When Susi Gomez Kennedy stepped into her role at UW-Milwaukee (UWM), she didn’t inherit a polished program.
She inherited potential.
UWM is an access institution serving 23,000+ residential and commuter students. Building community, belonging, and professional networks in that environment isn’t just helpful, it’s essential. Many students are balancing work, family, and school. Social capital isn’t automatic. Retention issues aren’t abstract.
And sitting quietly in the middle of campus were thousands of student employees.
The question wasn’t whether UWM valued experiential learning.
The question was whether student employment could become it.
The opportunity everyone could see, but no one had fully built
The idea of transforming on-campus jobs into internships didn’t start with Susi.
Campus leadership had long recognized the potential. They had even attempted to launch something before, but it hadn’t gained traction. Eventually, the work was moved into Strategic Enrollment and Student Success, and a key decision was made: dedicate the responsibility to one person and fund it appropriately.
That person was Susi.
She stepped into a role that came with vision, but no design.
The opportunity was clear. Student employment already sat at the intersection of belonging, retention, and professional development. Many of these roles included meaningful responsibility and leadership. What they lacked was intentional structure: shared onboarding standards, supervisor development, reflective learning conversations, and consistent expectations across units.
The potential was there.
What was needed was thoughtful design and disciplined execution.
And this is where Susi’s discernment showed.
She didn’t rush to launch a shiny initiative. She paused. She listened. She interviewed supervisors across campus before offering solutions. She wanted to understand their needs, their pressures, their aspirations.
That strategic restraint, especially in a new role, is not common.
It’s leadership maturity.
Building supervisors as co-educators
One of Susi’s most powerful shifts was reframing supervision itself.
At an access school, supervisors are often among the most consistent adults in a student’s life. They can expand networks. Reinforce belonging. Normalize professional behavior. Open doors students didn’t know existed.
So she built infrastructure around that idea.
She launched a supervisor conference that drew 150 registrants in its inaugural year.
She created ongoing monthly communities of practice.
She integrated a structured reflection model (Panther Grow, adapted from IOWA GROW) aligned with UWM’s career competencies (Panther Edge).
She formally trained 152 supervisors to guide intentional development conversations with students.
Faculty, notably, have leaned in. They’re not just tolerating the model, they’re engaging with it.
They see how it strengthens learning beyond the classroom. They’re asking questions. They’re connecting dots.
That’s when you know something is resonating.
And the impact is already measurable.
In early data, students who participated in structured Grow conversations showed meaningful differences in self-reported skill development compared to those who didn’t. In one area alone, lifelong learning, there was a 20-percentage-point difference.
That’s student development happening on purpose.
Strategy before scale
What makes this work especially compelling is that Susi didn’t rush to scale.
She focused on baseline metrics. She clarified what success looked like. She piloted before expanding. She built feedback loops before declaring transformation.
In the next phase, she’s layering in Life Design principles and exploring ways to integrate professional development not just for supervisors, but into broader learning pathways, including faculty-facing spaces.
She’s not building programs. She’s building systems.
And systems endure.
The growth behind the program
When we began working together in May 2024, Susi was new to career development and student employment. She is ambitious and self-aware, a strong leader who holds herself to a high standard. She didn’t want to “try things and see.” She wanted to be thoughtful from the start.
At the same time, stepping into a large, complex initiative without deep field history can stir something uncomfortable: imposter syndrome.
She questioned herself early on. Wondered if she had enough expertise. Wondered if she was ready.
She was.
But knowing that internally is different than feeling it under pressure.
Our work focused on building that strategic foundation.
We talked through how to approach student supervisors before offering solutions. We reviewed program and marketing plans before launch. We clarified measurement strategy and sequencing. We strengthened her strategic plan. We discussed how to navigate difficult conversations thoughtfully.
Most importantly, we created space for her to think before acting.
Over time, something powerful happened.
She moved from asking, “Am I doing this right?” To recognizing “This is a complex institutional initiative, and I’m leading it well.”
She asked for what she needed. She gained clarity about priorities. She received an “exceeds expectations” review.
Her scope expanded to include managing internships across campus. She began to see the sophistication of what she had built.
At one point she laughed and said, “You could be charging so much more for these coaching sessions.”
Another time she described coaching as “the therapist you don’t need because you have a therapist.”
I still smile at that.
But beneath the humor was something deeper: confidence solidifying.
She once told me she wouldn’t have moved this fast without having space to think through decisions in advance. That she avoided missteps because she could pressure-test ideas before executing them. That she felt steadier walking into high-stakes conversations.
That’s the work.
And now? I’m encouraging her to submit this model to conferences. It’s unique. It’s grounded in research. It’s working. And others can learn from it.
What Susi would tell other leaders
When I asked Susi what advice she’d give to leaders who want to elevate on-campus jobs but don’t know where to start, she didn’t hesitate.
Start with your allies.
Pilot with offices that trust you. Learn with them. Refine before you scale.
Interview before you design. Understand supervisors’ needs before offering programs.
Be clear about what you want to measure, even if it’s simple perception data at first. Baselines matter more than perfection.
After the first pilot, you’ll know whether the model should scale broadly, stay boutique, or evolve in a different direction.
There’s no shortcut to credibility.
But there is a smarter way to build it.
Final thoughts
Career services leaders are often told to “increase experiential learning,” but sometimes the most transformative work isn’t launching something brand new.
It’s seeing what’s already there: 3,000 student jobs, hundreds of supervisors, thousands of daily mentorship moments, and designing it intentionally.
Susi did that.
At an access institution. With complexity. With ambition. With care.
When we started working together in May 2024, she was stepping into unfamiliar territory and wanted to get it right. She didn’t want to move fast and hope for the best. She wanted to think strategically.
That investment in thinking space paid off.
In less than two years she built a supervisor development model now reaching more than 150 campus supervisors and thousands of students, launched a conference with 150 registrants, generated measurable student learning gains, and expanded her leadership scope to include managing internships across campus.
More importantly, she built something durable.
Not just a program. A system.
Strategic reflection is a leadership tool most people never get. But when leaders have space to pressure-test ideas, sequence initiatives thoughtfully, and navigate complex institutional dynamics before acting, progress accelerates.
That’s the real return on strategic leadership support: fewer missteps, stronger decisions, and work that might otherwise take years moving forward much faster.
Her model is sophisticated. Portable. Worth studying.
I can’t wait to see the longitudinal results of this work.
And if you’re stepping into something complex and thinking, “I want to get this right from the start,” know this:
Having space to think strategically changes the trajectory of a leader. Always.
PS: I keep a small number of spaces open for leaders who want this kind of strategic thinking partnership. If you're navigating something complex right now, feel free to reach out.
