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Rebels, tune in to 'Let's Talk UNLV' with Dr. Sammie Scales. Your express pass to everything UNLV — campus highlights, programs, and the latest buzz. Join us weekly as we chat with student leaders, administrators, and faculty, diving into the core of what makes us Rebels.
The program brings guests from different areas of UNLV every week to discuss campus highlights, programs and services, research interests that are essential to being a Rebel. Let’s Talk UNLV places its emphasis on connecting with student leaders who represent the voice of students on our campus. Guests also include administrators, faculty and staff responsible for upholding the mission of the university, which is teaching, research and scholarship.
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Unknown Speaker 0:00
This is a kunv Studios original program. The content of this program does not reflect the views or opinions of 91.5 jazz and more the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, or the Board of Regents of the Nevada System of Higher Education.
Unknown Speaker 0:20
Hello, UNLV, and welcome to another episode of Let's Talk K, U N, V 91.5,
Unknown Speaker 0:27
and today, we are fortunate enough to have Mr. Mario Rodriguez with us. Hello, Mario. And thank you for joining us. Hello, thanks for having me. I'm super excited to be here. This is my first podcast, my first podcast. Oh, you're gonna be a pro at it, trust me, you will be
Unknown Speaker 0:41
the way that I start the show, I like to ask my guest about their origin story. How did you end up here at UNLV? So how did I end up? So first, my parents, so I'm actually a junior, so if you ever meet my family, I go by Alex, so no one actually knows me. My Mario, so it's like my professional name. So Mario, Alejandro Rodriguez is like the full name, and that's like my professional name. And at home, I'm just known as Alex, because my dad gets all the dibs on Mario, so he's Mario for everything. Oh, okay, okay. So I grew up in La Puente, California, which is a low income, I would say 99% Latino. Everybody spoke Spanish, Roman Catholic. No one really left. There was about maybe two, three families living in each of the houses that we were in. So I always grew up, oh, there's 10 people in this house. This is normal, right? I didn't know that. It wasn't, you know, a thing for families to live together. So I was really involved, like within my high school. So I was part of our leadership programs, which is our Renaissance Program. And then I was also involved with just our student government. So I was junior class help with the prom, because I couldn't afford it. So I was like, join the committee. You get a discount. So I was able to do that. And then I was senior class president, just to be able to, you know, get the discounts on the senior class picture, the mugs and all that, just because I didn't want to burden my parents, like, Oh, this is additional cost that comes with like, senior year. Yeah. So I've always been very mindful of like, finances, and I think that's really what led me to go to University of La Verne, which is 15 minutes from home. That was my second choice, actually, in college. And I share that all the time, because sometimes your first opportunity might not be financially feasible. So your second option is, what gives you the blessing and the experience that you need? So I ended up going to University of La Verne because I got a full ride scholarship. I'm aging myself, but back in 2002 for a private school, $20,000 was the tuition. Now that school is up in 60,000 so I got a full ride to go there. My number one school was University of San Diego, but my parents did not understand what loans were, and they knew that they had interest and they had to pay it back. And they said, I'm not gonna sign on this loan. You're too young to be in debt. So they said, No, so I could not go to San Diego, which was three hours away. I also mentioned this because I'm the oldest in my family, so I couldn't actually leave home, even though I wanted to leave. So because I still had a younger brother and sister who were in high school and middle school, my parents wanted me to be close by to help them with their homework and all the family obligations, because my parents didn't speak English. So it was I knew I had a ticket to go to San Diego, but I couldn't, because one of the financial but then second of the family obligations, which is why I always tell people the family nucleus has a really big influence on the decisions that we have, say, 10 years later, even to this date as the oldest in my family. So I went to college, University of La Verne, best experience ever. It was a private school, all my classes were 15 or below individuals, so that just meant I had to learn how to read and actually do my assignments.
