Finding Your Place in College: UK Student LayLa Davis on Leadership, Belonging, and Getting Involved

My main motivation is somebody telling me I can't do something, so somebody says you can't do that. I'm going to immediately go 500 times harder because like how dare you think of my capabilities. I had fractured both of my hips and my running career was just over. I lost my record. I lost everything. I lost my muscle. It was just terrible for me. So I took all of my go-getter attitude from sports and transferred its academics instead. So I was trying to get cost of 4.0, cost in all days, getting involved in everything I possibly could. And I just kind of kept that with me and I've been loving it. Welcome back to Scholarscoop. I'm Steve Laughlin. Today's episode is a special one because I'm joined by our first ever current college student guest. Laila Davis is a junior at the University of Kentucky where she is a student leader involved in numerous student organizations, which includes her currently serving as the NSCS chapter president and also the vice president of our NSCS National Leadership Council. In this conversation, Laila shares what it was like to start college somewhere she didn't originally expect to be. She also explains how she found community on campus and what helped her go from watching on the sidelines to stepping into leadership. So for those of you who just got to campus and are still trying to find your place or those who need inspiration to jump in and get involved, this one is for you. So now let's get some Scholarscoop from Laila. How are you doing today? I'm good. How are you? You know, I'm doing really well. And I was also thinking about it when I was getting excited about having this conversation with you, and I've been doing the Scholarscoop podcast now for just over a year. And I could be wrong, but I don't think so. I believe that you're the first actual student that I've had on the Scholarsco conversation. So thank you so much for stepping in to do this. I really appreciate it. Of course. Thank you for inviting me. I do know I've talked to a few people that have previously served on the NSCS NLC, a couple of presidents who are now doing amazing things in the world. So we can talk about that in a little bit, only talk about some of the things that we're doing. But it's great to have a student perspective because it's the start of a new academic year. And I think, in a lot of ways, these days, that can actually be a little bit evergreen, because I think students start and stop and get back into college all kinds of times over the year. But it's the start of a new academic year. And I always like to think of the student experience, as particularly for someone like you who's now, I believe, into your junior year. Is that right? Yes, sir. So when I think about the junior year, and sometimes even the sophomore year, I always look at it like you're now an expert at being a college student. You've actually made it through your first year, and now you made it through your second year, and now you're going through your junior year. And having all of that great experience and being the expert that you now are, when you think back to your first year, what was one of the things, or maybe a couple of things that you walked on to campus with afraid of? Like what were you concerned or scared about being a first year college student? I think whenever I first came to college, I was really worried about, about leaving my mom for the first time, and being away from home. Like I had always gone to, like, camp, something like that, and like, would be gone for a week or a weekend. But like, coming to college and feeling like I was going to be gone, like, indefinitely, was really scary to me, because I'm leaving my space, my safe space, I'm being my home, I'm going to this new environment, I'm going to have a roommate now, like all these things were, like, so many factors that I was so nervous about. But also, I never, I didn't expect to come to UK because it was just, like, kind of my fall back school, honestly, I really wanted to go to Purdue, and I applied and I got way listed, and me, I'm very much a, well, they didn't want me the first time, I don't want them anymore, kind of no person, and I had already accepted me, and I was like, well, you know what? They gave me a full ride. Let me just go to UK. It's kind of like three hours away from home, it's okay, like, it's Kentucky, and so I ended up coming to UK, but later in on my freshman year, I was like, I wonder if I ended up getting accepted to Purdue, because I have been dreaming of it since middle school for reasons like unbeknownst to me, like, nobody went to Purdue, I just really wanted to go to Purdue, and apparently I ended up getting accepted, so I just really jumped by gun, but I've been loving UK so far, I've been having, like, great time here, so many awesome experiences, and even into my junior year, I feel like time has, like, flown so fast, and I'm just so happy to be here, and I always thought like, maybe I wouldn't make friends, like, when I came to college, because I'm leaving all of my friends from high school, they're going to different places, like, I'm not going to see it anymore, but then I ended up joining like, much different student orgs, like, I lived in a living learning program at UK, so I ended up finding a group of people that I really care about, and I really enjoyed being with. There's, like, so much in that story that I think is so relevant for a lot of people, because there's so much pressure now on the admissions process, and getting into your first-choice school and getting weight-listed, and I think what I've experienced, and I know this isn't going to be true for everybody, but I do think for so many students, the place that you actually land oftentimes is the