 Okay, everyone. So our presenter today is Dr. James K. Winfield. Dr. Winfield serves as the Associate Dean for the first year experienced General Education and Retention Strategies at Southern New Hampshire University's Global Campus. He's a proud first-gen graduate with extensive experience in first-year programs, teaching, designing curriculum, and leading faculty development. Dr. Winfield's dissertation and his research interests are focused on the career self-efficacy and academic major decisions of low-income first-generation college students. He enjoys examining pop culture to unpack narratives on first-gen characters and college themes in film and television. He's a fan of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and he enjoys spending time with his family. Dr. Winfield, thank you for being here with us today. All right, Sam, thank you so much. I'm looking forward to this time that we have today just to talk about the first-gen brand and what that means. So bear with me for a second as I proceed with the transitional part of this and making certain that my presentation uploads. So I'm going to go ahead and do that and then we will go ahead and get started. I have a difficult time with silence. How is everybody doing today? Well, okay, okay. Excited to be here. Barely made it, but we made it. We're here. Yeah, yeah, I get that. I feel you. Okay, seems like we're ready. Thank you, James. So, James, we could see your screen and now we cannot. Is that intentional? Okay. All right, yeah. Good. Pulled up on the wrong spot. So just want to make sure I got that situated. All right, so welcome everyone. So glad that you're here and looking forward to talking about the first-gen brand. So often when we hear brand, we don't usually hear about it aligned with being, you know, being first-gen. And in this dialogue, I'm hoping for us to have an enriching conversation about what that looks like. How does it manifest? And I'm going to lean into a couple of anecdotes and a couple of points that I'm aware of to ensure that we're able to walk through this confidently and to ensure that you know that you have everything that you need in order to make this work. So as Sam introduced me, she talked about a couple of these things, but I think it's best to just kind of offer that human lens because I am a person, right? So often we hear, we get in these sessions and then we hear individuals talk about what they do, not necessarily who they are. And that leans into the concept of brand because it's a lot of storytelling whether you realize it or not. And I'm going to walk you through a couple of tools to do that. So my name is James Winfield. I'm also known as Dr. Jay by a lot of my students. They've just, that's just been pegged and coined with me for some time now. And it makes a little more informal as well, but maintains I guess the prestige of being, you know, in this field as well. So that's been a really cool, funny thing that's kind of developed over the time over my students. I'm a native of Birmingham, Alabama. I'm a point of my actually upbringing and identity that I take full pride in, because as you may know from history lessons of Birmingham, Alabama is one of the main arteries of the civil rights movement. So that has a huge influence of my pride and my race, how it was brought up and along with the struggles and triumphs that people have made to ensure that I among others have the opportunities that we have today. I'm now a first generation college student as it was spoken of earlier. In addition to that I've been working in higher education and multiple capacities for about 15 years. And then from that, as mentioned, I am a family man, I love the Marvel Cinematic Universe, I am a food enthusiast so I'm an unofficial food critic. I'm a foodie I love just trying experiencing culture through cuisine so that's just a part of who I am as well. And just wanted to share those little anecdotes because sometimes in introductions, you know, you may not necessarily get that part, but wanted to share that with you all. So the objectives of what we're going to talk about today, brand definition, what does that mean, then we're going to talk about your unique brand and how to develop it, and then leveraging that brand to benefit you and continued success. So brand recognition. Right. So if you think about brand recognition there is often, you know, you go in the store, there are certain logos, there are certain things that you see and you're like, I know what that is you don't even have to like the name doesn't have to be on it but there's something iconic about it that stands out and it resonates with you. And just bear with me. I want to play just a quick game with you all regarding brand recognition. So I'm unable to truly like be in the chat but I can pretty much extract what you all are going to probably share regarding some of these. So what I'm going to do is show some logos and from that I want you in the chat just to kind of put in there. What do you associate with that logo, it can be a saying it can be what it is. It can be anything that you associate with it. Alright, so we're going to do this over just with a few that I've selected to link on that for a couple of seconds. All right, EA Sports. If you have played any kind of sports games I mean they have a sports has a brand that extends decades. I'm talking back to when I was a child and playing Sega Genesis games. I'm not going to say when that was. But with that, when you would put the game in the console, even now and in the PS5 or whatever you may choose to play, EA Sports is in the game. They have a recognition that spans because they have capitalized on everything from Madden to WWE games right so we recognize that and you see that and you know that they are the company that produces the best and the most athletics games. Alright, next one. It's a very iconic image. Pretty sure that a lot of people will have something to say about this one. Okay. Alright, this is the infamous silhouette of Michael Jordan, a number 23 of the bulls came back with the 45, but he is known for his shoes change the game, literally, and with that this image itself says