Harper College will be closed Wednesday, November 27 through Sunday, December 1 for Thanksgiving Break.
Harper Talks Episode 27 — Jalen Little (.mp3)
Alumnus Jalen Little joins Harper Talks and discusses finding community, developing leadership skills, taking the least expected path, and helping prospective students discover the educational opportunities they have in their own backyard in his role as Admissions Specialist at Harper College.
Harper Talks: The Harper Alumni Podcast
Show 27: Jalen Little — Transcript
[00:00:01.360] - Brian Shelton
I'm Brian Shelton and you're listening to Harper Talks, a co production of Harper
College Alumni Relations and Harper Radio. Today on Harper talks I'm excited to speak
with Jalen little. Jalen is a 2014 graduate of Harper College and currently works
as an admissions specialist. Jalen was involved with the campus activities board,
student government, and the Black Student Union before moving on to complete his BA
at Southern Illinois University. The Harper Radio studios are currently having a minor
facelift, so we recorded this interview over zoom.
[00:00:37.040] - Brian Shelton
Hey, Jalen, thanks for being here. How are you doing today?
[00:00:39.400] - Jalen Little
Good, Brian. How are you doing today?
[00:00:41.550] - Brian Shelton
I'm doing fantastic. Spring is coming. I'm excited.
[00:00:44.990] - Jalen Little
Same. Today was the first day I was able to wake up and walk outside, and I put on
my jacket. It felt so good.
[00:00:53.150] - Brian Shelton
It's amazing how we thaw out after the long Chicago land winter. Right?
[00:00:57.510] - Jalen Little
Well, I always say there's like, three winters in Chicago. There's the real winter,
the maybe winter, and I forgot that we're still in winter winter.
[00:01:06.490] - Brian Shelton
Right. Yeah. The whole false spring thing. The whole false summer thing. Yeah. It
really does pop up on you. Yeah. Well, great. I appreciate you being here. Hey, so
I know you graduated from Harper College in 2014, and I found that so you would have
been done in the spring. I started Harper in 2014, in the fall, kind of in the summer,
fall. So we just missed each other. And so I'm kind of curious. The college has undergone
a lot of changes during that time when you were here as a student, I'm curious what
was campus like during the time that you were here?
[00:01:38.670] - Jalen Little
Yeah. When I arrived in 2011, there was still a football team, and then there was
football team and campus was I experienced campus as being really vibrant at that
time. And for me, coming in as a first generation student and having no knowledge
of what college would be like, I experienced the campus in a way where I found myself
being connected to affinity groups on campus and getting accustomed to just, like,
what it meant to be a student at a community college. And the spaces at the time were
really nice and welcoming, and it was a really good time getting started up. And then,
of course, in 2014, when I left and I discovered that we were kind of creating kind
of like the broadcasting space on campus and things like that, that's where I missed
you. And I was like, I kind of want to stay a bit longer. But then I realized, going
on, I'd have an opportunity to tap into that space.
[00:02:43.330] - Brian Shelton
Yeah, we just missed each other there. So if you'd come just a few years later yeah.
So you mentioned groups on campus. I know you were involved with campus activities,
student government, Black Student union. What did those student experiences, what
effect did that have on you while you were here.
[00:02:58.400] - Jalen Little
Yeah. So initially, when I was getting connected to some of those organizations on
campus, I could say, honestly had a profound effect on my experience. Honestly, my
goal was to go to Harper, go to class, and go home right at first. And I just remember
the first group that I was connected to was the Male Institute Group, which was hosted
out of the center for Multicultural Learning, and that was also a subset of the Black
Student Union. And that allowed me to feel a sense of safety on campus. Being connected
to that group and able to ask people what their experiences were like. Being either
being a Black male in college and talking about those components outside of the classroom,
you know, that really, you know, affected my my experience, you know, because I come
from a single parent, low income household, and and for me, being connected to that
group allowed me to gain a sense that I wasn't alone in my journey and that I had
a really strong support mechanism. And that taught me a lot about how important it
is to be connected to a community on campus and how important it is to reach out for
help.