Unknown Speaker 3:48
I tell people this all the time, because everybody thinks college is all roses and it's great, but it's where I failed my first class ever. I was a 4.0 student in high school and middle school, so I'd never failed the class, and it wasn't until I took accounting, even though it was an international business major, and that's when I realized that failing was horrible, but it wasn't the end or be all and that was the first time I can honestly tell you I felt like I failed when I failed that accounting class, and I felt that, wow, like I survived it, and it was fine. So now when I reach obstacles. I go back to that accounting class that I failed in college, which was the first time I felt like I felt something and I couldn't do anything about it, you know, yeah, you can always look at those opportunities to, you know, to get get it right the next time. So, and it's not like you can't retake the class, so, yeah, but I definitely can relate to you when you say, you know that you can. Your parents wouldn't sign on for the loan to go to USD in San Diego because of, you know, financial situation, whatever it is I was in that same situation, I made sure that I got a plane graduation ring for my graduation robe at the time, I used my uncle was a few years older than me, maybe two years older than me, so I used his robe to walk him out.
Unknown Speaker 5:00
Own graduation, so I can definitely relate to that. So what was your major as undergrad? So my undergrad was international business, so I work for free at the gap for a semester. It was part of my I had enough credits to graduate my senior year, but I wanted to be senior class president, so I took a ro P class, which I was in sales. So at the gap, you work 10 hours a week for free, and it was for me to learn about retail experience, business experience, and really learn how to explore like sales. And I didn't know what I wanted to do in college, so I worked for free 10 hours a week. Second semester, I got hired by the gap to go work with them. So when I told them I was going to college, they said, If you sign up and start doing business, we can put you on the management track. So that's why I picked business, because my manager said, you're going to college. We want you to be successful. We think that after you finish your degree here, you could go work for gap corporate. So they put me on a management track, which I was 18 years old first semester in college. Even though I didn't know what to study, but I knew that my manager said I was going to go work for gap corporate. So that's why I did international business, because in 2002 the gaps were opening
Unknown Speaker 6:17
internationally. There was a gap in India. There was a gap in the UK. I don't know if you remember all the gap commercials with the jeans, but I was part of that evolution, and I was drinking the Kool Aid as 18 year old, so by 19, I officially became a manager at the gap, but I was a commuter on campus, and I wasn't involved, and I wasn't connected, and I felt that was more important For me to be successful in college? Yeah. And my parents would always say the only inheritance you're gonna get is a college education that even though we're not paying for it because you got your scholarships. But that's never, no one is ever gonna take your education and your degrees away. Yeah. And that's the thing too. You know, especially when you're connected with the campus, you have a you're more prone to do well. In classes, you're more prone to graduate. There's a higher rate for graduation for students that are actually connected to the campus, other than those, compared to those students that just come to class, do that work and just leave. So when you feel like you're connected and a part of something, you have a sense of belonging and you want to do well, especially, you know, let's say if you're a part of fraternity or sorority or, you know, some kind of reading club, anything on campus, you know, science, whatever. So stem as well. So students actually do better when they're connected to something on class. So what do you do here on what's your actual title, and what do you do here on the campus of UNLV? Yeah, so I got here may 27 Memorial Day weekend, so I've been here for almost four months, and my title is Assistant Director for multicultural and stem pipelines. So I work with K through 20. So K through fifth would be Elementary. Sixth to eighth would be Middle School. Ninth through 12th grade would be high school, and then working with transfer students at the community colleges, our undergrad and grad and doctoral students. So I get to work with a wide range of different populations, not only here on campus, but then also in the community, and inviting different like nonprofits and other entities to understand that UNLV is here for them. We are number three in the nation as far as diversity, that we also want them to know that, look, there's people like you that are also on this campus. We're Top 10 military friendly. We are 71% ethnically diverse here on this campus. We're an anapisi, Hispanic Serving Institution. We're a minority serving institution. So we want that to be out in the community, and I know that it's really important for me in this role, because I get to connect with so many different people, because it's part of my job, and I think that's the rewarding part. Wow, excellent. It sounded like, you know, if a person is a minority student, UNLV is the place to be. So just imagine building that relationship from kindergarten all the way up through middle school, high school, you know, undergrad, master's and a PhD program as well. So you can get to touch the lives of many different students from start to finish. So if you're a minority student, UNLV, seem like is the place to be, you know, I know, since coming since coming here, the sense of belonging has been outstanding. I, you know, on my social media, I've posted so many times about, you know, this is where I feel like I can blossom and grow and learn things. I was just telling one of my coworkers on yesterday. It seemed like every day at this job, I learned something new every single day. So the possibilities are endless. Okay, could you describe the services and resources available for students seeking academic and tutoring, advice and stuff like that from your office? Yeah. So what we do is, when we meet with the students, we usually meet with them either their junior year or senior year, or if they're already at a community college. We have different college fairs and events that we have so students can understand all the resources. One of the good things about our office is New Student Orientation is also under us. So our first year students have.
