Learning the Unwritten Rules About College with Academic Life Coach Mya Andersen

Hi, this is Dr. Cesar Liu with another episode of the Way to College podcast. And wow, when I started this podcast, I never imagined how much it would grow. I never imagined who it would connect me to and where my network would grow. I initially created it with the idea of I'm going to reach out to my network to collect stories, but more importantly, to share their stories and their journeys and give information to students and to folks that needed it. and also celebrate. I think a lot of these journeys, every journey that I've shared, I think has been incredibly empowering and there's a lot to learn from them and they all need to be celebrated. As part of this work, I am, you know, I'm an educator, but I'm also a consultant. I also work with college students and first-year students and advise and do all kinds of things. And so I've connected into, tapped into that network as well. And so today, my guest is someone who I've connected with through that network, through our mutual work and through these connections. And so what I'm going to do is I'm going to turn it over to her and allow her to introduce herself. So, Maya, please introduce yourself to our listeners and viewers out there. Hi, I'm Maya Anderson. I am an independent academic life coach. I am the person that takes students from college capable, which is what high school does, to college ready, which is what high school doesn't do and misses all of the really critical parts of success in college. And I started the student empowered because I had worked on campuses for a little over 20 years. And there were things that I was consistently seeing that students struggle with. And it did not matter if you were first gen. It didn't matter if you were in your third year. None of those factors mattered. What mattered is that you are a college student. And the systems of higher education have a giant hidden curriculum that you don't know and you don't master till pretty much you're ready to graduate. I am okay thank you thank you for that lovely introduction and thank you for I think I think I think I came to the same realization right I was working full-time in higher ed for about 20 years when I decided okay I'm gonna leave because because I see this need and and I fortunately a lot of the work that I was doing in the classroom I was already doing some of that but I felt like there's just this this huge chasm between the students when they're leaving high school and when they're getting to college. And I was a part of too many conversations where folks would ask, folks from high schools would ask, oh, what do we need to do to prepare students? And it felt like I was just yelling out into the ether, like, and nobody was paying attention. And it was like, that's great. We won't worry about that now. Let's just get them to graduate. And so I appreciate the work that you're doing, Maya. I think we are kindred spirits and that we're committed to this work. We want to see our students succeed. But Maya is with all of my guests. Where does your educational journey begin? So I grew up in Northern California and not like the cute Northern California, but like at the base of the Sierra Nevadas. So I grew up in a small community where gold was discovered, all those kinds of things. But it wasn't a community where people went to college. And I was not surrounded by adults who went to college or who believed that it was a worthwhile investment. And so I am a first-gen student. I genuinely wanted to go to college, and I did not know how. There was a six-year gap between high school and actually becoming a full-time university student because I genuinely didn't know how. and just about the time that I would think I was at that place of becoming a real full-time student an expense would pop up um something more fun would arrive I'll own it like I lived my best life and so by the time I became a full-time student I still didn't understand how to college and I was lucky enough to work on the orientation staff at the University of Oregon, which at the time had an orientation program that was being modeled at numerous institutions across the U.S. And after my first year on the orientation staff, it occurred to me that nobody knows what they're doing. Like, it wasn't just because I was this first-gen kid who didn't have adults and leadership. no no one knew like even if you were the third generation to go to college you still don't know what you're doing and so I did two years of orientation and with that quickly realized wait a minute like I need I am becoming the person I needed as a student but also there are a lot of people, a lot of students that don't know this, and I'm working in campus offices and campus administrators don't even realize what the gap, they don't even realize that there is this giant space between graduating from high school and graduating from college that is filled with like, so what then next? And how do I do this? And so I had grand plans, my grand plan was to write environmental policy, was going to go to law school, do the whole thing. And I went to the University of Oregon. It's a quarter school. I started spring quarter and it became glaringly obvious that my heart was truly in staying in higher education. It really, it just became more and more obvious that as much as I love policy, like I am a giant policy nerd, that what I really loved more was being the person for students that got it and could translate it into everyday language so that it didn't become so daunting. It became attainable. It became less scary and so on and so forth. And so it, and there it began, like that's where my career in higher ed began was honestly, like I was invited to work on the admissions staff and I did it for a while. And I realized like admissions is not where I want to be. I want to be, I'm going to be talking to the kids when they're