[00:04:17.920] - Jalen Little
And joining student government and the Campus Activities Board allowed me to experience
what it was like to I always say at that time, I was like, oh, I'm an adult. I feel
like an adult. I'm planning events. One of the first events that I helped plan through
the Campus Activities Board was our Hullabaloo event in 2011. And me and another member
of the Activities Board were in charge of rallying the troops, as we called it, rallying
up all of the clubs and organizations and got an opportunity to see what it was like
to delegate tasks and why time management was so important. And the student government
gave me the opportunity to explore my leadership abilities, what it meant to delegate
with the committee of other students and talk about a topic that we felt was very
important at the time and that affected all students and how we can come together
to gain consensus on how we can improve the lives of students on campus and provide
them with opportunities. There was one student, a part of the student government,
and he would always say, we have to fight the system. I was like, no, this is different.
[00:05:40.350] - Jalen Little
The system is working with us on this. We don't have to fight the system. The system
is here to support us. That's how those groups on campus really affected me and gave
me an opportunity to really enhance just my development as a human being in all those
different areas to who I am today.
[00:06:00.740] - Brian Shelton
Yeah, it's really great opportunities to not only get to know other people, but gives
you the opportunity to take on tasks and responsibilities that, as a college student,
you might not necessarily have. And those experiences help you grow both personally
and professionally. I'm kind of curious, maybe since we both work for the college,
we shouldn't have this conversation on a recording. But what are your thoughts? It
seems that students aren't as involved in student groups and such these days. I know
the pandemic took a huge bite out of that, but what do you think we can do to get
students back involved in those sorts of things? It seems to be waning.
[00:06:39.230] - Jalen Little
That's a good question, Brian. I think one of the key components of getting students
involved and getting them hyped up to just be a part of something.
[00:06:49.350] - Brian Shelton
Yeah.
[00:06:52.550] - Jalen Little
I think it really boils down to really discovering what interest students have at
their core and being able to rally around them and say, hey, we can make this happen.
We can help you to take this idea and manifest it into something tangible. I think
students get bogged down with the idea of time consumption. I think students may feel
that if I give myself to this club or organization, I won't have time to do this.
I think if we develop methods where we can show them, like, hey, you can do both,
and honestly, doing both will still nonetheless give you a sense of purpose and give
you a sense of commitment and just a sense of belonging. I think students just want
to feel a sense of belonging, and they want to know that when they invest their time
and their energy, that that belonging and that community will serve them, but also
serve others as well. So a lot of students that I've spoken with where I ask them
right out of high school or even in the high school when I'm there, I'm like, hey,
are you planning to get involved on campus?
[00:08:09.410] - Jalen Little
Students coming out of high school, seniors especially, they are the most hyped up
group of individuals. Right. Because they're getting ready to graduate. Life is getting
ready to open up. Always say the bowling ball like the bumpers are coming down and
they're steering their path, and they're super hyped up. And I think that when we
can find ourselves in that space and that opportunity and time to connect with them
and get them connected to a group that they feel passionate about. I think that's
how we can address that.
[00:08:47.300] - Brian Shelton
Yeah. I will say that out of all the alumni that I've interviewed for the Harper Talks
podcast, almost every single one of them talks about how their involvement on campus
is what led to their success in their future endeavors. So definitely encourage people
to get involved. I didn't know this about you. You played in the Harper Jazz Band.
[00:09:07.990] - Jalen Little
Yeah, I played in the Harper Jazz Band. Such a good group.
[00:09:13.670] - Brian Shelton
What do you play?
[00:09:14.450] - Jalen Little
Yeah, I play drums.
[00:09:18.450] - Brian Shelton
That's cool. I had no idea. I didn't know that. I was reading through some of your
background material. I had no idea that you were in the band. Are you still playing.
