Bridging the Gap in Advising through Faculty, Peer, and Ambassador Roles - Adventures in Advising

In Ep. 119, guest host, Matt Plescia interviews Dr. Peter Howe, Associate Dean for Academics at Utah State University's Quinney College of Natural Resources, discusses his journey from Yale to USU, focusing on climate change perceptions and environmental risks. He emphasizes the importance of geography, GIS, and the role of faculty advisors in student success. Dr. Howe highlights the decentralized advising model at USU, which fosters personal connections with students. He also discusses the challenges of balancing administrative, teaching, and research roles, and the importance of faculty development and peer advisors in enhancing student experiences and recruitment efforts.

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Transcript

Matt Markin  
Hey, this is Matt Markin, and it's time for another episode of The Adventures in advising podcast. Thank you so much for checking out this episode. We have a guest host today for Episode 119 this guest was interviewed back in February of 2024 for episode 93 which was guest hosted by Dr. Locksley Knibbs. This guest host is going to interview someone that he knows, and we're really excited for this particular topic discussion. So let's welcome back. And by the way, he has the best name in the world because his name is also Matt. And that's Matt Plescia from Utah State University. Hey Matt. 

Matt Plescia  
Hey Matt. Thank you for the warm welcome. So I'm really happy to be back on the podcast, and today we're going to be interviewing Dr. Peter Howe. So Peter is the Associate Dean for academics in the SJ and Jessie E. Quinney College of Natural Resources, and is a professor of geography in the Department of Environment and Society. He is a human environment geographer and environmental social scientist who focuses on public perceptions of climate change and environmental risks. His work uses tools like large scale social surveys, geospatial analysis, statistical modeling and geovisualization, which is all pretty fascinating stuff, and there's a lot of large words there. So if I stumbled over things, apologize. Dr.Howe has earned some impressive honors, including the National Science Foundation Career Award in 2018 he's part of the leadership for climate adaptation science NSF National Research traineeship program at USU. And before joining at USU, he was a postdoctoral researcher at the Yale program on climate change communications, where he developed the climate opinions map projects. And Dr. Howe's also earned both his PhD and MS in geography from Penn State University. So with that, today, Peter, just like to walk you through the podcast. 

Peter Howe  
Thank you. Great to be here. 

Matt Plescia  
And so the first question is typically on ventures to define as a podcast. I know Matt would start with, what is your journey? So you've had a fascinating career in higher ed so from Yale to USU. How did this all come together for you? And, like, what totally, um, ultimately led you into this field?

Peter Howe  
Yeah. So, like you mentioned, I have a background in in the discipline of geography, and I like to start by telling people a little bit about what geography is, because at least here in the US, sometimes people are a little surprised that that's something you can study at a university level. So geography is it's a discipline. Actually, it's been around for 1000s of years. It's a major here at Utah State University and at many other schools, and it's essentially the study of space and place and the interactions between humans and our environment. So how people affect the environment, and how the environment affects people, and especially these days, it's also got a really cool technological component. So geography includes the discipline of GIS or Geographic Information Systems and science, which is all about making maps and collecting spatial data using drones and remote sensing and satellite imagery, some really important skills that people are our students are increasingly needing across a lot of majors. So I got into geography originally because I was interested in maps and I was also interested in the environment, and I ended up majoring in geography when I was in in college at Arizona State University. I discovered the major when I was in college there. I didn't initially realize it existed, but kind of fell in love with it in my junior year, and switched my major, and had some great experiences with my my professors. I ended up doing some undergraduate research, and kind of switched my career path at that point too. I wanted to go to law school originally, but then discovered how much I loved doing research and was convinced to apply to graduate school by some of my professors. So I did that, and I ended up going to Penn State University, where I got a master's and a PhD, and I discovered my passion for working on climate as well. So ever since graduate school, I've I've done work at the interface of social science and climate change, while also including technology and and models and statistics and social science data. So that's kind of the work that has led me to where I am today, as a professor who does research as well as teaching, and now also as an administrator here at Utah State University.