flight, it says air it says jump man right so we associate that with this particular brand. And this one. A couple of seconds on that. Another silhouette. Alright. Coca Cola is what this is the bottle speaks for itself. The bottle is actually trademark so no one else can actually use it from our research. If you go to the south and would actually frequent them going to the Coca Cola factory and in the scene how they do the production and everything so it's very unique. But with that, Coca Cola brand is gone for some time now. And with that, their mantra is typically enjoy right just enjoy, and they want you to enjoy this beverage and over the years they kind of add things to it but the bottle itself. And the moment you start like oh yeah, I know exactly what that is. And this one, I think you all might know this one. Think some of you might know this one. Alright, so I'm sure in the chat I'm seeing go blue go Wolverines associated with the University of Michigan Congrats on the championship. It has this image is a line with your institution and it has a brand right something you connect to right. You can think about the educational experience you can think about the athletic experience, all of that is associated with a logo a brand that extracts that from you you're able to say you know what, I recognize that or I have a memory associated with it. So that same feeling is what I want to help empower you all to have when individuals see your name, your likeness, all these other components to ensure that your brand stands out. So in the chat I just want to know like what is brand. What do you what is brand in the context of what we're probably going to talk about today. What do you feel is brand. Oh, sorry, James. I was just going to offer that folks could also unmute themselves for a moment. Yeah, learn it out. Okay, someone. Oh, can you see the chat. Yeah, I pulled it up on my other screen. I see how you represent your identity and background. That's good. What you stand for something you leverage to make money or gain recognition. How people recognize you and what you're good at. I like that. Any other all values. Okay. Okay. Keep them coming. Okay, well that's a good start. That's a really good start. And what I want to do is actually go into a couple of components of what that might mean, or what it can mean for you. So there's a great article by Kara Denison that came out last year that impacts personal branding and how it's important to build yours. But what I want to do is talk about a couple of points from that. And Denison talks about brand from really merging the personal and professional. Sometimes you hear it is disaggregated you'll hear okay you need your personal brand you need your brand. But as the professional landscape is shifted. In many ways, they're one in the same right because many people realize that it's hard to have a professional brand and not put yourself in that because your work is you right or part of you. So how do you disaggregate that. In that definition along what stands out the most that I want you to take away from that and feel free to look that up it's pretty accessible piece. I'm it's Kara Denison. Your brand is your story. It's your position within your industry. And it's your values and beliefs. And what was great about what you all put in the chat. In many ways, you put every single component of that word it slightly differently or directly or indirectly. And that is what this is about. So when I think about brand I think about certain key figures, certain people in the media. You think about TikTok influencers you think about YouTube influencers when we calmly think about brand. But I wanted to like pivot that a little bit because you know many of us are not influencers yet but we can be influencers in our space of what we do and how to take that same mindset and pull it into the work that we do. I think about Jay Z. Jay Z is an acclaimed rapper who has had a career that has spanned decades, but also also he's a great entrepreneur, considering his brands with various beverages. He did a stint with clothing lines, and then also his partnership with the NFL particularly with the halftime shows he has some say within that piece and garnered that relationship over the past couple of years but he said that my brands are an extension of me. They're close to me. So that lens into that definition and I was speaking to earlier where it's hard to disaggregate the two right so they build upon each other and they inform one another. Dan Shambl who is an author and workplace expert. I might follow him on LinkedIn and a lot of his work that he puts out. He has a lot of great things to say as far as really keeping a pulse of workplace and what careers and trajectories are moving along out there. But he says your personal brand serve as your best protection against business factors you can't control. So what that means is that at the end of the day, if you are with a company or an organization and it may not necessarily be a stable in a certain time, but you have your brand and your work and others see it. Therefore, it can offer and leverage more opportunity for you. So keep that in mind as you move forward like how do you make yourself stand out. I'm not saying that you need to like do all this extra stuff but there are certain things that I think you can do you can focus and really lean on lean into that to ensure that you make the best of your work and that it benefits you and moving forward. But there's another layer of this that has come out when you think about brand and really it aligns with identity. Right. So, Dr. Terry Yasso, she comes from a sociology background but a lot of her work has been really pulled into the work that I do within higher education and empowering students and leveraging something known as social capital. And we all have various levels of social capital is just a matter of how we choose to use it. And with that Yasso says she affirms that identity and its many intersection support and can enrich social capital. Right. So, your identity your identity informs that right so what is a part of you that stands out to you that means something to you doesn't