[00:09:26.190] - Jalen Little
Yeah. So I actually took a break this past semester in the fall, and then I took a
break during the spring, and I plan on signing up for the summer jazz band jazz ensemble.
And then in the fall, my goal is to ideally play in both the Lab band and the ensemble.
[00:09:41.520] - Brian Shelton
That's awesome. So you did all this really cool stuff while you were at Harper. You're
a really good student, you're involved in all these things, and then you transferred
to Southern Illinois University. What was that path like for you? How did Harper prepare
you for Southern?
[00:09:55.620] - Jalen Little
Well, in full disclosure, I was one of those students at Harper that started my major
as an Associates in Fine Arts for Music. Got into those classes, and honestly, Brian,
I wasn't feeling it. I was like, you know what? I love music. I love music. And for
me, sitting in the class, like, in music theory and in those classes, I got a glimpse
that that pathway would lead me to ultimately teaching music or owning, like, a music
store in my mind at the time, being 18 or 19. But I spent most of my years at Harper
Undecided and taking just core curriculum classes, still being heavily involved in
music, just not being interested in that career path. And it took me up until my last
year at Harper, at least four weeks until I graduated to meet with our transfer specialist,
Agnes Szymborski. And she gave me the kind of, like, that foundation to kind of imagine
myself in different spaces after Harper. Honestly, my goal was to do Harper for two
years, and I planned on just going right into the workforce and just figuring it out.
I had an entrepreneurial mindset that I just wanted to just go out and make something
happen in the music space.
[00:11:20.250] - Jalen Little
And Agnes, along with my academic advisors, Dubois and Travaris, gave me the foundation
to say, like, hey, here's an opportunity to continue to enhance what you've done here
at Harper, and here's a variety of different colleges. And they encouraged me to just
put together a pros and cons list of each of those colleges and kind of determine
which one fit my style, my interest. And SIU Carbondale really piqued my interest
6 hours south down there. And when I did transfer, I found myself entering SIU. Of
course, as a junior, and now, having my experience at Harper, I found myself down
there being like, okay, what do I want to do? And what happened from that summer I
graduated until that start of the semester, that fall semester at SIU, I was waking
up every day and I would always I had this thing, Brian, where I loved waking up early
to watch the news, as crazy as that might sound. I would faithfully turn on the Channel
Seven news because I was fascinated by that production. I was fascinated by how did
they gather stories? Who put all this together? What's the process, like, and that
inspired me to go into broadcast journalism.
[00:12:44.860] - Jalen Little
And I declared that major down at SIU Carbondale and started working within the broadcast
journalism department and got an opportunity my first year down there to be a news
writer and go out on different stories and record and kind of package these stories
and then get them chopped up and edited, sent to the news director, and then have
those being broadcasted by reporters on the local student news station down there,
which was really cool. And there was this moment that happened down at SIU Carbondale
where I was walking through the student center, and I'm like, Life is good, but it's
like this little voice in my head that was like, but what about the music? What about
the music and how about it? Walking through the student center and I saw this person
who was just off to the side, just kind of talking to themselves, like, doing poetry
and kind of rapping, and they were playing music. And I walked up like, hey, I saw
you're a poet. I heard you rapping. What's going on? Tell me about yourself. And they
were like, oh, yeah, no, I'm preparing for a talent showcase through a student organization
called Digidog, which is a student organization based around musicians on campus,
producers and engineers.
[00:14:08.920] - Jalen Little
And I said, oh, I've never heard of this. Is this something you can just join? They're
like, yeah, it's a part of the audio engineering program. I was like, there's an audio
engineering program? Literally, that next day, I walked right into my academic advisor's
office at SIU Carbondale. I was like, hey, I want to take classes in audio engineering.