here, they've made their decision, they're here and they're looking around with like, I don't really know how I got here, but like, I hope this all comes together. Um, and so then consequently my career in higher education began. Um, I've worked at five campuses all publics. So I've worked at four years and two years, um, at three in three different states. I feel like there's probably nothing that can surprise me that will happen. I, I, I feel like there's, yeah, I think it's pretty hard to surprise me. Um, but consistently when I was on campus, my favorite day is graduation like is there anything better there is nothing better than like that full of hope expression mixed in with a swell of pride but then also that like lingering in the background like oh so what then like all of that and watching like these are kids that I got to see from the beginning to the like crossing the stage. And that's like name a career that gives you more gratification. Like I'm waiting, like come to me and tell me something that's better. So I've done a lot of things on the student side of the house. By design, I have not done financial aid or res life because you have to say there's some things you are unwilling to do in the student experience. I don't trust myself with handing out money. I'm a little too much of an empath. And I don't want to be in the same dwellings as college students. Like, I can hang out with you all day, but I'm going home. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So, yeah. So we relocated to a new state in the throes of COVID to care for a family member. And it was the perfect opportunity to say, yeah, I'm going to take this off campus. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you for that wonderful sort of journey, right? Taking us through those experiences. But also, I think how fortunate you were to recognize early on, like, wow, I really enjoyed doing this. I think for me, I didn't realize how much I enjoyed it until I was teaching. And even then, I took a job at the university sort of reluctantly because it was the first thing that kind of landed in my lap. And I was like, oh, I'll do this for a couple of years, and then I'm going to do something else. And then I realized, one, I really enjoyed it, but two, I could see the need. And so, Maya, you've walked us through this. You said you've worked at five campuses. All right. around the country or all in Oregon, California and Texas. Okay. So three different States. So when we're talking about this gap, you know, I mean, you've got plenty of experience. You've worked with thousands of students probably. So you can tell us absolutely. Yeah. There is this gap. It is a real gap and it exists. And to that point, Yeah. Something that students don't know because we don't tell them is that if you are in a student facing position on campus and you chose to remain in that position, like for me, every time I was approached with like we would like to move you to an administrative position My response consistently was actually I don want to be in that place Like I do this because I really love working with these kids But what we don't tell students is if you are staying in a student-facing position, you know there are gaps. And sometimes it is so demoralizing because you cannot give each student the support that they critically need and that you want to give them simply because it's a numbers game. The truth of the matter is it's a numbers game. And if you are case managing 500 students, you're not going to be able to step in and give them the support that they need until it becomes that they have to have the support to continue as a student, whether it be conduct, whether it be academics, whether it be mental health, whether it be money, the list goes on. the most problematic part about the support on campus for students is twofold. It's passive and interventions do not happen until there is a critical problem. And how is it that you can't, like, how are we guaranteeing students success and how are we focusing on retention if we're only intervening when it's a problem. Because if we're only intervening when it's a problem, the conversation is about the problem. The conversation is not about the student. Wow. Wow. I mean, that's a great point. And I agree. I agree, right? We're often way too late, right? And it's not until that yet it becomes a problem. So you decide to take this and – Hang out a shingle. And what? Hang out a shingle, right? Yeah. I'm going to go do this. You know, why leave? Why leave the institution? I mean I have my reasons for leaving the institution. So I know you've got – you must have some powerful reasons. So why leave the institution? uh really for me what i don't want to do is i'm not going to like i could name people places and things there's nothing to be gained by that really what honestly was the tipping point is that i had known there was a gap i was doing my best to meet students before they fell into it yeah but then a pandemic arrived and I hate to say it but like higher ed this is where it showed how unprepared that campuses were for a campus-wide crisis because it went from maybe like zone kind of, you know, zone defense, zone offense to literally like, I'm going to try and wrap my arms around the whole stadium and offer them support via email. Because really like when it's, when it first hit, everyone's response was, okay, well, we'll just talk to him on the phone or via email. I hate to say this, but there is not a single college student that knows how to get everything that they need articulated in an email the first run out of the gate. If you think about when, if you are in a support office on campus, if you are in a resource office, support, whatever it is. The first time you meet with a student, you're spending like the first 10 minutes with a warmup. Like students don't walk into offices and their first, their first words out of their mouth are, here's what I