Advising, Leadership, and the Joy of Lifelong Learning - Adventures in Advising

From teaching elementary orchestra, to editing books for bestselling authors, to leading student organizations and pursuing a PhD...Jordan Truex does it all! As a Senior Academic Advisor at Utah State University and current PhD student in Counseling and Student Development at Kansas State University, Matt and Ryan chat with Jordan to explore strategies for fostering student belonging through teaching and student organizations, the role of compassion in effective advising, and how advisor well-being directly impacts student success. Jordan also discusses her research interests around advisor satisfaction and retention, as well as her leadership in NACADA’s Region 10 and Sustainable Leadership Committee. This conversation is packed with energy, insight, and a little bit of wanderlust (Japan, anyone?). 

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Transcript

Matt Markin  
Matt, All right, hello and welcome back to yet another amazing episode of the Adventures in Advising podcast. This is Matt Markin, and by the time you're listening to this episode, we are well into October. Ryan Scheckel what's new?

Ryan Scheckel  
I'm trying to decide where to put my spooky time robots. As we hit October, I've got so many little little trinkets and toys that I'm like, Oh, I have a theme going. Pumpkin spice, R2D2s and stuff so but yeah, I love the fall for sure, everything that it means for campuses and for academic advising, the annual conference and and that time of year is always a fun energy field, time for sure.

Matt Markin  
Yeah. And speaking of annual conference. I know both of us will be there, and our guest for today, I think, will also be at annual conference. So let's welcome to the podcast, and that is Jordan Truex. Jordan is a senior academic advisor for Chemistry and Biochemistry Department at Utah State University. Born and raised in Logan, Utah. She is an alumna of USU, having earned a BS in history with a minor in Chemistry, a BS in business administration, an MBA and a master's in education, in instructional leadership, with an emphasis in higher education and student affairs. In addition to her role as an academic advisor, Jordan heads the chemistry and biochemistry Undergraduate Student Association, which is also nationally recognized and award winning, and also the Utah State bio hive club, connecting students to industry professionals in the state of Utah. Jordan actively contributes to the advising profession and has presented her research and best practices at university, state, regional and also global advising conferences. She currently serves on the NACADA region 10 leadership as the communications coordinator, serving advisors from Utah, Wyoming, Colorado, Arizona and New Mexico, and as a member of the NACADA sustainable Leadership Committee when she isn't advising. Jordan teaches classes at USU on student skill or study skills, actually, and learning techniques. Teaching elementary school orchestra edits books for USA Today and Amazon best selling authors, and spends time with her family and friends. And if that wasn't enough, Jordan is currently pursuing her PhD in Counseling and Student Development with an emphasis in leadership and academic advising at Kansas State University. Jordan, my friend, welcome to the podcast.

Jordan Truex  
Thank you so much, Matt, so excited to be here.

Matt Markin  
Yeah, and I know we this has kind of been in the works for a while. I know at the annual conference last year in Pittsburgh, we kind of planted the seed of, hey, at some point we need to have you on the podcast. And from your bio, I know we're going to have plenty of things to talk about. I know Ryan and I usually ask the first question of to tell us more about your journey in higher ed, which I think we will get to. But I feel one of the things I didn't know about you, and I thought I knew a lot about you, was that you edit books for USA Today and Amazon Best Selling Authors. So I think that needs to be the first question to please tell us more about that?

Jordan Truex  
Yeah, I edit books for authors. It's super awesome. Typically, I'm like, the last set of eyes, or one of the less set of eyes on books before they're published. A lot of the authors I work with are self, self published. A few of them have recently started getting traditionally published, which is really exciting and it's super fun. I love to read. I'm a bit of a speed reader, and so being able to get to read books early and get to help authors release something that that is can be really impactful for people, especially for me, is just something really exciting.

Matt Markin  
I know Ryan reads a lot too.

Ryan Scheckel  
Well, the first thing I thought was like, what do you get into doing something like that?