And how about it? That school of audio engineering was also in the school of communication,
and the overlap of courses was perfect. And I ended up doing a double major in broadcast
journalism, audio engineering, and a minor in sociology, because I just love sociology.
That conversation with Trevaris, Dubois, and Agnes really created, like, they planted
the seeds for me to be able to do that versus the alternative, which was, like, just
going right into the workforce.
[00:15:02.140] - Brian Shelton
That's really great. What was that transition like for you, going down to Carbondale?
Big difference from the Chicago suburbs and Carbondale.
[00:15:09.400] - Jalen Little
Yeah, the best way to describe it was interesting. Because for me, I always imagined
myself at that time, I was like, oh, I'm going to move to the city. I'm going to live
in an apartment with some friends. We're going to make music, get a Grammy. Life's
going to be great. And then a lot of my buddies who I am good friends with, a lot
of them ended up going to Elmhurst, and they ended up going into the jazz program
there. And so while that time for me was very interesting because there were expectations
of me to go out and start working and just start doing the hustle right, there were
expectations of me of going to Elmhurst and following this path that my friends were
on because there was a huge group of people who I knew who were going there. I took
the alternate route. I took the route that felt the most uncomfortable, which was
going 6 hours south to a place I had never been before. And it completely changed
the trajectory of my life. Being able to be in a space where I could be close to nature,
going to a program where I don't know anybody, allowed me to really blossom and really
meet some very critical and key people in my life who, to this day, I still consult
with.
[00:16:38.270] - Jalen Little
And they've helped me to gain opportunities in the workforce, both on the music side
and the higher education side. So that transition was definitely interesting. It was
uncomfortable, but nonetheless, it all worked out.
[00:16:52.850] - Brian Shelton
That's great. That's fantastic. So somehow along the way here, you wind up back at
Harper College, as so many people do, it seems. I talk to a lot of people who are
alumni of the school and now work there or have worked there. You're back at Harper
College, and you're an admissions specialist. What is an admissions specialist? What's
the day of an admission specialist? What do you do?
[00:17:14.960] - Jalen Little
Yeah. So an admission specialist is an individual who is well versed in helping students
to understand their next steps as they enter Harper. And as an admission specialist,
I serve the community in a way where I provide information that helps them to make
the best informed decision about choosing to attend Harper. And that kind of translates
into what my day looks like, is meeting with students both in person, on campus, through
email, over the phone, in the high school, and really in the community, to just share
with them and hear from them, have a conversation with them about what next steps
look like for starting at Harper. But even for students who aren't necessarily considering
Harper, just talking to them and getting an idea of what their plan or what their
goal or their mission is, and helping them to understand how harper can be a part
of that goal. Whether they've decided that they want to transfer away or they want
to go to a four year college right out of high school. Hey, that's cool. I help them
to understand the bottom line of here's what's possible at Harper, and here's what's
also possible at that four year, and show the similarities between the two.
[00:18:31.430] - Jalen Little
And then show them the differences between the two. And by giving students the most
amount of information as possible, it allows them to fill a sense of trust so they
can make that best informed decision of where they want to start their journey at.
[00:18:45.770] - Brian Shelton
That's really cool. What do you hear most from students when you go out to talk to
them? Are they resistant to coming to a community college? They all want to go off
someplace or what's the common thing that you hear?
[00:18:56.940] - Jalen Little
Yeah, it's a mixed bag, and especially post pandemic. What I most commonly hear from
students that I meet with is they imagine Harper being this place where when they
think of the word community college, right, they imagine, like, a community college
is a space where and this is in all honesty, this is what they say, this is where
rejects go. This is where students who didn't get into a four year college will go,
or students who don't know what they want to do. And what I tell those students is,
no matter where you go right, everyone will have their own unique experience, and
I give them the light and the hope to know that Harper is an institution that is profoundly
empowering for their success in all aspects in the classroom and outside of the classroom.
