Glenn DeGuzman
Hello, and welcome to Student Affairs. Now, I’m your host, Dr. Glenn DeGuzman. So I’m coming to you live from San Diego, California at the International Comic Con convention. And it is just a zoo out here. So if you remember back in 1997, the movie Titanic, Jack Dawson play by Leonardo DiCaprio. He said, I love waking up in the morning not knowing what is going to happen or who I’m going to meet, where I’m going to wind up. And that is going to be my mantra today as I cruise and just hang out with a few 1000 of my fellow geeks at this convention. But within this community of fellow geeks, there is even a smaller community of student affairs professionals who do attend this conference for a variety of different reasons. And so in today’s episode, what I’m going to be doing is I’m going to be exploring and talking to students affairs professionals who come to comic cons, and get engaged in this in this culture in this community, and just sort of talk them about how their convention ties into their student affairs professional work. Student Affairs NOW is the premier podcast of online learning community for 1000s of us who work in alongside or adjacent to the field of higher education and student affairs. We release new episodes every Wednesday. And if you want more details on this episode, or on past episodes, please go to our website studentaffairsnow.com. This episode is sponsored by Symplicity. A true partner Symplicity supports all aspects of student life with technology platforms and empower institutions to make data driven decisions. And if you want to stay tuned for the end, at the end of this podcast, I’ll tell you more information about simplicity. Again, my name is Glenn DeGuzman, let’s go. I am so excited to run into these two people at the San Diego library because for listeners, these two are on episode two of Student Affairs now back in 2020. And so let’s do quick introductions really quickly. So let’s start with

Alex Belisario
you. Awesome. Hi, I’m Alex Belisario. You she her pronouns. I’m the Executive Director for college student life at UC Santa Cruz.

Emily Sandoval
Hi, everyone. My name is Dr. Emily Sandoval. I also use she her pronouns. I’m the Associate Vice Provost for Student Affairs at the University of Southern California.

Glenn DeGuzman
Now these two are in my opinion, they are like this next level when it comes to ComicCon. and higher education professional. So we’re really I’m really excited to have the two of you on really quickly. So you two just came out of a panel session, right? Yeah, tell us about that panel. On moderated it’s a

Emily Sandoval
So we called it was geek ed the marvels. So it’s focused on women leaders and higher education. And we’re all actually women leaders of color. So it was a really, really awesome conversation to have with amazing women about how we navigate the university space.

Glenn DeGuzman
Yeah. What did you want your audiences to gain? You have a large audience, like what do you want your audience to gain? Like, like, let’s tie in hire ed language, what learning outcomes? You want them to get out of that?

Alex Belisario
I think that first and foremost, we wanted to talk about presence and that there are women leaders, and as Emily said, Women Leaders of color in higher education, but also that there are geeks and nerds and proud geeks and nerds, we’re card carrying members of that particular club, and that we are able to use our love of science fiction, fantasy gaming, anime, TV, movies to help our work and help our connection with students and create community in the places where we are.

Glenn DeGuzman
You hit so many genres. And I remember back in 2020, you actually define what it means to be a geek. What it meant to be a nerd. Remember that? If you want diagram, you did your dissertation on? Can you speak a little bit about like nerd identity geek identity, just refresh for most listeners,

Emily Sandoval
I would say I’m going to start by saying it’s also very personal, right? So if you identify as a nerd, awesome geek, awesome. The way I kind of structured it around a framework for my dissertation was, you know, geeks obsess about something. So there are highly intelligent people that really obsess about Pokemons, Star Wars, video games, Disney, anything. Star Wars as aggressive lair right now. But nerds might not be as obsessive but have that like brain intellect. I think it’s also we’d be remiss if we don’t say we grew up in the 70s and 80s, where being a nerd or geek wasn’t really a term nerd, do we but it was very derogatory. It was like, Oh, we’re gonna make fun of you because you’re a nerd because you like these things. And now it’s our superpower, especially as women in higher education, entering spaces that are sometimes male dominated. I find that being a geek I own it My office is covered in geek stuff. So now being a geek is my superpower. It’s something I draw strength from.

Alex Belisario
It definitely went from having that stigma of being bad to the whole geek is chic and embracing that with our work and ourselves.

Glenn DeGuzman
In my opinion, innovators in this space Comicon, you’ve been staples, you you had a lot of influence, you brought so many higher end professionals or non hired professional librarians educators into this fold. So can you can you like, if you look back at the I mean, we’re talking two years now, right? And since 2011, for you, 2011 2011, for both of you. So that’s a long time. Like, if if you were able to just look and see like how the impact and influence. Why is there such a synergy between this ComicCon convention and higher education, student affairs? Like what what is what’s what why is there such synergy? Why is there such intersection?

Alex Belisario
I think we have a lot of people who work in higher education, who may have felt ostracized when they were younger, or may have had interests that others didn’t necessarily share. And so they’re finding place and community here with us. And you know, our geek ed started in 2011. But we went to ComiCon. Before that, right. So we had that interest, and we go to higher education conferences. And so the the other folks who were sort of Og with us, we’re like, you know what, this is just like any other conference, except it’s talking about a different kind of interest that we have. So why don’t we try to see if we can submit a panel like you would for like a NASPA or an ACPA conference, and see if it’ll be accepted. And it was, and that’s really how it started. So we all I mean, we talked about gateway interests and things that help us to be understood or things that we found that were interesting, and then that connection to our work. And it’s just, we’ve been able to find so many more members of the community since we started doing that, because they’ll come to panels, where they came to Comic Con, also, like, independently, personally, not necessarily as a part of this work. And then as we talk to them, and we meet them, like we all come together, and so we really try to find some really good representation in our panels, and then involve people so that they can become a part of Comic Con. Or maybe they’ve even seen Comic Con. Like, you know, I mean, I was saying in the panel today that, you know, I’ll talk to students about Comic Con, I’m like, Oh, I don’t know if you’ve heard of it. And I’m like, yes, we’ve heard of it. We know what Comic Con is. But I think that’s true for a lot of professionals as well. And so finding ways to tie those interests together is really powerful.

Emily Sandoval
Yeah, and I would add, I think, in 2011, is one of our colleagues, Ryan McCray, he left the field, but he created Geek Week at Cal State San Marcos. And that first year, Brian McDonald was in the audience and then took peak week to Rikers, or like, oh, cool, our east coast, right. So we were geeking out about that. But it was really, initially, just those of us who are really passionate about helping students find connection, and it all is about connection. And that’s when they put the seed in my brain to go back to school and write my dissertation, I was like, no one’s gonna take me seriously. And they did you know, so I got to write my full dissertation about helping students find community and connection and network around geek identity and culture. And over the years, as you mentioned, we’ve expanded we’ve had other higher ed folks from across the nation. And we are a what I call the geek Ed collective. And that’s going to be really important coming soon, we’re finally launching our website, the geek collectives, you’ll hear a little bit about our origin stories, but more importantly, we’re going to amplify the work that our colleagues are doing around geek culture. So those of us that have dissertations or thesis, there’s many of us now, I want to elevate podcasts that are out there, presentations, conference presentations, but also folks are interested in getting connected, that’s where you’ll be able to find us. And hopefully, we were just encouraged to do the panel we just did. It’s a minute for NASPA national. And I didn’t even think about that. Because sometimes we’ve been doing it so long. I forget that higher ed as a whole would also benefit from these conferences, not just those of us that identify as geeks.

