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Southeastern's own KSLU 90.9 The Lion presents, a community affairs show! Showcasing what is awesome about Tangipahoa Parish, its people and its community!
Serving Southeastern Hammond and the surrounding communities for over fifty years, we are KSLU Hammond.
Damon Sunde:The views and opinions expressed in the following program are those of the speakers and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of KSLU, the SLU Department of Athletics, Southeastern Louisiana University, or any other entities represented.
Todd Delaney:Discussing topics of interest to the university, Hammond, and the surrounding communities, This is the Lion's Roundtable. Now here's your host, Doctor. Amber Narro.
Dr. Amber Narro:Good day, good day. This is Amber Narro on ninety point nine FM, The Lion KSLU. I am here today with our special quarterly guest that we have at least four times a year, Doctor William Wainwright. I am so glad that you're here this morning. Welcome to KSLU.
Dr. William Wainwright:Thank you, Doctor Narro. Always thrilled to be with you.
Dr. Amber Narro:Fantastic. So glad to have you. Alright. So, you know, obviously, we're going to start the top of this hour talking about something that is just that we don't like to talk about. We will definitely have some conversation about some homecoming stuff as well as as well as Giving Day and how great that was but we definitely want to start out today just kind of honoring the three students who were involved in a car accident over the weekend.
Dr. Amber Narro:And Doctor. Wainwright, I know that this is not one of your favorite parts of your job for sure, and it is definitely one that's challenging for the university and those families involved as well. Thank you for your leadership through this, but also tell me about this week.
Dr. William Wainwright:Yes, absolutely and let me begin, the sole focus of our efforts is to keep the families of our students front and center ensuring that we are providing them the love and support that they need during this most difficult time. What always pushes our university through these toughest of times is community, not just community on campus but community in Hammond. And so I'm just, I was at Rotary yesterday and received a lot of outpouring of support from our Rotary members looking out for our university family. And then you know from our faculty to our staff to our counseling center, everyone leaning in, leaning in, stepping in, ensuring our students are aware of all the resources available to them to get through this. But again at this point our primary focus is ensuring respect for our students, their families and respecting their grieving process but also letting them know how much we truly care and want to be there for them as they move forward.
Dr. Amber Narro:It's heavy on campus this week.
Dr. William Wainwright:It is.
Dr. Amber Narro:You know, and our students, whether they knew those three beautiful students or not, are certainly feeling that weight of of the accident and their their absence on campus and it is just we I just want to say from KSLU, from myself, from, you know, and obviously, from the university, those families are in our prayers and our and we are definitely acknowledging how important they were to this place.
Dr. William Wainwright:Absolutely. Thank you.
Dr. Amber Narro:Absolutely. Okay. So let's turn to homecoming because I think that that is our most that is our nearest event that is super impactful on campus here at Southeastern and I think that we're all kind of starting to get excited about it. Today is October 1.
Dr. William Wainwright:Hello October. October.
Dr. Amber Narro:You're in your pink ribbon?
Dr. William Wainwright:I'm wearing my pink ribbon for breast cancer awareness in memory of my mother who died of breast cancer and for all women who, and men who have breast cancer are going through it and just ensuring that everyone is aware of resources and support. But yes, October is here and is it just me or does it seem like homecoming was like just last week?
Dr. Amber Narro:I feel like
Dr. William Wainwright:it a year ago. And it was, we always say a homecoming to remember, but we are really excited about this year's I want to credit our Student Government Association for all that they pour in to ensure our students have an exciting experience. We are going to pray for great weather. It should be a seasonally comfortable time, however, with this climate recently, I don't know. But hopefully we're going to have great weather and we'll have a great game, I know that.
Dr. William Wainwright:Hats off to Coach Selfo and his team thus far this season. So looking forward to homecoming and all the activities. I want to encourage all students to lean in, take full advantage, especially our incoming freshmen. This will be their first experience at Gumbo Yaya and
Dr. Amber Narro:So fun.