place you are meant to be, even if you couldn't really understand that from the beginning for whatever reasons, and so I think for your story, it sounds like you weren't expecting to be there, but they wanted you there, obviously they gave you a full ride, and they saw a lot in you that they felt like you could bring to the campus community, and now that you're there, it seems as though it's worked out to be a great decision, and I think a lot of times you just have to kind of let go of things and not even understand why you're letting go, but just embrace the place that you are. So I think that's amazing that things have been going so well for you. Had you met your roommate before, or did you know anything about your roommate when you got there? No, I had a random roommate, and I actually have had a random roommate all three years, 'cause I stayed on campus just 'cause that's not being cheaper, and, like, seem to traffic assist, scary to me, I can't stay in a driving, but I've had a random roommate all three years so far, and I probably will my senior year too, so definitely a bit of chance involved with that, but I haven't had, like, a bad roommate yet. Like we've had to say good men, we've had, I've taken out the trash five times, can you take out the trash once, at least, like, come on, but I've liked all my roommates. I can't say I've hated any, not one of the speak to any, any more, like, and, but I also feel that way just about college in general, so I get, like, I love UK, wouldn't have had the opportunities that I've had at UK, if maybe I went to Purdue, like, maybe, if I'm going to Purdue, I wouldn't have known about NSCS, so I wouldn't have known about, like, the living learning program, things like that, so it's like a lot of opportunities that maybe fill into my lap because I'm here, so. Well, sometimes, and I think having roommates can be very anxiety driving for some people, but I think a lot of times it's stepping in and just seeing how it goes, and I'm glad that's worked out for you. I also think a lot of students sometimes think about maybe their first-choice school that didn't work out immediately, or for you, it worked out later after you've already made another decision, you know, maybe those are the schools that become your graduate school someday, if you decide to go to graduate school, or, you know, if there's other opportunities for going back to school, you might look at some of those places, and I think that happens for a lot of students sometimes, too. One of the things you talked about, and, you know, I think, you know, this obviously because we've talked about this before, but I'm very much all about the student engagement experience, and I believe that a lot of education happens in the classroom, but there's also a lot of educating that happens outside of the classroom, and the things that you get involved with, and the things that you choose to spend your time on when you're in college. And I know you mentioned briefly about finding your way to organizations, and being a part of a living learning experience, and those types of things. When you were in high school, did you see yourself as that type of person who was a joiner, or were you the type of person who was really involved, or is this kind of a new version of you now that you're in college? I feel like it's definitely a new version. Like in high school, I was part of like the key club, like the beta club, but I really went like one or two meetings, and I kind of like stood to myself. But like since I came to college, I would not have seen myself in leadership role as a resinvolved as I am, because I've always been very much laid back, very much a watcher before I interact kind of person. So just coming in to college, and joining like, I'm in the college engineering. So I joined the society, women in engineering. I joined the association of computing machineries, or like CS, and like electrical. Gosh, I'm in the women in data science club now. Like we founded that, because like the dean of data science asked me to do that, and then Obviously in us. - Yes, I feel like there's just so many opportunities that have opened up, and I'm just so happy to step up and take initiative to be in it, that I think high school need would have been, like, really shocked, but that's a word, coming into college that there's no need for me to worry about what I'm worrying to class today, like I did in high school, or there's no need for me to worry about who likes me, or like the latest gossip. Like I got to college and realized everybody has their own life. I'll probably see somebody once on campus and they'll never see it again. So it's like getting out of my shell and like going around, having fun, like eating when I promote like an SCS tabling events, I'll start doing jumping jobs to get people's attention. And they like, remember me, which is like really cool, but it's also like, if I did that in high school, I felt so scared, and it's so shocked. Like these people are like, looking at me like I'm crazy, but like here it's like, people are approaching me because I'm acting this way, people are approaching me because I'm able to get out of my shell, not worry about what others think of me, because I've learned that what I think of myself is important for you. - Well, I think sometimes even on a large campus, if that's where like you chose to go to a large school, there's a lot of ways that a very large school can feel like a small community. And I think you create that experience through the people that you meet. And so when you join a club, or you become a part of an organization or a living learning center, you're creating your community, and you're creating and finding the people that you really align with around priorities or things that you enjoy. And I do think those are the people that