necessarily have to be as unique as you think it needs to be but what means something to you. And then we're going to think about how does that inform your work. And with that identity, Dr. Beverly Tatum, who wrote a phenomenal book some years ago and I'm a real big fan of that text as more as it goes into the newer version while the black kids sitting in the back of the cafeteria. This text outlines the progression of race and identity and she talks about that from her personal experiences along with what is taking place in society. Anyway, with that she talks about identity and the complexities of it. And she talks about how it's shaped by your characteristics, familial dynamics, historical factors, and social and political context, ultimately asking the simple yet grand question, who am I. So think about who am I, or who are you, rather, and how that informs your brand. Right. So we've talked about the capital, the identity, and I really want you to think about that self work. Sometimes I know we don't really get into that as much because we're thinking about okay, the task of what we need to do, but let's align them and think about how do they fuse together. But there are some key questions that Dr. Tatum asked, and I'm going to just spout them off and you don't need to respond to them but I want you to just kind of sit with it. What messages, what messages reflected back to me in the faces of and voices of my teachers my neighborhood store clerks. What do I learn from the media about myself. How am I represented in the cultural images around me. Or am I missing from the picture altogether those questions can help to inform and get you to think critically about the who am I component, and how you maneuver through society, what parts are missing in society and then thinking about how do you feel the gaps. So one thing that I want you all to think about is leveraging your voice. That's a great start to it. And for me, as I start to talk about my process. When I worked at the University of South Carolina. I served as the co chair for our is called the family fun, but it was with our advancement and fundraising in the office. And my job, along with the Dean of the School of Information and communication was that we were charged with this goal to inspire people to raise money to a certain amount of money. Among staff and faculty to contribute to this fund that we have to support efforts of the institution. And with that, I was asked, I was like, Oh, they were asking me, okay, what, what do you want to say, and the publication that's going to come out and the literature that's going to go out to all of your colleagues across the campus. And I initially wrote something, and then immediately rescinded it, because it was very general, it was very basic. And I was like, wait a minute, I need to incorporate what I'm passionate about and then I thought about I often give money to our first college student efforts because that's what I identify as. So I was like, let me talk about that. So what I did is I chose to leverage my social media and do that. And I reached, you know, rescinded my quote and submitted another one. And this is what came out and I had people to stop me on campus and say thank you James really for talking about that. I'm first gen. I didn't know that we had these efforts on campus and I want to support that. And then also in that same time we had a huge campaign to increase the level of support for first gen students. So I remember just making this, this tweet. I know it's called x now so it's more of a post, but I made this tweet and then like the provost, all these other people started going on to it and repost to get and granted the frequency is just 52 and five, you know, retweets, but it was who retweeted right that really helped to elevate that. So I wanted to share that as a way to positive positively leverage your passions. And this was essentially some of the beginnings of me building a brand as well. With that I also write with that I use my voice to change the narrative at my institution. I realized that there was not really any, you know, space or pieces that really talked about how faculty can support first generation college students. And I was like, okay, let me write about it. So that was something that I was proficient in that's something that I knew something I was passionate about. Therefore, let me write about it so that Southern New Hampshire University I wrote this piece. And of course you see the picture of a proud first gen alum of the institution. And in that piece I talked about, you know, in your discussions in your introductions talking about being first gen, using the official icon that we have that shows at your first gen. And also with first gen celebration day that that comes up in November. How do you lean into that conversation as well. So leveraging what's existing or was not existing and just starting the conversation because I love like within my courses I'm teaching another course this term on kind of cultural awareness. And with that I start off by saying hey, I'm Dr. Jay, and I told them where I'm from, I told them when I do how long I've been in the field but I also tell them hey I'm a proud first gen student like many of you. And with that you won't believe how many students will reply with oh wow like thank you for saying that. I'm glad to see that there's somebody that can understand the challenges. Granted they might not necessarily you know ask me about it all the time, but in the initial introduction we talk about your identity, and how that informs your communication, and they lean into that and how their worldview plays into how they navigate spaces. With this is a huge thing to strike balance, and it's can be valid it can be very challenging. And this balance is confidence and competence, right. We live in a society where we see a lot of individuals who are very vocal and have big voices big presences and that's, that's good, but you should have the presence but also the knowledge as well. And I empower you all, but all you know whether you know whatever discipline that you're in focus in on the part of it, right, and become so well verse where it's like