My name is Joshua Crockett, I am a recent graduate of Heartland. And during my time at Heartland, I had the opportunity to serve as student body president and student trustee. And now I am off to Illinois State to major in political science.
Well, you did a lot of stuff. While you're here at Heartland. Can you talk a little bit about what you were thinking and hoping to get out of your experience at the college when you first enrolled at Heartland and what you were hoping to do.
I originally got involved simply just to build community and build friends. I'm not from the Bloomington Normal area. So I moved down here, was working full time was a part time student, and was looking to build a community here. And so I wandered around the Week of Welcome events and ran to the current student trustee, and through connections with her became a Senator within the student government got involved that way. And our former dean of students support services ultimately urged me to run I didn't really know what it took to be an officer in our student government when she because of her push and the belief she had in me, I took the leap and ultimately served as vice president,
was there a learning curve to become student body president? Did you know what you're getting into? Did you know how to approach it?
You know, I think for any student entering into a bureaucratic system of college and organizational structure or of anything, I think that prepared me well for my first job, but it was overwhelming understanding who was who does what, how it all works, how decisions are made within a shared governance structure, and what role students are to play in that. And so I think, coming in the team and I had a vision and a passion to make sure that we were involved in conversations beyond just doing life to make sure we're our voices were heard on some of the key issues facing students.
So students that weren't involved in student government, but knew that you were the student body president, would they approach you with concerns? How would they acquit themselves to trying to get what they needed from their student government.
And once faculty found out my title, they often whenever an event were to pop up, they would say, Josh have anything to add. So that was a great way for students to get to know my role on campus. And they did voiced their concerns, that was a great way before meeting with college staff to be able just to talk not only with engaged students, but yeah, those students who were just studying in the library, the single mothers who are taking those night classes, those kinds of students who we might not be able to hear from on a day to day basis, it was great to be able to connect with them in the classroom and around campus.
Well, let's talk a little bit about your role as student trustee coming into that role. Did you change your approach at all? Here you are, you know, you're part of the governing board of the entire college. And so it's a little bit different, because you're the only board member that's elected just by the student body, not by the overall voters of the district. What sort of approach did you take towards the Board of Trustees?
You know, like I said, our goal was always to make sure amplifying the student voice. And I think I was able to do that more and more aggressively. The Student Body President does have quite a bit of responsibilities in terms of overseeing our clubs and organizations and ensuring that there's a robust student life on campus where the student trustee, they're able to delve into some of those more technical things revolving around the operations of the college. And so during my time, we were able to, with the other student leaders, of course, get students on more college committees and more teams to have a voice on some of those key issues. And so I think I was able to go down the path that I was just harder and more aggressively.
What did you learn about the operations of the college by serving as a student trustee,
you know, I think, here or anywhere, change is slow, and change is incremental. And there's really nothing sexy or headline grabbing about leading, and about bringing change to an organization. And so whether we're talking about a college, local organization, the government no matter what it is, being present for every conversation, being at the table, having your voice heard is one of the most important things students especially could be doing. Speaking of
having your voice heard, you were also selected to be one of the representatives of our community at the one voice trip where local representatives from business from government, from municipalities, go visit Washington, DC, and meet with legislators. And I wonder if you could talk a little bit about that experience, what it was like and what you did there,
it was a great opportunity. The goal is to connect our local industries, business education government, with our officials and to go to DC as one voice saying what the Bloomington Normal area needs. And I think for the students in particular, we had a few formal roles or he'd introduced a group and had a few things he had to do. But I think one of the greatest responsibilities we had was to just connect with our local leaders. about what the current student experience is like and moving normal, because there are individuals from ICU and heartland and people. I think there's a good conversation happening right now. But how can we retain our local talent? Because all of our students once they graduate who knows or they're off to you? And so why can't they make livings normal their home? And so we've had quite a few meaningful conversations about what we as young people would want in the community, and what it would take for us to call Bloomington Normal or home for years to come
for you individually. What was it like to have access to our representatives in Washington, DC, a, quite often, you know, we'll meet our state and sometimes local representatives here at the college are in town hall meetings and what have you, but you were there, you were on their turf? What sort of things? Did you ask them? What did they ask you? What sort of things did they ask the other people in the trip that caught your attention,
it was a unique experience, their representatives always comment year after year of how much they appreciate that we go to them, because usually it is that they come home for their Townhall. And then they hear about the complaints and the issues that are happening in their community blooming is normal really puts their best foot forward by going to them, but the group goes every year with a few key issues. And so this year, the issues ranged from development education, and we break up and meet with the different respective departments that work on those areas in DC. And then we also meet with representatives of so that they could continue to push it forward. So it was a very set agenda and what we are there to talk about, but I think I as a student, especially we're able to speak to what what young people are looking for.
Who else did you meet with while you were there?