need help with. Instead it's, can you fix this? Well, we were trying to do that in a format that's not conducive to what was once face-to-face. We're not asking you to do this via email or phone. That doesn't work. And honestly, it was every day taking, I mean, it was not unusual to have five email exchanges with a student before I realized what they really needed. And honestly, during that time, they just needed reassurance like yeah they just needed somebody to say like this is bad this is a hot mess it's all on fire but we're gonna see you through it yeah and for me i knew i was moving to a new state i had applications out at multiple campuses when we ready to do this when we moved and we moved and we spent about 30 days in our new state. And I realized like, I'm not going back to campus. I'm not doing this. I'm going to take a giant risk and I'm going to actually sit down and I'm going to write a curriculum based on the things that I consistently see students struggle away. I'm going to write a sample email. And if you work with me, it's a sample email for the first time you email your professor. And you can honestly, you can take that and drop it into an email. And I'm going to, one, I'm going to help you with task initiation, which is really, really hard when you are a student. Okay. So I'm going to help you with that. Two, I'm going to completely change your mindset on perceiving office hours as a doctor's appointment. Three, I'm going to help you present yourself as a person who wants to be seen as who they are and not as just another student in your class or another student who's struggling or any of these other things. I'm going to give you, I'm going to teach you how to go to that professor's office and strike up a conversation that has nothing to do with their class so that you can build a relationship with them. That's the kind of stuff that bridges the gap. Yeah, wow. So you were looking for the meaningful work. You wanted to do the meaningful work, the stuff where you'd have a direct impact. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. There's I'm going to try and not sound like an end of days kind of person right now. But why have we forgotten the meaningful work? I mean, I know why. I'm very clear. It's really hard to maintain right now. It is exhausting to maintain the meaningful work. Like there's not enough of us to go around to maintain the meaningful work but the meaningful work is where futures are built oh absolutely absolutely you know i mean yeah go ahead i'm sorry like we can't say kids these days if you're not doing if you're not actually offering solutions and pathways. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. No, I, um, I agree. I absolutely agree. You know, I, um, yeah, we've had multiple conversations. This is not our first conversation. And I don't know that I've ever shared this, but I remember, you know, it was early on in my teaching career, maybe my first or second year teaching. And, and, um, it was the first time the universe, our university was implementing it like a student success course. So I I'm the Guinea pig. I'm the guy that's going to teach it. And I'm meeting with this committee. And so it was part of a big Title V grant. So I'm meeting with this committee and they're like asking for feedback and what's working, what's not. And I said, you know, I didn't get any training. They gave me a book, said, go teach this. But where I was finding impact was in meeting with students one-on-one. I said, I was holding these one-on-one meetings, just getting to know the students. And I think I'm getting through. I'm really connecting and I'm having these great conversations. and then it's making the work in the class much easier. I said, there's buy-in, you know, they're showing up, they're doing the readings. So I'm really excited. And after that meeting, you know, I'm on this high and this tenure track, you know, professor in like math comes over to me and he says, well, say, you know, I applaud what you're trying to do, meeting with the students, but don't waste your time doing that. And I'm like, what? Like, that's where the work's happening. That's where I'm making an impact. Like, how did you just not, were you not paying attention? Were you not hearing this? And I was just blown away. But it gave me a sense of what was valued and what wasn't valued. So I, you know, I appreciate, you know, what you're doing. The number of times that that conversation has taken place, I can't even count. I once had a department chair say to me, are you sure that you are not creating problems just so that these students need more help from you. Wow. It's pretty hard to render me speechless. It's pretty hard for that to happen. And I just remember I just stood there and I could not dignify it with a response because my response was not going to be dignified. age. And later on, a few days later, I stopped by their office and said, okay, I've really thought about this. And I think really what you don't get is that you are sitting in a position of your expectations of students based on your training as a researcher. And you know what, what it took for you to get to where you are is not to be discounted. Like the tenure track, it will end you real talk, like becoming a fully tenured professor. Like you should really like, honestly, like you should at least get a free t-shirt out of the deal. Let's be honest. Right. And so I get that from your perspective, you believe that students are needy for unnecessary reasons. I'm going to counter that. They're not needy. They just have never been here before. Yeah. Like, how are you supposed to know if you've never been there? Yeah. And honestly there isn really I mean we could tell every kid like Andrea Malkin Brenner is an author She has this book called How to College It is the best one of the best books I have read about how to become a college student I guarantee that people who are