 Hi everyone and welcome along to another episode of UCAT Conference TV, I'm Colom Cronin from the Adventures in Advising podcast and today I am delighted to be joined by a friend, a colleague, the fantastic and now the proud holder of the inaugural Charlie Nutt Award from UCAT and LVSA. Gavin Farber, Gavin how are you doing sir? I'm doing good today Colom, it's an honor to be here. Well I'm delighted to have the opportunity to talk to you, I've been fortunate to know you now for a few years, I know what great work you do and I'm delighted that you're getting that recognition for it but before we maybe delve into the award, for viewers out there who you know may be less familiar with you, can you talk to me Gavin I suppose a little bit about you know your your current work and your involvement with UCAT? Sure, so I work as an academic advisor at Temple University, we're a large urban university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in the United States. We have just over 40,000 undergrad and graduate students, I work particularly with our students in the first and second year in the Fox School of Business and Management, so typically they are traditional college age, so usually 18, 19, 20 year olds, some non-traditional in that mix, some military, former military students are in that mix, adult learners over the age of 25, but yeah predominantly in my role I am helping to help students find what academic discipline or department they want to declare, do they want to study abroad in their time, what the whole you know obviously we're on the four-year system not the three-year system that we see in the UK and throughout the EU and pretty much non-American world predominantly and that to me is so fascinating and also you know I teach seminar classes so seminars in the States are very different from what we see sort of in seminars in Europe and the UK systems, we might consider a seminar like a seven-week course about you know introducing a new college student to university life, how to study, how not to do plagiarism, how to you know get involved in activities on campus and so I teach classes like that and we've discovered over the years that we've had to create ones for different populations so this past semester I started a transfer seminar which would be equivalent to FE students coming into the university system and the UK and the UK and Ireland system so that's been thrilling and I also do a class for exploratory students who want to find what discipline they want to do and we collaborate a lot with faculty as well in our role so it's a little bit of everything we do just like if any academic advisor, tutor or study advisor and not every day is different and that's what I love about a career in higher education is that every day is different and your calendar looks different and if it was the same Monday through Friday 9 to 5 I would not be in that career anymore so there you go. Well you are wonderful at juggling all of the different aspects and I want to give a shout out to Philly as somebody who spent a month there when I was 17 working on a Habitat for Humanity project it's always had a special place in my heart and I hope to get back there in the not too distant future so we covered your day today tell me about how an advisor at Philly gets involved with UCAT. That's a great question so I first learned about UCAT when I had gone to the International Nakata Conference in Dublin where we met back in 2018 and I met David Gray who I was just enthralled by and thought this man is very interesting and you know started just learning about the world outside of North American advising and that there were these other affiliated groups that were part of Nakata UCAT being one of them and then the following year when we were in Belgium together and I got to meet Anne Bingham who is also a member of UCAT and we were talking about our roles and what we were doing and I just sort of decided in 2020 it was time to join UCAT to really support the mission and support our global partnerships and because I work in Nakata's advising communities they had these special interest groups that are very similar to what an advising community is and Anne asked me to come on to work with them. It was a role she previously had so between David and myself and Dave Lockney you know I've been able to work with some of those communities over the last you know academic year and it's been super fun to be on the Executive Committee and I really feel like UCAT's a big family so just like Nakata's a big family why not jump in with another family and just make it a little larger it's your extended family from across the pond. Fantastic but it is not just your work at Temple it is not just your work with Nakata it is not just your work with UCAT Gavin has yet more strings to his bow which is one of one of the myriad reasons why you won the Charlie Not Award and for you know for viewers I suppose can you you know talk to me a little bit about when you discovered that you were going to win the award and you know the work that that led to to winning the award. Absolutely so I'm still floored I won the award I I met Oscar from LVSA at my first annual Nakata back in 2017 in St. Louis, Missouri and I just knew him as just the Dutch guy like the friendly Dutch person like the guy that you go to talk about research and things like that and and I just came to realize you know that there was something extra there with the work with LVSA so again it was just this love of the world and love of exploring and you know as I sort of climbed up in Nakata leadership taking over the advisor training and development advising community you know in the summer of 19 you know I got an email from a colleague an American working in Australia named Suzanne Sealy who said help I need help with training and development