Glenn DeGuzman
I agree with you on that one. And for the listeners, we’ll put the geek Ed information in the notes. So if you go to website, you can check that out. So let’s have a little fun here. So you your experience have been from lots of cons. So let’s start with cosplay. Thumbs up, thumbs down.

Emily Sandoval
Thumbs up, but believe it or not, this is the first time I’ve actually cosplay and they are Return of the Jedi Princess Leia Endor. I’m just missing my little Ewok I’ve had I have a coat to use to cosplay Buffy the Vampire Slayer. And I always said it’s too hot in San Diego to cosplay with a full coat although Why is it raining at this time? But yeah, normally I’ve begun to just make geek themed shirts that show off my geek rations but I’m all for cosplay I wish I had the time and intentionality, Disney folks I did not make this

Alex Belisario
shoot and one of our other members Brian McDonald, if you haven’t ever seen his credit right cosplay, it’s epic. I’m a big fan of cosplay, although, similarly, it San Diego’s too hot for me to be really intimate, but I do wear themed T shirts at work all the time.

Glenn DeGuzman
I think I spent my first five years cosplaying and similar leaps got too hot so not anymore. For those who are listening go to the YouTube site to see Emily’s outifit. I thought I thought she was cosplaying as someone else. And I got to I got flack for that.

Glenn DeGuzman
I lost hours. And I believe that anyway. So you know again this there’s so many different presentations panels. So when you come to the Con and when you’re not presenting or coordinating or you know and whatnot, what is the thing that you love? Like what is your passion? What are you obsessed with?

Emily Sandoval
Well, sometimes it’s hard to find panels on things that I’m still obsessed about, but because Buffy is always gonna be one of them. But I am a geek because of my older brother and Star Wars has always been a part of my life. So Oji trilogy, I absolutely love and the Lord of the Rings. I love the Lord of the Rings trilogies, I enjoyed the Hobbit, but the Lord of the Rings trilogy I love went to New Zealand as my bucket list in 2018. After I finished my dissertation, that was the gift to myself to see Middle Earth, hiked Mount Doom, all of that. So that is anything that I see with Star Wars or Lord of the Rings I’m going to try to connect with or go to and I got to meet one of the actors in the movies yesterday.

Glenn DeGuzman
I remember seeing in Macau and outside of holidays like at 11pm at night, just engaging the folks who are spending the night outside. I was like, wow, that’s really cool.

Alex Belisario
Yeah, yeah. Early in the DC days, I saw Jason Momoa when he’s like new as Aquaman. And I was like, okay, that’s the kind of representation I can appreciate. That yeah, I think in addition to panels, I really like going into exhibits and talking with artists. I have a couple of favorite artists now and Karen Hallein. Art. Maybe Janani, who’s someone who graduated from UCSC also has some beautiful art out there. I went to I think it was la petite LFR. And it was Filipino RMB. And I was like So it moved me because this line I tried to get into like six different times it was always kept until the last time and 90 easily 90% of the people in line, I would say we’re Filipinos like they appeared to be and so that was so beautiful to me. It’s those kinds of connections that I love. But you know, similarly marble panels. I love Kevin Smith, I find it’s just hilarious when you get into the Kevin Smith panel. Yeah, it’s just amazing. And we’ve been to a number of the, like Women in the Arts. They’ll do some leadership panels in that way. And I love to go

Glenn DeGuzman
Well, I thank you for your time. Thank you for dropping in. And of course, I am. I’m with royalty here. So say bye to everybody. Thanks, everybody. So guess who I just ran into at the Comic Con conference for educators and librarians at the San Diego library part of Comic Con. Let’s do some quick intros. Who are you?

Emilie Mitchell
Yeah. So hi, my name is Emilie. I use the she series. I’m the violence prevention education program coordinator at the Center for support and intervention

Al Day
Go Bears. Hey, everybody, I’m Al Day I am the Interim Assistant Vice Chancellor for Student engagement and support at UC Berkeley as well. I use he him his pronouns.

Glenn DeGuzman
Wonderful, good to you just came out of doing a panel session here as part of Comic Con, tell us a little about what the title was. And I love the fact that you you were able to integrate this into pop culture in the comics and graphic novels.

Emilie Mitchell
Yeah. So I had this idea of thinking about bystander intervention and comic books. So the panel was what would app may do supporting characters and bystander intervention. And just this idea of you don’t have to have superpowers to be that person in your community to kind of keep it safer and promote like pro social behaviors and things like that. So yeah, it was really exciting and Al’s kind of excited about that I was

Al Day
really excited about and we’ve been doing these panels for about 12 years now. Don’t we always look for new people to bring us topic ideas, but generally, they’re kind of the same topic ideas over and over. And so when Emily brought me this, I was really excited. It’s such a new and interesting way to talk about the bystander intervention model. And I was really excited. So it went really well.

Glenn DeGuzman
It did. I was able to stay for the entire time. And it did. It went really, really well. Now, what’s interesting for the two of you, is that this is your first Comic Con and only Right,

Emilie Mitchell
yeah, that’s my bread, San Diego Comic Con, I went to the one in Chicago, and I’ll just say, a little different. This is an advanced convention. Honestly. Yeah. So this is my first San Diego Comic Con, and I’ve been loving it. It’s great. And then but

Glenn DeGuzman
Al on the other side.

Al Day
Oh, yeah. For me, as far as Comic Con International, San Diego, this is my 25th if you count the years that we were remote, and but I did panels when we’re remote, so I’m gonna count my 25th Comic Con. First one was 98.

Glenn DeGuzman
Goodness, gracious, I know that I’ve been to only just a little over a 10. So I’m looking at mid level professional. Yeah, so one of the interesting things about Comic Con is, and the purpose really of this podcast, this specific episode is the fact that there’s so many educators, student affairs professionals, librarians who come to this convention because of the opportunity to connect what we do as educators with the children, the college student that we work with, can you speak to a little bit more about like, how you see that intersection? Between what what you’re passionate about, and with what you do as a professional?

