Cameron currently works in higher education as the Assistant Director of Student Activities at Campbell Univeristy. She completed her undergraduate degree at UNC-Wilmington, fell in love with the college environment, and completed her graduate degree at USC. She loves sushi, laughing until she cries, and her two kittens. Read her post here.
Danielle Thomas enjoys time with her loved ones, meeting new people in small groups, and her career as a Higher Education professional. She has her most meaningful reflections while writing, watching a good movie, and among nature. Danielle grew up across the world with her family in many places due to the military and to this day loves to travel. She thrives in environments helping people and giving back to the community. Read her post here.
Ashley Msikinya was born and raised in Chesapeake, Virginia but has lived in the Hoosier state for more than a decade. She is a proud IUPUI Jaguar after completing her bachelors in Psychology, masters through the Indiana University Higher Education and Student Affairs program, and working in various roles at the university since that time. She most recently moved back to the states from the Commonwealth of Dominica (no, not Dominican Republic) where her husband attended medical school and will once again be working for IUPUI over the summer doing advising for incoming students during Orientation. Ashley, her husband, and their cat (who is now an international traveler and is also quite convinced he is a dog) will be embracing the craziness of life and seeing where the next year takes them as med school life continues! Read her post here.
Russell C Aivazian currently serves as a Resident Director at the University of Kentucky. Living in all four time zones during his life, Russell calls Salt Lake City, Utah home. Russell received his Bachelor of Arts in Business Management from Seattle University and his Master’s in Higher Education from Loyola University Chicago. Russell enjoys travel and movies and looks forward to completing the Bourbon Trail this summer! You can follow Russell on Twitter (@raivazian), Instagram (@russellaivaizan), and Facebook. Russell is also author of the blog, “Russ Around the Edges,” which can be found at russellaivazian.wordpress.com. Read his post here.
Lauren is a Michigan girl who is a proud alumni of Eastern Michigan University (Go EAGLES)! Throughout her time as an Eagle, she worked with first year experience, Admissions, Greek life, leadership, advising and the Alternative Breaks program. She currently lives in Missouri, working as an Academic Success Coach mentoring students on probation and teaches courses focusing on academic success at Northwest Missouri State University. Lauren enjoys riveting conversations around social justice, feminism, and diversity and inclusion. When she is not chasing tornadoes, you can find her training for her next big race, watching Parenthood reruns, or planning her next vacation. Connect with her on LinkedIn or Facebook, and follow her fitness journey on Instagram and Twitter @Lauren_Shack25. Read her post here.
Caroline Horste is a lifelong Michigander, nature-lover, and INFJ. She holds a degree in College Counseling from Eastern Michigan University, where she works as a coordinator for Transfer & Family Programs. When Allison asked her to write a guest post for Successful Failures, she said “yes” immediately: most of her heroes (Jonas Salk; Amy Poehler; Bill Watterson; so many more!!) are people who failed over and over again, but learned something new every single time. She believes that the key to failing successfully is in allowing space to acknowledge a mistake and soak up its lessons, and then getting up every day and trying again – and again, and again. She also believes that the key to being energized instead of drained by this business of “trying again” is uniquely and beautifully different for each person – but for her, it lies in surrounding oneself, along the way, with bad jokes, good people, pretty flowers, pie every day, and millions and millions of puppy videos. Read her post here.
Justin Gerardot
Justin is a born and raised Hoosier, attended Huntington University for undergrad and IU Higher Education and Student Affairs for his Master’s degree. He lives in Indianapolis, IN with Alli Barkel, his partner of five years Austin Schenkel, and his pet ferret Ruth Bader Ginsburg, or Rue for short. He is an ENTJ, loves nerdy things, and his social media of choice is YouTube. He is a card-carrying member of NPR and is a rather unsuccessful indoor botanist. His many titles include “Sass Master 9000,” “The Sassy State,” and “The Fun Sucker” – titles which he embraces endearingly. Read his post here.
Zach is currently a Residence Hall Director at the Illinois Institute of Technology in beautiful Chicago, IL. Prior to moving to Chicago, Zach received his B.S. in Elementary Education in 2012 from Southern Illinois University Edwardsville and went on to get his M.Ed. in Higher Education & Student Affairs from Indiana University in 2015. Zach’s student affairs interests include social justice, success & retention for queer students, and hiring/selection processes. Zach’s non-professional interests include the art of drag, attempting to run, and competitive reality television.Feel free to follow Zach on Instagram and Twitter, @ZachMSanderson. Read his post here.
Cassidy Sansone is a self-described “Texas expat” who hails from San Angelo, Texas, and currently lives in the beautiful city of Charlotte, North Carolina. She works as an Assistant Director for Student Involvement at UNC Charlotte, where she advises the Campus Activities Board, Homecoming Committee, Student Government Association, and more. In her free time, you can find her exploring local restaurants and breweries, hiking, consuming all the pop culture she can, and/or sleeping, her favorite pastime. Feel free to reach out via Twitter @cassidysansone, or to email her at csanson1@uncc.edu. Read her post here.