Matt Plescia  
Thank you for sharing more about your background and so. Had a unique path. So here in USU, I started as an advisor, and now I'm in this advising coordinator role, and I've been an advisor here for about two years, and you've been in your associate dean role for about two years as well. So it's a fairly new position here within the Quinney College of Natural Resources. So you being a faculty advisor and overseeing advising as the Associate team. Now, how did your experiences as a faculty advisor shape the way that you've approached the role here?

Peter Howe  
Yeah, so I've been a professor here at Utah State for almost 12 years now, and I started out teaching geography and GIS and serving as the faculty advisor for our geography major, by the way, I think it's, it's, we'll probably talk about this later. But something that is really cool about our college here at Utah State is that all of our majors have faculty who are assigned as faculty advisors, in addition to professional advisors like yourself, so students can have those kind of direct relationships with faculty to learn more about their discipline, as well as getting professional advising. So so I really have appreciated that role. It's helped me meet all of our majors. We have a relatively small geography major, typically about 20 to 30 students in that major, among the 500 or so students in our College of Natural Resources, as well as now a rapidly growing certificate program in GIS, geographic information science, with almost 60 students in there now from other majors. But yeah, it's it's been great to get to know students through that role. As well as my teaching. I i teach introductory GIS, which is a required class of all the majors in the Quinney College of Natural Resources. We have, we now have 10 different majors, and it's required in all of them, as well as several other majors around campus. And that's given me the opportunity to really get to know students from a wide range of backgrounds with a wide range of interests, especially related to natural resources. But we have majors, for example, our largest major focuses on wildlife science. It's called wildlife ecology and management. These are students who are passionate about studying wildlife. They want to work with wildlife. Maybe they want to go on and be a wildlife veterinarian or a park ranger or a federal land manager, in some ways, to other majors, like forest ecology and management, folks who want to go and be foresters or Fisheries and Aquatic sciences, people who want to work with wetlands and aquatic ecosystems or environmental studies, folks who want to maybe influence environmental policy or work as a sustainability officer. So we have a wide range of students, and one of the unifying factors is that they all need to learn how to use geospatial data and work with maps, because that's a common skill across all those environment Natural Resources fields. So I I've gotten to know our students that way and and that led me to be interested in this role as an Associate Dean, where I get to oversee our undergraduate programs and help improve our curriculum and do things like award scholarships and oversee our fantastic Advising Center. And so it's been really rewarding in that role to help have a role in really contributing to the success of our students in the college. 

Matt Plescia  
Thank you for sharing that. And so, yeah, this is not a typical role for me, because, you know, my past two institutes I would I was in a much larger college, and so I would be reporting to a director, and I have, you know, about 12 other advisors with me, and now it's myself and wake here within qcnr. So that's another question I wanted to ask you is, how do you manage the Academic Advising Center to ensure students feel supported and connected? I mean, we are such a small college, as you mentioned, 500 students. So what are some some tips you could give to maybe some other associate deans that are managing advisors, maybe in a smaller institute like this size level?

Peter Howe  
So, so at Utah State, we have a fairly decentralized advising model where, where we do have advisors within every college, and here in QC and our we have, we have two advisors, one, one of which is you. And those two advisors are assigned to our 500 students. And I think that is a great role. I mean, it's enabled us to have one on one meetings with all of our students every semester, if they choose. And I think students really feel connected to the college. As a result, they feel supported by the college. So I really value that, in addition to the great peer advisors and other student employees. We have, like ambassadors who oversee recruitment. I think having this decentralized model where we have advisors within the colleges really helps students to connect with that academic unit, which can be a challenge, I think, in some institutions, and really see themselves as a student in Natural Resources, in addition to being a student at Utah State University, and Utah State is a big school, we've got almost 30,000 students here in Logan, and it's, it can be a little bit, you can feel kind of anonymous, I think, as a result. And so that's one of the things that I really like about here in natural resources, is we are we're able to create a community for for those students and help them feel valued. And the advising center is a real key part of that. And there's some other things that we're able to do too. The physical space is really important. You know, we have a couple great facilities here, centered on the Natural Resources Building in Logan, which is kind of kind of got a ski lodge feel. It's was built in the 80s, got a lot of exposed wood and concrete, and it's got a beautiful central atrium where students love to hang out and study, and with a little stream fountain in it, and wildlife displays and our advising offices are right off the atrium, so students see the advising office when they're here, and they in the building when they're studying. And I think that presence really helps as well, that that sort of physical exposure to the office, so it encourages them to maybe get over that hurdle and make that appointment if they see you, Matthew and Wake around as well as our peer advisors.

