoes? And to me, that's the most exciting thing about one of the many exciting things and what I like most about this.
[00:28:28] Speaker B: So, students, so I have a question. Since you're teaching at 7:00am, I think, how are your students doing in that class? But maybe more importantly, how does teaching improve your job as an administrator?
[00:28:43] Speaker A: So I've taught classes my whole career. Even when I was a vice president, when I was a dean, I would always teach a class because I always felt like about every five years as an administrator, I needed to be in the classroom because students changed. Well, it's a lot shorter distance now. It's like every two to three years. Things change with AI and so it helps me relate more to what I think goes on in the other part of my job.
It's difficult getting up here at 6:40 and being sharp enough not to make mistakes on the board, which unfortunately I do because it's just so early in the morning. But, you know, I can't wait for Mondays and Wednesdays. It helps my day. And once I'm finished with class, it's like I'm just ready to go. And so it helps me in.
In the administrative part of the job to keep remembering what we're here for. And it's for students. And hopefully Director Alonzo will let me keep teaching.
[00:29:33] Speaker C: Yes, definitely. And I wanted to say thank you for teaching. And I think it's a shock to all of us that students are eager to come at 7:00am that was, you know, a little questionable when we were developing the schedules. But I have to say that from the first week I've gotten Amazing feedback from your class.
[00:29:51] Speaker A: And.
[00:29:52] Speaker C: And your class for spring filled up very fast, so you keep them coming back. And we have them at the lounge every morning after class, and they're excited and they're happy. So, yes, we can definitely continue with this schedule, and I wanted to thank you for that.
[00:30:07] Speaker A: I'm not as funny at 7am as I am later in the day, but my jokes don't seem to land as well. But they're a good group of kids and I've enjoyed them.
They do their homework and stay on top. And the projects, you know, that's one of the things, you know, I've taught every math course up to differential equations, and I've never had a project except in statistics, and I added the project and I can't wait to share some of the projects that these kids are coming up with. It's just unbelievable. So that. That's also another part, I think that's going to help me going forward.
Well, this has been a great conversation. Alejandro and Alex, appreciate you guys for being here.
[00:30:41] Speaker D: Thank you for having us.
[00:30:42] Speaker E: Thank you.
[00:30:42] Speaker A: Thank you, Professor Johnson, Director Alonzo, thank you again for coming back. It won't be the last time we have you here. You guys should know that On November, on November 12, we're doing a special live podcast by the plaza. So we'll kind of have people stop in for a minute or two. So maybe you guys want to come by. We'll be there.
[00:30:58] Speaker D: We'll be there.
[00:30:59] Speaker A: Shout out. So we'll be doing that with sweets for Stewart. Well, thank you, everyone, for being here today. I want to thank Christina Saenz, our head writer, Paul Klein, our executive producer, and Alex Beck Bellow, our producer. Thank you for joining us today, and goodbye for now.
