Shelly Vitanza 0:00
Welcome to the moment thanks for listening. I'm Shelly Vitanza, the Director of Public Affairs at Lamar University. Each week we showcase the great events, activities, programs, projects, and people at Lamar University. An interdisciplinary team value professors has secured a $600,000 grant support students forced to quit school due to the impact of COVID-19. Two installments of a $300,000 grant from the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board, Texas reskilling to support funds for students has been awarded for these students forced to abandon their educational goals during the COVID-19 pandemic. Many of these students had to quit to go to work or they were forced out of their jobs. their jobs were ended because of COVID-19. And they couldn't pay for school. Now we got that $300,000 in December, that was the first to support 200 students who were completing undergraduate degrees in accounting, computer science, criminal justice, teacher education and nursing. And the second installment came in February and those students who are graduating will be supported students will receive between 500 and 2,500 and they'll eligible candidates are all of those who were eligible for financial aid. So we're really excited and real thankful to this group of professors who got together and applied for this grant, so that our students could finish their degrees.
We're going to have Cardinals graduating here in May, and the students will be among those graduating. We're very excited about that. This past week, big news on the Lamar University campus, we got the first installment of our COVID-19 vaccines. So the entire week in the Setzer Student Center, we completed those stages 250 of our Cardinal community and this was shots given to us by a Christus Southeast Texas Health System.
So we've applied for shots from the States, but we have not gotten those shots in Christus had 250 complete doses. And so we vaccinated are those eligible and the eligibility has been expanded to include 50 years of age and those were co-morbidities long term health residents in facilities as well as frontline workers. So we were excited that we have begun to vaccinate the Lamar University community. And we'll continue when we get more shots, we will vaccinate our students. And this gives vaccines as long as we can, as long as they're available and when they're available. And just keep them there's a more university community safe and healthy. Of course, we continue to wear a mask. We continue to social distance, but we continue to educate as well.
Lamar University is honoring inspirational women. The inspirational Women's Award ceremony will be March research can honor women who embody This year's theme, breaking the glass ceiling excellence and beyond. And the Office of Global Diversity inclusive excellence is hosting this event on March the 23rd at 4pm in the Plummer room at the Mary and John Gray Library, which is on our eighth floor. To prepare for this event, this entire month on the LU Moment we have featured women who really, really also represent this theme breaking the glass ceiling. And so we're delighted this week to have with us Julie Wenah, senior counsel and acting regional counsel for Africa. Julie, welcome. I know you're so busy and so thankful you can take the time to visit with us.
Julie Wenah 3:34
Oh my gosh, good morning. everybody's busy. You know, I'm just super grateful to be here. And you know, anything for Lamar, anything for LU?
Shelly Vitanza 3:46
Well, that's awesome, we love to hear that that is awesome. So talk to us about your relationship with Lamar. Where are you from? And how did you come to be a cardinal?
Julie Wenah 4:02
Yeah, so I am originally from Houston, Texas, born and raised by way of Nigerian immigrant parents, who came to this country to seek a better opportunity for themselves and their community back back home. I came to Lamar, you know, I was a high school student and I was trying to figure out, okay, where do I want to go? At the time I was running track and was able to walk onto the track team at LU and just had such a beautiful experience. I mean, you know, Lamar, you know, I always say like, Houston, Houston, you know, bore me like, you know, I was born there, but Lamar really raised me. I had the most beautiful experience in the whole Golden Triangle. Beaumont, Port Arthur, Orange and Port Arthur. You know all the many times I went to certain seafood, you know, just the good food, the good people. But I think I just came to Lamar through like a counselor and understanding more about their track team. And you know, it was just, it was just a magical experience the highs and the lows.
Shelly Vitanza 5:20
Oh my gosh, we'd love to hear that. So many, many questions. What was your major? So you ran track the whole time and you majored in what?
Julie Wenah 5:26
So I did not run track the whole time. I only ran my first year, I didn't realize that dropping a class and like being under 12 hours made you ineligible. So I didn’t run all of college, which, you know, sometimes, sometimes I'm like, gosh, I wish I would have ran the whole time in college. But like, college sports is a different level of commitment. You got your morning workouts, your evening workouts, you know, you got study hall, then you go home and really study because you and the other athletes were talking during study hall. So it was, it was such a great experience. But I actually came to Lamar as a biochemistry major and I was on my way to pharmacy school. I was president of Delta Omacron Chi, the pre professional organization. There's an organization on campus called P.I.L.S., the Pre-pharmacy Interscholastic League of Students, I founded that and created that name, that always wonder how my P.I.L.S. people are doing because I'm like, my organization, even on the whole lawyer, and that's not a pharmacist, but things really shifted for me after Katrina and Rita happen, you know. You know, Katrina happen and then all of us were at Ford Park, lending a hand trying to be there for people from New Orleans, only to tell them a few weeks later, hey, we got to pack up and go again, Rita is coming. And you know, after I came back, you know, situations happen. I didn't have my apartment. You know, I slept on my line, sister's couch. I was a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Incorporated. I was still a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, where I was chapter President and I was faced with the decision of, you know, do you go home and set out a semester or did you sleep, you know, on your on your sorority sisters couch you know, illegally. Now that I think about it, it was illegal to be like in the living room. But I was desperate and, and right when President, when President Jimmy Simmons found out he was so upset, he was like, ‘What? You haven't had a place to stay?’ and, and Dr. Simmons and as Susan and I became very good friends, as a result, and I love them deeply and everything they've done for, for Lamar. So, I traded biochemistry from political science.