okay. I know that just continue to immerse yourself, and it can be a certain avenue of it right. I think about one of my peers and undergrad who was in engineering, but was very intrigued by electromagnetics, and that is what has become the pillar in his career is you know, just thinking about a part or an interest that really stands out to you within your field and sometimes it may be a lane that you can carve or say oh it's it's this is absent. So how do I seek to make this more well known. But anyway, with the confidence, knowing you know that you can you might hear a term of self efficacy arise a lot from the sociological sphere, and from the psychology sphere. And that's just your ones capacity to know that they can do something within a certain area, and then an intrinsic motivation making sure that you tap into that, but sometimes we know we get tired, and and that's perfectly fine. Find individuals that can support you. You know there's someone that you can communicate with is there a peer someone that has been in the field for some time that you can communicate with to help build you up and affirm you and that's a huge part of that self advocacy piece, and that competence is knowing the content as I mentioned, and then also I'm really confident in this part and competence seeking resources when you don't know. Look it up, right seek a support or resource that can actually help you to understand a concept of factor a little bit better. For me I think about some of my colleagues when there's something that I'm unsure about. Regarding you know first gen student support which I'm well versed in but there's still so many layers to it. I'll reach out to a one of my colleagues, Maria that works at you know University of Boston so just making sure that I'm able to have that network and that will grow over time. So don't feel like oh gosh I need to do all this stuff right now, continue to build. And as the years go, you will see that not in an actual old school Rolodex but you will have an actual you'll have in your phone or in your email you'll see the names of individuals that you can call on regarding certain aspects of your discipline that can help to support you and help to enrich your knowledge base of what you're seeking to share. This as a first generation college student. For me, there were certain components and nuances of a lot of this that I had, I didn't understand. I was pale eligible I grew up in the west side of Birmingham. I was the first one in my family to go to college to navigate the fast but to do all these these things that were essentially disparate from what my family went through but I didn't know many people with salary jobs. There was a concept that no one really talked about they only knew about hourly wages and I bring that up to show the disconnect that I felt when I was in my job search process. Right. There was definitely an old school mindset of how to go forth and get a job. Right. Oh yeah you just need to get your resume and just like go to these places that's not how it works anymore. That was what I was telling my my great uncle. It's a little bit different is more automated right you have to submit it through this pipeline online and then it gets these algorithms that you know based upon key terms as he ever qualified and then you get to the next point, and then the next point after that. So understanding the process. So as I mentioned previously finding individuals that can support and provide context on that it's very helpful. So you won't feel lost. Of course I know you have career services on your campus but if you can connect with anyone that works in the field that can really help you out as well. I was told to keep your nose down and do your job. That was something that I was told by my parents and other individuals which was not bad advice. But as I began to work I realized what about everything else. Right. I can keep my nose down and do my job in a cubicle and then continually get overlooked for promotions and other areas to excel my career. So that's when I realized that there was a huge emphasis on professional development. So I had to make certain that I went to these conferences that I presented. Sometimes I will say I had to pull back a little bit. I was into that space of excessively at one point. Okay I need to put my name on there but then I realized I needed to just kind of chill and take it easy and balance that perspective of being more intentional. Right. Which presentations were going to hold the most weight so I have colleagues that I co present with versus trying to do them on my own. And we can be more of a force to share insights and best practices. Right. So anyway just wanted to share that nothing wrong with keeping your nose down and doing your job. But there's also other layers that you need to consider with that if you want to be seen and be able to have that influence to expand upon your brand and side hustles were common. I knew individuals who had jobs, not careers coming up. There's a complete difference and what I was seeking to do was have a career, which was not something that I truly saw around me. And so going into that trajectory was something that I had to unpack and kind of sit with as well and do I guess essentially side hustles that connected. To my field of course there are times where it's like okay, it was a little money and I needed to like, okay do something else to just kind of get through a season, but ultimately, my goal is to be an academic administrator. And with that okay I teach to align with that to get my student facing insights and an interaction so really thinking about how does this all marry together. So my story and process. I just want to share with you this is not everything, but I tried to extract a couple of points where I began to know that who am I, right, that I was bringing up earlier that Dr Tatum charges us with. And I remember in my conversation with Sam we were unpacking ideas, you know, for this session, and we talked about the personalization and I want to lean into what what I did not just to say hey this is what I did, but to show you those key points. So well before this even started, I was