Emilie Mitchell
Yeah I think that there’s a lot of power in storytelling, and it just really can empower you as a person. When I come out of like movies of Marvel, like, especially the Avengers, and things like that, I come out like with this energy of like, I want to do something I want to like, what can I do? And the truth is, you could do a lot. And so I think that that was kind of like me marrying these two ideas of what are we seeing in comic books? And what are those, like characters on the side, though, that are doing to help support the hero, and the hero can be the we talked a little bit about missing here, what can be like the survivor themselves of the harm, right? What can we do on that side? Having the responsibility like Uncle Ben says, you know, with great power comes great responsibility. Well, we all have that. Right. So that’s kind of where that was coming in to the work that I do for violence prevention.

Al Day
Yeah, yeah. For me, just particularly, I always say that my morals and values were sort of instilled upon me by reading Superman and Batman comics when I was a kid. And I have taken those morals and values and that’s sort of why I chose education. I chose higher education in the work that we do in particular. So for me that question is last, how do we integrate them? But how do I stop or create sort of barriers and boundaries between them? Because for me, it’s that’s what the works always been around about is this sort of Superman based idea that if you are privileged you use that privilege on behalf of other people.

Glenn DeGuzman
Right? I am loving the fact that we got Superman references we got Batman and spider man now in your presentation, you you actually delve deeper into the care model. Right? So the care model obviously is the

Emilie Mitchell
yeah so see for confronting this situation a for alerting others are for redirecting attention and then ether engage after and it’s not like a step by step process for intervening it’s more of like a menu list of items, if you will, of just letting people know there’s multiple ways you can kind of make the world a better place and intervene to help potential dangerous situations from happening. Yeah.

Glenn DeGuzman
And you and you really, you like to use Uncle Ben reference, really kind of pull the audience in and I can see that the one for the listeners, there was a large crowd in there it was a good number of folks listening in and Peter were all the way in the libraries and you’re in the we’re in the live track and over the years of the numbers are growing increasing and so I do see like a lot of educators trying different venues or methods to really reach their students. So I thought that was really amazing. So first con, first Santiago con 20 bits any con want to know what has been your favorite thing thus far and this San Diego Comic Con?

Emilie Mitchell
Yeah, it’s I’m a big nerd when it comes to like Dungeons and Dragons to be honest. So the McElroy brothers are they’re my boys, so I was able to see a q&a with them and then they actually did a podcast taping live at the Balboa theater so that was like my favorite things incredibly Mulligan was like life changing. That was me.

Al Day
I’ve only I have not been a Star Trek fan like my whole life I’ve only this year gotten into like strange new worlds and lower decks and Paramount had a had a booth where you could sit in the captain’s chair and they would do a push in and due to like the Engage thing. So I did one where I was like tired drinking coffee and just like done with it and that was awesome.

Emilie Mitchell
Like I have to see that video. That’s amazing.

Glenn DeGuzman
Now I want I want to see finish with just one last question before we can check out here. So, October 2020, you are actually on the second episode, I was on Student Affairs now with others who are actually right now, inside that room doing a panel session on women of color and hygiene, women of color leaders in higher education, right. But back in 2020, when you did that episode with me, obviously one of the things that, in my opinion, you have been a, if not the primary person who brought so many folks in student affairs to come to Comic Con, if you can give me like the 32nd 45 second pitch on that. How, how are you do that? Like, why is what how do you see the connection between student affairs and Comic Con or Comic Con convention?

Al Day
Yeah, I mean, it’s all about what we do. Like I hope you get collected. It’s really about we all exist in a world of popular culture. It’s the language we use to talk to each other. It’s how we sort of develop our morals and ethics and student affairs, we can sometimes forget the rest of the world that we live in, and that we exist within this context. And this is really a way I think, to keep student affairs folks connected with the rest of the world and see the application of the work that we do and how sort of a general group of people really react to the things that are important to us. So I’m super stoked about it sort of my professional goals.

Glenn DeGuzman
Wonderful. Well, thank you for your time you too, and enjoy the rest of your con. I am on the corner of parking J and who do I run into? Let’s do some quick introductions. Let’s start with you with you.

Windi Sasaki
Hi, my name is Windi Sasaki, I use she and they series pronouns. And who are

David Surratt
Hey, David Surratt, you see him series?

Glenn DeGuzman
What do you do? Worldwide? You gotta you gotta tell the listeners to the person that what you do, it’s always favorite. You are?

David Surratt
Yeah, sure. So I’m the vice president for student affairs and dean of students at the University of Oklahoma, and I’m a distinguished lecturer in the College of Education.

Windi Sasaki
I work for the University of California at San Diego and I am the Associate Director for Asian Pacific Islander Middle Eastern this the American programs and services. And because it’s Comic Con at Comic Con, I am a staff volunteer, and I was the district coordinator with the guests. I’m sorry, studio relations team

Glenn DeGuzman
studio relations, what is it like? So what does that mean? You get to rub elbows with creators, actor writers.

Windi Sasaki
Okay, so this year was difficult because of the strike. But typically, what we’re doing is we’re doing the behind the scene things that make sure that people are who are on the really large panels for usually larger television shows and movies, get from all the things they need to get to so that they can be on stage, get to their signings, do press and other things like that on time.

Glenn DeGuzman
Wonderful. So I got to share with the audience. So I attended my first Comic Con a little bit over a decade ago and Windi is one of the primary was the reviving Dakota Comic Con. Right,

Glenn DeGuzman
You got me. Right and back in the day, I needed it for sure. So obviously, the purpose of this, this podcast is kind of to check in with the fact that there’s so many higher education professionals and student affairs folks to come to Comic Con. Right. So you you both have your own student affairs, you got me to convince, we’re interviewing folks, can you tell me a little bit about why is there why is there such synergy or connection between student affairs? And this convention?

Windi Sasaki
Sure. Oh, I know, in the department that I volunteer for, there’s a lot of student affairs folks. And I think it’s easiest to train folks who are doing that to do what we’re doing right. A lot of them have been in Residence Life and stuff happened. So they’re used to being on call. So I remember training, one of the new volunteers one time, who’s a hall director, and he’s like, you know, I’m really nervous. I think I’m gonna mess up and was like, No, you’re on call. You got this, this is the schedule, something will go wrong. We’ll figure it out. Because that’s what we do. And he goes, Oh, I get it. They gave us a mess of a panel the first year and he got it. Because he has this background. He’s used to doing this stuff. And it was pretty easy to get him to go like alright, this is what’s going on. And I was really thankful. That’s who I was paired with for that group. Yeah. Yeah. You David.

David Surratt
I’d say in addition to being able to handle complex problems, issues, I kind of think there’s a convergence between knowing our full selves and identity and being authentic leaders in higher ed spaces. And that means bringing in our fandom, our Geekdom our nerdom into spaces like this. So it’s been great to be a part of a group of educators and Sudafed professionals who actually use their pop culture knowledge and their fandom in their work all the time.