Jordan Truex  
Well, funny story. So when I say I read a lot during covid, I think I read close to 4000 books. I have the exact number. It's like 4178 books in 2020, to 2021, and yes, that's an average of about 12 books a day. Some are not like huge books, right? Like they were just things on Kindle Unlimited. But during that process, and because of covid, the indie author scene really blew up with Kindle Unlimited. And I would read a story and I'd really love it, and I'd see errors, and I'd be like, Ah, I know it's going to be weird, but, like, if I were an author, I would want to know. That that was an issue. And so I just started, like, joining fan groups, and would email or reach out to the author via Facebook or Instagram and be like, Hey, I just read your book. I loved it. I noticed this, this, this and this, I thought you just would want to know. And after doing that a few times with one particular author. They were redoing a series, and they were like, Hey, I'm going to recover this series and reformat it. Would you be willing to go through it and, you know, make sure that there's no errors before we're republishing it? It was seven books, and I went through and I found over 50 errors in almost every book. And the author was like, I've had this looked at by professional editors like multiple times before. Would you be interested in working for me? And it was definitely nothing I was looking for. It was just kind of a thing. And then word of mouth kind of spread. And now I work for about 16 authors right now.

Matt Markin  
It's amazing. I think this turns me like, oh, I want to try to get into that too well.

Ryan Scheckel  
I thought, I thought I was doing good when I set a goal of a book a week for a year. But I know that comparison is a thief of joy, so let's, let's not get into that. But what I hear, what I hear is obviously a curious mind and a helpful heart. Can you tell us a little bit about your journey in higher education and into academic advising?

Jordan Truex  
Yeah. So I am a first generation student from here in Logan, Utah, which is where Utah State University is, and education is something that was always something I loved. I started attending Utah state it was double majoring in music and chemistry. I wanted to be a doctor. I highly recommend not doing those two majors together. But I started being a chemistry major, and during my time, I had an academic advisor who wasn't really an advisor. She was the staff assistant for the chemistry department, and kind of was just the person who who advised on the side. And I ended up having some severe medical issues come up, and got really sick. I ended up in the hospital for a period of time, and I failed my classes. And I remember going to her, and the response was, Well, just retake it like you're fine, just you're in 17 credits. You need this. Just retake it next semester. And I failed again. It was really hard for me for a long time. My my dad lost his job during that time with the the recession in 2008 and then my mom was diagnosed with stage four cancer. And through all this, I was working three jobs, while going to school, while also dealing with like these medical issues. And so I was going through a lot, and made the choice to I was substitute teaching at the time. Kind of made the choice to switch my major to help me be able to go to school in the evenings instead of during the daytime. So I switched my major to history. And at that point, I met with a professor who looked at me and said, Jordan, you are not a failure. He said, you've experienced some failure, and you're going through some really hard things, but don't you think that you're a failure? We're going to move past this, and you're going to do great things in your life. And that was the first moment that I was like, I'm not a failure, right? Like, and, and he guided me to the academic advisor for the History Department who was wonderful and completely changed what my experience was the first three years of my college experience. And so I got the opportunity to I got hired on at Utah State at their Salt Lake Campus, and within a year, moved into an advising position. And that opportunity really changed, like I can have the impact that my second advisor had on me with other students, and I can help them navigate it, help them know the policies, so that when things happen, they can be successful. That's just driven everything I've done since then.

Matt Markin  
Yeah, so you're able to really kind of take your experience of what happened as a student, and kind of these advisors and mentors in a sense, that have given you those positive tips and and memorable kind of quotes that you can now bring into to with your students. Do you also feel having earned like, multiple degrees in various areas from like history and business and chemistry and education, that that also kind of helped shape how you are as an advisor.

Jordan Truex  
Absolutely my educational path, like I never expected to go on for a graduate degree, and I barely graduated with my. Street degree, like my GPA, was really low because of all the things I had gone through. And I think one of the things that that has contributed with my advising is not only some real, genuine empathy for certain situations that students have gone through, but also a greater understanding of the broad impact that different educational programs have on their students and how they can work together, like they're very different, like chemistry is very different from music or from business or from education, but there's a lot of things that are very similar, and so being able to carry that through the various roles I've held has been really helpful in my position, for sure.