We met with Darren LaHood che Russo staff, we met with Rodney Davis, as well as my representative from up north, his staff as well. And then Senator Dick Durbin,
did you find that being there in that environment, that you got a sense of how our legislators get information, how they think about information, how they put it in the process of creating legislation,
you know, it's stuff we expect our representatives to be experts on every issue, and they don't have that big of a staff. And so, the one staff person we met with said, Well, I cover education, healthcare infrastructure, well, you can't really delve into every one of those areas well, and so it is key for these representatives to go with an agenda that serves their community, because community that has three prominent institutions is very different than the district for that I'm from back at home. And so for our representatives, especially and for everyone, it is important to listen to your constituents hear what they want, and need to be able to guide your agenda in DC.
Personally, what was the experience like just being there? Had you been to Washington DC before? Had you ever been to those congressional offices?
I have actually I went last spring break through conference as student body president, and we lobbied on Capitol Hill, which was an incredible experience, but not nothing. This intimate. It was a 13,000 person conference, who then swarmed Capitol Hill. And it was a very in and out kind of thing, talking about one specific issue. But it was really great. And I think more so even just connecting with our local leaders from Bloomington Normal, that we went with hearing about what their vision for our community is, was really great.
You had an opportunity probably to interact with the mayors of normal and Bloomington, other business leaders, other community leaders, what sort of things did they want to know? Or did they ask about Heartland or even just offer about what the community wants or provides to the college?
As a community college we of course, have such a diverse student body. So I think there's always a conversation of how can we connect our community college students to resources to get good paying jobs, because so many students want their degree to the supply for their family because of pride, tough situations they're in, but we also had meaningful conversations about student housing in Bloomington Normal that affects Heartland students as well, but majority of ICU in Wesleyan, but the rising costs and how can we control that in the community. So those were a few key issues that they are interested in hearing about.
So talk a little bit about your experience in having the access and the opportunity to do all these things to be engaged in student government to be engaged in these projects, like the one voice trip to be on the Board of Trustees. I think a lot of the majority of all students really no matter if they're going to a community college, or they're going to a four year college, throughout their entire academic career. They're not going to necessarily do these things, but they might not also know that they can. So I wonder if you could talk a little bit about what that offered you personally, that students might not know can be part of their experience if they want to pursue these types of activities at their school.
Well, first I just put a plug in for community colleges. I think I only have these opportunities because I'm here Have if I went to ICU, I would not have been Student Body President student trustee and made multiple trips to DC all by my, at the end of my sophomore year. And so I think the size and the connection we have with our faculty and staff allows us to make a difference when we want to. But when you said students might not know that they're able to make the difference. I didn't either. And it really came from our Dean pushing me and urging me to run. And so I think that's the importance of having a mentor, and friendships on campus. And for people to say, well know, your voice is valuable, we want to hear it. And here's how you do it being involved, it's really not as scary as it looks. And so it's been a great opportunity. I think student governments and the Student Life offices need to be active and reaching out to students and telling them why it's so important and what those students involves experience have been. But I also think that students who want to take ownership of their time on campus if they have the time and ability to because many students unfortunately, don't have the time to do all of these things. But they should be welcomed and realize that their voices can be heard.
You mentioned the opportunity that's there at a community college. But as a student representative, you are also sort of representing maybe a more diverse experience of students than you might at a four year school. Although there are part time students and what they call non traditional students at every school at every level, I think probably there's more of a mix here at Heartland. And I wonder if you could talk a little bit about getting that input in the things that you had to think about when representing all students. And you alluded to a little bit earlier. I wonder if you elaborate some more?
Yeah, I think our personal experiences inform how we do things. But of course, student leaders tend to be very traditional students this year, we are fortunate to have a diverse body of students a bit older, our student body presidents pasture is an international student from Vietnam. So we pulled quite an array from the I'd say the 10 to 12 of us in leadership positions across campus have unique perspective. But of course, we haven't walked in everyone shoes. And so it's important for us to have relationship with the students in the Veteran Center, to hear from them what they need, what they're getting, what they're not getting from the college, and how can we move that forward. And things like textbook affordability or developmental math program, those hurt diverse students the most is the traditional student, I'm able to rely on more traditional streams of funding and support where single mothers, people coming back from the workforce can't. And so it's important to realize that students want to further their education, but need to do so in a timely matter. And so, I talked about earlier about connecting students in the classroom in the library, and that's so important, just Tabeling and hanging out around campus and talking to people to really hear people's perspectives. And one thing the student government started doing this past semester, was that every board of trustees meeting starts with a public comment from a student. And so that's an opportunity for them to share a bit about themselves and their academic journey, but also what they believe to be true about the college and how they believe we can make Heartland even greater. And so that offers them an opportunity to get in front of the board and the front of our cabinet to really say hey, now here are the issues we're facing, and here's how we can address them. Well, Josh, thanks
for taking some time to talk about this stuff with us. Thank you
