"Everything Leadership"

Julia Wiard’s Auburn journey is a rollercoaster ride of unexpected twists and turns.

Growing up in Selma, Alabama, she was a die-hard fan of the orange and blue, thanks to her dad and grandparents who are all Auburn University alumni.

“We grew up really loving Auburn,” explained Wiard.

But in her senior year of high school, Wiard's rebel spirit led her to seek a different path.

“It was the most rebellious thing I’ve ever done,” recalled Wiard.  “I thought I needed a different experience, and needed to prove that I could do it.”

Full of determination, Wiard ventured out of state to earn her bachelor’s degree in educational psychology from Mississippi State University and later her master’s in college student personnel administration from the University of Central Arkansas.

 “It helped me build independence as a leader and learn more about myself,” she said. 

However, the thought of returning to her Auburn roots always lingered in the back of Wiard’s mind. And sixteen years ago, she did just that.

“I really can't take all the credit for it,” Wiard said. “My husband Nick saw a job opening at Auburn he thought would be perfect for me and urged me to apply.” 

Wiard ended up accepting the position, relocating with her husband and two young children to Auburn in 2009.  After a stint in student affairs, she has served as the instructor and coordinator for Auburn's Leadership Minor program since 2011.

“I had the opportunity to start teaching one class in the leadership minor, and then one class turned into two classes,” recalled Wiard. “Eventually it turned into the opportunity to direct the minor and teach both the intro and the capstone courses.”

The Leadership Minor program is part of Auburn’s University College, which is under the Office of the Provost. When Wiard began teaching in the minor, there was only one student enrolled. Today the program has well over 100 students at any given time that are declared in the minor.

In the Leadership Minor, students can tailor their coursework to complement any major. Courses on problem solving, decision making and civic engagement draw students from all majors and disciplines. It’s that diversity that benefits every student who signs up.

“Some come into class haven't really having that organizational experience yet where they've gotten to think about what kind of leader they want to be,” explained Wiard. “The great thing about leadership classes is there something you can use instantly in your student organization, in your job, your internship or your athletic team." 

Over the years, Wiard has worked many student organizations to provide leadership development, including College of Liberal Arts Career Development, Greek Life and Auburn Athletics. Last summer, she led a study abroad leadership class in Madrid, Spain.

Student interest in Auburn’s Leadership Minor program has grown by leaps and bounds leading to the expansion of course offerings next year.

“We’re going to offer more sections of the intro course to allow more students to get into the minor,” said Wiard.

Wiard, who is consistently ranked by students as one of Auburn’s top professors, maintains it is building relationships that make her job worthwhile.  

She ensures her students don’t just learn about leadership—they live it.

“I do love those big moments when a student runs for something or they apply for something and they email me to let me know they got the job,” she said.  “It's cool to get to be part of their experience.”

Learn more about Auburn’s Leadership Minor program here.

Check out our "Everything Auburn" Podcast website here!