Ryan Scheckel  
Well, it part of me wants to ask, like, what did you like the best? It's there's so many disciplines, and there are times when folks spend all their time in one and so I didn't know, I imagine what the likely answer is about. There's things about each of them, but I'm curious if there was anything in particular that you really look back on, as far as an academic home that was, was something that really resonated with you or maybe surprised you in your journey as a student, let's say.

Jordan Truex  
Yeah, the business my business journey was something that I never expected. I remember being when I was first getting my my bachelor's degree and like, being like, business people are just business people like, like, and just having this like, I didn't have an understanding. Of really what business people were learning, what they were doing. And because I was living in Salt Lake there, there were certain classes and programs that were offered at that campus, and business was one of them. And I was also working as a dietetic internship coordinator, and I was managing contracts for the program and requirements with hospitals and school districts and that. And I just remember starting to take classes because I was thinking about a master's degree, but my GPA was too low, so I was taking some classes just to kind of help me be a good candidate for a master's program, and I fell in love with those classes, and I just I could take them back in every single day. And everything I was doing I was like, finding things that were late, were relatable, and that really shocked me in a lot of ways, and it's helped me, I think be a better advisor because of the things I learned and adapted and being able to, like, understand that sometimes there's things that you learn that you don't think are relevant, and then you learn them, and then you're like, oh, I can apply this in my job every day if I want to. I just have to do it. So that was the one thing that surprised me the most.

Matt Markin  
Yeah, sometimes the things that you learn, it's like, years later, that's like, Oh yeah, that thing I learned five years ago, and I can actually apply it now in what I do now. One of the other things for your responsibilities, which I'm not sure if it's like other duties assigned or it's part of your role, is that you oversee the chemistry and biochemistry Undergraduate Student Association as well as the Utah State Bio Hive Club. So I think we're interested to kind of learn more about those organizations and also kind of your role in that.

Jordan Truex  
So when I started advising, so I told you about my chemistry journey and that I didn't have a real advisor. I'm actually the first advisor. When she retired, they hired a primary role advisor in the position, and so I was hired for the department, and the chemistry club at the time is what we called it. They had been inactive for about six years, and when meeting with students, there were a couple of things that came out of those meetings, and one of them was, we want to build a community, but we can't like we don't know where to find that. And so I worked with my department in re establishing a club that felt more inclusive of our entire department, because we're chemistry and biochemistry. So instead of just being the Chem Club, which really does encompass those things, we turned it into the bio, the chemistry and biochemistry Undergraduate Student Association, still having our affiliation with the American Chemical Society and that club, they do some of the most amazing things. They have gone out to dozens of elementary schools, middle schools and high schools in our valley, and shared their love of science with kids and really kind of showing what higher ed can do for these. Little kids. And the exciting things that they could potentially do is they, you know, explore different majors. And so they do that, and this last year. So I started that club two years ago, and after their first year, they won a commendable award with the American Chemical Society for their efforts in their community and their outreach. So they these students are amazing. They're doing wonderful things, and it's just really great to be part of that.

Ryan Scheckel  
Yeah, we, in our office here, identified early on the value of advisor engagement with student organizations, but you also teach in the classroom, and I'm curious, like, what's your experience been like in those two roles in the classroom, as an instructor, and then in the advising dynamic too?

Jordan Truex  
Yeah. So the courses I teach, I teach two specific classes right now, one we call connections here, and it's our intro to college course that we encourage all our freshmen or new students to take, and really is integrating them into the college experience here at Utah State University. The second class I teach is for our Center for Academic belonging, belonging and learning success, and they that class is called learning techniques, and I'm really helping students through study habits and skills and those types of things. So it really is very relatable to advising, because I have these conversations with my students often too, like I don't know how to study for this exam. Well, let me give you some tips. Now I'm in the classroom giving these tips and going through activities with the students that are applicable to help them find success at wherever they are in their journey, most of the time in the early years, but trying to help them develop these habits that will help them be successful college students.

