In this episode of Roompact’s ResEdChat, Crystal sits down with Taj Julien, Residence Hall Director at the University of Connecticut, to discuss entering housing and residence life from a nontraditional pathway. Taj shares how their identity, previous experiences, and support from supervisors have shaped their professional journey, and why different perspectives make our field stronger.
Guest: Taj Julien (They/Them), Hall Director, University of Connecticut
Host: Crystal Lay
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Roompact’s ResEdChat podcast is a platform to showcase people doing great work and talk about hot topics in residence life and college student housing. If you have a topic idea for an episode, let us know!
Transcript:
Crystal Lay:
Hello and welcome to another episode of Roompact’s ResEdChat Podcast where we highlight cool people who do cool things in residence life and college student housing. I’m your host, Crystal Lay, and I use the she/her/hers pronouns. So if you’ve ever listened to or watched this podcast before, at the end we typically say, “Hey, if you have an idea for a guest or a topic that you would like to have on Roompact, let us know.” Well, guess what? Someone took me up on that and they reached out and said, “Crystal, we have this wonderful human who has so much to share. You really should connect with them.”
So I had the wonderful opportunity to engage with our next guest and learn more about their pathway into housing. And I thought how wonderful to focus on that because as we look at our field, there’s so many entryways into housing and I think we have a responsibility as employers to make sure that we are harnessing that prior knowledge that those candidates are bringing, but also we are making sure that we are prepared to welcome them and make sure they feel welcomed when they enter housing. So I will let our guests introduce themselves and we will talk more about this topic.
Taj Julien:
Hello, everyone. My name is Taj Julien and I’m currently working in housing and residential life. My journey into student affairs is a little nontraditional because I originally came from the culinary hospitality world. However, my experiences as an RA and senior RA at SUNY Delhi, along with mentorship and from professionals who introduced me to the world of student affairs as a career ultimately led me into higher education.
Crystal Lay:
Thank you so much, Taj, for being here. So I actually want to keep going with your intro. So before working in housing, you said you were in culinary, you had this established career. What drew you into residential life as a professional? And then what are some things that maybe surprised you?
Taj Julien:
I would say what drew me would probably be the ability to help people, specifically individuals in the college age range, including non-traditional students. I’m very much so a helper. I’ve always been that way. And throughout my experience and trying to find a field that I would resonate with, I actually always used to want to be a therapist or a counselor. And when I looked into that field a little bit more, I felt like it missed the interactive experiential learning programming and fun sides to helping people. And then I became an RA when I was an undergrad and I got into that kind of world where I learned a little bit of everything and I’ve always kind of felt like a jack of all trades.
So when one of my mentors mentioned that I could be in higher education, I was like, “What’s higher education? What’s student affairs?” And then she educated me on that world and I was like, “This kind of sound’s like I would really fit in it.” And then what was the second part of your question?
Crystal Lay:
So what surprised you the most when you entered as a professional?
Taj Julien:
I think what surprised me the most was how warm people are. It’s very different. I’ve worked in three different fields kind of now and the corporate world is a little bit colder and the way in which they interact with you can be very hands off versus I feel like in the higher ed student affairs field, people kind of see you for who you are and accept you for who you are and really allow you to tailor that to your style of supervision or admin work and things like that.
Crystal Lay:
So this idea of going from corporate, which can seem a little bit more cold and I haven’t worked in corporate. So these are the things that I’ve heard and you’re also sharing yourself being in that field. And then you’re saying this transition into student affairs or housing felt there’s a little bit more warmth and the ability to bring yourself to the space. Let’s keep going with that. So you had this culinary career and so going from culinary into housing, what are some pieces of your professional identity that stayed with you? And then were there moments that you felt those culinary experiences gave you a unique perspective within residential life?
Taj Julien:
Yeah, I think the hospitality mindset absolutely stayed with me. In culinary spaces, you learn how to anticipate needs, work under pressure, communicate quickly and create environments where people feel welcomed and cared for. Those skills translated directly to residential life. I also think food and hospitality taught me the importance of community. Some of the best conversations and connections happen around shared meals and shared spaces. That perspective helped shape the way I approached programming and relationship building with students and I wanted students to feel seen, comfortable, and connected in their living environments.