Transcript

0:05

Hey everybody, welcome back to the Everything Auburn Podcast, Dalton Odom and Carter Gustin here. This is our eighth episode, but believe it or not, it's Carter and I seventh for the season. We were doing the math earlier because I got I didn't get added to the podcast till after we did the first one. And Dalton was on medical for when Dalton had a concussion. But we're back. And better. Yeah. Although the pollen is trying to keep me out of it right now. Dude, I'm really fighting it pretty hard. It's so bad. But welcome back. We got another wonderful guest here. Another member of the Auburn family. Yes. And I'm really excited. Yes, we have Mrs. Julia Waird here today. She leads the leadership minor, which I am extremely glad and lucky. I got to take one of her classes when I was an undergrad. And before we start, we have some of your Rate my professor reviews that we would like to make, and we want to start with her on the spot for these. We did not tell her about this part. So we have three of them. So we'll start. Mrs. Waird as an all time favorite professor here at Auburn, I learned so much about myself through the leadership minor program. First one second, Julia is simply the best professor at Auburn. She is passionate about Auburn's leadership minor program. She tries to get to know all the students in the class and gives great lectures. And then number three, my time in the leadership minor has been incredible. I have learned different leadership styles, communication tactics, and what it takes to be an effective leader on campus. So if that doesn't tell you anything about the guests you're going to have here today, I don't know what will, but what do you have to say about all that? I feel free to react. I really appreciate that. I cannot bring myself to look at those my students know I don't look at. Rate my professor. They've mentioned it a few times, like, oh yeah, your your reviews are good. What's funny though is I have two daughters that are 15 and 17 and they love to read, my rate my professor and like to kind of roast me with the comments sometimes when we're in the car. Good dinner conversation is good dinner conversation. I really appreciate that. Thank you. Yeah. Well, welcome. As as evidenced by these comments, but you do some really incredible stuff with leadership. It's such a cool major or minor to take. And it covers. We were talking we met about a year ago to do a video, and what was so intriguing to me is how applicable it is in every like any student, every student can benefit from it. And it's so cool because I'm sure you get such a wide range of students you get to interact with. I do, and that's honestly my favorite thing about the minor, because it's very centrally housed. So it's part of university College, which is in the Office of the Provost, and we're able to draw students from all majors in all disciplines, which just brings such a depth of conversation and experience into class. It's just really fun. And, Dalton, you probably remember a little bit of that experience as you have students that are just having this wide variety of leadership roles on campus. Some come into class and they haven't really had that organizational experience yet, or they maybe haven't had a job or a team experience, where they've really gotten to think about what kind of leader they want to be, and they get met class and they get to hear from each other and, and learn all these new things. And that's probably my favorite part of it is just, the different students that I get to work with every semester. Yeah. That's incredible. So in thinking of leadership minor, here's the first thing I think of. Right. Or the first like question I really am curious about leadership is very subjective. Yes. College classes, very objective. How on earth do you teach a subjective concept in an objective way? You try to blend the two. Okay. One of the things I approach both of my classes with. So I teach an intro course and then I teach a capstone course, the intro course. Our students, who typically have not had other leadership classes within the minor yet or students that are taking it just as a free elective. And so those students are all coming in with this perspective from their major, from their previous experiences, from, you know, things that they did in high school. And so what I try to do is present the information in a way that I hope they're filtering it through those experiences and saying, okay, she talked about like right now in my intro course, we're talking about, group dynamics. We're talking about stages of development. And what I hope they're doing is taking that information and saying, what does that look like for me? What does that look like in my organization or at my job or in my athletic team, or even in my future job that I might have? Yeah, that makes it. I mean, it's it's so incredible. It's like because it is there's nobody that can't you can benefit from. Absolutely. And I can only imagine how fun it is to be in this class, because there's so much conversation and there's so much like group work and group think. And it's just, it's it sounds so much I hate that I didn't take it. I'm so jealous of Dalton. Come back in on it. And now I really should, I need it I am a I have people I have works for me and I'm like, I should probably take you should. It's great. Yeah, yeah, I'll