Unknown Speaker 10:00
To attend, so they already get a great experience through orientation with all the services that we provide. I'm also very excited that when our admissions counselors go out, they can tell them about financial aid opportunities. This is your pre advising sessions that you have, so all the resources for the students are told to them before they even get here, and then an orientation is kind of where they get to see and meet. A lot of these offices we also do for orientation resource fairs that are super helpful as well. And then we're constantly in contact with the student before they get here, right? So it could be coming into our office. So we offer walk ins every day, so there's always someone that's there to help, to help you, and I think that super helpful. I would say, even for me, it's rewarding. So I'm bilingual, so I speak Spanish, so I also get to in addition to help any student that walks in, I can also help Latino families, or Spanish speaking families. We have some families that come from El Salvador or Spain, that are just they're here on vacation, but they heard about UNLV, and they wanted a campus tour, and they want to know how to apply. So to me, that's really rewarding, that we're able to share some of these resources. And those resources could be a deal breaker for them to come here, and also for the families as well, because I do see applying for college as a family effort, or even someone guiding you or helping you? Sometimes it's, oh, my cousin went here, so I want to come here too. Or my cousin was involved in this, and I want them to do it. Or I also meet, like the triple alums who did their undergrad, master's and doctoral, and they're just so proud to be part of UNLV when I'm going to these college fair events. So I really love all that, and I think the services that we have here are very important to the students, and they know that we have a wide range. You know, I joke around when I go to college fairs. UNLV has everything. We just don't have a veteran, sorry, a veterinarian program, because we don't have that many animals here on this campus, right? But we really have our own med school, our own law school. We offer so many business schools, so I love that, that we can really sell the college, yeah, the student. That's one of the things that really impressed me when I first came here, that, you know, there's a medical school here, there is a law school here, you know, while I was at San Diego State, of course, I got all of my degrees there at Senegal state. And, you know, one of the things that I wanted to do was to go to law school. So once I came to this campus and saw that you can actually get a medical degree, degree here at this school, get a law degree here at the school, a doctorate in anything that you want. Yeah, I was definitely very thoroughly impressed with UNLV here for those FYE students and those students that are leaving high school, and, you know, coming here at starting, you know, like at their junior year, just knowing that you're able to transfer here from high school, or have brothers or sisters or something that's here, and just being a part of the community and driving by on Mellon Parkway thinking one day I'm going to be there when I graduate high school. That's got to be a great feeling for students. Definitely, yeah, knowing that they have someone you know in your office that they can make contact with, come and get those tours, and you know they can include their family in this. Like you said, it's usually it's a family affair to send a student off to college, especially if you're the first in your family to go, and no one has done this, and you're trailing a new a new path for your family. So that can definitely be exciting. Yeah, I definitely love that. Yeah, can you share some of the success stories and testimonies that you've seen, and I understand that you've been here just for four months, but even maybe starting this semester, end of last semester, some of the success stories that you've seen when it comes to students, or even students come back that came back and said, thank you for what your office have done for me. You know, I was able to graduate and not moved on. You have any of those stories at all? Yeah, I would say we offer a lot of our services in Spanish, and I think we have self guided tours so people can guide themselves. But I would say we also have people come on Saturdays, because we do campus visits our tours on a Saturday. So that's because we want families to come. Like I mentioned to you earlier, I meet so many families at these fairs, and then the minute that I see them, like, oh, you signed up for a campus tour. Or they'll sometimes just come in and ask for me just to say, hey, like, Thank you for you know, like helping us out, and, oh, look, we're finally here. So I get the email like, are you on in your office? We just want to say hi. And I think to me, that's the rewarding piece we offer, like Spanish materials for families to be able to read so how to apply in Spanish. And to me, that's very fulfilling, because I think of like my parents, who didn't grow up speaking English, that they're actually be able to help me be part of that experience. So I think if now those families that speak Spanish that they can actually read a material and try to help their it could be Son, Daughter and uncle, whatever the relationship is for them to be able to, you know, be like, Oh, I actually know something about, you know, because there's materials that are there for me.
