Central Speaks

Amber Goreham on Finding New Lanes

On our premiere episode, we welcome Amber Goreham.

 

Amber is a proud two-time graduate of UCM, where she has spent the past 20 years dedicated to empowering students and alumni. With a Master of Science in Ethical & Strategic Leadership and a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration, Amber has been at the forefront of guiding UCM students on their career and life paths since 2008.

As the director of the ⁠Career and Life Design Center⁠, she leverages life design principles and a commitment to career readiness to help students navigate their next steps and build the skills they need to thrive in today’s workforce.

But Amber’s journey wasn’t always centered around academia—she was once on track to become a professional bowler before life handed her a proverbial gutter ball. Today, we’ll explore how she pivoted from the bowling lanes to a lane focused on shaping lives and careers at UCM.

Listen in as we speak with Amber Goreham.

Be sure to check out ⁠The Mule Mindse⁠t! This podcast, hosted by Kendall Reger, Jessica Johnson & Ethan Gerst from the Career & Life Design Center at the University of Central Missouri, is designed to aid in professional development and educate listeners on many career related topics. 

 

TRANSCRIPT

 

Alex Greenwood

Welcome to Central Speaks, the podcast that puts the spotlight on the dedicated individuals who propel the University of Central Missouri forward. I'm Alex Greenwood.

Each episode, we delve into the stories of those who embody UCM's spirit of innovation and service, showcasing the transformative work that redefines what's possible on our campus and beyond. Central Speaks is all about hearing directly from UCM's changemakers as they share how they push boundaries and inspire colleagues and students, redefining what's possible every day. This show isn't just about recognizing hard work. It's about sharing the passion, creativity, and commitment of the people who turn ideas into action.

Through these conversations, we aim to inspire our community by highlighting the innovative solutions and personal journeys that continually shape and redefine the UCM experience. At the heart of it all is a simple truth. UCM success is powered by those who serve with purpose, constantly pushing boundaries, challenging expectations and creating new possibilities. Central Speaks is here to tell their stories in their own words. And today on our premiere episode, boy, how are we going to do that? We're going to welcome Amber Gorham. Amber is a proud two -time graduate of UCM where she spent the past 20 years dedicated to empowering students and alumni.

With a Master of Science in ethical and strategic leadership and a Bachelor of Science in business administration, Amber has been at the forefront of guiding UCM students on their career and life paths since 2008. As the director of the Career and Life Design Center, she leverages life design principles and a commitment to career readiness to help students navigate their next steps and build the skills they need to thrive in today's workforce. But Amber's journey wasn't always centered around academia. She was once on track to become a professional bowler before life handed her the proverbial gutter ball.

But today we'll explore how she pivoted from the bowling lanes to a lane focused on shaping lives and careers right here at UCM. Gorham, welcome to Central Speaks.

 

Amber Goreham

I'm so excited to be here.

 

Alex 

Well, it is for me too. It's our premiere episode and we couldn't think of anybody more fun to start with than you. And I must just go back to what I said in the intro. So, you are a top athlete at UCM. In fact, you were on track to be a professional bowler. But as I said, sorry for the gutter ball reference. can't resist. Tell us about it.

 

Amber 

You had to go with it. You had to do it. Yeah, so, know, it was 2004. I was getting ready to graduate with my undergrad degree here. you know, bowling's what brought me to the University of Central Missouri. It was definitely one of the key motivators as to why I came up here to UCM. I mean, my mom and dad lived in the Kansas City area for 21 years, but I actually spent most of my time growing up in the state of Texas. I graduated high school from Louisville High School and then decided to come up here and bowl for the Jennies.

Bowling was so much of my college experience and so much of my college education. And so, you know, I really, at that time, the women's bowling tour was still a thing. And that's what I saw myself doing post-graduation. But unfortunately, as I was upon graduation, the women's tour actually folded and the sponsorships, were, you know, no longer and women's, the women's tour was no longer. And I did not have a backup plan. So here I was getting ready to graduate and now this dream of being a professional bowler and going out on tour really wasn't a reality for me. And so, I will say I kind of got lucky in that, Ron Holmes who's still here today knew, hey, like here I am, what am I going to do now kind of situation. And so he got me in contact with an individual who worked at HR at the time who knew of an opening here.

