30 for 30 Member Spotlight: Jeff Hallock

Hometown: Sand Springs, OK

College(s) attended: Oklahoma State University, University of Nebraska, Lincoln.

Job title(s) and department(s) past and present: Academic Advisor I: Transitional Advising Center (TrAC) in Natural Sciences, Academic Advisor II/Senior Advisor: Biomedical Engineering, Academic Advising Coordinator: Biomedical Engineering, Associate Director of Residence Life – Resident Management, Facilities, Sustainability @ St. Edward’s University, Associate Academic Advisor: Moody College, Dept. of Radio Television and Film

How did you end up at UT in the first place? I left Butler University where I was a Hall Coordinator and accepted the job in the TrAC to make a long distance relationship a short distance one.  The relationship didn’t work out so much but Austin and UT did :)

What is your favorite part or being a part of ACA?  I really enjoy the community of advisors and the support it provides you as a professional.  It allows you to make connections and create friendships that can influence both your professional and personal lives. I also appreciate that there is an organization on campus that really tries to balance the welfare and guidance of the student population with needs of the administration.

Here's where we'd like an anecdote about a favorite ACA memory or a memory that includes another ACA member.

So my first year as an academic advisor in Natural Sciences we were doing our normal Freshman Orientation night thing with giant ballon arches and tons of pizza.  We finished handing out pizza and chatting with the new Natural Sciences students and did some cleaning up and I headed home.  Little did I know this was a mistake.  I get back to my, little, office the next morning and open my door to find… BALLOONS!!  All of the balloons from the arches, stuffed in to my office.  I’m standing there wondering to myself “Hmm, did I leave my office unlocked?  How did this happen…” and then David Spight walks out of his office, coffee mug in hand, smirk on his face, and tried, relatively straight faced, to ask “So what happened here?”.  I have no proof, but I’m pretty sure him and Patrcia Gutierrez had something to do with this.  I will say, popping all the balloons that morning was a good deal of fun.  I have a picture if you’re interested.

What advice would you give to new advisors or new staff members at UT?  Get out there and have fun.  The University offers a lot of different activities to improve yourself both personally and professionally, make time to do some of them.  And take classes, figure out how to do that.  Even if you don’t get another degree, take classes.  There are some really fascinating ones out there and you should take advantage of that if you can.

What legacy would you like to leave behind at UT? A long list of students who can say “Yeah, he helped me get through, and enjoy, my four years on the 40 acres.”  I’d also like staff to be able to say “He made work just a bit more fun."

Anything else you want to tell us?  Try not to regret anything.  Even if it seems like a miss or a failure, it probably wasn’t.  Learn from it, use it to make better choices and do better things, but try not to regret it.  Regret leads you down a road to bitterness and sadness, and that is not going to lead you where you want to go.