Dr. William Wainwright:Yeah. It's a lot of fun. So encourage everyone to lean in and and come participate, come to the game, enjoy the tailgate. It'll be a lot
Dr. Amber Narro:of fun. Absolutely. What is your favorite part of homecoming? I I... The the video is live on the website right now.
Dr. Amber Narro:So if you wanna see it from last year, I I see you and and Misty in the car and throwing beads in the... What's your favorite part?
Dr. William Wainwright:Yes. I I have many favorite parts, but let me begin. You know the parade is always exciting. Get to really see our community come together but also our student, our Greek organizations, this year is going to be extra special as we honor Miss Louisiana. Shelby will be with us for the homecoming parade.
Dr. William Wainwright:So it'll be really exciting. But another opportunity through homecoming that is often not forgotten about but perhaps overlooked is we honor incredible alum, college by college. And so I'm so excited for each of our colleges as they honor their outstanding alumni and then of course we have our outstanding alumni banquet that Friday evening. It is a full week.
Dr. Amber Narro:Absolutely. And I mentioned your first lady. Miss Misty Wainwright. And she is she likes like judging the lip sync contest and she's all in it all week long. I think I see her more during homecoming week.
Dr. William Wainwright:Yes.
Dr. Amber Narro:Than any other, and we see her all the time here at Southeastern. She's very involved on campus, and thank you for that. I've... I said from the beginning, thank you for you. We appreciate having you at Southeastern.
Dr. Amber Narro:I always embarrass you with that. But, gosh, thank you for your bride. She is wonderful. She is so good to this university and the students just absolutely adore her.
Dr. William Wainwright:Absolutely. She is a... The university has a two for one. I can tell you. She's a very hardworking volunteer for this institution.
Dr. William Wainwright:She deeply loves the mission, the students, the faculty and staff. I'm grateful to the faculty and staff that outreach to her based on professional experience in the field of counseling and mental health. And so I'm grateful to the faculty that invite her to guest lecture you know to students but also involved to your point in so many ways. And so I'm actually going to be joining her. We're going to head to the career fair after this interview together to thank our employers for investing in the futures of our students.
Dr. Amber Narro:Oh my gosh. Thank you so much for all of them being here today. So let's talk about that for just a second. Thank you for mentioning that. I'm sending a couple of classes over there today.
Dr. Amber Narro:Please do. So even my freshmen. Because freshmen, if you are listening to us as you're walking through the student union right now, please get over to the student... To the Pennington Center today because career fair is also for you. Doctor.
Dr. Amber Narro:Wainwright, can you tell me why it's important for even our freshmen to go over there and check out our employers and people who are here to hire Southeastern students?
Dr. William Wainwright:Yes. You know across the nation there's a focus on what's termed social mobility and it's the ability for higher ed institutions to help break down barriers for student success. But another area that I like to focus on is referred to as social capital and that is the network that surrounds the student body and the alum through the success of alumni. They surround our student body to ensure their success beyond us. I tell students your success when you're with us is important.
Dr. William Wainwright:Your success when you leave us is vital. And so you are going
Damon Sunde:to
Dr. William Wainwright:see Southeastern alumni currently working, they're gonna have identification showing that they're an alumni. So our students as freshmen are going to, and as freshmen and across all students will see alumni successfully representing the businesses that they are employed and they are going to be sharing all the secrets of what can make our students successful within their business and industry. Many of them are hiring, I know we have a lot of graduating seniors. Also it's a great opportunity for freshmen to scan the horizon on what could be a potential exciting internship opportunity when that time comes. We also have designations of employers that are looking to hire veterans.
Dr. William Wainwright:We have a lot of veteran student enrollment. We have employers that hire international students and so we have designations for that. So hats off to Craig Maranello and the entire Career Services team. I have heard from employers they go to a lot of college and career fairs but this career fair in particular is the best and we're proud of that.
Dr. Amber Narro:Absolutely and I can imagine that Craig Maranello just offers a concierge service there. So he is he is a wonderful colleague and friend and just a professional's professional.
Dr. William Wainwright:If you're low on energy, when I'm low on energy, I shake his hand and then it's like recharges my entire body.