and mentoring I've got these advisors who are new to the field they're not new to higher Australia but some of them are just I need help and and I and I say it brilliantly that we're in the helping field so you don't say no you say yes and you embrace it and you make those challenges that you might have you just work with it and so I actually remember going to my supervisor and explained to her like hey that Nakata role I have with being in charge well I'm now working with on the Australian institution so there'll be days when I need to stay late in the office or you know take calls or do something and they were quite supportive of that and and so for the last almost two years along with other Nakata partners and friends you know we've been working with this particular University of La Trobe in Melbourne and that advising staff went from about two professional advisors to a staff of 21 now and and we did this exploratory mentoring program in November of 19 and then unfortunately the pandemic hit so that cohort kind of got a little jagged but we are kicking off a second cohort of mentors from a larger pool of countries before we were just focusing on mentees just from La Trobe and that didn't feel very inclusive and so as we were talking to different partners like David and Oscar and you know me I was just going through the Nakata membership and just looking up countries and there was a manager named Tina from a school called Massey in New Zealand who I said I want to email her and see if there's something we could do to help them and she wrote back saying I got a mentor but can you take on two mentees and I said absolutely and then working with LVSA there was a Dutch advisor who wrote to me and said maybe a mentee absolutely you know and just calling people that we knew in Japan and China and you know throughout the world you know and calling upon column you and your friends in Ireland and we have four volunteers from Ireland now the variant part was that we had more mentors than mentees this time but that's okay I made sure that you know as many of our colleagues that put in their applications first got in but you know that's the thing when you do mentoring for a living on top of your other job you might as well go from an institutional model just what I do at Temple and what I do maybe regionally within my little mid-Atlantic region of Nakata we said why don't we just do it globally and see what happens and say you know what this person from New Zealand should talk to this person in Ireland and they may work well or this Australian talking to an American might do some real help and vice versa you know there's been a lot of talk at UCAT this week about intercultural communication and that's so important there's classes on it you know one of my girlfriends teaches at class now at a university we went to in our undergrad and it's brilliant that it came full circle she took the class as an undergrad and now she teaches it go figure and and and so important because the dialogue has to continue and it's sort of what Charlie's legacy is in not just Nakata but UCAT or LVSA it's just you know I had to explain to my dad yesterday he was on the couch next to me when I had won the award and I had said to him that Charlie for example with Wendy Traxel who's head of our research they were in China for like two weeks at least one year just meeting advisors in China they were in Beijing and you know figuring out what that advising landscape looks like and the fact that they're fearless as long as you get on the plane your passport gets stamped you get off the plane you start meeting people and and you have to be fearless I think in this industry because there's a lot of there's a lot of roadblocks and red tape we quote-unquote go through in this industry and you know as much as we have to do that it's worth it at the end I think this work makes me a better practitioner too you know as much as I love my students and I love helping them as much as I can we as practitioners if we're gonna last and retain in the industry I have to connect with people I'm a connector but I like being connected as well and it makes me feel fulfilled and yes it's long work days where you might be up you know 19 20 hours a day and you pass out and you only get four hours of sleep that night but I know I'm doing something that's bettering myself now awards are great you know and it's a piece of you know piece of paper whatever it is I still don't believe I win stuff you know because it's just it's what I do it's my passion you know what I mean um so it's very honorable when you when you when you hear Charlie nut saying beautiful things about you because I just want to say beautiful things about him well I think your work is a test is the best test when you can do you you're carrying on that legacy and it brings a couple of things to my one I talked to Charlie last night and I think that when Charlie moves into retirement I don't know if you've seen Last Chance You and they always have like the advisors kind of in the background I think we should just do Last Chance You academic advising but it's Charlie not on tour around the world so Charlie revisits China or Charlie goes to New Zealand but that's my idea for sure but I love what you're you're talking about and your summation of your work and the fact that it's growing so much and I am going to give a plug at this point to the fact that you came on and you spoke to Matt Markin and I on the Adventures in Advising podcast with Suzanne Sealy another brilliant advisor both of you absolutely fantastic and for people who want to hear more about the the work that Gavin and Suzanne did at putting that together at La Trobe check out episode 20 of Adventures in Advising it is a longer discussion and is really fantastic to get to hear both sides of how it kind