My name is Demario Watts and I serve as the Assistant Dean of Students for Diversity and Leadership Development at Wofford College. I graduated from Lander University with a degree in Sociology. I was a Resident Assistant at Lander and that is where my thoughts of Higher Education as a job became a reality. I had great mentors at Lander who introduced me to this field and I have been enjoying it ever since. Being a Resident Assistant truly helped me get to the position I currently serve in. During that time, I learned more about myself than I ever thought I would. Learning how to build community and relationships, being relatable to others, handling conflict and having difficult conversations were all skills that I gained during my undergrad experience. I think having the Resident Assistant role gave me opportunities to work back at Lander as a Residence Life Coordinator and later as an Associate Director at Wofford.
The advice I would give to anyone following in my footsteps would be:
1. Take part of any type of internships, programs, conferences that are offered to you by your institution;
2. Build relationships through networking;
3. Believe in yourself and also learn from your mistakes;
4. Be your authentic self all the time;
5. Lastly, push through the hard times and remember the good memories.
The advice I would give to anyone following in my footsteps would be:
1. Take part of any type of internships, programs, conferences that are offered to you by your institution;
2. Build relationships through networking;
3. Believe in yourself and also learn from your mistakes;
4. Be your authentic self all the time;
5. Lastly, push through the hard times and remember the good memories.