And I went and talked to that person and within two days of graduation, I had my first job and here I was working at the University of Central Missouri for the Missouri Center for Career Education. So it was not what I planned and I didn't have a backup plan. Twenty years later, I'm still here, I never left. So it's just interesting where your life will take you. You just never know what that might look like.

But yeah, I mean, it was definitely not what I thought I was going to be doing post-graduation by any means.

 

Alex 

Well, I guess I have to say this on behalf of UCM, we're kind of glad the tour folded then because you are doing some magnificent work and you talk about how life throws you some curves here and how it's never what you think.

And that leads me to life design. Forgive me for saying it, but it sounds kind of exotic, I think, to some people. If someone saw the sign on the door of your office and they weren't sure what the career and life design center does…how do you describe it to them?

 

Amber 

I think it's a lot of different things, right? Like one thing I would say within the past several years is it's a collaborative space. I think when students walk in our center, they will notice that there are whiteboards on the wall. We have lots of technology. We have flexible furniture that can be moved individually, groups, pairs. So, I think that's a big change of our center within the last few years is that collaboration.

And almost kind of adding in that design element. I think that's when you think about life design, how I would describe it is really about, if you think about like how engineers or even folks that kind of think about when we create new products or new services and we use design thinking mindsets to help us do that, it's taking those same principles and actually now applying it to your life. So being able to think about, what's the problem? Where are you stuck? What does that look like? How do we define that problem?

And then how do we help you move forward in terms of getting as many ideas as possible on how you can build your next steps and then actually trying various things that help us actually move forward. Whether that's internships, whether that's career conversations, whether it's being able to job shadow, those kinds of things. It's being able to try various things because as we try things, we learn a lot.

And we decide and learn, this something that I see myself doing and continuing to do, or is this something that I'm still excited about, or is this something that, I've explored it, and maybe it's not something I want to do moving forward. So I think it's really being able to, one, I think, accepting students where they are, because our students are at a wider range of steps and various stages within their life when they come and see us within the Career and Life Design Center.

I think it's one helping them recognize that like and accepting, hey, we know where you are, this is where you are at this moment, but how do we help you get to that next step and that next moment in your life? And then being able to use those design thinking principles to help them do that. And I think that's what the Life Design Framework is all about and what it does.

But in addition to life design, I think there's also that career readiness element. You still have to help students put together their resumes and their cover letters and get prepared for interviews and virtual interviews and all of those things, and even just help them job search in general. I think that's where life design and career readiness is just a beautiful blend of those two things. And that's what we get to do every single day with the students that come into our center.

 

Alex 

This beautiful blend you speak of… is this something that students start thinking about you all more towards the end of their college career like junior senior level, or do they come in and freshman year and meet with you?  How does that work?

 

Amber 

Yeah, mean, ideally, we want them to come in freshman year. Like I, you know, I think it's very important for students to come and see us sooner rather than later. Building those relationships, I think is so key, not only with our staff, but also our coaches. The more we get to know you, the more we get to understand you, I think the better we can help you. And so building those relationships early and often, I think is so pivotal and so key to basically student success.

And I really wish that folks would just do it sooner and earlier and more often. I think that's really important. But we've definitely had those seniors that have come in and waited to the last minute and we're definitely going to do our best to try to help them as well. But I think in terms of helping students be successful, really utilizing our resource all the time and as much as you can and take advantage of everything that we have to offer is really key.

Alex 

Do students typically change majors? Or is there a percentage that you know of who start saying, I'm to be a business admin person, and then by the end, they're maybe in education or something?