Matt Plescia  
Yeah, and I'd like to say it mentioned this too, just having you so be so accessible as you know, a resource as well. For our students, you actually tend to join our orientations. And one of our classes, as you mentioned that you teach, is intro to GIS, and all of our majors in natural resources have to take that course, and you happen to do an activity with those students during that can you walk us through that activity that you do during those orientation sessions with those students?

Peter Howe  
Yeah, doing the orientations is something I love. It's great to meet our students right as they are entering our program. And as you mentioned, I talk about how they're all going to be required to take our intro GIS course, since it's required of all of our majors, and I try to introduce what we talk about in GIS through this activity where I hand out these national park map brochures. You know, if you've ever been to a national park at the entrance station, they give you a brochure which has a they're all kind of formatted the same way. They've got a really nice looking map there of the National Park. People love to collect these things too, but I kind of hand these out randomly, these maps of Parks from all over the country, and I asked students to just take a few minutes to study that map and think about why the map is as it is. Why is it designed this way? What does it contain? What are all the decisions that go into making a map? And think about, you know, for example, what? What does the map emphasize? For National Park maps that it typically emphasizes things that visitors are going to want to see, and what does it de emphasize, or what does it not include? So oftentimes, students will will realize that say, if they're looking at a map of Yellowstone National Park, the map doesn't have any information about where the wolves of Yellowstone are or where the bison are, which are two really important features of the ecosystem, the Yellowstone and things that visitors want to see. But, but there are reasons why those that information is not in the map, for protecting that ecosystem and trying to guide visitors to the right places. So it gets them thinking about, you know, how do we how do we communicate using maps? That's a really important form of communication. How do we make those these kinds of decisions? You know, these are decisions managers and natural resources are making all the time about how to how to guide visitors in our public lands, for example, something that a lot of our graduates will end up doing as in a work environment. And I think it's, it's a nice way of of connecting them, connecting, at least this idea of GIS and mapping to environment, natural resources, which is maybe not such an obvious connection for students all the time.

Matt Plescia  
And having you there is so instrumental. I mean, this really helps. Something I'm very passionate about is the appreciative advising framework, and this is something that you let me do professional developments with, and I really appreciate that. So it's kind of helping disarm students, right off the bat, when they're coming to us at QCNR they're getting to meet you the Associate Dean, which is not typical for a lot of institutes. And really they just know that they are seen and that they have someone to go to as well as you know, myself and wake and then another thing I wanted to ask you was you do so we wear many hats in higher education. So you are juggling a lot of responsibilities as administrator, a professor and both a researcher. So just for other administrators that might be in you know, is. Similar role. How are you balancing these responsibilities? And do you have any other you know, tips for you know how you are balancing? 