reading that book are not high school graduates the summer before college. That's not who's reading it. You know who's reading it? You and me. We're the ones reading it and we're like, yes, this is true. I'm going to implement this into my practice. so to a point i get it like we could talk to these kids day in and day out they're not going to understand it until it's a lived experience but why are we discounting their lived experience yeah so maya tell me about your work if if one how do folks connect with you um so honestly i I don't have a strong social media presence because having conversations like this, I love. Like this is real and this is authentic. Talking to a camera and making cute reels, I would rather watch paint dry. I'm going to be honest. Like I would rather watch paint dry. So I get it. I do not have a strong social media presence. It's like bits and spurts. I'm 100% referral. And it's not because I want to be. Like in a perfect world, somebody would like make me into a machine and there would be like some marketing machine that would put me out on the streets. Right. And like people would be like, oh, there's my Anderson. She's that person that gets it. Right. And I'd be like, tick tock cute and all those things. I'm just going to put it to you straight. I'm not. That is just not where I'm going to thrive. And so a lot of it is referral based. I mean, I do. I have had people reach out to me who simply just put in like student success in a search in a search window and just hope for the best. Um, but it really is this, the funny thing about what I do is that four years ago, five years ago, when I got this wild idea, decided to do this, I genuinely scoured the interwebs to find another person because I wanted to talk to somebody who was doing it right. Like to kind of validate my crazy idea. And what I found was two or three people that were doing it specifically for specific student populations. Right. There wasn't anyone just approaching the population like, give me everybody. And so I kind of was a little concerned, like, oh, man, like, should I really be focused? and it didn't dissuade me. And then two years ago, met another woman who is doing the same thing. Her experience is very much the same. Like came from multiple institutions and got to the point of like, I'm not making a difference and that matters to me. And literally in the last 60 days, I've had two people who found me via LinkedIn and reached out to me and are like, I went and looked at your website And I'm kind of thinking about doing this and I want to do it. And so there is a need, right? Like it's kind of this wild west right now of those of us that are doing this independent academic life coaching. Like it's kind of a wild west. We're all approaching it differently, so on and so forth. But I don't think any of us have really like hide the tail on the donkey with how you get to the people who need it and how you help, how you help. I mean, like one of my big things that I talk about in my services is college is a big ticket item. Like if you are not approaching college, the investment in college, the same way that you're buying a car or a large appliance or any of those types of things, you actually don't really understand the cost of college. But if you are not also adding some guarantees to your purchase of a big ticket item, then you really are missing the point. And college is a big ticket item that literally comes with no insurance plans, right? You could buy the tuition reimbursement insurance plan, but you cannot purchase the, hey, my student needs XYZ. Who answers that question without talking to multiple people on campus and hoping that I get somebody who understands what it is I need and isn't also keeping information back because of FERPA, which is absolutely how we should be doing this. like it's a federal law we're following it but there isn't there isn't that that person who bridges the gap right and so honestly i don't really know how to help more people know that you need me but i can confidently say if you're making a big ticket purchase why aren't you buying the insurance. That's a great point. Like you want ROI and that's reasonable. And right now the dialogue is higher ed is a waste of money. My counter to that is yes. If you just go to college and you just hope that it falls into place, it is a waste of money because you didn't invest in it. Yeah. If you if you are not at career services in the spring of your second year and establishing a relationship with someone. Yeah, you're not getting your money's worth. But who's telling people that? Yeah. Well, I mean, one, I've got to wonder, were you listening to my class this morning? because that was the exact conversation. It was the exact conversation I was having with the students. I still teach part-time, right? So I teach a couple of classes every semester. But, you know, I have this exact conversation at the beginning of the semester where, you know, we'll go through and we'll look at like a pathway, right? You know, their academic pathway. And I'll look at them all as class of like 30 and I'll say, okay, you know, what do you need to be doing year one? What are you doing year two, three, four, right? and I'll ask him, okay, fill that in for me. What do you think you need to be doing? And the, the sort of the default is, well, pass my classes, do all my classes, pass my classes. Okay, great. I said, well, now look at this. Now we've got 30 of you. And I said, now imagine all of you have the same degree, all of you're graduating, all of you're applying for, you know, similar jobs. Why am I choosing you over this other person? What did you, what kinds of experiences did you have? You know, everybody's the same. How are you standing out? You know, how have you grown? How have you challenged yourself? Did you take on leadership, you know, roles? And, and so all of those things, right? Nobody is telling them that. And