told that I was first gen by an advisor. An advisor of my orientation program, I served as orientation leader, and I was promoted to the lead orientation team and it was four of us. I was the only person of color, and I was one of two first gen students who served on that. And the other guy didn't even know he was first gen until after we graduate and we were like man that was a missed opportunity for us to connect. But with that, we still keep in touch and that's something we're able to hold on to now. But anyway I started out my career in higher education in 2010. And once I got my master's in higher education administration. And then from there in 2012, I pivoted. I was still in higher education, but I began to work for trio programs, and I was very inspired by the mission of trio programs for those of you who don't know trio is a federally funded pro set of programs that supports first gen college students and I worked at the University of South Carolina with her upper bound program, helping high school students gain access into college to become first gen college students. This was rewarding work for me. And it really filled my bucket to help me to see that there were students that wanted this insight wanted this support and just needed that nudge. And I didn't know that like 98% of my students went on to higher education was great and the remaining 2% went straight into the military. So they all had a pathway to success, right. And then in 2014, the National Resource Center for the first year experience decided to have a first gen Institute that they were hosting nationally, and they were looking for Institute faculty members, and based upon a referral based upon the work done with trio and the state organization I was referred to be a faculty facilitator, and I have been active with that since 2014. And with that I chose that as an opportunity to lean more into the literature, and I was surrounded by all these great students who were also faculty on this Institute, and we became good colleagues and friends, and unintentionally we just kept up with each other and kept each other abreast of what's taking place in the field. From there, I led presentations and helped institutions and help my institution earn the first gen designation through the Center for First Gen Student Success. That was more of a process I led those presentations for years. Then from there I was accepted to my doctoral program in 2018 and immediately I knew what I was going to write on. I knew I was going to write on something orienting around first gen student success. Now we'll say for, like, you know, many of us that are going through the thesis and disortating process we know that that that process can be arduous right you you're going through it and you're trying to figure out how to focus that topic and I had a great advisor that helped me to figure out specifically what to unpack there. And it became what Sam mentioned in my introduction the career self efficacy of first gen college students. Then from there in 2020. I continue to support the Center for First Gen student success doing pre con pre conference workshops with them, and also just serving on their advocacy group speaker program those types of components and just making certain that I'm in the loop that and also writing publications as well for that to put the word out there on what first gen is and how it's evolving and growing and why it is you know growing to be 50 some odd percent of students identifies first gen versus the 33% that it was previously. And then from there in 2022. I was like I'm going to get the most out of my research as possible. So I made certain to publish that into a research article. It was my first soul journal research article, and I'm not going to I'm not going to lie to you I was a bit intimidated by the process early on, even though I completed a dissertation. I had to have someone in my corner to say to me James go ahead and submit that manuscript. Because I had this kind of imposter syndrome which I'll talk about a little bit later. I was like, I don't know if it's going to get accepted. Like I had the manuscript sitting there. The article was essentially done because it's an it's it's extracted from my dissertation I had to of course modify and rewrite parts of it. But having someone in my corner to nudge me and say, just go ahead and do it don't overthink it. Sometimes we do overthink it. And that person that motivated me to do that was one of my fellow faculty facilitators from that first gen institute. And she sent me the link to submit the article in the first place and just pushed me to do that and of course I got accepted. All of our manuscripts get that get accepted no, but that was just one that happened to work for me and I'm proud that I went at it took that step because I had some goals that I wanted to achieve with that work. And one of them was to turn it into an article because I'm like hey, I spent the past what four years working on this thing we're going to make this thing stretch, we're going to get as much as we can out of this. But with all of that, I went from first gen graduate to first gen advocate. The first picture you see is me. I'm a lot slimmer on that picture in 2008 on the campus of Auburn University, and at the time I was a campus tour guide, which gave me access to one of the highest buildings on campus. And I was like this will be an optimal opportunity to have this picture and I look at this picture and it's, it's rewarding to know that I was able to do that so my wife took photos, and I'm looking at our administration building which is Sanford Hall, and I was actually a student assistant there to 2024. Today, which I was able to do a TEDx talk and talk about first gen and talk about my experience in my journey and to really reflect on that and to make it come full circle was reward it's been rewarding and knowing that my path is not done. I'm still working to become better there's still more than I can do, but ultimately, when it comes to elements of first gen and the first year experience individuals seek me out to, you know, help them to understand, and then I'm in a network of individuals that can