Shelly Vitanza 7:45
Oh, what do you currently do? I you know, you and I, we could go on and on and on and talk about the resiliency and how you, like so many of our students now, have come through things that has changed their lives and made them better? That's a different conversation. Cause’ you're so interesting, we've got to move on to what you currently do and what your what your path was to your position now.
Julie Wenah 8:05
Yeah, so I, I ended up going to law school and heading straight into government. I started off at NASA, doing intellectual property work on the SDS 129 and then got an internship to work for Mrs. Obama. So, I went into government for nearly a decade and then after the Obama Administration, you know, you leave with the President. I took a little bit of time off and was recruited by Airbnb, and where I lead their global civil rights portfolio and thinking about how we build inclusive products and policies that really affect our community and ensuring that everyone can belong anywhere. So I've had such a great experience there, have learned a lot, have contributed a lot, you know, from increasing transparency and how we communicate with our user community on their discrimination allegations to one thing, this project called Airbnb project lighthouse, which is a project that uncovers measures and detect discrimination in message spreads and how people are communicating with each other to see are people having different experiences based on race perception. So that has been something that's been quite novel in the tech community. And then just the product community more generally, you're seeing people lean more into how are we building out this product? How are we building out this policies? Who's not been thought of in the development of this product, this policy or this operation? So that's kind of where my sweet spot is, is helping the company Isn't organizations and entities think through? How do we build with everyone in mind from infection when cure anything on the back end?
Shelly Vitanza 10:09
When it seems like you're perfectly suited to do that job based on your experiences, it's it sounds like a lot of fun too, and and very satisfying, because you're making sure that everybody is is their needs are met.
Julie Wenah 10:26
Absolutely. Yeah, it is. Yeah.
Shelly Vitanza 10:31
I'm sorry. And you're also a filmmaker and presented a film trailer as Secretary Hillary Clinton Rodom Institute conference centered around the arts and healing. Can you tell us a little bit about that? And how it connects to your organization, the album and the mixtape?
Julie Wenah 10:48
Yeah, yeah, so the album and the mixtape is a collective of dreamers, doers, storytellers and music lovers, who create community and content senator on healing and pursuing your life's mixtape, what we call your purpose. And Secretary Clinton, she has this amazing conference every summer led by Dr. Jehan “GiGi” El-Bayoumi and Tracy Bass back from George Washington hospital centered around the art and healing and how do we marry the two to actually advance and promote healing. So we did a documentary centered around this beautiful book of poetry called preparing my daughter for rain and it's this beautiful book of poetry that talks about these four elements, the body, the heart, the land and the soul, and how we prepare the future generation of women for rain from the sky. So we took that book and created a documentary around it, sharing all of these different experiences, we went to the desert and filmed it because I think there's something very healing and transformative about being in the desert being an open air. So that is some of the work that we're doing in creating healing content.
Shelly Vitanza 11:56
That is incredible. Now, can we Google all that? Can we find the album the mixtape?
Julie Wenah 12:01
Yeah, yeah, but our website is album mixtape.com. So you can sign up for our cipher, and we'll keep you up to date on all of the work that we're doing. We have a podcast called the album and the mixtape where we dissect hip hop lyrics and give you a call to action through lyricism. So you can find all of that at album mixtape, or like on our socials, we're on IG, Twitter, and Facebook as well. So we love either if you want to understand it from a content perspective, or if you're interested in joining our communities so that we can help you design the life that you want, right? Like, well, sometimes we're gonna have these albums, the day jobs that we may not like, but we are working them because they pay the bills, but you're mixed tape is everything you would give to the world for free. So how do you make sure that you're living that balanced lifestyle, nothing you get for free doesn't have to make you money, it can just fulfill you.
Shelly Vitanza 12:56
Right. I love love that. Definitely going to look into that. And now when I googled you, I got that you were recently appointed to the women and product board, can you tell us a little bit about that organization and what you hope to contribute during your tenure there?
Julie Wenah 13:14
Yeah, so women are product connects women, and the product management field through online platforms, live events and assist robust, global community that empowers women with opportunities to collaborate with one another. And we equip the community with resources for advancement. We have 27 chapters worldwide, 33,000 plus members and 125 events annually across the globe. And I'm so excited about being part of this board. I mean, the board is and the team, the women and product team, our CEO and that team. They're just excellent to work alongside and, you know, one of the things that I'm really excited about and to contribute is the opportunity to think through like how do we advance efforts that increase access and opportunities for women across the globe, you know, because ultimately building products that shape our world is not a spectator sport. So one of my goals I see in supporting the board is to to support and create a well-resourced ecosystem that's rich with inclusion and opportunity that will lead to a world where women are recognized leaders charter in the new frontier.
Shelly Vitanza 14:28
You have totally inspired me and I'm going to follow up you, we can follow you on Twitter, Facebook. Are you all over the place Julie?
Julie Wenah 14:36
I am. So you can find me on I think all my handles are Julie mixtape. So on Instagram, on Twitter is Julie mixtape and I think that's my Facebook now Julie mixtape. Or you can find the album and the mixtape community. Like us, join us – we'd love to equip you with tools to help everyone kind of live their best life and, and ultimately, they're purpose. Their God given purpose.
Shelly Vitanza 15:00
Awesome. Definitely a Lamar University Cardinal out in the world, and we're so glad that you took the time to visit with us with on the LU Moment. And thank you for inspiring us all.
Julie Wenah 15:13
Oh, it's my pleasure Shelly. Lamar has been such an integral part of my development there's, there's nothing I wouldn't do to support this university. So thank you for having me. It's really an honor.
Shelly Vitanza 15:26
Great, great, really appreciate it. Appreciate you too listener and thank you for being with us on the LU moment. I'm Shelly Vitanza, the director of public affairs at Lamar University, the pride of Southeast Texas.