ONE-ON-ONE with Lauren S. Rivera, J.D., M.Ed., Vice President for Student Life and Dean of Students
Dean Lauren Rivera embraces mission in her work and with the children of El Salvador. Read about the international service trip to Mexico and pilgrimage to El Salvador that changed Dean Rivera’s perspective on advocacy at scranton.edu/journalextras.
Vice President for Student Life and Dean of Students shares her story to encourage students as they build resilience and find their calling. You graduated in 2004 with a degree in political science and religion from Bucknell University and then earned a Juris Doctor degree and Master of Education degree in college student affairs at The Pennsylvania State University. What led you to Scranton? It’s a little bit of a long story. Nearly everyone in my extended family works in medicine, either as a doctor, a nurse anesthetist or a dentist. I’m the eldest of 11 cousins, and heading off to college, I assumed I’d become a doctor. One biology course in my first semester (that I barely passed!) and a realization that I don’t do well with blood prompted me to change course. If I couldn’t be a doctor, I’d be a lawyer to make my family proud. I graduated from Bucknell, and that’s what I did. A couple of months into law school, I developed pretty intense anxiety and also began to realize I didn’t want to be a lawyer either. This worried me — I wasn’t sure what to do. I went to talk to vice presidents of student life, deans of students, and academic administrators at different colleges in Pennsylvania and asked, ‘What was your career path?’ They all encouraged me to go back to law school because the landscape of higher education was becoming more legally complex. When I figured out I wanted to go into higher education, I was lucky enough to be at a law school connected with Penn State. If you want to learn about college students, 60,000 is a good number! I figured out that my passions for law and education combined made natural to search for jobs working in college student discipline processes. 12
THE SCRANTON JOURN A L
I knew I wanted to work at a smaller school. I like that when you sit with people and have difficult conversations with them about their struggles, and then you see them other times on campus engaged and thriving. You get to accompany them on their journey. The University of Scranton happened to be looking for a new Director of Student Conduct & Assessment as Dr. Larry Morton was retiring after 40 years of serving the University! Then Vice President for Student Affairs, Dr. Vince Carilli, took a chance on me and the rest is history! Since joining the University in 2009 as director of student conduct and assessment, you have served in several capacities. How has your role evolved? After serving as the Director of Student Conduct & Assessment, in 2015 I applied for and was selected to serve as the associate vice provost for student formation and campus life and dean of students. That allowed me to focus more on student support and advocacy, often related to mental health or sexual violence, to work with student government, leadership development, and other areas of the division. As dean of students, I have enjoyed helping students to navigate challenges they encounter outside of the classroom that can impact their success in the classroom. When students lose a loved one and are grieving, have a mental health crisis, face a difficult physical health diagnosis, or navigate an unexpected change in their family income situation, I try to help them connect to resources and to support them in being the best versions of themselves as they manage their circumstances. I love that work and that was my dream job. I had achieved it by the time I was in my early 30s and that was it. That was what I wanted to do.
