The interim Student Activities Specialist, Boston-native Nikisha Jose, wants to help students succeed in hosting club events. Brandeis hired Jose in October, and Jose is transitioning into her role with the Department of Student Activities to help support clubs, she told The Brandeis Hoot in an interview.
Born and raised in Boston, Jose is currently in the process of obtaining a master’s degree from Salem State University and expects to graduate May of 2020. When she isn’t working with Student Activities or on her master’s degree, she enjoys travelling in her free time.
Prior to her work at Brandeis, she worked in higher education for the last two years and as a social worker for three years before that. Her previous experience working in higher education was at Salem State University, where she worked in admissions, first-year experience and helped students transition from high school to college.
As Student Activities Specialist, Jose’s duties revolve around working with student clubs at Brandeis and providing them support. Her day to day work will involve meeting with club leaders and making sure that they have access to all of the resources that they need, as well as checking in with them and having conversations about any upcoming events they intend to put on, she said in an interview.
Right now she is still transitioning to the role and students are still getting to know her, but she hopes to soon be able to focus all of her attention on working with clubs one on one, she said.
She commented that working with the various student clubs has been “very cool” and that students “have so much passion and love for [their] clubs and it’s such a beautiful thing that everyone’s so dedicated.”
She loves seeing how committed students are to their clubs and how much enjoyment they get out of them, she said. Dennis Hicks, the Director of Student Activities, affirmed Jose’s role with student clubs, and also added that she “will be assisting with the campus implementation of Presence.” Presence is an online service for student organizations and advertising for club events that was rolled out this academic year, according to a previous Hoot article.
Hicks also noted that at present Jose is “not [sic] full time nor permanent,” but that she is working for the university in an interim capacity “until [the university] can do an official search.” When asked about this, Jose confirmed that her position is currently interim, but she added that she hopes to turn it into a permanent job. She explained that she has enjoyed working at Brandeis so far, citing the students as being “friendly and kind” and willing to help her with her transition. Jose wants students to “feel free to stop by and say ‘hi,’” and invites them to introduce themselves to her if they see her around campus. She is looking forward to seeing what she can offer to Brandeis moving forward, and wants to be known for helping students achieve success and helping “the person who didn’t think they could [succeed].”
