“Student-to-Staff” is a new series that will feature stories from Cal alumni who are now career employees in One IT. This series was created to show the importance of investing in our student staff, and how vital their work is to the university and its mission.
Students at UC Berkeley have a unique experience and see a side of campus that staff may not always share from the role they play here at Cal . Although campus staff are here to support the students, some might never get the opportunity to interact with students directly. This creates an obstacle for staff whose work would benefit from a student’s perspective, especially if the services they provide will impact the student community. What they may not realize is, there’s probably someone on their team that used to be a student - and that’s a great place to start!
Did you know that over 100 One IT career staff (nearly 10%) are Cal alumni? Some of them are names you might recognize, like Terence Phuong in Berkeley IT Business Operations, Cristóbal Olivares in Student Affairs IT (SAIT), and even our incoming Interim CIO Gabriel Gonzalez. Of that 10%, many started as student staff.
Understanding this important connection between student staff who later become full-time staff, a new program has been launched to delve deeper into this work. Amanda Bent, One IT Student Leadership Specialist, and Cristóbal Olivares, Director of Student Technologies (pictured right), are spearheading the One IT Student Leadership Program. The goal of this program is to provide mentorship and quality professional development experiences to students.
The annual UC Tech conference is the UC IT community’s largest professional development experience and this year, students have been invited to attend. The One IT Student Leadership Program has launched the Student Experience at UC Tech 2023, a first for the conference. Nearly 50 current UC Berkeley students who are employed in an IT title and/or department have been invited to participate in this 2-day program, with general costs related to this experience (including meals) covered by the UC Tech Programming Committee.
Investing in the Student-to-Staff Pathway
One IT employs 300-350 student staff and they deliver 140,000 hours of work annually, at a cost of only $2.7 million. According to Bent (pictured left), “This is a shining example of why it’s so important to invest in our very own students, who have so much to offer, and really demonstrate the long-term benefits that our community and organization can gain from engaging, developing, and investing in them. Since many of our student staff in SAIT work in positions at our help desk, it also ends up being a great user experience to offer peer-to-peer help for all kinds of technical issues students may run into." Students helping students!
Another goal of the One IT Student Leadership program is to create a sustainable pathway for student staff to transition to career staff after graduation. Cristóbal Olivares, who attended Cal as an undergrad, says, “Investing in students is something we want to be more intentional about. It’s not only valuable for us, in terms of our own workforce, it’s also giving back to the mission - to engage our students in as many ways as possible, in addition to their classroom work.”
Olivares currently works on a team of six people, and four of them are Cal alumni (including him). He spoke about the many benefits that come with hiring student staff for career positions, ”We know that our student population is more diverse than our staff population and that folks who have experienced the institution bring a unique insight and perspective to identifying solutions around technology for the campus community-at-large. We also believe that the most powerful way to understand the impact of having been a student here and having a job at the institution is to hear from people who have that lived experience.”
From Student to Staff
As mentioned, part of this series will include highlighting our One IT colleagues who have been on the student-to-staff journey. Here are a few examples of community members sharing their experiences in their own words.
Nili Ovaici, Service Manager for Student Information Systems (pictured right), got a job her senior year at Cal working with Liz Marsh, Executive Director of Strategy & Partnerships. During her time as a student staff member, Ovaici learned a lot, “It really defined a great work culture for me. It was wonderful working with people who were so knowledgeable. Every question I had and everything I wanted to learn, they supported me. I had ideas, and they were always encouraged. That was such an amazing experience that when I was asked if I wanted another position, I took it — even though I was working through another degree. My entire career has been at UC Berkeley and it’s because I had such an amazing experience as an undergrad.”
Natalie Montañez, Instructional Technology Supervisor and Service Lead in RTL, is from Nebraska and fell in love with UC Berkeley when she visited to tour the campus. She applied for a student staff position her junior year, at the encouragement of her sorority sisters, and was hired for the role. Montañez was in a few different roles during her time as a student worker, but the one she remembers most was a one-on-one tech support job at a drop-in desk in the basement of Moffitt Library. Montañez enjoyed that job so much that she took a similar job at Cal upon graduation. Her advice to current students is, “Apply to whatever sounds interesting. Try to meet as many people as you can. Make as many connections as you can. All of my success is due to the people I met and connected with as a student, and along the way. Show that you’re interested, it goes a long way. People will remember you, and remember to consider you, as things open up in the future. Be open to communicating, be open to reaching out to folks. Don’t be afraid to ask questions. At Berkeley there’s a little underlying impostor syndrome for everyone, we all struggle with it. There were so many times that I didn’t think I was qualified, or a good fit, even for the job I’m in now. But you have to go for it and put yourself out there.”
Ramón Soto, Systems Analyst for Haas IT (pictured left), works primarily on campus with the accounts team, and others, at the Haas School of Business. He wears many hats in his everyday work on campus, and he credits his student worker position for the success he enjoys today. “My work as a student taught me versatility and gave me wide exposure to technology. My job was managing the front desk and facilitating a computer lab. It was something different every day, and that’s what I loved about it.” When he wasn’t imaging computers or working on printers, he was learning other technology tools like active directory, or labeling network cable in the server room, and sometimes working on the servers themselves. Soto says, “This really helped me gain insight into what it takes to run a service from the ground up, especially when it comes to enhancing the student experience. My student position also opened my eyes to the possibility of working in technology as a career, which is something I truly enjoy. I love working with technology on a daily basis and helping out the campus community.”
Adriana Contreras-Sandoval, Information Systems Analyst at the College of Engineering,was a first-gen student, looking for a work-study position before starting her first semester at Cal. She got a job as a Help Desk Technician on campus. “I learned to interact with clients and my boss gave me advice on how to talk to professors and be professional in emails. I think that gave me the confidence to figure things out on my own. It also taught me to not be intimidated if I hadn’t seen an issue before or get frustrated when I couldn’t solve something with the first method.” By senior year Contreras-Sandoval had been promoted to Senior Help Desk Technician. Upon graduation, her boss suggested she apply for an open role in nuclear engineering. “When the opportunity came to work at Berkeley full-time, I took it. I liked working here already and I had a good idea of how things work. I’d been working with faculty and grad students since I was a freshman, so it felt like a natural jumping-off point for me. My boss also went from working at the Help Desk to full-time staff, so it made me feel like it was something I could do.” She applied for the role and got it.
Partner with the One IT Student Leadership Program
These stories are shining examples of why the One IT Student Leadership Program was created, to grow and develop the Cal student workforce into future leaders and professional staff of tomorrow. If you’re interested in participating, you can partner with the One IT Student Leadership Program. They’ll provide:
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Shared best practices for recruiting, retaining, and developing student talent.
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Creative problem-solving on student employee experiences and leadership development strategies.
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Resources to enrich and sustain your student employment offerings.
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Connection with other One IT supervisors of student employees.
If you’re facilitating or leading a student-employee program, or if you’re interested in starting one, contact Amanda Bent to discuss how to strengthen and build up these programs.
Are you a current One IT employee who is also a Cal alum? Add yourself to our roster of One IT student-to-staff via this survey!