 

Amber 

Yeah, absolutely. I think that's very common. I mean, I think about myself. I came in as a social work major and then I changed my major several times. And then folks that I was connected to on the bowling team, I had a good friend of mine that I bowled with a lot before I even came to college. She changed her major to business and I was like, that sounds good. I'll do that too. And I just stuck with it.

Now I did finally find my way. I did learn that business and leadership and management was something that I really did enjoy studying, but it was happenstance in how I got there. It's not where I started and I had many other majors in between there. So yeah, I think that's very common. And I think what's also tricky with certain majors is that majors can be pretty broad. And a lot of times you may love what you're studying, but you may not know all the options you can do with it.

And the reality is that 76% of people beyond college won't work in a major or won't work in a career that's directly connected to their major. And I think sometimes that kind of gets a bad rap. I mean, that's okay, right? I think that that's what life design's all about too, is helping folks develop those meaningful and purposeful lives and that.

 

Alex 

Wow.

 

Amber 

…doesn't necessarily mean it might directly relate to your major, but it's those skill sets that you're learning from college and from your major and within your coursework that's going to carry with you no matter where you go beyond your time in education. And so, I think it's, yeah, I think that's very common, and I think that's where life design can help students kind of figure out what those different majors might look like for them and what are the things that they're curious about and that they're interested in potentially pursuing.

 

Alex 

Right. Well, you know, UCM boasts an impressive 94% first destination success rate. That doesn't just mean finding employment. They can also find continuing education, maybe go into a graduate program or engage in service opportunities. And then another little quick stat is 97% of UCM graduates have reported feeling prepared for success in their careers. That is huge.

I work with students quite a bit and I've got a daughter who's going to be heading to college in a couple of years. And I think that's the whole thing as a parent and I bet that's the whole thing as a student. Are we prepared? Would you say that that's the biggest lump in the throat that a lot of students have as they come to you? They're like, I just want to make sure I know what I'm doing.

 

Amber 

Yeah, I think they think they have to have it all figured out. You know, and I think the reality is, is that you're going to change. I mean, I think I am probably…I think about my parents, for instance, right? My parents were what I would say boomers. My dad, neither one of my parents had a college degree. My dad started out in the mail room at Allstate and worked his way up and then stayed there 36 years.

That's not the norm anymore, right? Like these generations of students, they're going to change careers a lot from the time they graduate to the time that they retire. And that's going to look like a lot of different things for them. And I think what's interesting is, we have to prepare them for that, right? Like we must be able to prepare them for what that can look like. And I think that's where life design can help with that because

There's going to be, you never know where your life's going to take you. And you never know when you're going to feel stuck. And you're never going to know when those times are going to be. But if you have the tools and resources of how to get unstuck, then whether you're at that mid-year career or you're getting ready to retire or you're in your entry level career, you're going to have the tools in the toolbox to help you succeed. And I think that's what it's all about.

And I think what is great for our grads is that when they leave here, they get good jobs and they're doing good things. They're doing amazing things. And our university helps prepare them and they are very satisfied and very happy with their program when they leave here. Our data shows that, but that's not going to be their forever job, right? Like probably not, you know? So, it's a great snapshot of what they're doing at that six-month mark.

But they're going to continue, think, looking at what I think is very interesting data to look at is even where our alumni are five and 10 years down the road. I was one of those, you and I think about when I graduated, where when I first started after my education, I started as an office professional for the Missouri Center for Career Education. Within two years of that, I was like, hey, I'm really doing a lot of event planning. Is there any way that my job can be looked at or rewritten?

 

Alex 

Right.

 

Amber

I had a fabulous boss that helped me do that. And so I moved into an event coordinator role. And then from there, I had the opportunity to move into career services. you know, I think being, having those conversations with, especially as students join your staff of how you can help them continue to develop and grow, that's what's been able to keep me here at the institution.

 

Alex

How do you and your team keep up with the perception different generations of students have about it? Or maybe the question's not even right. Maybe the students generally have a similar mindset, and you can just pivot slightly. But could you give us a little thinking about or talk about how your thinking works when you're trying to strategize the best ways to help every generation of students that comes through?