Dr. Amber Narro:Indeed. Indeed. I can see that happening for sure. Doctor. Wainwright, the career fair today, what I'm encouraging my students to do as freshmen is to go and explore the career fair and find...
Dr. Amber Narro:Their assignment is to go find a job that is in their field that is not traditional in their field. So if you are a nurse, over there and find a different place that you can work as a nurse besides bedside.
Dr. William Wainwright:Correct.
Dr. Amber Narro:Right? If you are a physical therapist, you're not in clinic anymore. Where are you?
Dr. William Wainwright:Yes, my nephew is, he works for, he is a nurse, but he works for Procter and Gamble and he is over their health and safety. Yeah. And I mean, just thank you for pushing us to think beyond traditional areas of employment.
Dr. Amber Narro:Yes, indeed. So freshmen, that's your assignment.
Dr. William Wainwright:So professional headshots available
Dr. Amber Narro:forgot about that
Dr. William Wainwright:for free. And I say that because a lot of students are not aware that once you graduate and you're seeking up that professional headshot there's a pretty significant cost that comes with that. Take full advantage, show up dressed for success, show up ready and you will have an incredible experience all day today.
Dr. Amber Narro:Yeah. I got a professional headshot done one time. It was like a $150 or something like that. Get it done here y'all. Absolutely.
Dr. Amber Narro:Absolutely. Very good. Alright. Giving day. Let's show this community that you were talking about just a second ago some appreciation.
Dr. Amber Narro:Isn't that amazing?
Dr. William Wainwright:It is. Giving Day, our community does so much for our university. It is really illuminated. It's all year long. It's illuminated on Giving Day, twenty four hours of giving.
Dr. William Wainwright:You know we set a goal each year, last year for the centennial we set a bold goal of 500,000 and came in at 507,000 so we were very proud of that. Coming off of the centennial we expected continued support but we knew we had to really communicate effectively to our community the multiple areas of opportunity to really make a change and an impact in someone's life but also Giving Day allows people to fund their passion. And so when you look at the number of opportunities to financially support your institution whether you're an alumni or not, we were really excited. Again we blew our target. Were hoping for $500,000 we landed at $537,000 and hats off to Doctor.
Dr. William Wainwright:Caroline Sawyer, all of our students in broadcasting. For the first time we held a live broadcast the entire day of giving and I'm grateful because of the intentionality of who we selected to come in and talk about the impact of mission, community leaders, know, local nonprofits, I mean we just really, I'm grateful our students did a phenomenal job. And so I can tell you that is probably one of the primary reasons we saw the attention and the awareness of what we were doing that day, it's because of that live broadcast. So hats off to our students, to all of our comms faculty for an incredible job.
Dr. Amber Narro:Thank you for mentioning Doctor. Sawyer. One of the things that we're excited about is that she brought her talent here. Southeast, we've been talking about this beautiful Robin Roberts broadcast media center for years leading up to this. It's coming.
Dr. Amber Narro:It's coming. It's coming. Then last year, it came. Right? Yes.
Dr. Amber Narro:And then we got the leader who could handle it. I mean, she is amazing. Yes. You walk in to... It is a different place in here because of her presence, number one.
Dr. Amber Narro:And I got to go over to the live broadcast while they were doing it. It was on Southeastern's channel. It was on KSLU. We were doing things. It was simulcast, by the way, on several different media, social media included.
Dr. Amber Narro:And Doctor Sawyer was in the middle of everything when I walked in and she just looked like she was in her little happy place.
Dr. William Wainwright:She was and you could see not only Doctor. Sawyer but the faculty that you know were feeding off of that energy and excitement. They were, it was experiential learning you know that's learning in action and we had the ability to witness that that day. And again, just to see our students so excited about that, that is not an experience you should only receive once you graduate. The best thing we can do is prepare them during their time at Southeastern to really be in the fray, be in the moment, be in the chaos behind the scenes and know that you've got a huge responsibility.