Peter Howe  
Great question. It's so as a as an administrator, as Associate Dean, that is technically 50% of my job now. And then I'm also still teaching our Inter GIS class, and then working on research, I have some ongoing grants and doing kind of the typical service responsibilities that faculty do and most universities serving on committees and such. And having been in this role as an administrator now for for two years now, I kind of finally feel like I have an idea of what the job fully entails. It's taken a lot of time. You know, there's a lot of different things to manage and processes to learn and deadlines to figure out, but I feel like I have a handle on it now, but, but of course, there's always new challenges that come down the line too. So here at Utah State University and other Utah State institutions right now are we are working on things like exploring changes to our curriculum around things like general education requirements, and exploring alternative degree options, and creating things like new certificates, all these things related to curriculum are important part of my job, and something that I've had to learn that's not something that most faculty end up doing as part of their teaching role. So that's been interesting and interesting challenge and I'd say, you know, it's one of the things that that I've really valued about this role, is, is being able to connect my teaching to my administrative work. So as I mentioned, you know, I teaching a required course has let me meet a lot of our students and learn about, you know, students, backgrounds and career interests and different majors in our college and so that is that kind of allowed me to hit the ground running as an administrator and and make some changes and work on doing some things to contribute to student success across all of our majors in natural resources. So yeah, it's, and there's always new challenges like I mentioned, too. So it's, it's an exciting role, but, but I really value being in this position, mainly because I'm able to give back to students. I'm able to help contribute to student success in a bit more of a tangible way than I could as a full time faculty member with a primary research role.

Matt Plescia  
Yeah, and there's always going to be moving arts and higher education, constant changes. And so another thing I wanted to get into was you just mentioned your research, and then you have some grants going on right now, as for most of well, this your research. You know, with perception of climate change and things of that nature has that influenced any of the ways that you've interact or shaped any of your advising strategies when you're doing some of your faculty advising?

Peter Howe  
Yeah, so part of my research focuses on on the human dimensions of climate change, specifically things like public perceptions and communication around climate as well as other connected natural hazards. I have a couple programs right now that are focused on understanding extreme heat as a hazard, for example, and how we can understand how people respond to heat. I'd say one of the strongest connections between my research work and my role in advising and student success is around communication. So, you know, I as a researcher, we know that that there are some tried and true techniques to to communicating, especially communicating hard things, you know, like when it comes to climate change and hazards, oftentimes, we need to communicate that people are in situations where they're at risk or that they need to, we need to try to change behavior, or encourage people to do something like, you know, by by hazard insurance, or even if it comes to it in a crisis, to evacuate or prepare to evacuate. And there's, there's some, you know, being in this field, I know that there are. There are oftentimes some misconceptions that folks have, if they don't know the research about some about communication that actually don't work, which may be kind of be applied in an educational setting too. So one of the biggest misconceptions is that you just give people information that they will act on that information. This is kind of a classic mistake that scientists often make, where we assume that if we just tell people, for example, that something that they're doing is putting them at risk, then they will change their behavior and stop doing that thing. Like if you tell people that so. Smoking is bad, then they will stop smoking. We know that that that's not necessarily not very effective from decades of research. Instead, things that work better are actually telling stories, trying to connect with people, and helping people understand information from from trusted sources and in ways that that that matter to them and are meaningful to them. And so I think that's, that's really what, what our advisors, like you, are doing with this appreciative advising framework, right? It's, it's trying to connect with students, trying to learn their story and telling your own stories, and not just giving them a four year plan of courses, right? We know that students are not necessarily going to follow that plan, just if you give it to them right.

Matt Plescia  
I like that you mentioned the previous advising framework too, as well. And I'm really happy that, you know that's something that you value, too. I think you could see it in their student feedback as well, which I'm really grateful that USU has that set up. And our feedback our students are not just like they are mentioning that we are listening to them, we are hearing their stories. And like, sometimes they're surprised that myself, as an advisor will remember something that they've said to me, you know, six months ago, they'll be like, how did you remember that? It's like, well, because I'm listening to you, I'm actively listening, and we want to hear your story and get you also graduated as well, and make sure that you know we're focusing on that student success aspect. And you had mentioned faculty advisors in the past, so faculty advisors bring a lot to the table here at USU, especially in natural resource disciplines, because they are the ones who are doing the work, in that sense, so I'm not a career advisor, so in a sense, how do you foster that collaboration between both faculty advisors and myself as an advisor? 