Matt Markin  
How are students added into that class? Is it something that is just kind of recommended and they they add in? It's something that they're like pre enrolled in?

Jordan Truex  
So I think there's two different ways. One is that it can be recommended, or they find it. The other way is, I know that we have, like, a bridge program for students who either did not meet admission standards or are returning from suspension, and they are required to take these courses as part of their contract to be able to be admitted back into good standing in the institution. So there's kind of the two dynamics of students, students that are wanting to learn that, and students that are being pushed to learn it, to help them be successful.

Matt Markin  
Yeah. So okay, so you have, like, a mixture of students in there. How do you help students, like, understand, like, the importance that there is, like, that difference of different types of studying and study techniques and habits. And you know, you need that for different classes. There's a difference from high school to college on actually studying and preparing for your classes.

Jordan Truex  
I think the practice of it, you know, early in the course, we're week three. Right now, we're talking about creating a schedule and then reflecting on it. So a lot of our every week, the students will do a beginning of the week reflection and the end of week reflection, and they'll kind of set goals. So goal setting is a big portion of this. Set goals for what they're going to do and how they're going to implement the things that they're learning that week, and then they reflect on it. And through that process, conversations I've had, this is my third time teaching the class, conversations I've had with the students is I've learned that I need to like change what time of the day I'm studying, because it's not working for me. I'm always too tired, or I need to reflect on my work hours. Am I, you know, do I need to have a conversation with my boss? Or I'm realizing that taking a 730 in the morning class was not a good choice? Um, so it's really kind of helping them come to that realization on their own, through through planning and reflection.

Ryan Scheckel  
Yeah, we we could talk for so long about the changing of mindsets, about the world and and students themselves, how powerful that can be, but you are also teaching in another setting, and I'm just curious about your experience with orchestra and elementary school students. I'm curious, do you have an instrument yourself and and tell us more about that? 

Jordan Truex  
So as I mentioned, I was double majoring in music and chemistry when I first started. I was a. I'm a viola performance major, so I'm a string player. I play both the violin and viola primarily. This is my 19th year of teaching elementary school orchestra. I started when I was a freshman, so that was kind of the job that I moved into when I started college. They're like, Oh, you can't do anything else, but you can go teach orchestra a couple hours a day, and I'm still doing it. I teach fourth through sixth graders, violin, viola, cello, base. This year, I'll have close to 80 students and so.

Ryan Scheckel  
So, what parallels do you see between the string instruments and and being in higher education, are there any similarities translatable concepts or skills for somebody who spent so much time, you know, considering the instrument and also teaching the instrument? I'm kind of curious if you find any connection between that arts and creative side and the educator side?

Jordan Truex  
Absolutely I've been doing it so long, it's like it's hard to reflect back on it. For me, expression of yourself, storytelling when I'm actually a bit of an introvert. You might not realize that when you meet me, because when I'm in work, I kind of put on my like I have to talk to people hat. But when I was younger, like I was bullied a lot and and felt really insecure, and music was my way to express myself and to find kind of that belonging with the world. And so translating that to being an academic advisor is that everyone has different ways of how they express themselves, and some of them are quieter than others, and sometimes you just need something to get outside your head that is not school or not work, you need something that will bring you joy. For me, I found a lot of joy in reading. That's kind of what gets me out of my head a lot, but also being able to turn to my instrument and find that kind of ability to express myself has been really helpful, not only just throughout my childhood, but also in adulthood as well.

Matt Markin  
Yeah, so talk about the reading now we know about the music and again, finding out more things about you. Then I was like, I've known Jordan for a few years. Like, I know a lot of this stuff. I do want to go back to the the student orgs, because you were talking about the chemistry, biochemistry undergraduate student association that also encompass the Bio Hive Club?