And here's what I do, because, by the way, this is not all students. I want to make
sure that I clarify that I meet with students as well who have experienced Harper's
in a way where they are like, no, I am going to Harper. And a lot of the times, students
end up going to Harper because they've heard stories from either family members or
friends or some students have been a part of the In Zone group, or they've gone on
field trips, and they've seen the facilities.
[00:20:32.850] - Jalen Little
Like they've been there physically on campus. And I think there's something to be
said about putting yourself in a situation or in an environment where you can see
these spaces, where you start to imagine yourself there, and then it just clicks.
I've met with students when they were sophomores, and they weren't on campus, and
they were like, yeah, I just heard that Harper doesn't transfer any classes still
for you, it's like a basement, and it's like one building, because in their framework,
they're thinking, oh, it's like high school. It's a condensed space. But then they
take that field trip their sophomore year, they come on campus, they go into the gym.
They're like, whoa. They go into Building D, and they are standing in that rotunda
space, and they're like, wow. Or they go to the virtual hospital, or they go into
the 3D Makers lab, or they'll go into the broadcasting space, and they go into all
these unique spaces that we have on campus. And by their senior year, they're like,
oh, no, I'm for sure going to Harper. I get the opportunity to experience, as they
describe it, one kid described it as the luxury of what we have in our backyard.
[00:21:44.370] - Jalen Little
And I think that's foundationally what I hear, and then everything in between as well.
I have students who, for them, Harper is a space where it's accommodating for them
and being able to know what support resources we have is what made them make that
decision versus going elsewhere.
[00:22:10.400] - Brian Shelton
The misconception about community college is probably the biggest problem, biggest
hurdle that all community colleges have to get over with when it comes to potential
students. But all you got to do is walk onto the Harper campus and realize, oh, my
goodness, what a fantastic place this is, right? And then our faculty and staff are
absolutely amazing as well. You look at the credentials of some of the people who
work at Harper, and it's really quite mind blowing.
[00:22:32.910] - Jalen Little
Yeah. So true. So true. And that's what I encourage students to do, is have an open
mind about the space that you're entering because the people you'll meet along your
journey at Harper will change your life in so many ways for the better.
[00:22:47.430] - Brian Shelton
Well, you've kind of already answered my last question for you, but I ask everyone,
what advice do you have for current Harper students?
[00:22:53.930] - Jalen Little
So some advice I would share with current Harper students is definitely to enjoy the
journey, every ounce of the journey, and know that when you enjoy being present in
the moment in that class, or you enjoy being present on campus, a part of a club or
in the tutoring center or hanging out with your friends or just being on campus is
the best way to really just enjoy not just their experience, but being a part of a
larger experience with their peers and so many others. And that is what will make
the process of getting to the destination that much more enjoyable and really to lean
in on your support mechanisms, whether that's your friend, your family, your instructors
lean in and know that you have a strong and very well put together support mechanism
that can help you to succeed personally, academically and beyond.
[00:24:01.760] - Brian Shelton
That's fantastic advice. Thanks so much for taking time out of your day to come and
talk to us here on Harper Talks. And I know that you and I have a project we're going
to help each other out on later, another podcast project. So I'm looking forward to
getting the opportunity to work with you on that project.
[00:24:17.680] - Jalen Little
Likewise. Thanks so much for having me here, Brian. All right.
[00:24:20.530] - Brian Shelton
Take care.
[00:24:21.120] - Jalen Little
You too.
[00:24:21.780] - Brian Shelton
Jalen Little is a graduate of Harper College and currently serving the school as an
admission specialist. If you're enjoying Harper talks, please subscribe. And while
you're at it Rate and review us so that others might find us. Harper Talks is a co-production
of Harper College Alumni Relations and Harper Radio. Our show is produced by Shannon
Hynes. This episode was edited by me, Brian Shelton. Our online content producer is
Erica Berger. Our theme music was created by Aidan Cashman. I'm Brian Shelton. Thanks
for listening.