Dr. William Wainwright:Know Giving Day is a significant responsibility of our university and it was in the hands of a lot of our students that day and I'm just so proud of them.
Dr. Amber Narro:They had three weeks to get ready for that. Wow. Three weeks. That idea came up three weeks ahead of giving day. Doctor Sawyer pulled it off, number one, and they, every one of them rose to the occasion, represented Southeastern well, and learned something during that day.
Dr. Amber Narro:That was a six hour broadcast. Right? So when you're going at that kind of time and and filling that time, go look at it on YouTube. Go pay attention to what they pulled off that day and who they were able to, schedule that day and talk to. And, you know, you mentioned before that these students were learning in the moment.
Dr. Amber Narro:So it's... It it it was live. Yeah. And I dare anybody who's watching this right now to watch those students and then go watch a professional broadcast, a a morning news in your area and watch how many times they drop a mic in the morning. So this is Absolutely.
Dr. Amber Narro:I was super proud of our students for understanding that mistakes are gonna happen, especially during live broadcasts. Yep. You know, you're you're gonna... That's why I love them so much because they are so exciting. You know, I'd prefer to go live than tape any day.
Dr. Amber Narro:You know, gives you that, it just gives you some energy.
Dr. William Wainwright:It does. But it also gives you confidence. Yeah. That is important. We want our our students, you know, leading with confidence when they leave Southeastern and these are all again incredible assets and gifts that we we deliver every day through our mission a deep credit to our faculty for that.
Dr. Amber Narro:Absolutely, absolutely. Doctor. Wainwright when you are looking at the rest of the semester we... We've got homecoming that's gonna happen. We've got, you know, graduation, just our traditional things as we kinda move from our hundred year celebration into the next hundred years.
Dr. Amber Narro:There's a lot of focus on Vision 2030 and things that are upcoming. Tell our community what we can look forward to because it ain't over and we're just beginning.
Dr. William Wainwright:We are just beginning and I will tell our community as we wrapped up Vision 2025 we embarked this past spring on bold strategic a list of strategic priorities that we are refining at this time and by the conclusion of this fall semester we will have landed on our priorities, our goals and objectives to achieve those priorities through what we will call Vision 2,030. But with Vision 2,030, if you look at the strategic growth of our university, that strategic growth ties to a strategic enrollment management plan that accompanied vision twenty twenty five. So at the same time we're planning for vision 2030, as a matter of fact my email communication goes out today to faculty and staff about our initiation of our new strategic enrollment management plan that will align and accompany Vision 2030. So that is a heavy lift for this fall semester and in a perfect world you know we would have a large conference center with everyone sitting around a mega table you know providing input. The way we do it is through an executive committee and through subgroups, work groups but also for student faculty staff engagement as we look at strategic enrollment management and Vision 2030 and you see these Canvas notifications come your way about how to engage in lending your voice, please engage.
Dr. William Wainwright:We listen to all voices in this process and so through Canvas, through SurveyMonkey, anytime you see something come your way related to Vision 2,030 or Strategic Enrollment Management Planning please engage. But I'm excited because it's not lost on me the challenges that are facing higher education today. If you look at the fourteen day enrollment census across all of the UL system we grew the most strategically up in first time freshmen, up in continuing students, up in graduate students, up in transfer students. The only area we had a slight dip was dual enrollment and that's only because two school districts changed their scheduling from blocked to modified so we will see those enrollments in the spring which we traditionally would see them in the fall which is probably going to lead to a robust spring enrollment. But I say all that to say we are growing strategically in all the right areas.
Dr. William Wainwright:Now is not the time to put our feet up, it's actually time to put our foot on the pedal and continue this important work because at the end of the day when we are successful we have strengthened a family, we have strengthened the community and we have strengthened an economy.
Dr. Amber Narro:Fantastic. Thank you for that. That's a mic drop kind of moment there. When you're talking about block scheduling, just
Dr. William Wainwright:Mhmm.