you probably will continuously seeing yourself bumping into around campus. And it makes a large place maybe feel a little bit smaller. Have you felt like that at all? - I have, I definitely have. I feel like I see so many people whether I had class with them or I had like stood behind them in the Chick-fil-A line at this time, things like that. Like I feel like I'll recognize them and be like, "Oh, I like her skirt." And then the next day, I see her, I'm like, "Wink, I like her skirt the other day." But it's really interesting because I gosh, we're a sex school here at UK. So there's just thousands of people and everybody's doing their own thing. So every time I see somebody that I know or something, I always like try to stop and wave because maybe I wouldn't see them if I went to like a larger school or things like that or if I went to a smaller like Catholic or like private school or something like that, maybe seeing these same people everyday and I'd be like maybe a little nervous or maybe there's more clicks because it's such a smaller school of things like that. But I feel like at a large university, I've gone the chance to just interact with so many people that I have so many different groups I could be a part of. No matter what it is, if it's academic-based, if it's interest-based, if it's a sorority or fraternity, things like that, so. - Well, I also have schools promote themselves around the lines of how many things that they have that you can participate in. And so I think sometimes when they tell you, we have more than 700 registered to organizations or more than 1,000 registered to organizations. I think hearing that number, it's always impressive. But then it's like, well, you only have so much time and you can only be involved in so many things, but it is nice to know that there are that many possibilities for ways that you can choose to spend your time if you want to. And I think it sounds like from what you shared, you have found a lot of things that are super interesting to you that revolve around your academic major and your academic interests, which I think that that's a really nice part of university experience. - Which is great. So what about the idea? One of the things we've noticed, and this is a little bit of a post pandemic thing which keeps coming up and I know somebody who's telling me that other day they're like, wow, I think every day we have to talk about something related to the pandemic. I wish we could just get beyond the pandemic. And I don't think it's gonna be anywhere in the near future that will be totally beyond the pandemic 'cause I think there's so many things about it that impact at people that we just don't even understand the depth of that yet. And what I've noticed with the student experience, it seems, is that right after the pandemic, a lot of students who had been really kind of clamped down from having much of a social experience because of the way that the pandemic intersected with their high school experience or their college experience, a lot of students weren't that eager to get terribly involved or to step into their university experience and looking at it as like, well, here's an opportunity to join a bunch of things and to collect a lot of people that I can be friends with and all of those types of things. It was much more isolated experience. And we experienced this thing where it used to be before the pandemic. If we let's say had chapter leadership opportunities for NSCS available, we could send out a message to our students who were members on campus and it's like, hey, we're looking for these chapter officers and we wouldn't, we would get a lot of responses before the pandemic and a lot of interest. After the pandemic, immediately after the pandemic, we would get no interest, like no one had any interest in stepping up to be helpful. And I think we're turning a corner on that a little bit now but the thing that we would hear from students when we would ask them why would you not be interested in maybe being a chapter officer, we'd oftentimes hear things along the lines of, well, I don't know how to be a leader. I've never led anything before. I wouldn't know why anybody would believe that I could lead the organization since I don't have any experience doing that. And so you've now taken on a number of leadership roles and you've even served as the president of NSCS and your chapter was a diamond part, only diamond chapter, best chapter in the country last year under your leadership, which I think is incredible. What would you say to students that maybe are a little bit afraid to say yes to stepping into a leadership role, not just for an honor society or a NSCS, but I think like we said, there's hundreds of clubs in organizations and they all are fueled by the student engagement and student involvement. So what's your secret sauce to stepping in and saying yes? For me, I feel like just being personal in a way, like you can have club meetings like for NSCS in particular, like obviously we're like on our space organization, but you can have meetings where you're just completely professional, you're like, how was your weekend, or you could engage with these people, you could get to know them on a more personal level and you can tell them about how last night I had a bean burrito from Taco Bell and I like omitted everywhere because I don't know, I'm lactose intolerant or something. Like I feel like being personal with them on a level makes them remember you and be comfortable sharing things with you. Like I'm program coordinator for the LLP and I sent out a message to all the women in engineering and MSAK girls, be safe going out tonight. I know it's first night out like stick with your friends so that like all the normal things you would say. And I know they'd be scared to come to me because obviously I'm