 |
Tiffany Skouby, in her own words, strives to be a “connector.”
Originally from Efland, Skouby said she didn’t always give much thought to what college would look like.
Once enrolled at Durham Technical Community College (DTCC), though, things changed. A fellow student asked her to consider joining the student government association (SGA), and she found her passion through providing students the resources they need to feel supported and seen on campus.
Notice: JavaScript is required for this content.
Now, after years of working to help college students both as a student and a professional, Skouby serves as the State Director of Student Life for the N.C. Community College System, where she gets the opportunity to be a connector for students across North Carolina. The position is not new to the community college system, but its title has changed.
Skouby has served in the position since May and is working to bolster student life initiatives, programs, and services at each of the state’s 58 community colleges.
In this role, Skouby oversees student life programs across the state, handles student grievances, and advises the N.C. Comprehensive Community College Student Government Association (NC4CSGA).
Part of her work so far has centered around reintroducing the Student Life Advisory Board (SLAB), which previously became defunct in 2019. Skouby said SLAB works to provide accessible resources, best practices, and development opportunities to students and professionals while advocating for funding, programing, and services that improve campus life for students.
“I think No. 1, it’s valuable for our students, and I also think it’s valuable for the professional themself,” Skouby said. “Because one, regardless if you’ve been in a role for 10 years, you can always grow. But also, I think it’s important because we have newer people coming into the system.”
For the first time in five years, SLAB will have an annual conference in November.
“That’s something I’ve been really passionate about working on— and just professional development for our student life folks—because what’s the best way to serve students if you yourself are not prepared to lead them,” Skouby said.
Skouby joked that when people think about student life, they often think of simple gestures meant to improve morale like campus pizza parties, but really, the true purpose of student life is much deeper, she said. Student life professionals work with students to help solve problems that could prevent them from graduating.
Student life seeks to connect students in community colleges to valuable resources, such as mental health services, access to supplies to combat period poverty, guidance through difficult courses, and more, Skouby said.
“We talk about what’s going on inside the classroom —it’s the things that are going on outside of the classroom sometimes that keep them away from the classroom. And I think in student life, I’ve been noticing more people trying to combat those things,” Skouby said.
During Skouby’s time in student government at DTCC, where she went on to serve as SGA president, she helped lead initiatives to meet the needs of her fellow students, who she found to be dealing with problems like homelessness and food insecurity. Skouby helped to establish one of the first community college food pantries in the state.
Skouby made history as the first openly LGBTQ+ SGA president at the college and created SPECTRUM, a student organization for queer students. At the time, Skouby said SPECTRUM was one of just two LGBTQ+ community college organizations in the state.
“I was working to make sure the LGBTQ+ community had a voice on campus,” Skouby said.
She was honored for her service to the college and its students in 2022 as one of DTCC’s “60 for 60,” a campaign uplifting 60 places, people, and things that benefited the college during its first six decades.
Upon graduating from DTCC, Skouby went on to UNC Greensboro, where she served as an orientation leader and worked to provide peer guidance in the office of intercultural engagement. She also helped establish a student union for adult transfer students.
When her studies were complete, Skouby worked in student life in various capacities at UNC Greensboro, Davidson-Davie Community College, and Piedmont Community College. She said her students encouraged her to bring her skills and impact to the state level, which helped motivate her to apply for her current position.
“I kind of one day, kind of in my brain, I said, ‘If not me, then who?’” she said.
Skouby said she feels empowered to do her work and use her skills due to her experience and her personal goals to improve daily life for college students.
“I think it’s the fact that I’ve been a student in the community college system, that I’ve worked with community college students, and I have seen the needs that they have, from food insecurity to mental health to period poverty to even kind of, in a sense, knowing what the professionals that work with them, what type of training they need,” Skouby said.
Skouby said that while she is new to the position, she wants students to know that she strives to be a resource for them and aims to find solutions for their problems.
“The key word in my title is ‘student,’” Skouby said. “Everything that we are doing, we are doing for our students.”