of came together really interesting and I suppose then now you've talked about what you've put you know you're already on to the second group of mentors and mentees and it has grown further I'm wondering you know what else is in store for Gavin Farber in 2021 you know an amazing project you know and again you meet people and along working with Charlie I work with Terry Farr who's currently on the board of directors of Nakata and you know I had said to someone I was working with my executive board of the training and development and you see and it was last May or something or last June we were just talking on our executive board and we were like wanting to be great to do like a series at the time we thought we were going back in August of 2020 back to our offices because we didn't know what COVID was going to do and they're like wanting to be great if we did like sort of just a little like you know an hour like returning to campus and I mentioned it to Terry and she's that's a great idea I want to mention it to the board and the council so working with Charlie originally was going to be just one or two talks with just advising administrators what that's exploded we now have done six talks we've focused on peer advisors we've done training and development we've done two-year college representatives we've done you know just different populations that we wanted to be heard you know we're having one just on Canadian advisors in June we're doing another one with administrators kind of part three of the administrative perspective in May working with the GGI the the Global Initiatives Committee with Susan Corner out of the University of Victoria she's really interested in the stuff I'm doing and I sent her we really need to do one for Austria and New Zealand we need to do one with Japan and maybe China we need to think about one specifically with maybe a Dutch and an English and Irish perspective and seeing what you know Eve and Melissa were talking about yesterday about their discussions and I thought that would be a great panel of six for 90 minutes and let the North American population meet one some great people from those countries and areas but also know that what we talked about yesterday in that group session for over an hour is what everyone's been going through and it's the same positions it's different titles similar students different languages but again I think people in our industry and I think maybe it's an American perspective because we're not I mean I was given an atlas at the age of three go at my mom but not every person's given an atlas and giving a perspective on globalizing yourself and seeing a world I think sometimes we're just very set and sort of where we're from in our communities and we don't think like oh wow someone across the world might be going through the same thing that I'm going through and and those conversations will continue I like doing small groups of six or eight put them on zoom for an hour and a half and just let them talk let people talk put a Q&A in and it goes really well um and those are the things I like to organize it's almost like I'm not a person that would design dinner parties for 20 I would be a does I would be a dinner party person for no more than eight maybe six I like to go out to dinner with one person you know I mean and this post in this COVID world I'm not going out the unless you have the vaccine as well and you've waited weeks like that's the thing I like that you you say I you know I had dinner party for six yeah but you'd have those dinner parties every night of the week because everything that Gavin Farmer touches just grows you are you are king Midas I feel fair fair play see I asked that question I didn't know what the answer was going to be but I knew there'd be something I knew Gavin had something he was he was working on and it's fantastic to hear and like look you you really are you know pushing the boundaries of the profession and you're connecting people and you're ensuring that we grow we develop and I think that is you know Charlie took the baton you you're now taking the baton on as well I mean there and there's loads of great work you've mentioned some of the people there and there are there are others there's so much great work going on across the the sector it's it's fabulous to to see and you know you might be surprised that you're winning awards Gavin it is not a surprise to those of us who know you and who want to continue to see you do great things so look I want to just say thank you for taking the time to check to me at early relatively early in the morning for for you congratulations again on winning the award it's fantastic and I look forward to you know continuing to meet with you virtually but hopefully meeting you in person in the not too distant future you know I can't wait till I can go back to Dublin I love your city I love your country I want to explore the entire country and it's not just because of the shows I watch on the BBC America but come back do please get it get a group I know I know that Rhonda was talking about coming back Charlie is talking about coming back I think Nakata on tour Ireland 2022 I think 17th March 2022 hopefully we're post COVID Nakata does St Patrick's Day in Ireland what do you think oh that would be brilliant and we'll get you Kat and LVSA as well you know what because they'll be in Scotland next year so it's just a short little ride get on the Air Lingus you know what get Air Lingus get Air Lingus to sponsor it and they could have our logos on the jets and you could just it could be like the Victoria's Secret Angels but it could be like little jackets we get with the logos like we're not angels we're just advisors Gavin Farber this has been fantastic thank you very much oh you're welcome column anytime I can talk to you is a pleasure and a treat