somebody in leadership, I work for the college, things like that. But I had tried to make an effort before I sent out that message to really get to know them on personal levels, talk to them about anything, maybe it's their home life, maybe it's a guy they're seeing, things like that. And I noticed with me talking to them like that, rather than as like a teacher or a professor or something like that, they're more apt to reach out to me whenever they did need help, whenever they did need something, whenever they were lost or scared. So my biggest advice is talk to people like you would talk to them if they were your friend. Like don't just be very professional. Like if it's, talk to it like it's your best friend you know since middle school. Like it's, if you don't know somebody, it's obviously easy to talk to them in a professional way. But especially with students, they're more apt to respond better if you talk to them like you know them. So that's my biggest advice going into leadership and it makes it a lot less scary like for yourself. 'Cause if I went up and I had to think of, gosh, what am I gonna say at this meeting? How am I going to present myself? How am I going to start our slideshow? Then I would be a little more scared. But if I go up and I go with the fly, I just talk to them how I would anybody else, it goes great. So I think that's really good advice. And I think that's a good thing to just remember in all types of situations that you find yourself in in life. People, you look at other people as just humans and we're kind of all in this together. We can certainly figure it out. And I think in the figuring out process, the other thing that I always believe too is like the opportunity to become a leader and if it's presented to you as an opportunity, there's no better place to do it than while you're still in college. Because part of the opportunity is the experience, right? And so stepping into the role now gives you the chance to learn how to be the leader. That's potentially gonna give you a lot more experience and especially a lot more to talk about when you start thinking about applying for jobs or starting to apply for graduate school or starting to think about what happens beyond college, Having been in a leadership role, I think, really. can set you apart sometimes, particularly when there's a few people that might be equally qualified around their grades and their major in some of those things. And then there's like, but this person was actually the chapter president, or this person was actually this role. And I think it gives advantages that sometimes students may be underestimate, or they don't think about, not only are you getting to be the leader of this organization, you're getting some things that are going to give you experience that will make you better qualified for something into the future. I don't know if that ever went into your filter of thinking about it, but I do think it's something that's important. Hi, I agree. Like, you can be a secretary for a club of 10 people, or you can be secretary for a club of 500. And either or it gives you that leadership experience that you may not have known, you that you wouldn't need, or you would want. So I know till this day I have problems public speaking, freaks me out, I can't do it. But if I go on the fly and I talk to the public, like when I talk to you right now, I'm okay. It's just really getting yourself out there. Well, and I think those are the types of things, too, like that the more that you do those things, the easier they potentially become for you. But if you don't do them because you're afraid, it's really hard to get over the hump. Being a little bit fearful, not just of public speaking, but I think of lots of things that is important that we all be able to get through or to do and just living our life experience. So good for you for putting yourself out there and getting beyond some things that maybe make you a little bit afraid. I know I saw you do some public speaking this summer and I thought you did a great job. So you're definitely, I think you're a lot better than maybe you give yourself credit for being. And that's true for a lot of things, but I do think that it does just take a lot of time and effort and just doing it to get beyond some of those jitters that come along with that. The other part of college that I think sometimes people don't give enough thought to and I'm curious to get your perspective on it is building good relationships with your professors and faculty members. What's that been like for you, like the classroom experience and getting to know your faculty members? I've had great professors and I've had that professor. I've always that mix. My career schedule for classes, I always look on right my professor first to see who I'm getting, how much work they're going to sign, if I need the textbook, things like that. But I've had amazing professors, professors that I still talk to for my freshman first semester and I've reached out to, like just recently I have one freshman year teacher. It was like first year engineering department and I asked her, "Hey, would you mind being an advisor for this club, my friend is trying to start, like it's an engineering fraternity, like open everybody?" And she's like, "Yeah, I'd love to." And it's like, I still talked to her on the regular because I loved her so much. She was really great, she was a mining engineer, but the way she presented herself was still amazing because in engineering it's obviously a male-dominated field. It's easy to like lose feminine traits of yourself to fit in. She always came to work in a dress and a pretty braid in her dissertation for her doctorate was in blasting. So like things like that, like I just love her, like I look up to her all the time, she's really great. But as if I had