Unknown Speaker 15:00
Um, one of the new initiatives you know that me, our Office of Financial Aid started, was doing virtual Spanish admissions and financial aid, because a lot of the times our number one question is financial aid related, so then they have to schedule an appointment with the counselor. So we decided to start a virtual monthly series where the admissions one like myself will do it in Spanish the session, but then the financial aid counselor also speaks Spanish, and they do the financial aid 101, and then they can meet with the counselor, yeah. And it's got to be, you know, comforting for families also, you know, that's one of the main questions that a family would have. You know, of course, you know, their son or daughter wants to go to college, but the question is, how are we going to pay for this? So if you're able to communicate with someone in Spanish, and there's material in Spanish that's got to be comforting as well, you know, that's immediately start building that sense of belonging. Because, you know, a person would think, Oh, well, they have material here in Spanish that I can actually read, that I can, you know, speak with someone in Spanish. So yeah, maybe this is going to be a really good fit for me. That's one thing. Things I like here about UNLV. Whenever someone needs to step in on a particular occasional event, they do that. Good example is just a few days ago, we had an event in SDP, a lounge, and you were able to actually translate the young lady that was speaking in Spanish, translate that for us that you know, needed help having that translated, she was able to translate it to English so that we knew what she was talking about. So occasions like that are always excellent. And I always think it's good to have someone that can actually translate and say what you know is being said in Spanish and English, or in English and Spanish. So yeah, that's one of the great assets here at the school. So how do you collaborate when it comes to other departments here on campus? I think there's so many different ways. I think the first one is just by supporting other departments and what they're doing. I think I'm still in the learning and growing phase and building a lot of collaborations. I tell people, I just don't want to be an email that we email back and forth and we don't meet each other. I want us to meet. So I will say, you want me to come to your office, or I can give you a tour of our admissions staff, or let's go grab coffee. Let's do rebel grounds, because to me, breaking bread is really important. This is like a family thing. I want to be able to connect with you. If I'm going to work with you and I'm out in the community, I want them to know this person is going to take care of the person that I just you know was invested in communicating with them, and they're so excited to come to UNLV, like I meet so many excited students and families that I want to make sure that if I connect them to someone, we do that. So I sometimes show up at their programs. I also make sure that I take flyers and different materials for different offices, I also see how we can build on collaborations of programs that are already being done. So, you know, perfect example is the student experience, where I was able to go to all the student experience that the student diversity programs did, and connect with different students from different areas. But I kind of went a little above and beyond, and met also the resources and the other people tabling there and giving them my card and say, hey, look, I'm new. I work in the Office of Admissions. This is what we do. How can we work together? I'm also working on some lookbooks for our Native American population, black, African American, Hispanic, Latino, and our Asian, Pacific, Middle Eastern so I've been meeting with different departments to be like, what are the services you provide for Latino, Hispanic students? So we could put that in the lookbook. And I think that's my favorite part of this job, that I don't just work with one population. I can potentially work with all of our populations, from K through 20, and also figuring out what are the needs of how I can help as well
Unknown Speaker 18:45
facilitate some of those conversations? So for someone that's listening, and you've said several times you talked about lookbook, explain to them what that lookbook is. So let me Yeah. So lookbook is kind of like, I describe it as like a little mini visual magazine. So it's about maybe 10 to 16 pages. It's not a big magazine spread, but there's a lot of visuals and data that can help, really, maybe influence and help
Unknown Speaker 19:09
the student, maybe wanting to come here, the family member. So it's full of different resources, different types of like scholarships, statistics and how to apply as an undergrad or grad students. So that's kind of what a lookbook is. Or, you know, in other terms, as back in the day, there used to be magazines sent to your house right to order stuff. So this is really what a lookbook is for you, to really showcase our students, and you see what that would look like, and then you can really envision yourself. So in this, you know, lookbook process, we're being very intentional with the resources that we provide, also making sure that all the pictures that we have are actual of students that are UNLV students. None of this. Our lookbooks are not going to have card stock from somewhere that we just purchased. All the images are events that have.