take it. So fun fact for me, when I took her class, it was the semester that Covid broke out. And so I got to see her being a she was already a leader. Obviously, she was leading her classroom, but even more firsthand, you were navigating so many different things. I mean, we all were. Yeah. But get to use some of your. Yeah, I really did. And I've still continued to use it. You know, we're getting to a point where students, you know, kind of like yourself that were here during Covid, have graduated and are in their professional roles. Most of the students that we have now were still in junior high and high school, but we still talk about it a fair amount in class. We talk about that very adaptive quality that we all, everyone of us, whether you were a student, whether you were a teacher, whether you were in your professional role, you know, almost everyone, had to adapt in some way. And I know for me, you got to experience I had never recorded a lecture before. I had not taught a class on zoom. I think I had only used zoom a handful of times, prior to that. And suddenly, you know, within a few days, I was trying to figure out how to pivot a class that I had taught for almost a decade into this new format and still keep the students engaged, and still sort of help them stay connected and finish out that semester. So it was an it was very challenging. But at the same time, the things that I learned from that experience, I still incorporate into the classroom. And then some of the examples that I learned, you know, I'm still using as an example five years later. Yeah. So another, fun thing that I happen to know about the leadership minor that I have a bit of inside baseball information on, I'm sure you know where I'm going is less. Was it last summer you guys get to do a study abroad? Yes. Yes. You were in. How did you know that? You told me about. Oh, that's right, that's right. I forgot we were we were doing the video. Actually, we talked about it because we had just met, and you're like, just found out that it was even going to be happening. You went to Madrid? We did. We spent about a month in Madrid. How was that? That was an incredible experience. And to be able to teach in such a concentrated environment, you know, usually we're stretching things out over four months and to teach a class in three weeks and to have those students for three hours every day, you know, you normally you teach a Monday, Wednesday, Friday class, and after 50 minutes they're packing up and going to the next class. And this was their sole focus for that three hour period every morning. And the conversations that we got to have you, when you've got three hours, you can really get into, some pretty good conversation. You can, do some activities that we couldn't do in 50 minutes that we were a little bit more limited on, on, on campus courses. It was an incredible experience. It was also something I got to share with my family, which I think has been really a thread throughout my entire experience at Auburn, is really getting to share that, with my husband and with my daughter. So to get to have them be part of that was really special to me. Wonderful. Well, that kind of naturally leads to to kind of the next thing, which is my favorite question to ask anybody ever is tell me how you got to Auburn. What's your kind of Auburn journey, what you got here and how that kind of worked out for you? I think you and I have talked about this. I'm pretty sure we have. I'm pretty sure I have a memory of talking to you about this, but my Auburn story, has a couple of of twists and turns to it. So I grew up. I'm from Selma, Alabama, which is about two hours away from Auburn, and grew up in an Auburn family. My dad went to Auburn. My grandparents, went to Auburn, you know, several other extended family members and grew up really loving Auburn. And then my senior year of high school, probably the one really rebellious thing I've ever done was I said, I need a different experience. You know, I need to to get out of state and prove that I can do this. And I went out of state for my undergrad in my graduate degrees, and that was a really, good experience to to help me sort of build that independence as a leader and learn a little bit about myself. But ultimately, you know, there's that little tick in the back of my mind of like, okay, but maybe one day I'll end up back at Auburn, or maybe this will be something that'll be in my path at some point. And I really can't take all the credit for it. My husband and I were living and working in Kentucky after we got married, and we had our first child. We were talking about what the future might look like. And he happened to attend a conference where there was somebody from Auburn there. They started chatting. He said, you know, my wife's from the area. She's, you know, from this this big Auburn family. We'd love to get back to that area at some point. So Nick gets all of the credit for getting us here. And then about a year later, I can remember we had had our second child at that point, and I'm kind of just enjoying spending time with them. And famous last words I said, you know, I think I'm kind of enjoying being home for a little bit. And my husband texted me one day. He said, hey, listen, the job that you were doing at our previous institution is open at Auburn, and if you don't apply for this now, it may