Peter Howe  
So, so here in the College of Natural Resources, all of our majors have faculty advisors. Some majors, some majors, some of our larger majors, have multiple faculty advisors who students are assigned to, and they are, they are the the connections for students who are interested in learning more about the discipline itself and about specific career opportunities and maybe advice about the content of certain discipline, specific courses, or particularly graduate school and undergraduate research are two really important connections for students with faculty advisors. We are somewhat unique at Utah State University in having faculty advisors for all of our majors. I think part of that is because we are a small college, we have the resources to do that. And I think it's, it's good to have these multiple points of contact for students with the institution, and a venue outside of courses where students can connect with faculty. Because I think it's, we're, there's, there's often a barrier. And you know, students may be unwilling or afraid to make an appointment with a professor, just kind of out of the blue, but the faculty advisor system provides a channel for them to do that, kind of an easy point of entry for them to connect with a professor who can then make those connections to other faculty and say, like, you know, if we know of colleagues who are hiring undergraduate researchers who are doing projects that might be related to a student's interests, then we can make those connections. I would also add that that, you know, undergraduate research itself is something that we really value here in the College of Natural Resources and at Utah State University, we are the only the second institution in the country to create an undergraduate research program after MIT, which is something that we are really proud of. And we have various ways that we financially support undergraduate researchers at the university level, as well as here in the College of Natural Resources. And we are the I think something like 40% or more of our students end up doing undergraduate research during their time here, which is great. And it's the undergraduate research that we do is often in cool places and dealing with cool topics, and I think it helps students get and remain engaged and really often ends up leading them to careers in natural resources or graduate programs.

Matt Plescia  
Yeah, and that's part of my job as an advisor here. You know, QCNR is, you know, helping students, you know, bridge that gap too, to also, you know, connect with those faculty advisors. Sometimes they are, you know, they'll be more apt to come to myself as an advisor. And, you know, it might be a little, you know, scared to meet with a faculty member, and we just kind of have to let them know, like, hey, these faculty members are here to see you succeed. And this is kind of going back to, like, when we were talking about orientation during our orientations, you and I kind of, like, will play back and forth. I'm like, I'll go. Like, I'll mention like, hey, you know, Peter is probably going to be one of your professors here, dr, Howe, I would say to them. And office hours are huge. And one of the things I will note is not enough students are utilizing them. And something that you'll chime in with is that you are wanting to meet with these students, and it's such an instrumental role in, you know, having them succeed. And another thing I wanted to talk about was faculty development as well. So this is thing that you and I have discussed, and I value you as a thought partner. So the appreciative advising Institute we've mentioned multiple times, but you are going to allow Wake and I to give a presentation to our faculty advisors. So what kind of Faculty Development do you have planned for them to help excel in their roles? And what is your kind of vision for this as well for us going forward?

Peter Howe  
Yeah, and so then, and that's a new initiative that we're working on because, you know, I I know as a as a faculty advisor, we don't really have any training on in this role, you know. And actually, as professors, it may surprise a lot of students to know that most professors don't get any training and teaching either as part in graduate school. So we are kind of picking things up on the fly and and taking examples from our own professors. Now that is something that's changing, fortunately, so a lot of graduate programs now are including experiences in teaching and curriculum and teaching, but there are many professors who didn't have that any any of that formal training in teaching, let alone advising, which is its own whole set of skills and something that through, you know, we're starting out with a with a workshop for our faculty here in natural resources and our faculty advisors, and I'd love to continue providing some of these resources for them to learn best practices around advising and some skills for connecting with our students. We have some we're I think the more we can do to support student success, the better. Of course, we are as a university and as a college. We're trying to retain students and grow our enrollments as much as possible. And I think the more connections, and the more you know, meaningful relationships that students have with people at the institution that can help them retain and graduate and then then maintain those connections afterwards as well. So having some, of these, these kinds of trainings, is an important part of it. And also recognizing the importance of the role of the faculty advisor in for example, but by the institution as a as an important role that's similar to teaching that can contribute to overall student success and and also the metrics that, of course, the institution cares about, like, retention.