Glenn DeGuzman
Well, let’s start doing that direction. So both of you now are pretty experienced presenters, right? So I know Windi you just that was an incredible panel that you did you want to share the start with you and then they will talk about the presentations that you have done and we’ll be doing but Windi you just came out of like the convention floor and did was on a panel show a little bit about that.

Windi Sasaki
Yeah, we were in the main hall today. And we were on a panel about the contest for Asian American graphic novels and comics. So there are two comic book creators that were on the panel. And they talked a little bit about this their process in creating stories that have Asian American themes and people. And the other three of us are professionals in higher education. And we talked about how we use that on the other side, like, how are we taking these narratives, and connecting them with students and staff and faculty around how they’re seeing themselves reflected what their identity is, and the ways that we use those things to help students either understand the historical nature, some of the racism, that folks are facing different ways that people are processing their identities, and other pieces of history that maybe they have read a little bit about in history, and history books and things like that. But seeing graphic novels and depictions of conversations of people of what those places look like for folks, as they’re going through and learning this stuff has been a lot easier for them to process.

Glenn DeGuzman
Actually, in the panel, you reference, secret identities and biology. Yes, that was that was such a I thought groundbreaking piece of work back in 2009.

Windi Sasaki
So they were at Comic Con in 2009. So I had bought the book right before that, and I brought it because they were signing. And they looked at the book, and they’re like, Oh, you got a sticker on here from borders. So you had this book before.

Glenn DeGuzman
And that book, that book was? Well, that graphic novel was composed of stories of graphic stories that was written by American creators.

Windi Sasaki
Right, right. Yeah. So they’re different comic book artists and things like that, who were typically not writing Asian American superheroes. And they were asked for that to write Asian American superheroes and put that together into a book. And so there were these different ways for people to talk about what would they write that the superhero was Asian American or things like that? A lot of stories in history. Right? Yeah. Which is really neat. They’re mixing. David.

David Surratt
Hey, brother, we’re good. No, thank you. I’m good. Thanks. Appreciate it. Have a good night? I know some place to start with. That sounds great.

Glenn DeGuzman
All right. So David, you are you’ve been a panelist at several different comm cons now. And actually, you’ll be presenting in that location tomorrow as well. Maybe if you can share about what you presented tomorrow, maybe some of the things that some of the things that you’d like to bring to the Comicon?

David Surratt
Yeah, sure. So tomorrow, we’re doing a geek Ed presentation on caring for the nerd mind. So it’s a focus on mental health, working with students, but we’ll talk a little bit about students and also maybe staff as well, who were helping or in helping professions and student affairs and doing work with students who may be needing extra advice on mental health care and just wellness overall.

Glenn DeGuzman
And so you’re presenting with that tomorrow at the library. And there’s a number of student affairs professional, higher education, faculty as well, who aren’t presenting. So this is something that happens every, every year. Yeah, yeah.

David Surratt
So I’ve been doing this since now. 2018, I got brought in by some amazing people that you know, and I know al de among them. Brian McDonald, me and Emily Sandoval, amazing people. We’ve done some past presentations on eSports engagement. We’ve done work on civil dialogue, and some of my favorite ones actually, we’re talking about Lovecraft country, and the watchmen series on HBO, during Comic Con at home and watching and seeing how that kind of actually touches our work and looks at pop culture and just really makes us think about so many different social issues.

Glenn DeGuzman
Okay, I’m gonna ask one final actually gonna ask a fun question for both of you. Yeah. Obviously, there’s educator intersection to come upon, but there’s also the pop culture so when you if you when you go to Comic Con and you’re going just as a pain, what is it that you geek out?

David Surratt
For me Star Trek for sure. I definitely did the Star Trek experience in the in the captain’s chair and all that. So it was a lot of fun to do that. And this watching everybody do cosplay it’s kind of see their creativity shine.

Windi Sasaki
So, I talked about secret identities and because I had gone to all these different so one of the things they did at that first ComiCon that they were at is you checked in and then I got them to sign my book and then they gave me this half sheet of paper that helped out all these different other creators that were present a different book books that had contributed to it. And they said if you get at least 10 of their signatures and bring this back, we’ll give you this book plate that all of them contributed to. But I got all but three people to sign my book Haha, but what that meant is I, I spent a lot of time that my first year in the the publishing section, there were different groups that are doing comics or other books and graphic novels and things like that. And that’s the spaces that I liked the most. I found a lot of other books about other Asian American people and stories, things like that, just because I was walking around. And I saw something and said, Oh, what’s this and turn it over? I brought one of those authors to my campus for our fifth in the fifth anniversary of my office when we you know, just because I found her book, she asked me, How did you find your book, I was like, well, as a comic con. It was there. And I saw it. And they turned it over and said, Oh, this sounds like my office that I brought home and read it. And so that’s one of my favorite things to do. And I’m also really good friends with one of those people who signed the book. Now, I had taken my book there, he signed it, I was looking at the rest of his art. I really liked it. I bought more stuff from them. And I went back the next year and he’s like, so. So we’re friends now and I also help him in his booth so he can get a break and things like that. That’s awesome. Yes.

Glenn DeGuzman
Look who I just ran into. Connor Introduce yourself.

Conor McLaughlin
Hi, everybody. I Glenn My name is Conor McLaughlin I UC in a series pronouns. I work at San Diego State University as the staff learning and development specialist in our Center for Inclusive excellence. And I also volunteer at ComiCon in the studio relations department,

Glenn DeGuzman
studio relations department. Conor Tell me a little bit more what that means. And actually also check how many comic cons if you’ve been to San Diego Comic Cons,

Conor McLaughlin
definitely. Studio relations are the folks who helped facilitate the experience of the studio and the talent that participate in Comic Con. So when somebody comes to promote a movie, or a television show, or comic book that they’re working on studio relations folks, work with them to make sure that they are met when they arrive at Comic Con, that they have easy access to their holding room and other important facilities for staging their panels, and also making sure that they get to their panels on time and have the appropriate security with them to support their work.

Glenn DeGuzman
Wow that’s amazing. So I’m sure you’ve seen a lot of programs and events. And so tell me or tell our audience, we’re trying to demonstrate a show like how does ComiCon intersect with Student Affairs? Our Student Affairs profession, right? Like, is it about education isn’t about presenting? What do you think it’s about?