not come around again. That's real. I mean, really and truly this I don't know, but this was a great job working in leadership development. And and I can remember that text of I, you know, I think you need to go for this. It might not come back around. And so I was in that job for seven years. I was really fortunate to get it. And I think our paths crossed, when I was working in student affairs, while I was in student affairs, though, I had the opportunity to start teaching just one class in the leadership, and then one class turned into two classes. And then eventually it turned in the opportune into the opportunity to direct the minor and teach both the intro and the capstone courses. That's incredible. It's funny because that that journey is very similar to mine is is I grew up on fan. I did go to Auburn. Yeah. But then I left because, like, I want to live out on my own. And then I got a phone call from a friend. I was kind of in the process of like, looking for a new job as looking for a change. I got a phone call from a friend, said, do you know anybody who would be good for this job or a job? Opening in Auburn was like, I might know somebody. I kind of want to go back. But the other thing that I think is really cool, I'm getting experience it now, just barely. My daughter is two years old. But growing up an older fan, like, I mean, there's pictures of me at six years, five years old, football games, rolling Toomer’s is like coming to campus. This place is like, I know this place like the back of my hand. And then getting to raise my daughter here and have a family here and get and take them to do Auburn like I remember I did. This was the kid. The year after we moved to Auburn's, we moved to Auburn in 2009, and our youngest daughter, Avery, was born that fall. And the next year was the year that we won the national championship. And so I have pictures of at the time, I think my three year old, that which would be my oldest, who is about to be a senior in high school now. Oh boy. You know, under all of the trees and you can see the toilet paper kind of cascading over her head. And it's just some of my favorite memories of things like that. And they really have they've grown up, they've grown up going to Greek, saying they've grown up going to campus games. When they were little, if we went to something they thought I'll be was there to see them. And that has just been really one of the best things is to be able to include them in that experience. Yeah. That's wonderful. Well, do you have any I mean, does anything put you on the spot here a little bit? And Dalton, I'll ask you the same question. Put you both on the spot here. Favorite. Any favorite memories you can think of? It can be leadership minor related. Oh, wow. Life at Auburn. I know you've had a couple positions and kind of transition here. Anything come to mind? And maybe I'll make Dalton go first? Yeah, could be anything. Should I go first? It makes sense. I want to ask it. Sure. It's just to kind of give you a second to think about it. Yeah, I know what mine is for sure, because I used to work in athletics. Right. So I used to work for football. And when I knew I was leaving, I had already accepted the position I was leaving. It was mid football season. I was working for football and I was like, this is a dream, right? I was working my last home game. The team had just gone into the locker room and I was like, I'm going to take a moment for myself. And I went and stood on the 50 yard line, midfield, 90,000 people. And I was like, I'm never gonna do this again. I was like, crying, like, what's like glasses up? Like, nobody look at me. I'm like, okay. But it was it's definitely like it's really cool moment. But I think it's so interesting for people that grew up as fans, grew up coming to campus and have come back professionally worked here. You have such a life, you can't not think about it. I've described it as like grandmothers cooking. It's like, man, you know, man, do I miss my grandmothers, you know, scalloped potatoes. It just makes you feel all warm and fuzzy inside. I feel about Auburn the same way. Yeah. I mean, becoming the MC man was obviously that's a good one. The it's been my dream since I was 13 and I didn't think it was going to happen. And so fun fact for everybody, I didn't become the nightmare until my fifth year of college. I went to school, I went to I went to Southern Union first, and I transferred in and not all of my credits transferred. So I had to do a fifth year. So it really worked out. And then I applied to grad school, did a two year program. So I got to do it for three, which was great, but my last Iron Bowl at home. So the Mic Man always wears earplugs so he can kind of still hear himself as is calling cheers from midfield. And right before I start to do the last year, which is always great to be, I took one out just so I could hear how loud it was down there, and I started kind of getting choked up. I was like, I did this. So I was like, it's not me. We're all cheering for Auburn. But but me being like, just midfield, taking one out, you know, I kind of got off beat a little bit, but I was like, I had to. Me and Dalton also famously very emotional people. We've cried on this podcast. How many, just one, the very first one. Yeah. We both were like sitting in the seats, like single tears rolling down. Oh my. Oh my gosh. So