Matt Plescia  
Yes, and that's another thing too. I administration sometimes doesn't know what we do as advisors. Faculty members sometimes don't know what we do as advisors. So you allowing us to, you know, implement these workshops for our faculty members, they will be very instrumental in, you know, moving forward their practices as well. So another thing I wanted to ask you is, what are some of the biggest challenges in QCNR, and how are you working to, you know, overcome them, and not just you, but, like, you know, ourselves as a college as well?

Peter Howe  
We are, like I mentioned, we are the smallest College, academic college at Utah State University, with about 500 students. So that comes with a ton of advantages, like we've talked about, including a low student to faculty ratio, about nine to one, which means we tend to have small classes, and allows students to have those more of those relationships with faculty and do things like undergrad research, but that also brings brings challenges. So as many institutions around the country are dealing with challenges related to the demographic cliff, as it's been called. You know, we're seeing enrollment stagnating or decline in some places that is not as much of a phenomenon in Utah, which is, it still has a rapidly growing population and a lot of high school graduates, but, but we're it's something that we're going to be dealing with as well at some point. So we have these, these larger sort of national level trends at the same time as you know, being a state institution, we are responsive to the state policy environment and the state legislature and they have set goals for us regarding growing our enrollments and growing our majors in areas that they see as high yield and high demand for the workforce. Now in natural resources, we are, we have some pretty unique programs and and many of our programs are critical for the workforce. For example, we we end up graduating many of the the people who go on to to manage public lands in in Utah, federal lands and state lands, who work for like the National Forest Service or the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources, and these are roles that that couldn't really be filled by another institution. And so we see we have some unique value, but at the same time, we also see that that we need to be responsive to these overall changing trends and and demographic trends, national trends, and try to grow in enrollments where possible. So for example, we are seeing student demand in the area of environmental science and sustainability, which is a new major that we've recently created here in the College of Natural Resources, and has already grown to about 20 students without much advertising, and in technologies and skills like GIS and remote sensing, where we have been creating new programs and seeing, we're seeing growing enrollments, and we've received some some state funding, for example, For a program in remote sensing and geospatial artificial intelligence, where that we're seeing a lot of workforce demand. So we are, we're responding to these challenges. And there's, there's only those challenges are going to continue. But I really value our our college at Utah State University, and the university as a whole, and being dynamic and nimble at responding to these challenges, I think we we have a good college culture and leadership, and we're able to make changes and implement things like like new curricula fairly quickly, which has allowed us to be so responsive. 

Matt Plescia  
I think our students see that as well. And then, just like, you know, we are such a tight knit community, so kind of like tailing off of that question as well. Where do you think QCNR, what do you think it would look like in five years from now? So the way that we should be evolving to meet students changing needs?

Peter Howe  
Great question. So I think I we we have about 500 students. Now, I'd love to see us have 550 or 600 students in five years. We'll see if we can get there. But I think one area that that I'd love to see us be responsive to is the changing demographics and backgrounds and interests of our students. So we're seeing more students who are coming into a college who don't necessarily have some of the outdoors and field skills that our students may have had in the past. You know, many of our students still grow up in rural areas, but we have more and more and more coming from urban areas who, you know, haven't worked on a ranch, or don't know how to drive a stick shift, or, you know, some of these, a lot of these, these, these specific skills, which, if they're going to work in a like a land management position, or work, you know, out in the field, they might need to know. So on the one hand, we are, we're trying to give provide some of those skills opportunities and ease students into some of these outdoor situations and field positions. We have a fantastic student run camp every fall, which we've been running for the past few years. Now that the college supports that they give students some exposure to these field skills and gets them out and out up the canyon here outside of Logan. That's, that's one way, and the other way is also that, you know, we're acknowledging and responding to the fact that not every natural resources major is someone who wants to spend their whole career outside. And so we have some some important majors, like, for example, geography and GIS or environmental science and policy environmental studies, for folks who want to contribute, they're interested in giving back, they want a position that that is in the environmental field. And you know, maybe they will end up working as a sustainability officer for a corporation or for a city government or something like that. And so we're, we're providing those opportunities as well. And I would, I think one of our challenges is in reaching students who maybe are interested in some of those less traditional Natural Resources positions and majors, and helping them realize that, that we are a place where they can can have get the skills and get the degree for those kinds of careers as well. 