bad professors that, 'cause I sound in the middle of class, he talks about random stuff where you can't even focus on the actual class yourself, you have to teach it. But I think the professors that I have noticed that I do like, I always try to go out there and just kind of walk by their office and see if they're in there, like, "Hey, I'm Layla. I'm in your stats class." And they're like, "Oh, hey, how's the class going?" It's like starting easy conversations that maybe it'll recognize your face whenever you walk in and they're like, "Oh, they talked to me because it also helps maybe you need a mince class for something. They're a little more lenient with you than rather. You're just a name that they've never seen." Things like that. I have one, she's the new dean of the data science department here at UK. I did tabling with her. I volunteered table for the data science major. And she took the time and initiative to ask me because I had came to her so much and I had spoken to her so much to create a woman in data science club. So like, being trusted by somebody who's a department head and also one of my professors was just like a really great experience for me because she could ask anybody else but she asked me. Like that's just my heart because that's so cool. Like, I just, I love being able to communicate with my professors in such a way that they're comfortable asking me things. Yeah. Well, I hope that that will be something that people listening to this will take away. If you put a little initiative in to getting to know your professors, you don't know what you're going to benefit from on the other side of that. I think your examples are really good one and it could go as far as just knowing your professors the way that you've gotten to know them. There could be a job opportunity that would come up. Professors oftentimes get asked, do you know anyone that might be good for this role, right? And if they know you, they can think of you. But if they haven't had the chance to interact, you could be a perfectly great candidate. But they don't know you in that kind of a, I have the right person in mind for right now. So it's great that you have taken that initiative and gotten to know your professors and they've reached out to you to help start clubs and other things. That's amazing. It's very, what about the academic pressure generally? Do you find it to be a lot more complicated than it was in high school or how have you been able to navigate at that side of college? For me, I had well growing up, I always did sports, I always did basketball, cross-country, track, things like that. So my time was always filled with like more sports-sided activities, but coming into college, I couldn't do sports anymore because I had a sports-related injury. So no, I just can't really do too much. So I instead filled my life with academic pressure. So I came into college and I had way too many AP credits, way too many college credits because I did dual credit college in high school, I mean. And so coming in, I had met with my first-year advisor and she was like, hey, so next semester, you're not going to be able to stay a full-time student because you did too much in high school. And she was like, so either you can be a part-time student and lose your scholarships or you could add on a double major. And I was like, well, I'll add on a double major. And that, like walking to her office, I happen to see like a poster for the new statistics and data science major. And I was like, I saw that on my way here, why don't we add that? And she's like, okay, and so we start looking at it and she's like, well, if you wanted to add it as a double degree, you'd have to do four years of foreign language, all these things, that's like, well, I don't want to do that. I did foreign language in high school, I was like, I'm okay. So we ended up adding on a double major. And then fine, I'm just adding on a few statistics classes, it's really nothing crazy. But whenever I tell people how many credit hours I was doing my freshman in sophomore year, I was doing 22 and 24. They were, it's crazy. And I was like, surely it's not like, this is fine for me, I'm managing fine. And then my sophomore year comes around, I'm still doing the same thing, but I'm starting to feel like, oh, these guys are really hard. But then this semester, I'm always taking 16 credit hours and it's like a wave of difference. Like, I feel almost useless because I don't have homework every two seconds or a lab every two seconds. So I'm doing like, I'm just trying to find ways to fill my time. So it's way different for me. But then I ended up adding on the AI dual degree, because you can't just add up their new AI major. And so with that, a lot of the classes overlap with my computer science major. So adding that in as well as kind of hitting me up a notch. But I'd say for me personally, academic pressure hasn't been an issue, just because I've always strove for that for myself. Like I'm always like, I can always be better. I can always do better, things like that. But I'll definitely notice that there's an issue. Like I always say, I think I'm involved in too much, because sometimes I forget I have a homework assignment because I'm at a club meeting or I'm doing an event, things like that. I'm like, dang. So I need to learn like when to take a step back and realize that my academics are more important than my fault. So that's really, I mean, fascinating on a lot of levels. And I'm curious if you can pinpoint like, was it the sports that got you so motivated to want to be such a high achiever or was it family members or was it high school teachers? Like, what was the, what can you put that with sports? I had whenever I grew up, I think since kindergarten, I was doing basketball and whenever I did basketball. I was never going to shooting