Unknown Speaker 20:00
Happen here at UNLV? Yeah, excellent, excellent. How do your program help students build confidence and self esteem and independent learners here on campus, I get to see that all the time, when I go to a fair and I see that the student is by themselves. So the student will be coming up to us and be like, can you tell me a little bit about UNLV, and they already took the A, C, T, the S, A, T, and they were just proud of their either GPA, the schools that they're taking, the clubs that they're involved. So sometimes when I see the student walk up and I see them light up and I'm like, Oh, that's good. You should be proud of the fact that you're president of this organization, and that you have a 4.0 GPA, your top 10 in your class. And I think I get to see that. And then when students sometimes come and they're like, Oh, well, I only have a 3.0 GPA. Do you know that 3.0 GPA can potentially get you XYZ scholarship? Did you know that this 3.0 is a really good that's like, all A's and B's? So when I see that they lack a little confidence, I usually just boost them up and be like that, 3.0 Did you know that that's the minimum requirement for you to be here? So you would technically, you know, be admissible and be able to apply. So I think I love seeing that in students. And what I also like is when the families are engaged, so the family knows how the student is doing academically, but then also co curricular so I love when a dad, you know, is like, yeah, he's captain of the baseball team, the football team, you just see, like, the pride that these parents have for all the involvement in the student. I think that's really powerful, also within the confidence and the self esteem because their parent is supporting them, or it could be the aunt or the uncle, like I've seen every family dynamic in these four months in the fairs, and I think that's important for someone to have someone to cheer them on. And I think that can help build some of that confidence, but then also the student that comes by themselves. They've already had that confidence boost to come to a table by themselves. It could be a little overwhelming to go. If you've ever been to a college fair, I tell people, go to your first college fair. You know, there's maybe, like, 100 tables, and you're like, wow. Like, this is a lot. Like, how can I do this? And I just tell people, like, go practice with a school, maybe that you might not be as interested in, and then when you come to your dream school, you know you've already had the practice. But I think it's definitely important for everyone to build that self confidence. I think other ways that we do it is we communicate with the student, so we use a CRM Salesforce, and we usually email the student, and they're the ones that we're corresponding with, right? So I know most of our viewers probably know what FERPA is, right? So where you waive the right, but we treat our students like adults. They're the ones doing the correspondence. We email them like, hey, we need you to submit your transcripts, and I think that builds character, because this is the first time, potentially, some of these students were corresponding to them without having to consult with their parents, and I think that can help them build some self confidence and autonomy over their education. They're the ones picking their major. Absolutely, absolutely. So there are some things that that you spoke about that I didn't want to touch on when you talk about confidence in students. You know,
Unknown Speaker 23:22
there's an article by tariasso. It's called, whose culture has capital and because sometimes students think they don't bring anything to campus, you know, other than their own body. But there's six tenets of cultural capital, starting with familiar capital, social capital, navigational resistant, linguistic and aspirational capital. These are all things that a student bring with him or her to this class, to, you know, the campus, to class, whatever it is. And during my time at San Diego State, as Professor, I make sure that my students always brought 100% of themselves to class. Don't leave any parts of yourself out. Come to class. We're going to all collaborate together. We're going to learn from each other. So those are some of the things those six tenants that I make sure that I talk about at the beginning of the semester, so students know that they have something within them that we need in this particular class, and that they've got to accept it at this school because they actually belong here. And that's the same feeling that I have with students here. There was tons of students that applied here at UNLV that didn't get in, but those that did get in, they got in for a particular reason, and they actually belong here. And that's one of the things that I strive for, to make sure that that self, that sense of belonging, is with those particular students here on this campus, letting them know that, hey, we want you here. We want to make sure that you're comfortable. If you have any issues, you can always come to me, talk to me. I'm always available. I have an open door policy when it comes to students. So let's shift gears here. If money wasn't a wasn't an issue at all in your department, what would you like to see for your department? And what would you like to see for UNLV as a whole? I would say more scholarships, more scholarships. So we were part of we had.