they're looking at me like deer in headlights. Like, yeah, because nobody's ever told them that. Or even if you are going to need letters of recommendation, like, here's a big one, right? Like the number of requests for letters of recommendation that I have gotten during students last year of college. I mean, it's just comical. I mean, it's just comical because half the time I'm like, I don't know who this kid is. Right. And so like, I don't want to fail you on this, but like, I need you to I need to see your face. But so if you are planning to do grad school, right, and you are in a field and like research is of an interest to you. I don't think actually, I'm pretty sure most undergraduate students don't realize that as an undergraduate, you do have research opportunities. And that is what makes you stand out from everyone else. But students don't know that the stage on the stage, as professors are considered, like build a relationship with that person because even one semester side by side with them and the research they're doing is going to help you narrow down what you're doing next. like career services does matter but also talk to your professor about their research and even if you like that's how you decide a major that's how you decide to focus within your major that's how those things happen yeah but if you view your professor as an unapproachable person you don't know how to do that right so we say stand out and what you're saying is so relevant and so important and it matters but we're saying stand out and then we're like and go set yourself apart yeah bye con dios have a good time out there yeah yeah all right so we need to make you famous we need to get okay let's do this oh my gosh we're gonna put this on tiktok yeah of course yeah this is uh yeah we're you'll be on TikTok in multiple videos. I can guarantee you that. Yeah, let's do this. Yeah. Yeah. Let's get me on TikTok. So my, I think, right. Because I, I, I speak your language. We're coming from the same world. I think I, I know I see the need. I know it. I know it's very present. It's real. How do I convince a parent? Um, so, you know, that's a really good question, right? Because you're paying for college and then you're like, uh, I don't want to pay this add on. Um, honestly, it's actually convincing. It's a two part convince. Okay. One, um, my first thing I'm going to say is like, spend 30 minutes with me. Okay. You want buy-in from the parent matters, buy-in from the student is actually where the transaction occurs. Because I am working with the student. I'm going to interact with parents. I do want parents to be participating in this process. Some of it from the beginning is going to be like hand in hand, and then it's going to be from a distance, right? But I want buy-in from your student, because I want your student to actually say to you, I want her in my corner. That's where it happens. And honestly, like, I'm not the coolest kid. I know that like my cool factor that like way like that went away years ago But what I am really confident that I am is that I can be relatable and I going to listen And I'm not going to tell you, do this and it's only right this way. What I am going to say is, hey, you have some options. Let's weigh them. Let's consider them and let's see how it works out. I think what you and I were talking about before you hit record is a really good example. So I have a student right now who changed her major spring semester of her second year. She changed from international business because she believed she was going to be a jet setter. She really did. She was like, yeah, I'm going to fly places and I'm going to talk about business. So cute. So cute. And then she changed it to design her spring semester of her second year. That's a, there's a lot that happens between those two areas of study. And so we, this is, we've been working together for a year now. Last spring took a lot of convincing for me to get her to buy in that on, that the things I was presenting actually had value. Took some time off over the summer. In the fall, we like, I finally made that breakthrough and things started moving. and I have really, really, really, really put in front of her repeatedly, I need you to establish a relationship with career services. You are choosing a major that is so broad and it can go in so many different directions. You're not really well defined on what the real world application is of your major. And so there are people on your campus that that's their job. Go work with them. And so her response was, well, before career services, there's going to be a job fair. So before I go to career services, how about I go to the job fair? Now, I know if you are a design major, that a job fair is going to be like the worst idea ever. But I'm not going to tell you no. You know what? Go to the career fair and tell me what you saw. Well, it was a bunch of tech bros. Like she hated it and she could not get in to meeting with career services fast. Like literally went to the career fair and then made the appointment. It was like, oh my gosh, please don't ever make me do that again. And, but would it have benefited me to say you're doing it wrong? Absolutely not. I want you to have good lived experience. I want you to try this stuff out. And honestly, there's a time and a place for everything. It's usually college. I want you to try some of these things within reason. And absolutely, your safety prevails in all of this decision making. But I want you to go and try these things. And if it flies, it flies. And if it doesn't, okay, then we try it a different way. And there's nothing wrong with doing something wrong the first time to learn how to do it right. we there is so we live in such an instantaneous state every day everything is immediate all of this it's just this constant pressure of immediacy immediate decisions immediate this immediate immediate right well let's leave a little wiggle room