Jordan Truex  
Yeah, so the bio hive club is actually getting we we kind of had it two, three years ago. Went on a field trip to some companies in Salt Lake City that are biotechnology companies. Utah has one of the largest and fastest growing biotech industries in the world, and so it right now, it's just a really good place for students interested in the sciences to get involved in industry. It kind of didn't exist last year, and then this year, we're ramping it back up. I have a great president who is helping get it going, and we have some tours again, going to Salt Lake City, really trying to help students see what the possibilities are with their majors. I think often I have students, and this was kind of the same with me, where it's like, I want to go to medical school, so I'm going to choose this major, because I've heard it's a great one for medical school. And then they realize that that's not what they want to do anymore, and they feel a little bit lost. And when I felt that way, it was like, Oh, well, I need to switch my major. You know? It was like, I don't want to work on a lab bench. And now we're trying to connect them to these alumni in these opportunities that help them to understand what the possibilities are, to give them ideas of okay, if this doesn't work out, or maybe I want to do this instead.

Ryan Scheckel  
Speaking of alumni, you have a somewhat unique experience too. Not everyone advises at their alma mater and and in their hometown and, and I'm, I feel like I've been here in Lubbock at Texas University long enough to say this is home, but it's not the home I've known forever. And, and I'm curious, you know, if you, if you reflect on that, how has that influenced your approach in advising, especially, I'm curious about your relationship with your institution, having seen it from so many sides.

Jordan Truex  
Yeah, that's a great question. So I did not want to come to Utah State, because I grew up here. I had great ambitions. I actually. Wanted to go to Penn State and got into an accelerated medical school program there, but the cost of tuition was so much in my family. I, as I mentioned before, like financially, grew up in kind of a very low income home, so we didn't have the the ability my parents wouldn't be able to help me, so I was depending on scholarships, and I got a scholarship, it just was not enough to cover all of Penn State's tuition. And really thought my dad and I had a conversation about, well, you should look at Utah State. Utah State is a good school, and, no, it's not getting away from home, but you can move out. You can move out and go live on campus, and I had a wonderful experience, and I'm really grateful I came here. Utah State's campus is very homey, like it just has that good Logan has that good college town vibe, where it's not too big, not too small, and I can walk from one end of campus to the other in like 15 minutes. So it's not it's easy to navigate. I'm really glad I chose to come here. I had a fabulous education experience, for the most you know, for the most part, left my professors, felt like I got the best education I could have, and moving into advising. I really care about the students. I care about Utah State. I care about the experience the students are having, and I want them to have an experience that they can look back on and say, I'm really glad I chose to go to Utah State. I'm really glad I chose to go to Logan and take a chance on this institution that may not be a big name, may not be the most you know, popular institution you hear in the world, but has really great professors and a really amazing educational experience.

Matt Markin  
I feel like both of us have very similar kind of stories with that, because when I was a senior in high school, I applied to Cal State San Bernardino, but I really wanted to go to Humboldt State, up north, and then they just wanted to give me loans, but Cal State San Bernardino is like, here's some grants. And I was like, Okay, I guess the choice is made from low income family. I don't want to pay back loans, so I'm going to go here, and it ended up being one of the greatest experiences. So very similar, and I'm glad it worked out that way. I think from this interview, and knowing you like you're always I think when you know you have the caring for your students, you're always wanting them to also further develop. That's also something you do as well, because something else that is on your plate is you're pursuing a PhD program. So you're doing the one for counseling, student development, the emphasis on leadership and academic advising at K State. I was hoping you can share with us, like, what, what was your decision to pursue that specific one, and how is it going so far?