The culinary world also prepared me for crisis management because in the kitchen, things move fast and you learn how to stay calm and adapt quickly and problem solve under pressure. That has definitely helped me navigate the unpredictable things that come with housing work. And so I always tell my students, my RAs in particular, I always tell them, “I need you to have a sense of urgency. I’m going to help you learn how to have a sense of urgency.” Because I think that’s one thing that people don’t always get if they don’t work in a field that requires them to do that.
Crystal Lay:
That’s so fascinating to me. And I’m appreciative of what you just shared because I feel like in housing, everything feels like it’s urgent. And so, I don’t know if we know when to slow down. So you’re describing urgency in one field and you’re saying sometimes we need to maybe, how do we prioritize what’s urgent maybe? That feels a little different. So I’m so fascinated by what you’re sharing. So I want to transition and talk about when you go… So in housing and residential life, I think there’s this idea of there’s this traditional pipeline or more so the order of operations. You’re an RA, then you’re a grad student, you have your GAship in housing. And then you’re a hall director and then you’re an assistant director. There’s this path you’re supposed to follow and there’s no in between.
So you were an RA, a senior RA, and then you went a different pathway. So my question is when you enter the field outside of this pre-designed or expected, if you will, pathway, did you ever feel any pressure to prove yourself because your professional background is a little different?
Taj Julien:
Definitely. Many professionals in housing followed a traditional pathway and being an RA and a grad hall, all that stuff. Coming from a completely different profession, there were moments where I felt like I had to prove my experiences were just as valuable. And at times I felt outside the typical housing narrative. So I think over time, I realized that bringing that different pathway was an important perspective in the field because my background in hospitality gave me strengths in customer service, leadership, operations, emotional intelligence, and so much more. But I had a lot of at times where people maybe in my grad program would say interesting things about my background, or I’ve had professionals just say that I don’t know enough because I didn’t actually go through the whole thing. And then I have to be like, “Well, actually I did go to grad school and have a grad assistantship and then become a…” I was like, “I did do these things. I just did them in a different trajectory than you.”
I have a external lived experience in a field that I then took a lot of transferable skills and brought it to this field and my perspective is valuable. And I think honestly, working at the School District of Philadelphia also made me have a completely different perspective as well, because I learned a lot about the K through 12 system and how it is that students are coming to us in higher education. So I think it is really valuable to have people who don’t go through the traditional pipeline of getting into higher education in this field because you need differing perspectives, you need different lived experiences. And yes, everybody will have a different lived experience even if they go through the traditional pipeline, but they will also have these consistent norms. So I think that even though it has been hard and there has been pressures to prove myself, I think it’s made me stronger.
Crystal Lay:
So I’m hearing hire more chefs, like transferrable skills and maybe some food I’ll get, you know. So-
Taj Julien:
That’s so funny. Every time I go to a school and I interview and people find out that I used to go to… I was in culinary school and worked in these places, they’re always like, “So you’re bringing all this stuff to the cookouts, right?”
Crystal Lay:
Yes. Oh my gosh. So you’ve worked in K through 12, you’ve worked in hospitality and now you’re in housing. And you’ve already highlighted some of these Taj, but I want to keep listing off these areas of expertise I like to call them. So what are the skills that you’ve brought over looking back, or maybe it’s more top of mind because you just said you have to defend yourself. It feels like that. You have to defend yourself or your skillset. What are those skillsets that fit or translated most naturally into your housing role? And then are there any strengths that you have found that folks didn’t immediately recognize? Has there been a moment where you were able to do this thing that was unexpected because folks had these assumptions? I don’t know if that made any sort of sense, but…
Taj Julien:
That made sense to me. Yeah, for sure. I think that the skills that translated most naturally were communication, adaptability, multitasking, and service because that’s the core classes in culinary hospitality school. That is an underlying thing in every course. And then with culinary and housing, you’re consistently balancing multiple priorities while supporting people with different needs and personalities. But one strength that may not have been immediately recognized was my ability to intentionally create welcoming environments.