 

Amber

Yeah, I think always keeping that at the forefront, mean, our students are the end user. I think we have to be thinking about what are their needs and how do we help them with their needs, you know? And I think as we think about the institutional shift of our students, you know, that's an important piece of it.

You know, I've actually within the last several weeks have been talking with my staff and sharing some different articles and resources of you know, how can our center be better as it relates to adult learners? How can it be better with transfer and online and international? So I think you have to keep in mind those various populations and try to find ways to help them because they all have different needs. And I think again, kind of going back to design thinking, that's what it's all about is really understanding your end user.

And then what is the problem for those end users? And then how do we brainstorm and come up with ideas that is going to help us be able to best serve those populations of individuals. So I will say that's, think, a pivotal moment in our office. I mean, again, I keep talking about life design and referring to life design, but it literally was a change for us. I mean, from December 2020 into now, it has really changed the way we think, it's changed the way we operate within our center, it's allowed us to really brainstorm in ways that we have never done before to solve problems that we're facing.

And so it's just been such a time of chaos when COVID was just like crazy, you know, we would get comments around campus about, you know, ‘what's going on in the Career and Life Design Center? Why are you all so happy?’ And it was just like, this is what brought that to us. I mean, I think in a time where there was a lot of disruption and there was a lot of chaos.

Life Design brought that to us to kind of reframe our mindset of how we could innovate and how we had to. I mean, you think about how fast we had to make decisions and how fast we had to change. Life Design helped us do that.

 

Alex 

You know, UCM is, I think, respected as a workforce development leader in higher education. At Missouri, I think it bears out that we do a fantastic job with that. And you're right, we're the tip of the spear for that in a lot of ways. So it sounds to me like you're constantly adapting your approaches. You're constantly looking at the job market and what's out there. Is there a way that you go about this that's different than say Brand X down the road. Can you give us an idea about that?

 

Amber 

Yeah, sure. Yeah, I mean, I think, again, think life design is what makes us unique. I mean, there's other schools in Missouri that have gone through the training. But when you think about where we were in December of 2020 to now, I mean, we've gone through a name change. So we added that life design piece into our name. We've infused it in people's job descriptions and the work that they're doing every single day.

In 2021 we brought two new services into our center or two new big changes to our center, again, in the middle of COVID, right? So we opened our professional clothing studio, which is a great resource for our students, probably the number one way students get connected to us and then they get to learn about all the other things that we do. But the professional clothing studio is just an amazing resource for our students here at UCM.

And then moving to a career studio model. So we opened up WISE, our walk-in studio experience in spring of 21 as well. And that was being able to pivot from that traditional career services model where our advisors were in back-to-back -to-back appointments with students all day, every day by shifting to the career studio model we could now offer peer-to-peer support.

Students didn't have to wait three weeks to get on an advisor's calendar. I mean, if they need career help, they need it now. If I have an interview tomorrow or Monday, I can't wait three weeks for advice on interviewing, right? And so changing to that career studio model freed up our advisors now to do more classroom presentations, to teach. We teach lots of courses through our center, both on the career readiness side of things, as well as life design and then just freed them up for programming, being able to bring new initiatives to our university and really start to think more holistically about how we can embed career and life into the university culture, the university brand, and into the academics here at UCM.

 

Alex 

It's so fantastic--you nailed it, right? I mean, you get called for an interview and they usually want to see you in a couple of days. It begs the question, what are we here for? We're here to get these folks there on their career path. So I love that you're so student success oriented here.

I want to kind of now focus though a little bit about behind the scenes. We've talked about the great program you're doing, but as a leader of this department, you've got to keep it fresh with your team. And what strategies do you use to inspire and motivate your team in creating all these meaningful and frankly transformative experience for our students?

