Meet Jonathan: Higher education and student affairs (M.A.'18)

I work at the Rocket Community Fund and my primary role is leading strategic initiatives in philanthropic space of investments. Supporting students navigate through higher education institutions, systems and really focused on upscaling and getting folks degrees within the City of Detroit.

Being able to catalyze community lead initiatives that get folks to not only see the value in participating in higher education. But on the flip side of that, being able to pioneer a path forward, challenging institutions to make higher education more equitable for underrepresented communities. And that is a very interesting part of my job of one that is very rewarding, to challenge the status quo and make sure that folks who are typically left out have the opportunity to participate in education.

I did a lot of my undergraduate work focused on first generation low-income students and I worked in the Office of Multicultural Affairs for Students. I also worked in Upward Bound and I was a group leader, also an AmeriCorps member and lot of folks were going that route to the HESA program. I graduated with my bachelors degree not knowing what I wanted to do, but I knew my why at the time, which was to make education more accessible for underrepresented populations. I saw a very clear pathway at Western to help make that happen and get some more technical training on how I could understand how higher education systems work and the ecosystem around them which includes philanthropy, business and policy to support learners through their academic journey.

During my time in the program, there were a lot folks who had graduate assistantships. So I think like 90%, if not 100% of the folks in my cohort had a graduate assistantship so for me mine's was in the career center. I always thought about someone's career beyond their degree and helped advise over 1,200 students, both graduate and undergraduate students who would come and get their resume critiqued and then just do basic consultations.

And at the end of the day, folks want to know how their degree help them advance their career, so I would take that lens into my coursework and I would always ask the question around "if students in general are struggling with or need help identifying what is after college, think about far behind some of our students are that don't know how to navigate higher education are and how can I help bridge that gap at WMU?" Taking a step back now in my work, I use that same lens to ask "how do I do that from a statewide level and philanthropic level?"

You got to build a relationship and rapport with folks who are similar in their journey as you. And you get to deepen and build relationships in the field. And ironically enough, one of my classmates who was in a very similar space around academic advising, career counseling, worked in the field of higher education and now works at the State of Michigan leading some of the work that I'm funding. So we have a cross pollination around us both caring deeply about education and educational access. So having that relationship helps me get quicker access to this person doing the same work on a different side of the issue.

Folks who want to be practitioners, like be an academic advisor, residence life, financial aid, counseling services, procrumanted things that help drive the core work of an institution from a higher education perspective. However, for me I want to help push the envelope around what are some of those transferrable experiences that you could take to industries like philanthropy, like corporate entities, like government, like policy. How do you advocate on behalf of students and be able to connect your experiences? And that has been my journey, but my journey has not been one that I think others have mapped out. Which is kind of foreign territory, but it is great to know that I get to help create a portfolio of grant making that addresses some large scale issues.

Drs. Ramona Lewis, Eric Archer and Wanda Hadley are some folks who structure the program to make me feel included, seen and heard. Also, supported in my job searching journey and connecting me, even after graduating, to opportunities that are relevant to my work.