Jordan Truex  
Yeah. First of all, the Kansas State program is amazing. 100% highly recommend it to anyone. As I mentioned before, I never thought I would go get a graduate degree. And I was actually at the nacota conference. I was co chair for the region eight, 910, conference in Las Vegas, which we're going back to next month, a few years ago, and I was talking to Dr. Wendy Troxel at that conference, and just having conversations a little bit the PhD program had just started up, and she kind of just planted A seed. And then I went to Orlando the following year, and was was thinking of ways I can move up in my career, move into more of a leadership position, have a really big impact on academic advising. And she brought it up again, and I went to a listening session, and I just had this really good feeling that that was the way I needed to go with my educational pursuit. Moving forward, I actually had been testing out a PhD program here at Utah State, and it just didn't feel like the right fit. And so when I talked to Dr. Troxel, I just felt really good about it, and I applied and got in and started last summer. I'm in cohort three. I have the most amazing colleagues in my cohort. I didn't even know what to expect. And I have friends in California and Florida and Pennsylvania and Texas all throughout the country, and we're all going through it together. And, you know, we talk to each other almost every day via text like and just not just about about school stuff. Yeah. But about what's going on at our institutions and learning from one another and supporting one another as we're doing things. And it's been a really powerful experience for me that I didn't even fully comprehend when I applied. Not only that, like the professors are phenomenal, I'm learning so much, and it is, it is not easy. It is challenging, but we have some I've never felt so supported. And not saying something, because I've had really supportive people here at Utah State. But the faculty like genuinely care, and they like they're there all the time to answer questions and to help make you better, and that's what I just I'm really happy with my experience so far.

Ryan Scheckel  
And as you're moving through your coursework and stuff, I know being in graduate coursework and working with students, there's all kinds of time when things connect and you're like, oh, this has an application, or this is a way of viewing that theory while I'm in practice. But I also know that PhDs have a purpose. They have a target. They have a finish line of sorts that's built around your contribution to the knowledge base. Is there anything that's percolating right now as a doctoral student who's looking at the things you're looking at that you're starting to develop an interest in, for for further inquiry and potential writing on those things.

Jordan Truex  
Yeah, so my as of right now, my interest in my research for my dissertation is aligning the impact of academic advisor satisfaction, job satisfaction, with student advising, appointment satisfaction, and how that may impact student retention at institutions, or advisor retention at institutions. So that's kind of what I'm looking at right now, kind of the success of advisors and the success of students, and is if there's any impact on one another.

Matt Markin  
Oh, looking forward to seeing how this progresses so far. Like, so you started last summer in the program, right? How are the classes set up? Like, Have you, have you had a certain amount of classes so far? What's that look like?

Jordan Truex  
So we have two classes a semester, so six credits every semester. It's seven semesters of courses. So we'll be done with courses next summer. So summer 2026, where I also go back to Kansas. We go our first and third summer in person for a week long meeting together. So the classes are all virtual, but a lot of the professors will have like zoom office hours or chat times that we can connect to one another, but a lot of it is asynchronous, so we can do the coursework within the deadlines just like any other online class.

Ryan Scheckel  
One of the things that I know we mentioned when at the top of the interview about sharing your experiences and your findings and your practice as an advisor at conferences and stuff. I'm curious again about the continuity of thought. Let's say, what were some of the things that you shared with colleagues in sort of a presentation space that you're still carrying with you, or maybe that you're thinking about differently at this stage of the game.

Jordan Truex  
I've given a lot of presentations. I think we just had the Region 10 Conference in May, and I gave four presentations on various things, but I think there is a correlation between those one I will be giving at the annual conference is on compassion and care in academic advising, and how that can elevate your experiences with your students. I've done a lot on the seven habits of highly effective advising using Stephen Covey's experiences, looking at the impact of higher, high achieving students and helping them through failure, and then looking at non traditional student experiences. So there's a lot of correlation with those, and I think a lot of it is those habits which correlates to what I teach as the institution, developing habits that help us be successful as human beings and as advisors and also students, but also the impact that really being compassionate and being being there for yourself. Students and listening to their stories and being willing to share those stories, and how that impacts your interactions with your students and your relationships with your students, because relationship buildings is probably been if I can name one thing that makes me successful as an advisor, it's the relationships that I build with my students and with my faculty and staff that I work with, and my my co workers and my colleagues.