Conor McLaughlin
I mean, I think it’s about a lot of things for a lot of different people. And that’s one of the great things about Comic Con is people can get out of it, anything that they’re looking to get out of it. Some folks, it started for me. And to answer your previous question, I’ve been coming to Comic Con since 2009. So I believe this is my 14th year coming to Comic Con. And I started because it was a way to engage in just my personal interests and do some things outside of my work environment, hanging out with friends who weren’t necessarily immediately connected to higher education. And just to sort of Scratch some of the other itches of things that I was interested in, in my life. Over time, more and more higher ed folks have started coming to Comic Con, and there’s been an opportunity to to integrate a little bit more and to not have them be separate pieces of my life. But to just have them be parts of my life that are in conversation. So for me, I get a lot out of it for that reason,

Glenn DeGuzman
right? It’s like that Venn diagram like overlapping concentric circles. Right?

Conor McLaughlin
Yeah. And I also think about it as, you know, a progression of identity development. You know, I was very much a student affairs professional during the day and I was a comic con person when I took my vacation. Now it’s a little bit more, I’m a higher education professional who also goes to Comic Con. And these things kind of interact with one another as, as they meet at, at me. Yeah,

Glenn DeGuzman
so one of the interesting things that we had people talking about, you know, obviously we, you know, we every time I come to Comic Con we always meet up and so I love being able to spend time with you. And so over the years has there been a panel or a program that you have attended, that sort of illuminate like issues that maybe we as students, as professionals in our professional side would address you kind of reference identity development, you kind of reference some other topics and issues, but is there one that sticks out for you that you would like just sort of kind of give an example?

Conor McLaughlin
Yeah, so one of the one of the memories I have of one of the last comic cons I went to as just as an attendee before I started volunteering, was taking the trolley here in San Diego down from my apartment down to downtown, and was having this conversation with a person who had put together a panel about the Avatar The Last Airbender movie and the ways in which the creative and productive production team behind that movie had whitewashed the cast and erased a lot of the spaces to I sort of promote and tell stories about Asian American people. And so listening to this person, tell me about, you know, this other dimension of Comic Con, this other side of Comic Con, that wasn’t the Hall H line. That wasn’t the exclusives on the exhibit floor was really fascinating. For me, it was really fantastic. I mean, I think I sort of maybe intellectually knew that these sorts of things were going on, but getting to sit down and have that conversation with somebody, and have it be a conversation that met at the intersections of who we are, and the things were interested in, really, I think, sort of turned a corner for me in terms of what I was looking for at Comic Con and knowing that there was more to find, than just, what’s the new Marvel movie coming out? Or can I get a sneak peek at, you know, some something that I’m interested in so that I have like a cool story to tell, the cool stories kind of became, oh, I had this really fascinating conversation, you’re standing in line to pick up a, an exclusive with this faculty member in communication studies from Australia, about the ways that Australian English departments are Australian sort of Rhetoric and Writing departments are using comics in their curriculum, and how that’s different from some of what I’ve been seeing in the different curricular approaches to using comics and pop culture in US universities. And just getting to connect around that, also, that that was a real story that did happen. And that person was the first person to get my wheels turning about how I might be able to use my professional development funds to go to Comic Con or just support, you know, integrating Comic Con in my work together.

Glenn DeGuzman
That’s awesome. Yeah, that’s a that’s a that’s an awesome dropped him for short. As soon as, as professionals or higher ed pros, you’re thinking about ComicCon as a possible way to learn, actually, I want to have you illuminate on another topic that you just brought up. I haven’t spoken to anyone about one of the differentiations that occurs, one of the big differences at Comic Con, or the difference between big programs and sort of like the things that hall age or ballroom 20 versus the panels, the panels oftentimes get overlooked. But to me, that’s where all the magic, you run into people you network, it’s the folks who really see this as an educated educator type of conference. Can you kind of speak a bit to that?

Conor McLaughlin
Yeah, that again, I think it goes back to being able to find whatever it is that you’re looking for. And I think one of the things that also makes it great, is it’s going to offer you more than you have the capacity to do in any one year. So if you’ve, you know, if there’s a year where you want to spend all of your time in Hall H fantastic. If there’s a time where you really want to get down into like the small rooms and 22 A, or you want to see what’s going on in three C, you can do that too. Same thing with the exhibit floor, you know, if you want to spend all of your time in the fun co line, fantastic. There’s space for that, if you want to just spend your whole weekend in artists alley talking to people who are making really small, really niche kind of things, mostly by themselves, and they’re selling it themselves. Awesome. There’s plenty of space for that too. And there are even volunteer whole teams of volunteers that will help facilitate that experience for you. And so I’ve kind of forgotten what the original question was, but I still think this is like getting it what I thought a good answer to.

Glenn DeGuzman
It is and I think it is the fact that like, you know, I remember going to seeing some of the topics, you know, whether it’s API identity right now, there we just I just came out of a presentation on suicide prevention and bystander intervention in some of the smaller panels versus if you go to like the big box. Ones, you’re really getting the inside scoop on big films or movies or whatnot. I know that bottom 20 had lupia The movie which is a Filipino produce homemade video from way back, that became a Kickstarter and they just launched Luca to lumpia act of vengeance. And for me as a Filipino American, there’s a lot of pride in wanting to support watch view and see that film so when you are not volunteering when you are not when you’re trying to take a break from it all. What is your favorite pastime here at Comic Con for for you personally.

Conor McLaughlin
My favorite pastime at Comic Con outside of participating in Comic Con is doing things with my friends who are here. It’s one of the only times I get a year I get to see some of my friends because they live in other countries or they live on the other side of this giant country. And so it’s just a great opportunity to pull friends together and also to connect people you know, it’s also pretty rare that I get to say, Hey, this is my friend who you know works in Res Life at UC Berkeley and this is my friend who’s an independent artists too. It makes a living cell During his paintings, and having the opportunity to sort of participate in that kind of community building, and to introduce people to one another, to make those sorts of connections to make those sorts of new friendships and new opportunities, is really my favorite thing. You know, and that can happen over dinner that can happen over coffee I, but it’s a lot of what I do in my professional life anyway. So it feels again, just like applying the same sets of skills to a slightly different arena.

Glenn DeGuzman
Right. Finally, thank you for your time and enjoy the rest of your time.

Conor McLaughlin
Yeah, thanks so much fun. It was great to get to chat with you.

Glenn DeGuzman
Okay, I just got out of this really cool panel. And so I’m gonna have these two folks introduce themselves really quickly. Let’s start with you.

Geralyn Williams
Hi, my name is Geralyn Williams. I use she her and Queen pronouns. I am the Assistant Director for student engagement and leadership at the pace center Pacific engagement at Princeton University.

Glenn DeGuzman
Very cool. And Hi,

Sunny Lee
I’m Sunny Lee, I use she her pronouns, and I’m at UC Berkeley. I’m the Associate Vice Chancellor and Dean of Students.

Glenn DeGuzman
Now the presentation of the panel that you both were just on at the San Diego library, Park Comicon. What was can you tell us a bit about it? What was the title of it? And what was what were you hoping to the audience to get out of that panel discussion?

