Skyla Santacruz, M.A. ’24, an English major from Ontario, California, received the Graduate Student Employee of the Year on Wednesday, April 17, during the Student Employee and Supervisor of the Year Award Ceremony hosted by Student Employment Services in St. Robert’s Auditorium.
Santacruz works as a graduate advisor in the BCLA Advising Center. “I work a few days a week; in the first half of my shift, I advise students through virtual appointments by giving them advice on their upcoming class schedule, helping them remove old advising holds, answering questions about adding a minor, looking at their DegreeWorks audit report; and when I’m not doing those things, I help answer questions in the BCLA advising email box,” said Santacruz. “During the registration period, which is a peak time, I meet with eight to 10 students a week, and other than that, it’s three to five students spread out over the week. Sometimes, other tasks as needed come up with the full-time academic advisors who recruit me to help with various projects like the academic probation newsletter.”
Santacruz wanted to work as a graduate student to gain insight into her future career working in higher education while pursuing her degree at LMU. “I was interested in broadening my horizons,” said Santacruz. “I had traditionally worked as a writing tutor or an embedded tutor, and this role allowed me to try something new to see if I would like it and be more well-rounded in the job market after I complete my master’s degree. I also work as a teaching fellow in BCLA. I was a writing instructor, so I was embedded into a first-year seminar course, and then this semester and last semester I was teaching rhetorical arts. So, one of my favorite moments is when I get students who are from my classes and my two roles combine, and I like to promote advising. I talk to students about the value of advising and going to see advisors early in their academic careers. As a co-lead teaching fellow, I mentor some first-time teaching fellows, and I’m in charge of developing workshops to improve professional development. I just hosted one last month on working with LGBTQ+ students hosted by one of my academic advisory colleagues.”
After completing their degree at LMU, Santacruz hopes to teach English courses at a community college or work as an academic advisor. “I feel like I have had so many opportunities to learn from the full-time advisors to prepare for the future,” said Santacruz. “Looking at specific things like working with transfer students, what of their credits transferred, and understanding why that can happen. I also got to see a lot of academic advisors in action through observations, which allowed me to learn from all different types of advising styles because everyone is different in how they approach advising students. I also got to be a part of the hiring process last summer, which let me see what it’s like to hire a new academic advisor. I got a better understanding of my boss’ process, and it has helped me understand better ways to craft my resumé and answer interview questions.”
Santacruz advises graduate students looking for student employment on campus to look for roles that connect to their future careers. She describes her LMU student experience as being about resilience because “that’s what it takes to work on campus and be a graduate student,” said Santacruz. “It’s obviously a lot of work, and you really have to focus on time management. You have to communicate with your employer about what is happening outside of work, especially if you are like me and hold several positions on campus besides being a graduate student. That resilience taught me that it pays off in the end, and I feel like I’ve learned so much from juggling all these different roles during my time at LMU. That is something I feel like I can take into the workplace.”
“I want to shout out Miguel Reyna, BCLA academic advisor. He is always willing to help me, and I feel like I’ve learned a lot from him because he’s involved with many things as part of his role, like the Disability Support Services Board and works with LGBT Student Services. Another staff member to shout out would be Sophia Markoski, BCLA academic advisor. I started as a graduate advisor, and she taught me everything I know as a graduate advisor. I shared that knowledge with our newest graduate advisor last semester. Julia Lee, Ph.D., a professor of English, has helped me as someone I ask for advice from throughout my entire LMU experience and talk about my plans outside of LMU. We went to the Southwest Popular/American Culture Association conference together recently, and she was instrumental in helping me look over my conference proposal.”
Outside of being a graduate student and a student employee, Santacruz is a voice actor for indie pieces and some lesser-known game developers. “So, when I’m not at LMU, voice acting is something I am auditioning for or taking classes to improve,” said Santacruz. “It’s amazing what some of these small animation studios can do, and it’s been cool being a part of something like that. It’s the opposite of other things that I get to do at LMU.”