Matt Plescia  
And that was something when I stepped into this role for natural resources, I was a social, social science advisor. So you know, psychology, criminal justice, legal Studies, majors surrounding that area. So when I stepped into this role in NR, I really didn't know much about what our students were doing and, you know, we also had, like, federal resumes, for instance, that students are having to fill out. I had only known about a traditional resume. So this was all stuff that, you know, how you mentioned, you know, we're constantly learning. So that's something I also had to constantly learn, too. And when our students are coming here right away, one of the first questions I'll ask them in the appointment is, you know, do you know the difference between a traditional and federal resume? If they say, No, all of our students are required to take nr 2000 so our natural resource professional orientation course, and that's where they'll get all that information. But you know, they're going to get it from someone that's more well versed in a federal resume than I am myself, but that's why we also have two great peer advisors as well. So I did want to touch on our peer advisors. They do a ton of great work. We would not be able to function as a unit without them, I believe, and I think USU is really building up their peer advisory program as well. So do you see that growing in the next five years? Some thoughts on that?

Peter Howe  
I really value those peer advisor positions. And I think it, it's, they're, they're a critical part of the the whole advising system in the college. They they give students a face and appear that they can, can ask these questions of and who maybe will ultimately direct them to one of our professional advisors, like you for for more specific advice, but it helps to you know, provide another connection to the institution that has a kind of a lower barrier to students relating to and we have some specific, some specific needs that they feel too like for, like you mentioned with providing advice on federal resumes. You know, we have over 20% of our graduates end up working in federal positions and belonging to federal jobs is kind of a whole separate ball game. You know, it's not only do you need a different resume, but the whole job search system and application system is very, very different from the private sector or from other other like, you know, the nonprofit or state municipal government even, and so having peer advisors who are familiar with that system, who have made many of them have done a federal intern. Internship, is really critical to the success of our graduates. So that is something that we totally value. And then they also provide some other hands on support for events and other programs in the college and we have things like a career fair, where we have many of those federal and state and other employers who come in every year and meet our students. We have a one of our real college highlights is our internship program, where we we connect students to and actually partially fund internships with federal agencies like the Forest Service, state agencies like the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources and nonprofits, and place students in these positions for summer paid internships. They're well paid. They are full time in the summer, and they give students a window into what working in one of these natural resources positions is like. And so peer advisors have been critical in helping support that program. I was as I transitioned into this role as Associate Dean, we had a peer advisor who essentially ran that entire program, which, which we're really grateful for. And so yeah, they are, they are absolutely critical to the success of our college. 

Matt Plescia  
As you mentioned, the work they do is amazing, and they inspire me as well. And I know they inspire our students. And also I know when you walk by our office, sometimes, like, sure, you hear students will just come in to just chat with them and just have conversations time and just make an appointment with them. And they know they can do that. And both of our peer advisors now are amazing, and they're more than willing to do that. And I know that we don't have that much time left for the podcast today, but I did want to mention one other critical area that you've kind of implemented since I've been here. So the peer ambassador program. I just want to know, you know, so these peer ambassadors come with me when I go to recruiting events, and they also go to recruiting events on their own. What made you start that peer ambassador program, and it truly is thriving. So I just wanted you know, get your take how that came to be?

