“[While recruiting], I noticed a lot of my conversations were about my personal experience. Growing up in foster care and group homes, college changed my life. It was different than your traditional student coming to college for a degree. When I left the foster care system and went to college, that was my home. I didn't go home for Christmas break or summer break. I lived at the college year-round. It became more of a home rather than an institution of higher learning.

“My experience in college developed me into the person I am today. I had my coaches, faculty and staff who took the time to hone the skills I needed to be academically successful. At that time in my life, they’d seen something in me that I didn't see in myself. I think that type of passion and commitment to a person – and the development of a person – was so meaningful to me that I wanted to have that same impact on other people. I truly knew the impact that someone can have on someone else's life.

“I left admissions and went into student affairs and retention. I started developing retention programs and academic success programs and working to help students get acclimated to the institution.

“To see that impact that you have on a student's life, that's when you understand your true calling.”