I think that when I was doing my assistantship, I had a lot of tasks and different things and I had different supervisors and I had one supervisor that was a little bit more difficult than another. And they really were a micromanager and I had to have a serious conversation with them and say, “I can do this.” I know how to build community and make people feel welcomed. It’s literally what I’ve done my entire career. Yes, I was doing it with food and creating this atmosphere with food, but I can translate that with something else. I also think my previous experiences strengthened my resilience. Culinary environments can be fast-paced and demanding, and that prepared me well for the realities of living in residential life.
Crystal Lay:
Okay. So you just ended with the realities of working in residential life. So you’re an entry-level professional right now. What has that taught you about yourself, your values, and the kind of professional that you want to become or the pathway as you think about your career trajectory?
Taj Julien:
I think that it’s taught me… What culinary has taught me, right?
Crystal Lay:
Well, I would say it could be culinary or focusing in on housing. Now being live in, because I assume you didn’t want to live in as a culinary professional, right? So now you’re just live in professional. What has that taught you about yourself and your values?
Taj Julien:
I think it really taught me that I value my personal space. I think that when I wasn’t living off, I was very much so inclined to have people over and be very buddy-buddy with my coworkers and stuff like that. And now as a living professional, I really value my personal space and I challenge myself to make connections to people outside of my field and outside of my department, outside of my university so that way I can have separation. And I learned that through my trajectory in residential life because when I first came in, I still had my culinary mindset where it’s like everybody’s really close and they talk to each other all the time and stuff like that. And so I built those relationships in my initial years in residential life. And then I learned and burned and grew from those experiences. And now as a seasoned professional that has… I’ve held different positions. I’ve been an area coordinator, I’ve been assistant director, so I understand the different layers.
I think I understand now why my boss was the way they were and why does people kept telling me to make connections outside of this space. I think that’s what that taught me. But my values, I really, really value connection with people. I like authenticity. And even though I may not want to hang out with you outside of work, I really value the conversations that I have with you at work. I really value the connection that we can make with each other professionally. So I think those would probably be the two, three things that I would say.
Crystal Lay:
What I’m hearing is this when you were in the culinary world, hanging out with coworkers was like a choice and it made it more fun. And then when you live where you work, it’s like, I see you all the time. And so how do you have that separation? I had a conversation with some folks the other day where we were talking about there are some folks who are thinking, “Well, we need to be friends because we work together.” And I was like, “Well, I would hope for the workplace that everyone likes each other so we can do good work.” These interpersonal dynamics should not disrupt our ability to do business. And if you do become friends, that’s like sprinkles on the cupcake. Yay.
Taj Julien:
Exactly.
Crystal Lay:
And so, I like how you talk about that piece about valuing your privacy and you’ve had both experiences of living on and living off. And so I think you’re better able to articulate, “Hey, here’s what’s important to me because I’ve had both experiences,” and you’re able to create some different and maybe stronger boundaries, I would imagine.
Taj Julien:
Yeah, I definitely think that my boundaries have become stronger. The person or the professional that I was when I first started to the professional that I am now would look at each other like, “Who are you?” But I think that comes with lived experience.
Crystal Lay:
And it makes me think about what responsibility, if any, do employers have or more seasoned peers have to prepare folks who are entering of like, “Hey, here’s what you might want to think about because living in and living on can be really different. And so here’s how you could think about boundaries and make some good decisions about how you make friends or build a network or get connected to community.”
Taj Julien:
No, I think that would be a great onboarding course. I think that aspects of onboarding into, especially for fields where you live where you work, can do more with that platform. And even having a panel of individuals that are in different ranges of their professional life, talking to the people that are coming in to have them ask questions, also give some nuggets of wisdom about how do you adapt to living where you work. Because it really is something you have to adapt to and not everybody’s good at it. It’s almost like how you do informational interviews before you go for a job. I think having that kind of thing as an onboarding aspect could be really helpful.