Jason is a Southern boy: born, raised, and mostly educated in Virginia (don’t try and tell him Virginia’s not part of the South…he’ll fight you on that). He has a bachelor’s in Psychology from the University of Richmond, and will graduate with his master’s degree in Higher Education & Student Affairs from Indiana University in May 2016. His professional passions lie in wellness promotion, fraternity & sorority life, and student leadership. Personal passions include political drama (fiction and nonfiction), cooking, and dreaming about how nice and easy and leisurely it would be to be a college professor (he’ll be sorely disappointed someday). Follow him on Twitter at @JasonD13! Read Jason’s post here.
Joe is a Ohioan living in Southwest Virginia missing professional baseball and is a proud graduate of Bowling Green State University (‘11) and Virginia Tech (‘15). Joe enjoys spending time with his best friend and wife and being the best pug dad in the world. In his free time, he serves as the Assistant Director of Student Government Advising at Virginia Tech to help support and enact positive change on campus. Read his boring tweets by following @Joe_Edens_ or drop him a line at jedens@vt.edu. Read Joe’s post here.
Shannon graduated with her Bachelors (English/Professional Writing) from the University of North Carolina Wilmington. Her love for UNCW and Wrightsville Beach runs so deep she stayed in Wilmington another 4 years working as an Admissions Counselor while completing her Masters in Higher Education. The perpetual student, she now lives in Dublin, Ireland, and is due to complete her Masters in Business Management at Trinity College this summer. She loves traveling, cooking, reading non-fiction, sports (go Yankees!), and Instagram meme accounts. Follow her on Instagram @ShannonRodenheiser (even though she doesn’t have a funny meme account), and connect with her on LinkedIn at https://ie.linkedin.com/in/srodenheiser . Read Shannon’s post here.
Chelsea Wheeler is a human woman, 25.5 years of age, who currently resides in Metro Detroit. The main characteristic of her personality is “tired”, followed by “sarcastic”. She is in a long term, committed relationship with Netflix, but occasionally steps out with Hulu and HBOGO on the side. Chelsea’s one and only pass time that might actually be considered a hobby is studying to one day be on Jeopardy! (yes, really). Her favorite color is pink, and her least favorite foods are a tie between asparagus and brussel sprouts. In her spare time, Chelsea likes to pet dogs. Any dogs. All the dogs. If you have a dog, please go find her. And bring the dog. Read Chelsea’s post here.
Olivia Perry is a junior at North Carolina State University majoring in Fashion and Textile Management. In the future, she hopes to become a Physician Assistant. She is well aware that her choice of major is unrelated to her career aspirations, but chose to remain a Textile major solely because the vast knowledge of fibers she has accumulated may one day help her win celebrity Jeopardy. In her free time, Olivia likes to eat burritos, listen to audiobooks, and try (and fail) to learn the boney landmarks of the axial skeleton. She hopes you don’t judge her based off this article as she wrote it at 4 in the morning, which you can read here.
Melissa is a tried-and-true ENFJ and works in educational outreach and public affairs at a Japan-related nonprofit organization in Washington, DC. After (and during—and before) her full-time job, she is a poet and fiction writer, and her work has been published in both online and print publications. She loves museums where you can touch things and really hates the question “where are you from?” for a number of reasons. You can follow her on Twitter @lissasaurus, if you are into reading about things that don’t make any sense. Read Melissa’s post here.
Jessie Ashton graduated from the University of Alabama with a B.S. in Kinesiology and a minor in Spanish. Throughout her undergraduate work, she worked with first year experience, admissions, Greek life, athletics, leadership, and conduct. This involvement led to her saying “goodbye” to a career in medicine, and “hello” to Indiana University, where she is almost finished with her M.S.Ed. in Higher Education & Student Affairs. She works as a Graduate Advisor to the Indiana Memorial Union Office of Activities & Events, where one of her primary responsibilities is to advise the Union Board. She also works as a Graduate Intern to Student Life & Learning, where she co-advises Student Organization Ethics Board and seven Greek chapters at IU. As an alumna of Pi Beta Phi Fraternity for Women, she serves on the Alumnae Advisory Council for Franklin College’s Indiana Alpha chapter of Pi Beta Phi. She’s in a complicated relationship with nachos, cheese platters, and Taco Bell, and in her free time, she loves swimming competitively, yoga, and travelling the world. Read Jessie’s post here.
Stefanie Norris is originally from Virginia Beach, VA and completed her undergraduate work at Longwood University. Another Student Affairs nerd, Stefanie completed her Masters in College Student Personnel Administration from James Madison University. She moved to Wilmington, NC in May of 2010 when she accepted a job advising The Association for Campus Entertainment and has bled teal ever since. Now a newlywed and a Surf City resident, she remains at UNCW as the Director of Campus Life Arts and Programs where she still gets to change lives and live the programming dream. Stefanie enjoys cooking, friends, traveling, and the beach. She loves to be a hostess both on campus and in her new home and would love to connect with you! Find her on twitter & instagram @steffy4231 and connect on Facebook and LinkedIn. Read Stefanie’s blog post here.
Ben is living, learning, and singing “Let It Go” all through the streets and mountains of Boulder, Colorado. He works at CU Boulder in Student Involvement and is passionate. He is in a transition of life where it’s about saying yes to the things that matter, no to the things that don’t, and moving forward without shame or fear. Connect with him on Linkedin, Facebook , or on twitter @benmwilliams! Life, Love, and make mistakes along the way! Read Ben’s post here.
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