Matt Markin  
But I would think you would probably also have many advisors that maybe a little bit burnout as well. You know, whether it's a huge caseload or I want to spend time kind of developing these relationships with my students, but X, Y and Z, have all these other things that I have to do and try to balance. Do you cover some of that in maybe some of the presentations that you've done?

Jordan Truex  
Yeah? Yeah. Definitely talk about trying to find that balance. And that's something that actually my dissertation, I'm looking to find is, you know, what is the impact of advisor burnout on their relationship with students like our students seeing that in their advising appointments, and is it impacting their relationship with the institutions? I think that's really important for upper administrations to understand too, is that we've got to keep our advisors happy if we want our students to have the best experience possible if we want them to stay? What is that going to take and and why? And so that's kind of that's what I'm hoping to kind of bridge with all that I've done with with the studying that I'm going to be doing soon. 

Ryan Scheckel  
And it's not just the presentations, the contribution you're making to academic advising you serve in leadership roles too, and, and, and I'll let Matt ask about the region experience. I'm particularly curious about the work of the Sustainable Leadership Committee. The word sustainable stands out to me, given what we've just been talking about. But I'm curious what, how did you get involved with the sustainable Leadership Committee? What's the sort of the purpose and focus there, and how has that helped you and in the many things that you're doing, to have that additional view on the work that we're doing?

Jordan Truex  
Yeah, so the sustainable leadership committee the I think the mission of that committee is to really sustain NACADA leadership, to to build a message that you can become involved. You can be a leader, and we need you, and trying to make that process easier for for people and for for all members of NACADA to know that, you know, there's a pathway for leadership for everyone, and it doesn't look the same, and there's so many opportunities for you to get involved and for you to have an impact. So a lot of the work I served on a subcommittee that did a webinar or a online virtual meeting in June, and that was a lot of fun. Matt was one of our guests there. We had some other people who were guests, sharing their experiences and giving advice on how people can get involved. We have a lot of initiatives, really looking at developing courses or information that will help people through the transition into positions, so that they feel like they can go out and and do what they need to do with their initiatives, with their positions, those types of things, yeah.

Matt Markin  
And I think one of the things that came out of that, that session, like from all the panelists, was, yeah, there are direct pathways to things, there are elections, there are appointed positions, but many of the opportunities, many of us kind of just stumbled upon or because we had already put ourselves out there in something else. It was like, Oh, well, that person might be interested. Maybe you can shoulder tap, or, you know, you just are given, not necessarily given a position, but it's like, here's an opportunity. Do you want to try it? And you can say no, but it's like, will that opportunity to come about again, maybe not. So might as well say yes and see how it goes. Now, maybe connected to that is, you know, you were talking about being a conference chair for the region, for one of the region conferences, the one a few years ago back in Vegas, which ended up being a tri region conference. So you're one of a few conference co chairs. Can you talk about how that opportunity came about?

Jordan Truex  
Yeah, I was on the region steering committee, in my position that I'm still in right now, the communications coordinator, and there was a, hey, we need someone. Anyone interested? And I was like. I am. I love I love conferences. I they've Nakata conferences have really impacted my growth as an advisor, and the people I know, like I've met, wonderful people network did really well. And so I was just really excited that the opportunity kind of was presented, and I got to grab it and got to work with fabulous people, Erica and Janelle And Maria trying to put that conference together. And we had a really man, I think we had over 800 people, or close to 800 people at that conference. And I felt like it was really an amazing experience. It it was awesome.

Ryan Scheckel  
So what does the communications coordinator do for a region? How? How are you serving advisors across what is it five states? So so much space as well. What does that look like on like a regular basis for you, the role of communications coordinator for region 10.