Crystal Lay:
I agree. I agree. Now in our conversation to get to know each other, we talked a little bit about identity. And so if you don’t mind, I would like to pivot and go there. Now in the earlier part of our conversation, and then again, the prior conversation, you talked about the importance of community, connecting to other humans, authenticity in the workplace. And I think that ties in with identity and who you are as a human and all the different isms. So I think identity shapes how we experience supervision, belonging, and leadership. I can’t separate those pieces out for myself and I don’t want to assume that’s the same for you, but that’s how I’m going to lead into this. So how have your personal and professional identities influenced the way you navigate working in housing and also how you connect with students or colleagues?
Taj Julien:
I think as a Black Caribbean professional, my identity shaped the way I approach community leadership and support. It influences how I connect with students, especially students who may be navigating spaces where they don’t always feel represented or understood. Representation matters. And I’ve learned that authenticity can be incredibly powerful. Sometimes students simply need to see someone who understands parts of their experience and who creates space for them to show up fully as themselves. I think my identity has also made me more intentional about equity, inclusion, and cultural responsive leadership.
I think deeply about how systems, policies, environments impact people differently and how we can create communities where students genuinely feel like they belong. So I think that for me, my identities have just been a catalyst to me being the professional that I am today and how it is that I connect with students. Because at least my students have always told me that they feel like I am a TED Talk of their own. They’re always like, “You’re always giving us nuggets, Taj. You’re always giving us nuggets.”
And so I really try to impart the things that I’ve learned onto my students. I also do that with my colleagues too and I always say, “Take it or leave it.” And I give the advice that advice is just that, it’s just information from my perspective to you. And I don’t expect you to take it and I don’t expect that it’s always going to fit you, but I am always here to listen and to provide you with my advice.
Crystal Lay:
So I’m wondering how that would translate over to supervision and also support. You mentioned onboarding earlier and now you’re talking about advice. And so I think with the onboarding pieces, advice, supervision, et cetera, that ties together to this idea of support. What does support actually look like, feel like, smell like? And so when I think of support, I think of my supervisor and how they support me. I do a report, FT supervisor. So how do they support me? How do they make me feel affirmed? How am I articulating what I need? So for you, Taj, I’m wondering what role has supervision played in your experience and what qualities do you think make a supervisor especially impactful for someone who’s transitioning into a housing field, particularly someone who’s had a pathway like yours?
Taj Julien:
I think supervision has been very impactful in my life. One of my first ever supervisors, I won’t say his name because he’ll be all like, “Oh, Taj.” But he knows who he is, Binghamton University, was so kind and patient and educating, which is I’m going to stress on the educating part. He wasn’t reprimanding. I felt comfortable failing. And one of my other supervisors, future supervisors taught me that failing is just the first attempt in learning. And I love passing that on because my first supervisor, he really took the time to help me learn what my transferable skills were fully and dive into those as well as figure out where my areas of improvement were and help me work on those. He would put me in positions where I had to stretch myself so that way I could see that I could do it.
And he didn’t just leave me out there to dry. He helped me along the way so that I felt supported in my learning. And so I think any supervisor getting a new professional should value and really encompass the ability to educate, the ability to have patience and the ability to allow failure because let’s be serious, everything is fixable in housing. Almost anything can be fixed. You make a mistake in a spreadsheet, it’s okay, we can fix that. You know what I mean? You sent an email and maybe you shouldn’t have sent the email. We got you. We can fix this up real quick.
I think that also having aspects of fun, really getting to know that person, not just that professional is going to help that individual become more comfortable with you. And so that way they can show you the pieces of them that they may be nervous about, that may be areas of improvement so that you can help them. And as they become more comfortable with you, they’ll start to voice those things to you so that way they can then gain that support. And then in turn, I really think that any supervisor should be an aspect of a mentor to their supervisee, especially one that’s coming straight out of college. Because mentorship is just lacking in society and the person that that person’s going to go to most often is their supervisor. So I’ve had such great supervisors throughout my experience in higher education. I can name them, but I don’t want them to feel anyhow. They really helped me not only as a professional, but as a person.
