Voices of Santa Clara Podcast

Today, we'll hear from Mr. Dylan Houle, who became the Executive Director of Career & Professional Development at the SCU Career Center about a year and a half ago. Dylan began his professional journey as an English teacher in the New York City area before transitioning into the field of career services. From assistant director roles at Pace University and USF to his most recent position at Menlo College as the executive director of internships and career services, Dylan consistently raises the bar for what it means to lead a career center.You can further explore his insights through the podcast he hosts, titled 'Career Services Leadership in Higher Education’. Our conversation with Dylan covers a lot, we talk about past experiences and advice for students currently looking for a job or internship and what to do when you land an opportunity.

Arturo: Going off of Barry Posner’s 5 practices of Exemplary Leadership, “effective leaders are to have an understanding of their own values”. We would love to hear about your values?Bill: I'd have to talk a little bit first about their origins. My mom was a homemaker, formerly a teacher and my dad was a pastor in the Lutheran church. From early on, I remember a great sense of responsibility and fidelity to one's family, how to support one's family, how to encourage family bonds, and also challenge in an appropriate way. Another is a sense of responsibility to make things better than when you found them, it's a sense that you're entrusted with a certain amount of time, different people and different programs, and there's a responsibility that goes along with trying to improve all those things. Then maybe the third, fourth, and fifth that come from my own faith as a Christian, are faith, hope, and love.Armando: We know you’re grounded in your wife and kids. What are the three most important lessons you want your kids to know before leaving the nest.Bill: I want my kids to have this understanding of themselves as having the power and ability to create environments that are not just conducive to their own flourishing but to others in their community. Another lesson is to understand that they are loved even when the world is a place that may not feel like it's loving them back but it’s there if they create it. And back to my values, to try to make things better than how they found it. Arturo: In the previous interview, you mentioned a quote from your parents, “be like a duck, smooth on the surface but underneath, scurrying like crazy”. What tactics do you recommend to students who are “scurrying like crazy” maybe without direction.Bill: I’d like to use a new metaphor. “To see their life as a mountain with no top”. What I mean by that, is that life can be really exciting and fun if you focus more on the process and become less focused on specific outcomes. If there’s that hope and faith that things will turn out the way they're supposed to be. It's a lot of fun to be able to focus on what you're doing at the moment and what you can do today to make yourself the best possible version and what you can do tomorrow to continue that growth. Along with that metaphor is the idea that we need to rest, stop, and look around at what you've accomplished so far. See who's accompanying you on that climb and take a look at the beautiful scenery from different vantage points in life. Maybe look up the mountain and see which routes make the most sense to move forward to the next ledge.

In this discussion, we had the pleasure of speaking with President Julie Sullivan as she walked us through instrumental moments throughout her life journey such as her upbringing in North Florida that sparked her passion for learning and planted the seed for her future as a teacher, how she made her decision to join SCU as our President, and her thoughts on strategic ways to build upon Santa Clara’s Jesuit reputation and pursuit of academic excellence.

In this episode, Antonio, Darius, and Malachi provide tips and insight on networking as they recount silly memories as an early college student attempting to network, beginning the process of networking, best practices for preparing an informational interview agenda, common mistakes people make when attempting to network, and how networking has enhanced their job search experience.

In this episode, Sallyanne Tejan and Jaya Kapoor walk us through how they made the most out of their Santa Clara experience, socially. With stories reminiscing on their first time meeting over lunch after DMing on Facebook, their journey through Greek life, notorious darties within the SCU community, off-campus venues to visit, and hilarious memories from The Hut and Bronco Bars, you’ll get an inside look into how social SCU really is behind the scenes.

In this episode, Darius, Antonio, and Malachi sit down to discuss how they secured internships at Goldman Sachs, Microsoft, and Google, respectively, during the summer of 2022. With topics such as the process of discovering internship opportunities, the highlights and lowlights of their recruitment experiences, and the value of performing research/preparing for interviews with intention, there are plenty of key takeaways that you can utilize as you head into your internship/full-time recruitment this Fall. Enjoy!

T. Shá Duncan Smith has over 18 years of experience developing and implementing strategic plans and initiatives to promote diverse, equitable and inclusive cultures for students, faculty and staff. She has taught courses on leading during racial crises, accountability, and incentivization for advancing equity goals at the University of Southern California Race & Equity Center Equity Institutes, where she is also senior strategist for their Liberal Arts Colleges Racial Equity Leadership Alliance. She was previously director of diversity and inclusion at the University of Michigan Ross School of Business, and before that was intercultural programs manager for the University of Michigan’s Center for Global and Intercultural Study and coordinator of diversity initiatives and academic support for the University of Michigan’s School of Public Health.After a long hiatus, the VOSC crew finally returns with an amazing guest, the new VP of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion here at SCU, T. Shá Duncan Smith. In this episode, we discuss how Shá’s childhood influenced her career path, key lessons she’s learned during her 12+ years at the University of Michigan, significant measures of success in the DEI space, the most fulfilling aspects of her career, the factors that led to her interest in SCU, and goals she would like to achieve at our university within the next 1-3 years.

Molly “Mo” Tucker is a junior at SCU : student by day, radio general manager by night. KSCU is the only organization that is active 24/7, airing all the time, which means she’s constantly on her toes and ready to serve. She loves being part of an organization that cherishes all walks of love, life, and tastes of music. Her life is centered around exploration and living to the fullest - KSCU helps her do just that by meeting new people, exploring new music, and loving every second of it, which are just a few of the many perks of being her! In this Going Clubbing episode, we invite the General Manager of KSCU, Molly “Mo” Tucker, to indulge in the value that KSCU brings to the SCU community, where her interest in radio management came from, the lessons/skills she’s learned by being in this leadership position, the application process to become a DJ, providing a platform for local artists, and cultivating a welcoming environment for KSCU members.

In the second installment of our Host Kickback series, we indulge in the overarching influence of social media. From social media’s effect on self-confidence, mental health, drug abuse, political advocacy, to even financial literacy, we highlight various ways in which social media has been a medium of information, for good or for worse.