 

Amber 

Sure. I mean, well, first I have to say like, I have an amazing team. Myself and our office cannot do what we do without the people that are in it. And to be quite honest, like they're rock stars. And most of the time I'll tell them, like, I think about myself, like, I think what I bring to the table, right, is that leadership and helping to guide them and helping to be there for them and support them.

But the ideas that my team brings to the table of how to support students and the different ways to support students, I mean, they impress me all day, every day with what that looks like. And I think how do I lead and motivate? I think it's that innovation piece. I will tell you one thing, I'm a very team -centered leader. I really respect my team and I really want their ideas and feedback and I want them to be able to share and give their opinions.

I give them a lot of autonomy and I trust them a lot. And that's really important for me because I think it gets them invested in their work and it gives them ownership over their work. And it's not me telling them what to do and how to do it. That's not how I operate. And I think my staff has really appreciated that. And I think that's what keeps them here and I think that what keeps them motivated and why they enjoy doing what they do.

They know they can always brainstorm with me and share their ideas with me and I'll be there to help them. And I also will say as a leader, like I think it's really important to be in the trenches with your team. I'm not going to ask them to do something I'm not willing to do. If they need my help, I'm right there with them. I think that's important as a leader is to be in it with them.

And I think those things, hopefully, is what motivates them and keeps them here. You know, I've been very fortunate to keep folks and keep folks for a long amount of time. And so, you know, I think just being able to really work well with them and work alongside them and give them a voice makes all the difference.

 

Alex 

Well, you really are offering them a partial ownership of the success of the team. Is this something that was modeled earlier in your career by somebody else that you saw or was it more of a reaction to you didn't necessarily have that you thought ‘if I ever get in that chair, we're going to do this’?

 

Amber

Yeah, I mean, think it would kind of be more the latter, you know? I mean, I've had, you know, off and on, I would say I've definitely had really good bosses that have displayed that as well. But I think because my personality type, I'm just a very team-focused person. That's just really important to me. It's what brings me to work every single day. I have to be working with people I enjoy and working with people that are here for the right reasons and people that I can truly have that good team -centered environment.

And so, yeah, I think it's just something that's just really important to me that I knew if I ever had the opportunity to get into a leadership role, that that would be a focus of mine. That I would really look to hiring the right people, hiring people that I know want to work with students that wanted that are here for students and really helping students with their career and life education and really just helping build that synergy with everyone. I mean, we all truly enjoy each other, which I think is important. I know my staff has said this, right? Like I spend more time with them than I do necessarily my own friends and family, right? So we've got to enjoy each other. We've got to have fun.

I will say I didn't always, know, it's just so interesting because I would say early on in my career, I kind of wanted those two things to be separate. I didn't really want work and personal to blend. But I think it's as I have found the right team and kind of found and built the right team, I'm okay with those kind of blending more and more. And so that's been just kind of an interesting change for me even personally of, you know, kind of navigating that. But I think it is like for me just finding those right people and being able to connect with those right people and trust. Trust, I think, is huge. I trust my team wholeheartedly. And I think that's key.

 

Alex

Well, you know, it's essentially my own career and I'm relatively new to UCM, but my lengthy career here is that I think when a leader shows security in who they are and their role, they're not insecure when people on their staff do well. They take the win and say, ‘that's a team member of mine and look what they did and look at this creative stuff!’

I bet you we could name 10 people off top of our head we've known around campus who just aren't maybe necessarily department heads, but they shine. There are so many folks like that. And I think that's a really great thing is that I think UCM is not only a fantastic university, but it's kind of an incubator for staff and faculty, because not everybody's going to stay with us their whole career.

 

Amber 

Yeah.

 

Alex 

…but they're going to get a great experience here and pick up some learning. And of course we want to keep all those really great folks.

What, what, what aspects of your role, what, aspects of, of just work, what, what challenges you the most and how do you maintain your passion for the work in the midst of--come on, it's not always fun to do X, Y, and Z--but just tell us what you think.

 

Amber

Yeah, 100%. Sure. I mean, honestly, I think for me and what challenges me the most is honestly, probably myself. My team will tell you this and that I can overthink things.

I tend to overthink things quite a bit. I think you kind of mentioned it about the insecurity piece, right? I've been in career services since 2008 and I will question myself every single day as it relates to the work that we do in terms of serving students around career and life. I wouldn't say that that's what I went to school for, right? I mean, I feel like I'm maybe somewhat of an expert, right? I've been doing this for a long time.

 

Alex 

Right.

 

Amber 

But I still have my own insecurities around that, right? And that's where I know, I watch my team do things that I'm like, man, I wish I could do that. Man, I wish I could think that way, right? And so I think that sometimes is a challenge for me is just my own insecurity about, am I good enough? Like I tend to feel that sometimes. And so that's kind of more, think me personally, but I think what maintains my passion for the work is, you know, seeing our students be successful, seeing those pivotal moments when maybe they are thinking about all the different options that they can do with their degree and watching them create multiple versions of their life and getting excited about those different versions.

And then having, I hate to say backup plans, but having multiple plans where it's like, hey, if plan A doesn't work out, I've got these other things.

That's what excites me because I think that's kind of what I wish I would have had 20 years ago, right? I didn't have that plan and somebody took a chance on me and it worked out. But I will tell you those first four-to-six years were hard because I didn't know:

Am I doing the right thing? Am I in the right place? Am I in the right career field? Am I making a difference?

You know, I have a college degree, maybe I'm not quite where I want to be or think I should be after earning that degree. I had those same exact thoughts 20 years ago. But transitioning into career services and then being able to work through a variety of roles, I will say in 2012, I do feel like I am where I wanted to be when I had the opportunity to move into the interim director role. And being there since, I do feel like I can say I am in a life I love, and I am doing things that I feel like are strengths of mine, that I can be able to better lead the team and do the things that I'm doing in the role that I'm in today. And then I have great staff that are able to be awesome in their roles and I get to watch and see them grow and develop.

And I'm all about, like you said, trying to keep folks, right? Like you're trying to, I have good folks, how do I keep them here? How do I motivate them? How do I help them with their career development? How do I help them get to where they want to be? If we can keep them within the department, awesome. If it means that they have to go do something else, that's okay too. Because I think that's what we want to do as well, is be able to be here for our people and help develop them.

 

Alex 

I'm inferring this, but I'm going to say it anyway, that you, you use the tenets of life design in your very own life and career. And I assume your staff do as well because you're not only modeling that behavior for the client, the students, but you're doing it for yourselves as well. And I love this because I, what I'm hearing so much here, Amber, is this energy and this excitement about what you do.

And it's contagious. It's absolutely contagious. So speaking of that, you've already kind of given some great advice, but is there any other advice you would give to those right here within our UCM family of staff who are aspiring to lead and innovate in their own areas?

 

Amber 

Yeah, absolutely. think my biggest piece of advice would be don't be afraid to try something new. You know, we can get stuck in the day to day. We can get stuck in doing things the way we've always done things, right? Don't be afraid to get out of your comfort zone. Don't be afraid to do something new that you've been wanting to try, but maybe you're afraid to try, or maybe you're like, well, what if it doesn't work? If it fails, that's okay. Like we learn a lot from failure.

We learn a lot from things that maybe don't go as planned. And I think that's something that we have definitely embraced within our center. I think being able to apply various brainstorming techniques to help you get ideas of how to move forward is really important. I think sometimes we can get stuck in the sit around the table, let's have a meeting and whoever talks, talks and that's the idea we go with, but is that the best idea?

 

Alex 

Right.

 

Amber 

And I will tell you as someone who's an introvert, a lot of times in meetings, I can be quiet. And it's not because I don't have anything to say, it's because I'm processing. It's because I'm taking all the information in. And so a lot of times in the moment, I may not have an idea to share, but down the road, I might be able to share it better. And so I think giving your team and giving the people you work with that autonomy and that option of being able to provide ideas beyond just the traditional meeting space.