Geralyn Williams
So it’s called Geek Ed, the Marvel’s. And this was just a really amazing panel that brought together really awesome women of color leaders in higher education to talk about how geek and nerd culture and our passions. In blue influenced the way we do our work, how we connect with students how we find inspiration. What keeps us motivated, what lets us call people in.

Sunny Lee
Yeah, I would say ditto. It was a really fun panel.

Glenn DeGuzman
Was there Was there something that was sharing the panel that that just that you’ve heard, or that made you reflect on it, that was really insightful? That was really kind of cool.

Sunny Lee
I mean, everybody had so much to share, everybody could have had their own 15 minute panel, or primetime. Alex’s comment at the end from Oxfam, a UC Santa Cruz when she said that she referred to Buffy the Vampire Slayer, which I’m a huge fan of, and that we need more than one player that we need more slayers out in the world to do the good work. And I really buy into that, that this is about community heroism. You know, at the end, there isn’t one bad guy or good versus evil, right? It’s about because everybody thinks they’re the good guy coming from their perspective. And so for me, it’s all about community building. And I think that’s really relevant and higher education, especially coming out of COVID, where so many of our students and ourselves, we spent so much time isolated. And, and I think that an illuminating, learning from that time, which you know, we’re still not completely out of is that we’re social creatures, we need that human connection. And it’s so vital to our health and so important to our thriving. So let’s obviously or

Geralyn Williams
I love that yes, that’s true, the hashtag. For this one, something that was really powerful for me, was hearing my colleagues speak about mental health, and talking about how mental health has been shown throughout media, and took the calling out like the movie split, in that it’s kind of playing into particular tropes, but also kind of monster buying people’s experiences. And certainly thinking about, you know, we’re in a moment where we’re talking more about mental health more than ever, and we need to be talking about it more, especially on college campuses, I think we are supposed to be preparing and supporting our students to go on and go forth and be I don’t want to say like healthier, like, there’s no perfect way to get healthier, happy, but to be able to be supported and take care of themselves and have community around them. And I think when we are ignorant, or we allow kind of media to kind of run wild with these particular types of stories, and stereotypes, it causes a lot of issues, because we learned so much about ourselves, about society, about communities through media, like that’s how we’re learning, especially if you don’t necessarily live right next to somebody that has a particular experience. You don’t have somebody in your life, that that’s what you’re going based off of. There’s so much I can happen. There’s something wrong there. And so I think there’s responsibility to talk and delve into mental health in a lot of different ways. And there has been really wonderful work but we also have to make sure we’re staying away from things that vilify people, things that allow more harm to happen, because I think people are experiencing mental health issues but like mental health needs in a variety of ways. Have a lot now. Or even just being able to put it into words where there weren’t necessarily words in the past, we shouldn’t be creating media that like silences that we should be creating media that allows us to ask questions to ponder things, to show the full breadth of people’s experiences, people can be monsters and have mental health issues. But it doesn’t have to be that it’s, you know, the back of a tie. But I think there’s more folks out there that are dealing with different kinds of things that you know, are showing up and being parts of communities. And I think that’s what we want our students to experience. We want our staff to experience we want our communities on our campuses in our local areas, to be able to feel supported and not, you know, shaped.

Glenn DeGuzman
That’s amazing. So one of the things about this specific podcast is we’re really trying to share with our audiences how Comic Con really connects with Student Affairs professionals, and I, you know, in the 10 plus years, I’ve been coming to Comic Con. One I’ve learned there’s so many higher end pro librarians, educators who come to this conference, and whether it’s attending a program, or sometimes just typed up just what I’m interested in binge watching or just checking out. But there’s so many special topics out there panels. Now, I’d like to ask how many comic con you’ve been to if this is your first one, you know, if this is your, like Al Day’s is 25th. Right? Or, and then, has there been another workshop that you’ve been to, or a panel that you’ve attended, or something you’ve seen thus far at Comic Con, that you particularly find interesting, that ties on not only to personal and professional life?

Sunny Lee
This is my first Comic Con. And I’ve heard about it for years, from our friends and colleagues all day from you, Glenn. And I always thought it was always curious, but I never felt like was my it was my thing. But I think having spent a few days here and also even just the prep leading up here, I was like, Oh my gosh, I do belong I’m much more of a geek than I thought it was because I didn’t really know what that meant. And so I feel like it’s a convergence of just all my interests as a parent, right, because I’ve gotten to know a lot more as a parent, but even before I watched, I marathon watched all those shows like feet, you know, well, and I just didn’t know that this was that this community was so the range of what it means to be in this community is so large, so I attended some fantastic sessions, Asian Americans and comics at k pop in comics. The first one was really touching really hit home a coping through grief through superheroes. So there’s, you know, this space is a lot more diverse, in many ways, backgrounds, ages generation, it just in so many, actually, it might be the most diverse conference I’ve ever attended. abilities. So yeah, it was, I can completely see the connection and the parallels as an educator, to this work to this world. And as a parent, and then also just for my own interests.

Geralyn Williams
Yeah, so this is my third convention. I say that, like I my like, journey with Comic Con is intuitively connected to like the good panels because the first time I came out here, I was an undergraduate student, and I was a student on a panel was talking about kind of like he get programming that was happening on my campus, and how that connected to me and how I was exploring, you know, myself, my leadership, whoever I want to be through those programs and offering that also to my fellow students. Then my second time was when I was a graduate student, and so being able to kind of speak to it in the space where I am, you know, becoming a professional in higher education. But I’m also still student myself working in community. And now I’m back, and I’m here as a professional. And able to offer another kind of different perspective. And that’s and so I just, I’ve always been a nerd for big, you know, dirty family. And it’s always just wonderful to see spaces where like, you know, people are celebrated and connected. And you get to just be passionate about, you know, what you love, finding community in different ways where, you know, maybe that’s not what you have in your hometown, or maybe these are people you’ve only met online, but it’s a space for you to come together and explore. And I think I went to a session is actually another education session earlier this week. And it was librarians talking about, like comics, for civic engagement and comics for community building and things like that. And so I was able to get a bunch of different recommendations about comics and graphic novels that are talking about and touching upon history and social issues in ways that I think are really powerful and interesting. being somebody that works in terms of community, helping my students learn and engage in different ways is really important. And I think it’s also that like, we live in a world where like, pop culture is just like, right if you Everything, like you have to kind of Mills some of these things. And it’s also it’s a way of connecting, it’s a way of having avenues into talking, talking about heart issues, it’s a way of learning about things without having to ask the community to like lay out all their pain, if you can find a really good show, like I’ve recommended reservation dogs, for students that are really interested in learning about, you know, native and indigenous communities. And also understanding that, like, native indigenous communities are here, and they’re thriving, and they’re like, present, I think there’s kind of that thing that like, Oh, they’re gone or not here, but being able to see this wonderful, funny, deep show, that showing perspective that I don’t think is really that often seen on television. And then being able to have them engage with that is powerful in terms of representation, but also learning, but also not having them ask, you know, their native Indigenous students to tell me like, What is it like, you know, here or there, but taking on their education in a fun and interesting way that’s really powerful, and then elevating really awesome voices. So I’m really excited to utilize some of those graphic novels and things like that in the future. There’s so much that you can do here. So

Glenn DeGuzman
it’s a great way to also connect dots a great way to connect with your students obviously, like it’s a common language of being a nerd. So thank you so much for coming on to the podcast and, and we’ll see you online. Thank you. Look who I run into. Please introduce yourself to our listeners.