help to support me with that as well. But how do you get there. Right. You know I talked about those connections and how do you foster those sometimes that is one of the most challenging components. How do I connect with people. And there's this concept known as week ties week ties is coined by Meg Jay Dr. Meg Jay. She wrote the defining decade, which essentially talks about you know how your your 20s is a pivotal point. But I will say that taking the focus off of just the 20s and just taking those practices and implementing them wherever you are in your life is really important, but those seemingly least connections. Alumni you can be an alumni of the same school, you know, being from the same city or state, or knowing some of the same people. Just clear examples that I can think of right. Think about times where you've been in a conversation and the conversation started to spiral a bit and in a good way to where you were able to find a connection with the person. Right. It can be based upon a food interest it can be based upon going having gone to the same restaurant. It could be. You know, commuting over liking a television show. So that is a skill that I would say that continue to work on that, you know, asking those questions, and then finding that common ground, organically, and then from there you able to build your network. And sometimes that happens with I would say knowing the same people when you find those spaces that work for you. So this is a quote from Dr. Mick Jay, I'm about those week ties so information and opportunities spread farther and faster through week ties and through close friends, because week ties have fewer overlap overlapping contacts week ties are like bridges, you cannot see all the way, all the way across. So there is no telling where they might lead. So there are possibilities in those light touches and connections there. Got it reflection. I'm on presence. These are just some thoughts on on on presence and reflection and what I want to do I don't want to like take too much time into that I'm just going to, you know, put on a couple of them, and then same I'll just send them to you. So that individuals can have those to process on but thinking about what does presence mean to you. And think about how you feel a space. And what do you, what do you do in those spaces. And what spaces do you feel most confident, and then thinking about those that make you feel empowered those moments and those people. So the power of presence ultimately culminates into this your persona. It can be your attire, not always that but it can be retired and it can be how you network. So the landscape has changed. I mean many ways. I have a good friend who does their presentations and they wear some of the nicest. Air One Jordans when they when they present. And that's just a part of their. That's just them right and but it doesn't take away from their professional brand. And this is just a silly picture of me at commencement recently where, you know, I was like I want to be on brand. But I also want to be comfortable in that, you know, we start many of us, many of the deans we, we wear, we wear tennis shoes. And I was like, let me find some vans, because I just felt like those fit my outfit, and then found some that were on brand on color got lots of compliments on them, and rock those while I was there. In many ways, I guess I'm kind of and then with socks. I love socks. So some of my students informally, in addition to being Dr. J know me as a sock doc so got that as well. But I use social media as well to really put my brand out there and to share a lot of things that I tend to do. Find a space that works for you. I'm not saying you need to use these or these at all. But I strive to be an approachable academic I don't want to be that person that is that won't is the balance of respect but approach ability. And then of course, like I said, I like shoes. Find a hub, thought groups, collectives, professional associations, national centers. Those are ways to kind of find your group and my affiliations and why I have them. So the National Resource Center for the first year experience I was connected with them when I worked at the University of South Carolina. That was a space that actually started that first gen institute. I serve on their National Advisory Board now and that's well over 10 years later, just being committed to them, going to their conferences for the past decade and supporting their work and they saw it as as a benefit. NASPA. I didn't know much about professional associations within the field of student affairs, but my vice president for student affairs funded me to go to my first conference. And then from there I was like, you know, like you should stay connected as much as you can, even in small ways review a program here and there or do like a small committee nothing you don't have to do anything major, and I've been committed with them ever since and been able to be active in my region. And then the center for first gen student success. I'm as I mentioned sisters center was started. I was seeking to be engaged with it and then from other connections I was able to be on their center advocacy group. Now I'm not necessarily saying that you all will be like in this level, you know, different levels of leadership within these organizations find something that works for you. Here you have two centers and a professional association, and from that those are have been my professional hubs to help me foster and extend my brand. But know that you're not an imposter too often we tend to psych ourselves out. Right. And then I want you all to know that you are worthy and qualify. So ultimately lessons learn your work is a brand extension. Align your passions and interests. Assess where you are. And think about where you want to be. One of my dear friends and colleagues who is a first gen scholar and entrepreneur. Dr Eve Hudson Blake me has this quote that she made her one of my sessions that I hosted and it was, she said to go forth confidently into a space that no one around you has been. And this was in relation to being a first gen student, then becoming a first gen professional. You're in a