Crystal Lay:
Now here’s what I’m going to say. If you have not told them and you feel comfortable, do it. Let them know. Because I think supervision is something that it’s hard and you know that, right? Supervision is hard. And I always say it’s heart work, H-E-A-R-T, because you’re caring about other humans. And if the heart is not activated, that’s more of management in my opinion. And so I like in your answer, what I’m hearing is you were also open to it. I think you were open to the growth. There was some trust that was happening. And I think all can go well when there’s a commitment to say, “We are in this supervisory relationship because we want to grow and be better together.” And what’s my responsibility as a supervisor to provide an avenue for folks to feel comfortable failing and then say, “We’re going to figure this out together.” I think the breakdown can be when there’s that we’re not sharing what we’re noticing and/or it’s like, “Oh, the defensiveness and my guard’s up and I’m so afraid.” And so how do you work through that?
And so again, I keep thinking about as an employer or supervisor, how do we lay the groundwork for what I call compassionate accountability? I’m holding you accountable. I care about you as a human and as an employee, and so here’s the pathway. What could that look like for us?
All right, so I want to ask you this question. If you were advising someone based on everything you shared, your experiences, if someone’s like, “Hey, Taj, I saw your podcast. I think I might want to try out this housing thing.” And they were coming from another profession, what would you encourage them to lean into and what should they prepare themselves for emotionally, professionally, and culturally?
Taj Julien:
Well, I think I would encourage them to lean into experiences that make them different instead of trying to completely reshape themselves to fit the field. Skills from other industries, leadership, communication, teamwork, crisis management, customer service are incredibly valuable in housing. I would also prepare them for the emotional intensity of the work. We’re not counselors, we’re not social workers, but we do work in things that are within that. So that emotional intensity is there.
Housing is deeply rational… relational, sorry, and also rational. But you’re supporting students through challenges, transitions, crises and personal growth while you’re managing your own wellbeing. And so professionally and culturally, I’d encourage them to stay open to learning the language and norms of higher education while also remembering that the field benefits from people with non-traditional experiences and perspectives. There’s value in bringing yourself and your full journey into any work that you go into, whether it be higher ed or any other field. And so that’s what I think that I would encourage them to lean into.
Crystal Lay:
I love that. There’s value in bringing folks in from other fields. That’s a part of making sure that we continue to learn and grow. If we keep doing things the way we’ve always done it, we’re never really evolving. And I am so sold on everything you’ve shared because everything you listed as a skillset from culinary and your other experiences, I’m like, “Yeah, check, check, check. We do that.” And so how do we learn from and with each other when we have those perceived or realistic differences in any aspect? I think that the lessons you’ve taught me during this time can be applied to so many facets of life. So thank you for sharing your wisdom. If folks want to learn more about transitioning into housing or things that have been helpful to you as you’ve been navigating this profession, do you have anything that you would recommend or sources or things they could check out?
Taj Julien:
Well, I definitely think they should check out Roompact, because it has wonderful resources and articles and just so much there. I would definitely go to NASPA’s page, ACUHO-I’s page. I would also do some informational interviews with people in different positions within higher education because residential life and, I don’t know, athletics or center for students with disabilities or fraternity and sorority life, it all looks a little bit different and not all of them are live on. Some of them are. There’s these niche programs that have live on positions for some of other places within America and also abroad. I feel like there’s become a lot more higher education positions within the vast majority of the world, which is I think nice. And so I think that’s what I would tell them to do.
Crystal Lay:
Okay. So we will definitely get all those added to the show notes so folks can look into those resources. Taj, it has been an absolute pleasure learning from you today. Thank you for sharing your wisdom.
Taj Julien:
You’re so welcome. I have one last thing to say.
Crystal Lay:
Yes.
Taj Julien:
It is your path does not have to look like everyone else’s. The skills you gain in one profession can become the foundation for success in another. And sometimes the experiences that make you different are exactly what make you valuable.
Crystal Lay:
I love that. I love that. Thank you so much for sharing your wisdom. I know folks are going to get a lot out of this. So thank you everyone for listening in to this episode of Roompact Podcast. And if you have an idea for a topic or a guest that you would love us to have on the show, please reach out to us because guess what? That’s what happened and we got to hear from the wonderful Taj today. So you all, thank you for hanging out with us and take care.