Jordan Truex  
So I manage our Instagram and Facebook pages for the region. I also created a LinkedIn page for the region 10. So managing socials, putting out communications when we have them about upcoming events or things, helping institutions post jobs, about opportunities within our region, and then meeting on a monthly basis with the rest of the region 10 steering committee, talking about initiatives, upcoming things, conferences, those types of things, really helping bring that together for advisors within our region.

Matt Markin  
Quickly, going back to the PhD, I know you said some of your classes are asynchronous, but some of your professors have, like the office hours, and I'm sure you've taken advantage of chatting with them and learning from them. Have there been any professors that you want to shout out?

Jordan Truex  
I have to shout out my major professor, Dr. Yang, she's amazing. Dr. Craig McGill has also been a fabulous mentor for me in terms of helping me be the helping me learn and grow in a lot of ways and stretch. That's been really helpful. So those are the two that I'd give a shout out to.

Ryan Scheckel  
I often think about what academic advising gives to us, the privilege we have to sit with students in those vulnerable places and situations And and to be present in those moments is can very quickly become overwhelming or the dominant thought of what we get, but the community of the profession, whether it's on a campus or in a region or globally, or whatever it is and now asynchronously through these sort of interactions as well too. Is there anything that you feel like is a through line from the the many places you've connected with academic advising and and been fed or gotten back from it? Is there a through line that you feel really sums up so far this journey.

Jordan Truex  
it goes back to building relationships and striving for, like, striving to find good in the world, but really networking and just building relationships. I think one of my the biggest gratitude moment I can have for NACADA is that it has connected to me, connected me to fabulous mentors, and given me opportunities that I never expected that were possible. This last summer, I had the opportunity to I received the West Hadley scholarship to attend the institute, the Institute for academic advising, this summer, and that was an incredible opportunity to continue networking with people in a very intensive experience, to have one week Where we are all working on action plans for ourselves and for institutions individually, but then the collaboration and the conversations that we're having that help each other, the feedback that we received, and I think that's one of the things that I love the most about NACADA, is that it's it's this experience where you can learn from one another, and you meet other people who can help you achieve more than what you would think as an academic advisor would be possible. And that goes back to your students, and it goes back to your interactions with your institutions. And so I. I think the most powerful aspect of advising is building positive, strong, caring relationships with one another.

Matt Markin  
That's so so special. And as we wind down with this interview, we started with a non work advising question, talking about editing books, maybe we end with something else non work related. You also do a lot of traveling. We were talking right before we started recording about it. You know, I've seen many of your social media posts of your travels. Talk to me about what you got, where you've been this year, what you got going on the rest of this year?

Jordan Truex  
Yeah. So this year, I had the amazing opportunity to go to Japan. My best friend's husband works for the Air Force, and they are currently in Okinawa. And so I went to Japan. I went for a week on my own to the mainland, and for a week, had an amazing experience. I was blown away by the Japanese culture, by their infrastructure, just blew my mind. And then got to spend two weeks with my friend and her family in Okinawa, and I hadn't seen them for a year, so it was really nice to just take time to be with them. Take some time away, not answer emails, not do anything work related, and just kind of enjoy being with them. I do love traveling, and a lot of my travels are inadvertent, like they're not planned. It just kind of happens with me editing books. I go to a lot of like book conferences, and so this next year I'm going to Texas and Kansas, Kansas City for some signings. Those are planned. And then for Christmas, my family's going to the Caribbean on a cruise. We're really excited. We went to Mexico this last Christmas together, and it was one of the most awesome Christmas experiences. So we're going to do that again together this year.

Matt Markin  
Think if anything, if people see at the conference, they can also ask you, like, hey, it can be my travel agent.

Jordan Truex  
You know, I need another job. Why not just add it to the list. Just add it to the list.

Matt Markin  
Well, Jordan, this was a very fun interview. Got to learn more about you and yeah, just everything that that you're doing. I hope you know with these travels as well, you're able to relax and kind of have your own wellness away from work. But Jordan, thank you so much for being on the podcast with us.

Jordan Truex  
Thank you guys so much. I appreciate it.