Unknown Speaker 25:00
This scholarship called WUI. It's for Western undergrad.
Unknown Speaker 25:06
Always blank out on the WUI. Let me see, I always blank out on the let's see.
Unknown Speaker 25:17
Well, we have a scholarship out of state students, right? Okay, and it's about $14,300
Unknown Speaker 25:23
depending on what state you're from. And then we have a one that's 12,000 as well. And I would say I would want more out of state and in state students to capitalize and get more scholarships, because I understand it's, you know, sometimes financially impossible, or maybe even if we paid the first two years, yeah, and then the last two years, they work and saving enough money in order for them to, do, you know, be able to pay for tuition. Because right now, tuition and state's about 10,000 plus, you know, and Friday states about 28,000 so that half, almost half of 14,300
Unknown Speaker 25:57
of scholarship will help them out a little bit. I would also, if money wasn't
Unknown Speaker 26:02
an issue, would maybe offer them to be able to study abroad or study in another state, just so they could compare and contrast. So I've lived in six states now, and I've worked abroad, so I understand the experience of what it's like to, you know, be out of the country, out of the state. You know, my home state is California, but not everyone you know understands what California is like. You know, we're perceived a little differently. So I would want that for students to be able to study abroad or do a domestic alternative spring break or something. And I think that should be part of, you know, like their tuition, if money wasn't an issue. And then, yeah, and then maybe name more buildings after more, like, bipoc leaders, you know, a Martin Luther King Center, a Cesar Chavez center. Like, so people could actually know all of our different you know, cultural icons as MSI, like, let's have buildings named after it. Yeah, that would be excellent. That would be excellent. You know, I've come across some excellent students, actually brilliant students that, you know, they'll come to school semester, then they'll take office semester, because money is a problem. They have to pay for school out of their own pocket. So they'll work that entire semester. They're out save the money so that the following semester they can get back in school and pay for that particular semester. So yeah, if money wasn't an issue, man, I definitely, definitely would like to see more scholarships, you know, and more opportunity for students as well. So that's one of the thing. And for SDP, I definitely would like to see a building by itself that stands here on campus, and every cultural group would have a space in that building for their particular cultural group. So that's definitely what I would like to see if someone wanted to contact you or your office. How would they do that? Yes, we are on our all social media platforms. We also have a YouTube channel for admissions. But if they want to contact me, they could just email me at Mario dot Rodriguez one@unlv.edu
Unknown Speaker 28:07
just because I'm the second Mario Rodriguez here on campus. But, and I'd be, you know, contact me so we can, you know, work on different partnerships and different things that we could do. I'd be happy to help. Okay, and one last question, one closing question, what's your best advice for students? Don't give up. There's always multiple doors that open, even though door A and B might have closed, there's door C, D, E, waiting for you. Just don't give up after the first time. If I would have given up after I failed my first class, I would have never graduated college, I would have never gotten a master's, and I probably wouldn't be working in higher education 20 years later. Yeah, yeah, excellent. Actually, my best advice would be,
Unknown Speaker 28:46
if you face it, have an issue on campus, as a student, you're not the first to face that particular issue, and you won't be the last. So the person that faced it before you got through it, life went on. Same thing with that. You know, with the issue that you have now, you will get through it, and you will go forward. So our main goal here is to watch students as they come in, crawl, then start to walk, then start to run, and then we want to see them fly and flying for us, meaning they're graduating and going on into a master's program or whatever they choose to do. So that's flying for us.
Unknown Speaker 29:19
All right. Thank you so very much for being my guest today on Let's Talk K, U N, V, we definitely appreciate you as a guest, and you'll definitely have an invite to come back at any time later. Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you. Okay, and that's a wrap.
Unknown Speaker 29:36
For more. Let's talk UNLV. Be sure to follow us on social media, where you can get the latest updates on the show, plus great behind the scenes content. We're on Facebook. At, let's talk UNLV podcast, Twitter, at, let's talk UNLV and Instagram. At, let's talk UNLV pod. You.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai