Member Spotlight: Angela Blue

This member spotlight was written by Gabrielle Jean-Louis, a student at Salem Academy and intern with REACH Women's Network. This blog post was part of her project to conduct information interviews with REACH members.

Angela Blue works at Winston-Salem State University as Student Affairs Chief of Staff. Her role handles student experiences outside of the classroom. Some areas of Angela’s work involve the experimental learning of housing and residential life, university recreation, student health, the student pharmacy, and counseling services. Additionally, she works to maintain and progress student centers and student hubs.

The demands and stress of Angela’s job fluctuate throughout the year, with Summer being crunch time at WSSU, during which Angela and her colleagues have a short time to work on professional development and prepare for student return in the fall. Due to her role dealing primarily with student needs and interests, Angela must be flexible and prepared to meet the needs of each individual that is presented to her. Like with any large institution, Angela commonly interfaces with colleagues and coordinates work across multiple university departments. Her role is vital in serving the dynamic student body at Winston-Salem State University. 

Advice

Angela’s advice for dealing with difficult situations is to analyze. For challenging decisions, she collects all of her information before analyzing the situation and its impacts, and comes up with the worst-case scenario. Angela says that she always plans for the worst and hopes for the best. She mentally prepares herself for the worst possible result when making a decision and finds herself relieved and overly prepared when the situation isn’t as bad as she had expected. For Angela, life is what you make it, and she puts in an effort to make it good. 

REACH

Angela first discovered REACH when she was invited to the conference by a colleague. At the conference, she met people who did and did not look like her, but all aspired to the same thing. She says that REACH has taught her that there are many other women like her and that we’re all living the same life, just at different stages. Through the people she’s met and relationships she’s built, the organization has reminded Angela that everyone has value.