Dr. Amber Narro:For those of you who might not be in education world, it just basically means we can't count them this semester, but they're here. They're here. They're still taking classes. Those dual enrollment classes are are tracking over the entire year though to align with their time in school rather than a semester which would be what we would do at Southeastern.
Dr. William Wainwright:Correct. So we will see those numbers in the spring.
Dr. Amber Narro:Looking forward to those for sure. For sure. You are... The enrollment here, I saw on a cookie that Amanda Hammonds had over at the Alumni Center. 15,482.
Dr. Amber Narro:Is that the number?
Dr. William Wainwright:92.
Dr. Amber Narro:92. Thank you. Yes. Those 10 students super important. Thank you, indeed.
Dr. Amber Narro:So we're almost at 15,500 students. Oh my word.
Dr. William Wainwright:And expect that spring number to be close if not slightly above that. And again, it's testament to the value of what we provide and you know so many families and students are you know they're voting with their registrations, they are making choices, affordability is real ensuring that not only are they looking at an initial you know investment but a long term investment in the future of a successful graduate. And so that's why as I talked earlier about you know you have social mobility, have social capital, we have all opportunities to wrap support around our students and so many of our successful alumni are driving a lot of our enrollment growth as well. They are spreading the word. They are demonstrating what it means to be a Southeastern graduate every day in the communities we serve and, very grateful to our alumni.
Dr. William Wainwright:On that note, we parish by parish have alumni events, each year but, if you're an alum, if you're in St. Tammany Parish you'll want to go out tonight. Covington is on Thursday nights they have their big, I call it the Downtown Alive event. I think Amanda Shaw is playing but Southeastern is gonna hold an alumni event tonight at the Covington Beer Garden at 05:30. They will be hosting Shelby Bordelon as well and Shelby will be advocating for Claire's Promise.
Dr. William Wainwright:But if you're an alum or if you're not an alum and you're in St. Tammany Parish and you love Southeastern, come out this evening at 05:30, the Covington Beer Guarding. Our Alumni Association has worked with alumni throughout St. Tammany Parish and that group of alumni have done an incredible job planning this event.
Dr. Amber Narro:And if you don't know and maybe have been living under a rock, Shelby Bordelon is the first runner-up for Miss America.
Dr. William Wainwright:Yes indeed.
Dr. Amber Narro:More importantly, she's Miss Louisiana. Absolutely. And most importantly, she's a Southeastern alum and enrolled and everything Southeastern.
Dr. William Wainwright:Current grad student and so Shelby represents us beautifully for all who have followed her. She is an incredible representation of not only the best of our mission but also the best of Louisiana. We are grateful to her because she has made Southeastern a priority. Her time is heavily limited right now due to appearances throughout the state of Louisiana. But she has made Southeastern a priority, she's made Homecoming a priority.
Dr. William Wainwright:So, so grateful to Shelby.
Dr. Amber Narro:Doctor. Wainwright, you are talking about enrollment in a time where everybody's concerned about it. The nation is concerned about it and we have grown in all categories. Know, shout out to honors too, by the way. We're big as 18%
Dr. William Wainwright:growth this fall.
Dr. Amber Narro:Goodness. Massive. We're so excited. We are attracting wonderful students and that's all through programming from my predecessor. I'm just putting my foot on the gas.
Dr. Amber Narro:Doctor. Procopio started it. I'm just hanging in there.
Dr. William Wainwright:Doing an incredible Thank
Dr. Amber Narro:you. Thank you. But when we're talking about enrollment and growth, I had to give that plug, know, I gotta do that every time I can. But when we're talking about massive growth here and and looking at, you know, the neighboring school which is forty five minutes from our front door, that purple school. What is what is the Southeastern difference?
Dr. Amber Narro:Like what do you tell parents when they say, well I could send them to the Flagship versus Southeastern?
Dr. William Wainwright:I will tell you, when I ask parents why Southeastern, they will tell me it's a big university but it feels small. And what they're saying is our faculty know our students by name. Our faculty are not, our students are not going to be registered for a class that is maxed out where perhaps if they arrive at class and can't get a seat they have to go on their phone follow a lecture online, right? That is not the structure of how we deliver.
