Brandy Foster is the executive director of two major centers at Wright State University: The ONEIL Center and the Emergence Center at the university’s foundation. She is also a senior lecturer in the Department of Computer Science & Engineering at Wright State, where she earned baccalaureate and master’s degrees in English Language & Literatures.
Based on her experience rising up the ranks in higher ed, and even branching into a STEM field with a background in humanities, Foster offers these tips that can help you advance in your own career.
Practice IntrapreneurshipUniversities are just really interesting microcosms of society. We have really rich diversity, with staff and students and faculty from all over the world all working together in one institution, and it's always a vibrant and exciting place to be. I just really thrived in that environment. As my career has demonstrated, there's a lot of potential for growth in a university, especially if you think in sort of unconventional ways. If you practice intrapreneurship, which is where you're very entrepreneurial but within an organization, I think that higher ed provides a place where you can continually carve out these new niches so you can pursue the kind of work that you want to do.
Be Inspired by Your Environment Whether you're someone with a doctorate degree and you've gotten to the top of your field, or you're a staff member who has an associate's degree or bachelor's degree, what's great in having everybody in the same space is that lifelong learning can occur. It enables us to continually strive for new things. As an employee in higher ed there’s so much to be inspired by if we just look around us, and there's so much that we can learn if we just engage with others at the university in whatever role that they hold.
The ONEIL Center is an example of this. My area of expertise is proposal writing and technical writing, but the students in the Center represent computer science and graphic design and several other fields that are outside of my own expertise. And so that gives me, the director of the Center and the faculty member, the ability to learn something new from the students every day, and that's just a really good model for any workplace. Look for those opportunities to learn, to enrich your own experience in the workplace by just a willingness to learn and engage.
Take Advantage of This Moment It's really important to dream big. This is a period of great change for higher education across the U.S., probably across every type of higher ed institution. And that's because I think that the pandemic created really significant challenges, but any time there are challenges that creates an opportunity for innovators to tackle those challenges. Appreciate how much dynamic change is occurring right now in higher ed and find a way to identify what strengths you can bring to the role.
So I would counsel job seekers to really see themselves as creative problem solvers. Even if you’re looking for a particular type of job that fits your credentials and the job description is written a certain way and highly constrained to some things, I would encourage you to think outside the box. How could you do even more, how can you add even more value, what's a skill or a type of knowledge you have that's unique to you from what other job seekers might be bringing to the position. Because that's where I’ve had a lot of successes.
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