Dawn Lee
Yes. Hi, listeners. And hi everybody. I need to My name is Dawn Lee. My pronouns are she that I’m currently the interim chief diversity officer at San Jose State University.

Glenn DeGuzman
And who are you?

Rod Santos
I’m Rod Santos. Hey, everybody, everyone in higher ed. I’m the Dean of enrollment services at Contra Costa College Museum whose friends

Glenn DeGuzman
now you can have unique experiences here at this convention. Don, this is your

Dawn Lee
it’s my first time. My gosh, I don’t know if y’all have ever gone to a Comicon. I just feel a lot of regrets that I haven’t come here sooner. Because this place is amazing. All right. And I had no I was not prepared at all. And this This place is like amazing. I love everybody hear. So I highly encourage everybody to check out Calderon.

Glenn DeGuzman
Now. Ron, you’ve been to you. Actually, you were one of the people who actually did my orientation to my very first Comic Con over a decade ago. So

Rod Santos
yeah, I call Comic Con my Mecca, my geek Mecca, and I’ve been attending since 2009.

Glenn DeGuzman
Now both of you just came out of a presentation you both did. So can you start telling the listener? What did you present on here at this convention?

Dawn Lee
Yeah, so we literally just finished the panel, right? It was a panel with two creators of Eric when upon second show. They’re both creatives who do comics with Asian American narratives and characters. And then we had three higher ed professionals rod being one of them. And we talked about Asian American narratives and comics and graphic novels, and the life that these narratives take on their own. But we specifically focused on the impact of these narratives. During the COVID pandemic, I asked some questions, including Well, how did these narratives change for you during the pandemic, especially with anti Asian violence? And, and it was? I don’t know, what did you think

Glenn DeGuzman
of that question, rod that you share? Well, yeah.

Rod Santos
It’s a really hard question to answer because I was so fanboying over the two creators that we had points that just won the Eisner Award last year for the good Asian as best writer, and he’s a screenwriter. He’s worked for vertigo. He works in the Sandman book right now. And then Erickson when he worked on old man, Logan, and for Marvel, who worked on all these other things. So honestly, I was trying to like get get my act together to make sure that I knew what I was talking about. And not making sure it wasn’t gambling too much up there. I think it did. Okay. Yeah. Okay.

Glenn DeGuzman
Early on YouTube, Asian representation that so either one of you speak to that? Yeah, definitely at a convention like Comicon.

Dawn Lee
Yes, it definitely matters. So our three folds, right. One of them when you Sasaki who’s at UC San Diego, and this is director of the Asian American and Pacific either the PETA center, y aborto, who is at University of Illinois in Chicago teaches Asian American studies on rod here, right? Asian representation definitely matters because from these three folks, we heard how how these comics and graphic novels enable people to not only reflect on their own identities, but engage in conversations with others, especially when some of them were experiencing very difficult things during the pandemic like anti Asian violence was trying to make sense of experience. anses prior experiences with things like police violence, these are entry points that occur because the characters are there. And the story is on paper.

Rod Santos
And I talked about Shang chi and how that has been like an entrance to a narrative about what it means to be API. And that it’s actually in front of us. It’s in movie theaters. It’s, it allows my students and they formed an API student organization, to talk about these things, and to talk about the issues that are pertinent to themselves and their families. And so over the past couple of years, especially post pandemic, all my students, that’s what we talked about, what’s what kind of comics are you into what kind of comic book movies are you into, and then we go into conversation about something serious. So I think that’s been what’s so amazing about this whole process. And this panel was amazing. They put that out there. First graders to be with us, too.

Rod Santos
That was unbelievable, kind of craters on the panel. So 2020, I did an episode called geeks in higher education, it was a number it was like the second episode we’ve ever launched on Student Affairs now. And one of the interesting things that have panelists of students and professionals are involved with Comicon. And it was what’s one of the things I really tried to drive forward with the listening with the number of student affairs professionals in higher education books who come to this convention. So tell me a bit more about like, why why is there such a big connection between student affairs and conventional events,

Rod Santos
I would say it’s because of our narratives. We talk about narratives and all the work that we do in higher education, our narratives, as practitioners are super important, because they’re important in describing those to our students to connect with. And when students are able to connect to that they have a direct connection to us, they’re able to reach out, they’re able to tell us what’s going on out there. It’s allows us to get a pulse of our students. I’m forever grateful for that. And I’m also super proud to be a queer geek as well. And to be queer API Geek on top of that, it just means a lot to my students who identify with that as well.

Dawn Lee
And you know, one thing I’ll add is that here at Comic Con, there are wonderful panels for student affairs professionals, people who work in higher education, I can’t wait to get to them and to hear I mean, this is a very, very welcome place. And so, Rod is right. This is a wonderful

Glenn DeGuzman
musical podcast, I want to share that

Dawn Lee
I do. So if anyone’s interested. I have a podcast called from here podcast, I co hosted. And it’s focused on Asian American parenting with anti racist social justice commitments. So questions like how do you talk to kid about your kids about racism? That’s what we talked about on the podcast.

Glenn DeGuzman
All right. Well, thank you too, for dropping in and joining that little project and putting together Christina first now. Have a great time. Thank you. All right. This is something you don’t do every day, but I’ve just run into to two really cool people. And so really quickly, can you introduce yourself?

Grace Bigunu
Hi, I’m Grace Biggin Hill,

Andrew Amarao
and I’m Andrew Amarao.

Glenn DeGuzman
Okay, so can you tell me a little bit of what you do?

Grace Bigunu
Well, currently, I work as a program manager with the city of San Diego in the department of race and equity. But I used to me at the University of California, San Diego with rebell College as the Assistant Dean of Student Affairs

Glenn DeGuzman
you are then you would base your basically next path I have here. What do you do?

Andrew Amarao
I’m the Community Service Program Manager at the Center for Student Involvement. And so I run community service programs for the entire university and MLK Day of Service.

