NAGAP Leadership Academy Alumni: A Look Back at the Cohort, the Program, and What Has Been Applied to Their Work Environments

By Kittie Pain, Kutztown University of Pennsylvania (Also an alum of the NAGAP Leadership Academy)

Asa refresher, there have been two NAGAP Leadership Academy cohorts. The first, before COVID, met in New York City and had about twenty attendees. Toward the end of COVID’s height, the second met in Boston and had about a dozen attendees. This conversation wraps up the experiences of a few alums from each cohort, who each had unique takeaways.

The NAGAP Leadership Academy application process is self-selecting and low impact. Individuals must prepare a statement of why they want to pursue the Leadership Academy and request letters of recommendation/support. Then, a committee evaluates the applications to choose the cohorts each year.

Again, I met with Jennifer Jones (Virginia Tech), Henry Cantu (University of Connecticut), Adam Huang (Cornell

Tech), Scott Eubanks (Eastern Washington University), Kristin McAuliffe (Boston University), Ellen Lloyd (College of Mount Saint Vincent), and Trista Wdziekonski (University of Michigan). Jennifer, Henry, and Adam were members of the original cohort and could not present their capstone projects at Summit due to COVID. Scott, Trista, Ellen, and Kristin were in the second cohort and presented their capstone projects at Summit in 2022.

I asked each person if their institution supported them in pursuing the Academy.

Adam Huang (AH): Yes! My supervisor at the time, Ray Lutzky, advocated for the entire team and encouraged us to view this as part of our jobs. He told us that we would get a lot out of it and that we should take full advantage of the meetings.

Trista Wdziekonski (TW): I was supported, and it was discussed in my annual review too. I would bring back bits of what I was learning to my enrollment management team throughout. Honestly, it was “would you recommend this to others” or “would you share this with others” and immediately, I was sharing it with my team. Other leaders at the university have seen value in my experience as well.

Scott Eubanks (SE): Oh yeah, totally. Most of my job is identifying the cost of something before people jump into it. I was very clear that I needed relief time to do my capstone, and my boss was super supportive.

Jennifer Jones (JJ): Definitely. They supported me financially but then recognized that the virtual meeting times were part of my job and my workday.

Kristin McAuliffe (KM): My university was very supportive. My supervisor [insisted] that I do the academy, and I was lucky I didn’t have to travel [Kristin is with Boston University and was in the second cohort]. I blocked off time on my calendar to attend what I could of the virtual sessions.

Henry Cantu (HC): Yes, luckily, and I presented it to the university that it was an opportunity to help the school and the program I was with.

Ellen Lloyd (EL): Yes. My supervisor was supportive of me learning more about myself and the graduate sphere. I truly valued the 360-degree assessment and especially the feedback from my supervisor.

What was your relationship like with your mentor?

SE: My mentor was phenomenal. She’d reframe things for me to look at differently, which is a superpower. She was good at asking better questions…[in order]...to have the conversation result in something.

HC: Through my mentor, I learned a lot of leadership concepts. She had some great perspectives and allowed me to see things from different angles.

What was your capstone’s general topic, and have you implemented it at work? (Some participants were not able to see their cohort through due to COVID)

TW: The SEM plan on my campus is to dive more into the success rate of cohorts, so my topic was “Master Student Success and Retention Values for Master’s Cohorts.” My capstone project was working parallel to my workday.

SE: Building an undergraduate-to-graduate pipeline. It involved a grass-roots effort to inform the undergraduate population (faculty included) of graduate programs and teach the students how to triangulate their educational goals.

KM: The capstone project was meaningful because I saw the need on campus and wanted to fill it. My title was “Building Community and Collaboration in a Decentralized Environment,” and it’s designed to provide training, networking, idea-sharing opportunities, and mentoring across colleges within Boston University.

HC: The concept was to bring together the different offices and staff who worked directly with the school of nursing where I was at the time. My goal was to create an enrollment management working group to help them from the beginning with advising and student engagement through graduation, and include alumni engagement.

EL: My capstone was focused on increasing interdepartment communication to improve graduate enrollment processes. I’ve been at the table more and able to advocate for our students.

Was it a worthwhile experience?

AH: I would say so. It’s a worthwhile investment on any professional level because you can take away three-tofive bullet points to make yourself a better leader. It’s like a buffet! You can pick and choose what you want since there’s so much information you’re receiving. I loved the team bonding and networking.

TW: No doubt, I got a lot out of it. I’ve used many, if not most, of the things we covered within the first year alone.