space. And you're like, how did I get here. How do I do now that I am here. And how do I move forward. Leveraging just some of those things that I talked about. Some of those are unique to my path and I think some of those are very transferable as well. But making certain that you just think about, yeah, there's uncertainty with it. But you've got it. And if you don't have it now guess what, you'll learn it. Just make certain that you ask. Find trusted allies find people that can support you. And there's so many ways you can remain connected and excel because I know that the world is in front of all of you. And then of course, and being an academic and proper APA fashion. I have my references here. So with that being said, that concludes the formal part of the presentation and I am more than welcome for any questions. I'm in conversation at this time. Thank you, James. So y'all as we transition to the Q&A. I'd like to give you a second to gather your thoughts and your questions. My colleague is going to place our evaluation survey in the chat. And if you could just do me a favor and open the link now so that you'll have a tab ready and waiting for you when you're done. Thank you for doing that. Okay, so now I ask you again to please change your name so that we know that who was here. And if you have any questions to have for Dr. Winfield, you can type them in the chat, you can raise your hand. I know we have one question in the chat already James. Someone asks that says, I tend to network with fellow first gen easier than with those that are not first gen. How do we connect our first gen brand to those that are not first gen. Yeah, I'm with the first gen brand I'll say this you will be surprised at the allies and advocates that reside that are not first gen. I think about there's a collective group that I coach here known as the black first gen collective and everyone on that group is not first gen most of them are, but there are individuals who are not. They're just as passionate about the work because they're passionate about access. They're passionate about affordability. They're passionate about the underdogs getting their fair share. And for some, I've heard individuals say, hey, you know, my parents were first gen. And I saw what they had to go through because they finished their degrees when I was a kid and I saw them up. You know, just you never know how many people will connect to the story. So never don't stray away from ally ship that resides outside of first gen because I think it's it's like with any kind of ally ship we need all all or most you know more individuals on board to understand the narratives because we don't want to just reside among us. We want it to be among us but we also want to share it out as well. James, is there a time when you can imagine folks not feeling safe to share. And how do they navigate that. Oh, yeah, that's a great question. Yeah. There are there are individuals I feel like who had, I would say be be weary of the individuals who have the deficit mindsets. Okay. And with that seek to try to adjust that narrative, if possible. Through information, you may not be able to change it immediately, I get that, you know, but making certain that individuals don't always support first gen kids, you know, always support black kids, you know that kind of mindset I don't always favor that at all or support kids you know that kind of stuff so seek to elevate the positives that come out of that. And that actually hits me pretty closely right now because I recently came on a trip right now where I've been able to go home I'm originally from Alabama as mentioned, and the neighborhood that I grew up in has a really bad reputation. Unfortunately, and everyone from my neighborhood are not bad people. There was like a couple of people of course like small group that you think of and they were just the most vocal that got into, you know, I guess issues where the media would kind of latch on to that. But, you know, I caught up with a classmate who owns a restaurant in my old neighborhood. And he's just been so successful and seeing him turn his food truck into like an actual restaurant and storefront, and then I have another friend that works in DC doing some lobbying work, you know, it just changing that narrative. I would say just seek to change that narrative where you can, and also have a pulse on people have a pulse on people, and those that you feel, you know, confident, you know, trusting to share that, you know, trust your gut, you know, with that. And then otherwise, you know, just kind of paste it out, you know, I think we all can identify with those situations. Thank you, James. So someone asked how do we change our brand, particularly when it's been part of our identity for so long. They've personally been known as a poker player for almost two decades. Most everything they did was associated with poker. That's how people knew them. And how do we change our brand when that poker space is no longer serving us. That's how we speak up. Yeah, yeah. Okay. With that, I mean, it's still a part of your history. And I think that that makes it even cooler and richer, right to show where we've come from and what we've done, right. Oddly enough, I will say one of my faculty advisors was a chef, a great chef. And I had no clue until, you know, I'm watching, you know, one of the popular shows. I can't remember. It was MasterChef. It was one of those shows. And he was on it. And I was like, whoa, wait a minute. And the way that he brought it up was just like, Hey, in the past life, I used to cook and I appreciate food. So, but that's a part of his history. Right. So I would say you don't necessarily have to stray away from it. But just think of it, you remember I talked about those brand extensions. You know, poker. Right. So I would say that that's a part of that's just this my philosophy on it. Not cool. I appreciate that. Thank you. No problem. James, is there a way to incorporate your brand and professional spaces slash presentations such as conferences, defenses and other similar spaces. It kind of seems like an art that few people seamlessly can do and they would love to be able to do it