Glenn DeGuzman
That’s very cool. Now, both of you are Comic Con attendees who have been in the field or connected to the field Student Affairs, how many comic cons Have you been to?

Andrew Amarao
About? I would say, yeah, it’s gotta be tagged. I think it’s 10.

Glenn DeGuzman
So I’m here at Comic Con, because he has basically want to know, like, why do you see the first professionals come to this convention? And and is there value? Or do you see any connection to coming to this convention? And folks, your student affairs?

Grace Bigunu
Tough question. Question. Yeah, I mean, for me, it’s really about community. And so I think, as a student affairs professional was always working to create community and to create space, especially for people who maybe felt marginalized or weren’t at the table. And I feel like the con is that place where those of us that are at the margins, maybe a little geeky, a little nerdy, a little weird, like we find our home and we find our people here. And so it’s very comfortable, it’s inviting. It connects like each other, you feel like you belong. And I think that’s part of my work, especially in race and equity is really about like, how do we help people feel like they belong here because there’s room for all of us. And I think that’s what this con really brings out is that there is space for all of us.

Glenn DeGuzman
creating. It’s like that it’s mattering. It’s pretty mattering

Glenn DeGuzman
There’s a lot of marginality that occurs exactly and it’s some thoughts like how does this tie into your work?

Andrew Amarao
Well, I’m gonna take a different approach. I think for me, it’s really kind of keeping a pulse of what maybe my students might be like, you know, consuming or maybe what they’re interested in. So I think like comic con for me, like really does help me stay engaged and connected to like the things that are coming out and what my students may be interested in. It’s also great to to connect with them on like, such a personal level, you know, like, you know, a lot of them don’t know that I do this actually. When they see me, they see me as like serious person, but really like a kind of a goofball, outside of work. And so like, yeah, so these are one of the things that I enjoy. Normally, I have my kids too. So they’ve been coming the last, I think, three years. So yeah, so it’s been really exciting. But yeah, I mean, for me, it’s really just about, you know, making sure that like I understand what’s going on and stuff so that I can better connect with the students.

Glenn DeGuzman
So um, so any advice for any student professionals if they come from a time

Glenn DeGuzman
Grace you, I’m gonna give you an opportunity to kind of pitch something that you do. It’s more like a creative, creative work that you do.

Grace Bigunu
Yeah, it’s my creative outlet. As I like to call it, I love to problem solve, I probably learned that in student affairs too. But I love to create new things out of old things, which is, I take all Comic Con bags that they give away for free here at the con. And I upcycle them into something else, maybe a reusable bag, or a skirt, or a pillow or something to commemorate the con. But it’s also a great way to keep things out of landfills. So doing my part, maybe in reducing the waste that goes out into the world and really creating something beautiful out of something that really is an everyday use kind of thing. So I have a table at the art show, which shows up at the Grand Hyatt every year. And you can go there, there’s a silent auction, you can purchase things. And then if not, you didn’t see anything on my table that you didn’t like, or maybe you want something different. I can always do a commissioned piece for you. So you can find me on Instagram at Grace Bigunu.

Glenn DeGuzman
And we’ll have information on our website for our listeners to kind of check it out. I was gonna I was gonna say that. Yes, that is really cool that you do that. We did an episode on side hustles out a year ago. Yeah. Talk about what senior professionals need to do to make the dollar. Yeah, we know about the pay in our Oh, yeah. Right. So yeah, so that’s an interesting, cool side hustle. And I appreciate you sharing that we’ll put your information on it awesome. And I want to hit something that you just said you brought your kids you bring your kids and my kids have been to 10 comic cons as well. So as a parent bringing your kid What do you hope your kids will gain from coming to Comic Con?

Andrew Amarao
I mean, really, for me it’s the experience right? Like Like being able to be exposed to so many different things you know, and like them making the connection of the things that they may be watching on TV or in movies and stuff and actually connecting here you know, with all the different panels and all the activities I think it’s also cool to that they get to see sometimes their their their heroes or their heroes right that you know that they may be looking at. And so like I remember one year I think it was it was an outlet from from PJ Masks. And so yeah, my daughter was such a big fan of outlet and the real name of her is Amaya she actually named her younger sister Amaya because of outlet. Yeah, that was really cool. No, yeah,

Glenn DeGuzman
I was gonna quick story my daughter, Lego panel asked she got in the long line. She was I don’t know, like seven. And she asked the question, why are there no girl? joggers and the panelists. The audience crazy. The panel went even more ballistic because they was nice. They released a keynote character the following year. Not to say she was the reason yeah, that made her feel like because she was talking about representation. Yeah, yeah.

Glenn DeGuzman
Little girl wearing that axe cop. Yeah. Okay. Anyways, I appreciate you too, coming on really quick. And, and so just say hello to all listeners. And again, Student Affairs at Comic Con San Diego. Well, this is me wrapping up. Its final day of Comic Con. I’ve had such a blast interviewing so many superfast professionals out here today. So I just want to say thank you, Nat in advance. You’re a producer, you’re gonna have a fun time editing all these videos. So I thank you in advance and continue the great work that you do. I want to thank all the different guests out there. There’s so many folks that I interviewed that we’re going to put all the information in the website so thank you to them as well and of course our sponsors. I want to make sure they think Symplicity is a global leader in students, student services technology platforms with state of the art technology that empowers institutions to make data driven decisions. Specific to the goals a true partner to the institution Symplicity supports all aspects of student life including but not limited to, to Career Services and Development, Student Conduct and lobbying student success and accessibility services. To learn more, visit symplicity.com That’s symplicity.com Or you can connect with them on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. Again, I want to thank everyone for bearing with this unique, different type of student prayers now episode, two listeners, make sure you’re subscribed to our MailChimp if you aren’t and farewell from San Diego Comic Con International. Bye, everybody.

1. 
   Intro (Glenn) 1:52
2. Emily Sandoval (University of Southern California) & Alex Belisario (University of California, Santa Cruz) “Geek Identity & Experiencing Comicon” 11:51

3. Alfred Day (UC Berkeley) & Emilie Mitchell (UC Berkeley) “Bias Intervention” 7:41

4. David Surratt (University of Oklahoma) & Windi Sasaki (UC San Diego) “Volunteering, Presenting, & Learning” 9:55

5. Conor McLaughlin (San Diego State University) “How Personal & Professional Development Intersect” 9:28

6. Sunny Lee (UC Berkeley) & Geralyn Williams “Women of Color Leaders and Geek Culture” 10:58 

7. Rod Santos (Contra Costa Community College) & Dawn Lee (San Jose State University) “Asian American Narratives & Anti-Asian Hate” 6:13 

8. Andrew Amarao (UC San Diego) & Grace Bigunu (City of San Diego) “Why I attend Comic-Con” 6:34”