for making mistakes and talking about it and figuring out what to do after that. And so that's the stuff that, that's how I'm going to, that's my persuasion. My persuasion is I'm going to say to your kid, I'm okay with you making a mistake. Let's negotiate where to go from there. So yeah, you know, I don't, I don't know the secret sauce to telling somebody you should hire me, But I can confidently say that if I work with your student, undeniably, your student is going to have somebody in their corner that understands the system that they are part of now. And that makes a difference. If your kid says, hey, I think I'm going to drop a class. I know one. I know. No, don't drop yet. Like, that's the first thing. Two, I know the process. Three, I know all of the pauses before the decision making. As a parent, if your kid says, I think I'm going to drop a class, there's one or two responses you're going to have. Don't do it. Or if you're not going to pass the class, you should probably drop it. There's so many places in between that I know about because I've had the conversation repeatedly And I know within the campus system, all of the parts that happen right there. Like, why would you not have the person who gets the system your kid is going to be part of to help you navigate it? Also, you know, also, I am going to throw this out really quickly. I am a parent who firmly believes in outsourcing. if I can hire somebody to do the thing with my kid so that I do not have to have, I do not have to tell my kid to do it repeatedly. I don't have to constantly check in. I don't like so on and so forth. I will outsource that. Like I will far quicker spend money to have somebody be the point person for my kid if they are the expert than doing the taskmaster death mark with my kid the reason why is because i want to value my relationship with my kid as their as his parent yeah i want to be his parent like your your kids going to college wouldn't it be fantastic If you could just talk about their life as a student and have those conversations versus how are your grades? How are your classes? And so on and so forth. Like, hire that out. Enjoy your kid's first year. Like, go for parents weekend knowing that you don't have to check a bunch of boxes on is my kid doing this, this, and this. I've already checked those boxes for you. And you're in the loop about it because you get a summary of every conversation that I have with your kid. So you're in the loop. It gives you the opportunity for good conversation with your kid, right? Like listen to what we talked about. You might find something out that you didn't know. And then you can say like, Hey, I saw you talk to Maya, about this. Tell me more. Yeah, I love that. I love that. I'm sold. Let's do this. Send me all of them. Maya, one, thank you. Thank you for talking about your own journey. But I think more importantly, sort of providing that context, right? Because, you know, people offer their services, people help out, people do all kinds of things. But for you, this is something that is very personal. This is something you're very passionate about, but it's also something that you know. You know so well. You've had countless conversations. You've dealt with a number of these issues countless times, right? So you've got the experience and you understand that there is this definite identifiable need that exists out there. So one, thank you for taking us through that talking about your services before we go, because I know you're busy and you've got meetings, you know, back to back. What final piece of advice do you want to leave for our listeners and our guests out there? Don't be afraid to share your college experience with your kid. In my initial conversation, when I start working with a family, I'm going to spend an hour and a half with a list of questions for the student and a list of questions for the family. And everyone sits in on the call by design. And the number of times that I have asked the family members that are going to be supporting the student through their college experience, have you shared your college experience? The number of times that they say, no, actually, like I haven't really told them lot about it because I don't want to influence it is a solid 85%, if not higher. Your kids need to hear. They need to hear that you two were scared. You two like struggled with things. Like they don't need to hear it's the best four years of your life. Your roommate's going to be your friend forever. Like, no, they need to hear the parts that were hard just as much as they need to hear the best four years of your life. Like, well, then why is it the best four years? Tell them. Yeah. Yeah. Our kids need to see that we are just as human as they are. Absolutely. Absolutely. Maya, thank you. Thank you. I loved this. I mean, clearly this is a conversation I'm happy to have. Um, and, uh, if people want to reach me, um, you can shoot me an email. It's my my a at the student empower.com. I'm guessing you'll probably put all this on your show notes. So read the show notes. Um, and you can find me on LinkedIn. You can find me on Facebook and Instagram, but please do not look for cute things. I'm coming at you with real facts, no fun videos. I'm sorry. I really tried. I've really tried. It's not working. It's not working. Well, we're going to get you on TikTok. Let's do this. And then, and yeah, send me any of the links. Send me any of your links. I will. I can absolutely put them in the show notes. We can get them out to the world. Perfect. But again, Maya, thank you so much. Thank you for joining us. Yeah. This concludes another episode of the Way to College podcast. Thank you to my guests. Thank you to all of our listeners and viewers out there. Please remember to subscribe, rate, follow all of that good stuff. And please share the podcast with one other person. I'd appreciate it. And we'll see you again soon. Thank you and bye-bye. you