we're not afraid to. That's fine. That's fine. Anyway. Next I'll say this. This is not my favorite moment Dalton. But I do remember when you were named Mike man the first year because, I mean, you had these students in class, and sometimes you're lucky enough that you get to see them move into those leadership roles. And I remember you being named at call outs that year and going, that's one of my students. Even though I had been several semesters since you had been in my class. But I really remember the year you were named. It's not necessarily my favorite Auburn moment, but. But I do love those big moments when a student runs for something or they apply for something you know are they email me to let me know that I got that job? It's cool to get to be part of that experience. Oh, yeah. So you talked about crying at Auburn big Auburn moment. So I do that. My children give me a really hard time. Even there was the the hype video for the basketball game that came out the other day that had Bryce Brown narrating, and I'm showing it to every member of my family. And you can see the tears welling up in my eyes, and my children are just going, it's my favorite moment. And I don't know if you'll remember this one. But we're big gymnastics fans. We think of gymnastics meets since our girls were babies, because when they're little, it's contained, it's inside. They're not going to get too hot, and there's always something going on. And if you remember, you know, years ago, I mean, I have a 17 year old and a 15 year old. You used to be able to, if you're shorter than Jeff Graba you could get in for free. And then eventually we started getting season tickets because we really liked the idea of, you know, having these dedicated seats and, you know, knowing that we could go to every single meet. I was so thankful that we did. But I think and I looked it up recently, I think it was 2016 was the first year that we beat Bama in gymnastics, and we were in the stands and I had these two little girls there, and it was one of those things where like when they hit that last routine and you see the score go up and you know that they won and I just start falling like, I don't know, a single gymnast on the team that year. Like I have no connection at all. But I just start bawling and my one of my daughters is looking at me like, what is wrong with you? But I love that we get to be part of those moments. And I think you said it really well. I mean, it just becomes part of your history. And we still talk about things. You know, I'll text my husband some days and say, did you know it's been six years since this happened or ten years since this moment? And it really is forever. And we'll do that to you. And and you'll appreciate this as your daughter gets older. Is it mile marks their life, too, as you'll say. I can't believe that's been ten years. They were so little when that happened. And now they're driving cars and thinking about going to college themselves. And do you remember how little they were when we went to that? Or we got to experience that? So it really marks your family's experience too. Yeah, I'm having a crazy like, just I don't want to say deja vu moment in my head, but like just a memory that's popped up. So the semester that I took your class, there was another chair. This was before I was a cheerleader. There was a tutor and the cheerleader. There was a there was a student in there named Charlotte Dayton who cheered here. And I remember walking in the class that first day and being like, oh my gosh, I'm so nervous because we sat like a few desks away from one another. But yeah, and the night court happened and I heard my name. She came up to me, also crying, hugged me. I was like, like, I'm so proud of you. Like, we've. Because I had been we were like, one semester. Apart from that class. Anyway, just reminded me of. Yeah, because it was a good, dear class. And anyway, Hank Auburn do want to bring it back to leadership, if you will. Yeah. What does kind of the future of the leadership minor look like? If you get to study abroad again, what's it look like if I'm a prospectus student wanting to get in leadership minor, a lot of things have that opportunity to go abroad again. I think one exciting thing is just seeing the growth of the minor right now. So we're actually expanding the courses next year, to offer more sections of the intro course, which will allow more students to get into that minor. It's still a great elective to, for students who don't have that capacity to add a full minor to their curriculum, but just want, a really good class to help. Either supplement it, something that they're maybe not getting, you know, in their own curriculum or something that they're doing on campus. I think that's the great thing about those classes is it's something that you get to use instantly. You know, you get to use it in your student organization. You get to use it in your job or your internship. You get to use it in your athletic team. And I love when students come back and make those connections in class. I think that's something I'm really excited about is just to see the growth of the minor. It started as one student. There was one student when I started teaching in that minor, and now we have, well over 100 students at any given time that are declared in the minor and then many more that are just taking the