baskets, but always really great at defense. So that was always my spot was just defending people. But and then from there, I moved on, I got in the middle school and my mom had always had me do one store. Just one. I got in the middle school and she's like, well, do you want to do basketball? Or do you want to do cross country? And I was like, well, I don't want to do basketball anymore because I hit that phase where I hate doing sports, things like that. I was like, I'll do cross country. And so here I go on this field and I'm running like miles. I'm like, this sucks. And I grew up in like a town where it wasn't really safe to go outside and like ride my bike and things like that. So I just a little chubby kid like freaking out. I'm over here running. I'm dying. But as I keep running, I'm like getting better and better and better. And I ended up sending a record for the state of Indiana for the mile at the time. Things like that was really, really cool. And I was doing consistent like 12 minute things like it was really awesome I was getting first place on all my runs and then I went to a camp and I ran up a mountain It was a 10 mile mountain. That was our that was our last event of camp It had just rained really bad the day before and so their thing is they drop us off at the bottom of the mountain on a bus And they're like, okay guys run up this mountain We'll see you at the top and then they just drive off and so we're all running You know, and I didn't pack spikes for the camp and I felt kind of just did like the splits almost But when I ran it was always taught not to feel pain like you keep going no matter what and Also my main motivation is somebody telling me I can't do something So they says you can't do that or you suck at that. I'm gonna immediately go 500 times harder because like how dare you think of my capabilities And so I'm running at this mountain. I slip. I'm like, oh, that kind of hurt. I get up and I keep running and then everything's fine everything's dandy. I go back Back home. I have a race scheduled and I run the race and I come in like last place Or anyway, so I got 15th place on this race. My time was off by two minutes, which is drastic for me Okay, I was getting first place and I'm 15th like that's crazy So I go to the doctor and I'm like hey, I'm like hurting really bad I had fractured both of my hips because I completely neglected my body and My running career was just over I lost my record. I lost everything. I lost my muscle. It was just terrible for me So I took all of my go-getter attitude from sports Trafford attack at a mix instead. So I was trying to get cost of 4.0 Constantly always getting involved at everything I possibly could and I just kind of kept that with me and I've been loving it Well, it sounds like it really works for you and I think everybody needs to find kind of the thing that motivates them to be the best version of themselves or to do the best that they possibly can and It's unfortunate that you had to have like that bad experience in some ways, but on the flip side It looks like you've ended up in a great place and you're making amazing things happen for yourself at the University of Kentucky So that's awesome Thank you. So I think as we're just about out of time I want it just to sort of talk about for just a second the fact that For this year you're serving as our vice president of the National Leadership Council for NSCS, which I really do appreciate and And you sort of I see that as taking the experience on campus and then contributing what you've learned there to kind of the National side of NSCS and along with that I know you'll be serving on our National Board of Directors this year, which I think is great And then you're in that role kind of the president elect for the NLC for next year your way So what was what about that was exciting for you or what made you think it was something that you would like to be a part of? Well, when I got the email I was so shocked. I was like, this is really cool. Like wow, I'm being noticed Because I thought I was just doing everything For my own sake for UK's sake, but like to realize I was being noticed by like NSCS in the board It was like really cool. I was like, wow, it's not all for nothing, you know I was just really enjoying myself just playing a little bit. So I've case and things like I was just having the time of my life But when I got that email I was like, wow, this is great because I had just had an experience where I left an organization and for the National Leadership Council to like fall into my lap after this really bad experience was an org It was like a breath of fresh air. And it's like when one thing is taken away Something 20 times better comes to you. It's like you always got to look on the bright side. Maybe something's not meant for you. Same way you said UK came like maybe you were meant to get UK all along Like it was just awesome. I'm so excited to be part of it I can't wait to like bring back all my little ideas to the board and to the National Leadership Council And just make NSCS as a whole help contribute to it being better like just more awesome Well, I really do appreciate that and especially I love that attitude and I think making a difference on your campus is tremendous for a legacy. I believe you know your contributions can continue After you're long graduated and left because you put time and effort into it and then serving on the NLC Helps make things kind of grow and evolve and be more student member centric as we want to be that for NSCS members So I'm so glad that you're a part of NSCS and that you've been so successful so far at UK And I look forward to seeing all the things that you accomplished this year both there and I also with the NLC So thanks for having this chat with me. I really appreciate it (upbeat music)