Peter Howe  
Yeah, so our peer ambassador program, we started a couple of years ago, and it's the way that we structure it here in natural resources at USU, is we hire students to be ambassadors for a year long position. They're paid a stipend, and they're expected to work a certain number of hours, helping out with mainly recruitment kind of events, and we try to find students who kind of represent the college in terms of their their majors and their interests. And these are students who are really engaged, and it's just been a real pleasure working with them, where the roles that we have them play are things, including tabling, like you mentioned. So we have a lot of events on campus and off campus where we send our ambassadors to connect with prospective students or students who have applied and have not yet decided to come to Utah State to really put a face on on the institution and help them learn about what, what being a student Natural Resources is like, and we are. We're using them as well. We're having them connect with students in high schools. We have, for example, presentations at AP biology or AP environmental science classes around Utah, and our concurrent enrollment courses that the college offers, so they're able, they're able to go talk about their experiences with with high school students, which is, I think maybe high school students are maybe more likely to listen to a current student than someone who's been, you know, in a professor role for for a decade. So it's, it's absolutely critical to have those kinds of positions, and they're really supporting our recruitment efforts, which is important for our goals as a college, because, as I mentioned, you know, we are, we're trying to grow our enrollments, and one of the ways we're doing that is, is really expanding awareness of what our programs are because we have a kind of an interesting geography here in Utah, going back to that term where, here Utah State University is is located about an hour and a half away from the largest metro area in the state, the Wasatch Front, where most of Utah's population lives. And we we have found, and actually, I grew up in that part of Utah and didn't know a lot about Utah State University, let alone the College of Natural Resources. And so what we're trying to do is is, is expand awareness of our programs and of our college through these kinds of recruitment activities and we're finding success both in state as well as increasingly more out of state students.

Matt Plescia  
And I had mentioned this on the past episode that I was on podcast, so recruiting wasn't a big part of my previous roles as an advisor. But for advisors that you know it is having this peer ambassador program that you've officiated truly has helped our recruitment. And, you know, like you said, you mentioned, you know, they might not, they might come to me as an advisor and like, have that barrier, but then having those students there who have actually done internships, who have done, you know, some of the courses that I'll be explaining to them. So, you know, I can go through, you know, courses that they're going to be taking, but if a student is actually going to be sharing, you know, what you know they did in the field in that class, that really opens students eyes, and then also just them, most of the time, will have pictures on their phone of their experiences as well. I know one of our peer investors has, you know, worked with seals in Washington, and then, you know, he shares those pictures, and it just really, you know, helps have those students come to QCNR.

Peter Howe  
Totally and we have, we have such charismatic experiences that students can get involved in, right? Like our Wildlife Society club every year goes up to Yellowstone National Park in the spring before you can even go in as a tourist, you know, to see bears coming out of hibernation, and works with their faculty advisor, Dr. Dan McNulty, who is one of the world experts on the Yellowstone ecosystem and Yellowstone's wolves. We have, you know, fantastic experiences like that, as well as study abroad programs, which students really often connect with. Like we have a program that takes students to the Great Barrier Reef, to a research station where they they live on an island off the coast of Australia and and snorkel and scuba dive, collecting data, learning about marine biology every day for two weeks. These are just just fantastic experiences that, really, I think, help students understand, prospective students understand what, what being a natural resources student, what kind of opportunities that that can entail.

Matt Plescia  
Yeah, and yeah, I would say the thing I want to close out with is just finally, you know, your how you've shaped and how you've led advising has really, you know, implemented myself as an advisor. And I do want to thank you for that. You have generously let me go to two nakatas, one which I was able to present at and draw as an advisor. And all of these tools that we have for our students makes my job that much easier as an advisor as well, because they really do want to come in, meet with me and go over all these great resources that we have, and not every institute has that, and it's something that I've been grateful for. So Peter, I just wanted to thank you so much for sharing your story and your insights with us. It's inspiring to hear your vision for advising and how you're both supporting you know our advisors and both you know, more importantly, our students as well, and to our listeners, thank you for tuning into the adventures advising podcasts. Until next time, keep exploring new ways to make a difference in advising.