courses, as well. So that's something I'm really excited about. Every semester has been a little different. And other opportunities to either collaborate with other programs, to help facilitate workshops. You know, I've, I've done work with, Greek Life for several years. So we do a big leadership training with their recruitment staff, once a year that I think we're going on about ten years. That's incredible of doing that where I go into leadership training with all 150 of their recruitment staff, it is one of the highlights of my year. I look forward to it every single time. But doing more things like that, it's so fun to predict and then whatever I think is going to happen, you know, it just goes in the complete opposite direction of what we end up getting to do within that minor every semester. Well that's incredible. I think we're closing in on time. But I had one story I wanted to tell, about. It's a good story to make sure I wouldn't tell a bad story. So funny thing happens around the office, and I'm sure you've experienced this. It's like, hey, you guys having the podcast next is a question I get asked often. It was, oh, we're having Julia Waird leadership minor. And I was like, oh, she's the best. Oh, she's great. And it's like, oh, I haven't met her, but I've heard, I've heard she's incredible, right? And whenever I hear that, I always tell the same story and it's, yeah, this is such a great opportunity that I get to tell it to you, which is we met, about a year ago for a video. You guys were shifting where where the leadership minor was replacing. What can I do a video promote promoting it. And we had, like, a 30 minute meeting. Nothing crazy. Whatever that video get delegated. I didn't produce that video, so we didn't really interact that much. Six months later, we're at an event. I think it was the holiday tree lighting ceremony at Stanford Lawn and about six months later ran into you in line waiting for hot chocolate. Hello? Hey, Carter. How's it going? And it was such an impactful moment for me. It was so cool because you had no business knowing me. We'd met six months later. Yes, six months later. And the fact that, like, you remembered my name, you wanted to talk to me. And it was such a really cool thing. And it's this. I tell it to everybody now, whenever it's such an incredible moment, it's such a cool thing. And it really, it made me feel special. And it's not something that happens if someone is horrible with names. Are you about to cry? I can, you're looking at I'm not about to cry. You're looking at me like you're going to. But it is. And it was really incredible. And I love I, I've told that story about 15 times in the last week or two. Thank you. Thinking about like we're going to have Julia on its going to be great. So I've told that to so many people. And I thought it was really cool that I would get a chance to tell you. That was really thanks so much. To me, it's the best thing about working at Auburn now is the relationships. I mean, I really I think if I would tell anyone with the best thing, because we, you have friends that that don't work for the university or don't live in Auburn. And they say, what is it like? What is it like? And it just is so much fun to build those relationships and to run into people at lunch and to run into people at the holiday lighting and to keep up with what their kids are doing. And to me, that is just my reason for coming to work every day is is to get to build those relationships, whether it's with my students or with other people at the university. Well, it was it was really cool. It stuck out to me. It was really that was that was really appreciate a long time ago. And I still think it feels like it was yesterday. It was really it was a really incredible well, to close out here, I wonder if there's someone that's a little bit more information here, a little bit more about, interest in leadership minor. What's kind of the route you want to take should take to hear more about, this whole point of contact. You can just show me. I'm so easy to find. It's Julia@auburn.edu Somehow lucked into that email address about 13 years ago. And so it is just it's joy at Auburn. Or they can go to our website, which is just the all be link slash lead. So lead, are just Google leadership minor. And I you know, I love to I love to talk to parents. I love to talk to students. You know anyone that wants more information about it? I'm always happy to share some of the good things, that people are doing within the minor. Well, wonderful. Well, thank you for doing some incredible work and teaching the future. Thank you. And kind of helping the student body grow and be better leaders. That's that's an incredible work. Well, I think that's just about it, for us. Thank you to Julia again for joining us and spending time with us. If you've enjoyed this, like hearing the sultry sound of our voices here, you can listen to more wherever you're listening to us now, there are more. We spoken to Miss America. We've spoken to the strength coach of Auburns Mens basketball team. We've spoken to researchers. We spoke to so many people, and there'll be more next month. So we're excited for that. Visit our podcast hub to see more. And excited for next time. But for Dalton and Julia and our producer over there, off camera, Kim, I'm Carter, thank you so much. And War Eagle. War Eagle. War Eagle.