Dr. Amber Narro:No we're gonna go find you a seat.
Dr. William Wainwright:We're gonna find you a seat. But our faculty know our students by name and not only our faculty, our staff throughout the campus community. One of the things I do to challenge and continue to share with our faculty and staff is no matter how big we get, that is our competitive edge. We also have a lot of students who are highly successful after they leave us. They go on to LSU for medical school, for law school, not only LSU, they go on to UNO for engineering, they go to Southern for law school, very successful.
Dr. William Wainwright:So I credit again our faculty, we have very high acceptance rates of undergrads who complete and enter into vet school, med school, law school, you name it. A lot of specialty colleges and universities both within state and out of state. And so that alone is a competitive edge, unique opportunity. A lot of people don't realize we lead in undergraduate research. That is huge.
Dr. William Wainwright:A lot of people are not aware that we have the largest College Education in the state of Louisiana with the largest number of graduates. So all of our school systems are looking to Southeastern to continue to fuel the strength of our school systems throughout the greater North Shore region. Top nursing program in the state, nationally ranked College of Business. So when I talk to students and parents that's when we lean in heavily on the unique opportunities here at the university. And one of the things I think is leading to our strategic growth, again you don't grow for the sake of growth, your growth must be strategic, As we know who we are, we don't allow for mission creep, we're not depleting resources to create new things.
Dr. William Wainwright:We do have innovation, we do have programmatic innovation but it's very intentional. It's designed carefully to ensure that we are resourcing the programs we have known. Many of the programs we were founded think about our founding teacher education preparation, business leadership, healthcare. And here we are today one hundred years later continue to have those three continue to be some of our largest programs And we've evolved, we've built other colleges and additional programs but the fact that we're continuing to invest in the programs that we know lead to the greatest opportunities which is why out of our over 82,000 alum, 80% of them live and work in Louisiana. And that is one of the reasons.
Dr. William Wainwright:We're true to our mission. We know who we are.
Dr. Amber Narro:Indeed. We are regional, right? Which means that we're gonna attract certain region of the state. To this area and we're proud of that, I think.
Dr. William Wainwright:We are.
Dr. Amber Narro:And one of the things that I get to talk about a pretty good bit on this show is that we can go from kindergarten to doctorate right here in this parish. Correct. Talk about some of our strong graduate programs that we In also offer his brilliance, our provost and also the director of our graduate school, Doctor. John Volohanis, provost Doctor. Eric Skipper, designed this graduate fair for our students, To keep them coming here.
Dr. Amber Narro:Why is retention of our own students important here at Southeastern and also important to those students as well?
Dr. William Wainwright:The data shows us that many of our undergrads who choose to go to graduate school will choose Southeastern. And for a long time we've accepted that, understood it and expected it just to continue to happen naturally. So when you provide further exposure like the Grad Fair and opportunities for students to understand what graduate programs are available, it not only helps inform a lot of students who may not be aware that graduate school is even an opportunity for them. We also know during certain economic shifts if there's a tough employment market in that particular program of study, many students will retain and hold on to go to graduate school until the economy strengthens. That's not uncommon.
Dr. William Wainwright:But in addition to that, we need to ensure that we are looking at new graduate program opportunities. You've seen them evolve over the last five years from the Master's degree in Strategic Communication to the innovative MBA with a focus on technology and innovation, the Mitek MBA. That is not the norm. To see that type of degree design specifically focused on student success and guided by alumni who are working in the industry who know that there is a particular need for technology and innovation within the MBA framework. That guidance was vital and that is why we're seeing such excitement.
Dr. William Wainwright:But then you also see innovation that comes from that. College of Business just offered the mini MBA program which is not a graduate program of study, it's an intensive non credit opportunity for individuals who are working in middle management and industry to get a taste of what an MBA constructed program can deliver and help them immediately elevate within their career. And then as a result of that program I looked at some data yesterday we already have interest from those went through the non credit mini MBA program who are now interested in our Mitek degree.
Dr. Amber Narro:Fantastic.