…and think about how you can do meetings differently to give everybody a voice. That was one big change we made in our office in that we do a lot of radical collaboration, we do a lot of different brainstorming techniques because sometimes if you sit around the table, not everybody's going to speak up. And so being able to think about how do you let those extroverts give their ideas, but also how do you let the introverts give their ideas and really make sure you're getting ideas from everyone around the table.

 

Alex

Wow.

 

Amber

…so that you can find the idea that's going to be the best one to try and move forward with.

 

Alex 

Amber, I think you might start getting some calls and emails from department heads saying, what are these mystical tricks you use to make meetings better? (laughs) I'll have to talk to you again about that and say more about that because we're all trying to find innovative ways to let everybody have a voice. And that sounds like that's a really a priority for you, which is probably another reason why your department is so successful.

Well, that's some great advice. And I'm going to put a link in the show notes for anybody who wants to go to your page on the website and I'm sure you're available to chat with people.

Okay…it's the last, it's not even really a question. It kind of is, but it isn't. It's called the final fun fact. So the final fun fact, this is Amber Goreham. You're in the hot seat. Tell us something fun about you.

 

Amber

Well, know, I think I told you this before that this was actually really kind of hard for me. It's not that I don't think I'm fun. It's just that like, I don't know, I've got a lot going on and maybe I don't, maybe this was kind of that reality for me of like, I need to have more fun in my life. But so the thing that I think's interesting, I don't know that a lot of people would realize or know about me. And I actually joke about this with my staff a little bit is I love casinos and I like going to casinos.

 

Alex 

Ooh.

 

Amber 

It is something that, so again, growing up bowling, right? Every Christmas, we would go to a tournament called the Las Vegas Invitational. And it was always in, know, so I watched my mom and dad, they'd always had, and we weren't, they weren't huge gamblers by any means, but they would have fun playing the slots, you know? And then when I turned 21, it was just something that my mom and I would do. And I mean, we have had some moments where we've spent 12 to 15 hours in a casino.

And in one case, ended, we like started in Omaha because my husband's family is from Nebraska, started in Omaha and then ended up in Kansas City with the casinos and so kind of hit them along the way. And then my mom lived in Mississippi for some time. And so of course Vicksburg, there's casinos in Vicksburg. So something I don't think a lot of people would know about me is that I do like to go to casinos.

And man, the time just flies when I'm in a casino. think it just lets, again, it's just kind of that, you know, I can let my mind go and just have fun playing different slot machines. And there's just nothing about the atmosphere. And I've spent a lot of time in Las Vegas through bowling. So, and a lot of bowling centers are in casinos. So here we are.

 

Alex 

So from rolling the bowling ball to rolling the dice, ladies and gentlemen, Amber Goreham.

Amber, you are a treat. Thank you for sharing your insights and experiences with us today. You know, really your passion for innovation and leadership and student success, it clearly drives the impactful work that the Career and Life Design Center does. you know, you're not just preparing UCM students and alumni for immediate success, but like we discussed, you're equipping them for lifelong adaptability in their careers, which is, that's the greatest thing, right?

I so appreciate your time and I look forward to seeing the continued success you're going to have serving our students at UCM. Amber Goreham, thank you so much for joining us on the first episode of Central Speaks.

 

Amber 

I think you. Yep, yep. Thank you so much. I was so honored to be asked to do this. And so this was such a great experience, and I just can't tell you how much I appreciate the opportunity.

 

Alex 

You bet. And listeners, thank you for listening to the inaugural episode of Central Speaks. We'll be back soon with another conversation about ways the UCM team redefines what's possible every day.

Make sure to follow the show on Spotify, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts so you never miss an episode. Check the show notes for links as well as a transcript of our discussion and keep an eye out for email announcements about future episodes.

I'm Alex Greenwood and I look forward to speaking with another UCM changemaker very soon on the next episode of Central Speaks.

 

 

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