themselves. Yeah, yeah. Sometimes, you know, you have to gauge the space and figure out, okay, what nuances or elements I can incorporate in there. But I'll say this something that I did. As I mentioned, I'm a Marvel fan. I grew up loving superheroes. And with that, my dissertation defense, I was like, you know what, I put all this work into this. I'm going to throw like some Easter eggs of superhero stuff in it in my presentation. So all of my the individuals I interviewed the four that I focused on, I gave them pseudonyms of superheroes. And in my presentation, I had them depicted as such, mirroring that of individuals that were within a certain hero universe. So with that, you know, I was just able to do that and I was actually empowered to do so from a colleague who told me, James, you know what, you have a really good way of writing about leadership. You should probably write a leadership piece on the different elements of these, of like the Avengers or something. And I still haven't written the piece completely yet. But I got the green light from a well known researcher and practitioner and he like, no, like, lean into that, you know, that's that's a part of your quirks and your nuances. So yeah, I just put that in there and I was like, okay, well, I'm going to seek this space and dissertating and my defense and I did that. And I knew it would be welcomed by the audience that I had as well. And it didn't take away from the analysis and the rigor. So just try to weave it in where you can. Right. And then seek feedback from peers if you feel like, okay, this might be off base. I like that suggestion of sort of experimenting with it to sort of weave in your heart into, or what fills your soul into your daily life and particularly professional spaces of your daily life and see what lands, see what doesn't and adjust. We're all scientists here. Yep. Someone asks, James, you talk about using social media to promote your personal brand is kind of a fusion of public private identities and our presentation of self on social media. I guess I'm curious about how you balance those when posting to social media since every post would potentially reflect on your brand. Do you see most posts as brand related. Yeah, I guess when it gets to a certain point, you can't negate the fact that it is associated with, you know, with brand. I think about people have different ways of how they categorize it. You know, some people have certain buckets, right. Okay, well, Facebook is my personal, you know, and they have their names categorized differently. Some people seek to shift the dynamic of what they present completely on all vessels to ensure that there's alignment. For me, I don't really have anything to hide per se. Of course, there are things within my life that I keep personal. I just don't put it out there. Right. But there are components where I like have like shifted and a little bit of scene like okay this is what people gravitate toward right so in the introduction that Sam provided. She talked about my alignment with putting out pop culture narratives. I have this random interest of watching movies, TV cartoons. And if there is a college theme narrative, or a first gen narrative, I got my little notebook and I'm writing stuff. My wife even knows she was like, if she sees me with my little notepad, she's like, you're about to write something. I'm like, yeah. So I mean everything from Abbot elementary to, you know, to Spider-Man being a first gen student, I've written, you know, about that so I wrote a piece randomly and the reason that I wrote it and put it out on LinkedIn was because nobody would pick it up. I wrote a piece on a show that I like to watch power, and there were some first gen narratives there and no one picked up the piece and I was like, I curated myself. I put it on my LinkedIn profile and then they started to get some likes and hits. And then I was like, okay, this will just kind of be my space to put this out. At least once a month, I do first gen Fridays, and I put out a piece about a show, movie, it could be new or old, and I'll just write a piece and share it out there regarding a first gen or college narrative. So just kind of tested the waters with that and it doesn't deviate from my brand. So I think it's what I'm saying is that everyone has to have their own pulse check on what's appropriate and what's not. Because sometimes there are boundaries you want to set, and that's perfectly fine. Do that. Thank you, James. Y'all have one last question and that relates sort of James to what you just mentioned. Can one have a brand without putting their writing out there? Oh, most definitely. There are so many, you know, vehicles and vessels to get information out there. It doesn't necessarily be centric around writing. It can be around like narratives can be verbal, right? I think about individuals that I follow like via TikTok where they have, they just put their narratives over to recap an event or videos, you know, those types of components. So whichever way you choose to do it is how you decide to do it. It's more of what's organic to you and what people will kind of, you know, gravitate towards. For me, I've just, I've had a writing bug since I have, you know, engaged in the dissertating process and it was also more of a task for me because I have a little bit of a, I had a professor some years ago that kind of questioned my writing. And I was like, you know what, I'm going to do my due diligence and become as great of a writer as I can be. And I encountered a supervisor who supported me in that was like the best way to learn how to write is to keep doing it. And I just leaned into it. Okay. Thank you, James. Thank you. And I want to thank everyone on the audience here today for your presence and your participation. And thank you, Dr. Winfield for sharing both your time and your wisdom with us today. The recording of this event will be processed over a few weeks and then it will be sent out to y'all. And remember when you have the opportunity, please take a short break and pop over to the evaluation survey so that we can keep improving our programming for you. Okay. Thank you. Take care of yourself.