Dr. William Wainwright:Those types of innovations are critical and we have many other incredible graduate programs. Both my wife and I are here today because we entered graduate programs of study in my wife's area, graduate program of study in the field of psychology led her to become a licensed therapist to work for the state for her first six years and then open a private practice for twenty three years and of course now serve as our First Lady and continue to give back through that education. And for me, with an undergrad in criminal justice, having an opportunity to teach at a proprietary institution, getting hooked on adult learning. Northwestern was my school of choice for a master's in adult learning and that sparked a fire and fueled a passion that gave me the opportunity to think bigger than I thought at that time, think much bigger than I thought I could contribute. And so grateful to our graduate programs Doctor.
Dr. William Wainwright:Bohanas, all of our graduate faculty who do incredible work at our institution.
Dr. Amber Narro:Very good. Thank you. Thank you. One last thing. This morning I saw the article come across on the Daily Star.
Dr. Amber Narro:I had driven that day and I knew something was going on over here at the Kinesiology Building. I saw some purple shirts from Options hanging out there. I saw my sweet friend Carrie Merkey, who is the CEO of Options standing out. And I was like, Carrie doesn't typically come to Southeastern during the middle of a day in the summer and just kind of hang out on something's happened. But you know you be a responsible citizen, you keep going and letting the people do what they need to do because something was going on over there.
Dr. Amber Narro:What was going on over there Doctor. Wainwright?
Dr. William Wainwright:So our students saved a life that day and we had an Options employee. And let me be clear, for those who may not be familiar, we partner closely with Options. Options serves our disability community and we have a partnership with them where their employees work on our campus, provide essential services to help ensure that our infrastructure and our buildings are conducive for learning. They do great work in cleaning and sanitation and so we treasure our Options employees. One of our Options employees collapsed, had a heart attack and our students and faculty jumped into action.
Dr. William Wainwright:I happened to be there speaking to our Healthcare Connect Academy, that Doctor. Carruth and Doctor. Damiano were hosting. And I'm really impressed with how all of our high school seniors who happened to know something was going on but didn't quite know what was going on, they had a real world experience that day that if you are enrolled as a student at Southeastern you can and you are focused on a career in healthcare, you can be called upon, you know, a normal typical day where you think you're going to class for teaching and learning but then you're called to save a life. And to all of our students, I had a chance to meet with all of our students, I gave them each the President's Challenge coin to thank them for jumping in and our faculty for leading them through the process and again we talked about Doctor.
Dr. William Wainwright:Sawyer and students too, I was outside at the time that they were working on the employee and just watching our faculty coach our students and our students coach one another. Everyone was calm, collective, it was a happy ending, a full recovery for our options employee but I would suggest could have been a different outcome if our students, faculty and staff were not there and able to deeply engage. So proud.
Dr. Amber Narro:That just brought tears to my eyes. Amazing. You so much.
Dr. William Wainwright:No, thank you.
Dr. Amber Narro:And thank you for committing to KSLU, to Southeastern, and to everything here by coming here and sharing your vision and continuing to share how that not only you expect excellence of all of us, but you expect it of yourself as Absolutely. And challenge all of us to make sure that that excellence is contagious through our students. We appreciate you and everything that you do to support the green and gold.
Dr. William Wainwright:Thank you.
Dr. Amber Narro:Absolutely. I've been here with Doctor. Wainwright. He is the president of Southeastern Louisiana University. He's been sharing Vision two thousand thirty Homecoming.
Dr. Amber Narro:Also Giving Day. Thank you community for supporting all of these small efforts here on campus and making huge big impact that day. Thank you for listening here on Thursdays and Fridays. This is Amber Narro with your Lion's Roundtable on KSLUs nine point nine FM, The Lion right here in Hammond, America. Y'all have a great day.
Todd Delaney:Thank you for joining us today. If you missed any part of the show, you can listen to the Lion's Roundtable on demand at our website, lionupradio.org. The podcast version is also available for download from Amazon, Google, Spotify, and TuneIn. Hi.