The three newest members of the Office of the President are University Presidential Fellows Pedro Dutra ’23, Sara Eismont ’18, and Anya Kisicki ’22, who will gain firsthand experience in higher education administration through their year-long fellowship.

“The goal in establishing the Presidential Fellows program is to help broaden interest in and access to higher education administration as a career path,” President Michael Roth ’78 wrote in an email to The Argus. “The positions are designed to be excellent opportunities for the Fellows to work with various departments across the University.”

Although the Presidential Fellows program is open to all applicants, University graduates are preferred. The fellows work in distinct departments with little overlap, but they regularly meet with the President’s cabinet, talk to the board of trustees, and occasionally collaborate with one another.

“It gives them a real chance to understand the unique challenges and questions involved with running an institution of higher learning,” Roth wrote.

Dutra is a Presidential Fellow in Advancement and Business Intelligence. His role is to provide data insights to help the Office of Advancement make informed decisions.

“My role is similar to the role of most other people,” Dutra said. “I just go in, try to help them find data insights. [I] try to help everyone see what we can do to improve Wesleyan, the facilities, and make student life better.”

Dutra saw becoming a fellow as the perfect opportunity to jumpstart his career. Having graduated just months before, he finds the University to be a familiar workspace.

“I had really liked my time at Wesleyan,” Dutra said. “I would be working with people who, like me, were passionate about Wesleyan and are passionate about making this campus a better place. And by being a data analyst for them and providing business insights, I would be able to improve this campus for all the students and for future students as well.”

Dutra still had to readjust to campus in his new role as a member of the Office of the President.

“I’m working with a completely different side of campus,” Dutra said. “I’m working with more adults than I’m working with students, and the schedule that I have is very different.”

Despite this distance from the student population, Dutra emphasized that he enjoys working in an administrative role and feels integrated with the campus community.  

“I think that the nice thing is that I live close enough to campus to where I’m still fully connected to campus,” Dutra said. “And I still have friends here on campus who I can go out with and see on a day to day basis…. I’ve been able to stay connected with campus while also looking at Wesleyan from the administrative side, which is very insightful, because I wasn’t able to do that before.”

Most of Dutra’s work is project-based, meaning his work in a given day or week can vary widely depending on his current assignments.

“Sometimes [projects] take three days, sometimes they take a few hours,” Dutra said. “So it depends. I don’t have a very set schedule, it’s more I work on my project for the day…. It’s very data-driven, which I like, and it’s exactly what I wanted to do after college. So it’s been great.”

Currently, Dutra is working with the Athletics Department and is collecting data on the level of engagement of alumni for various sports teams.

“If they need insights on how engaged alumni are, I can run some reports or do some analysis and try to give them a better overview of what’s happening there,” Dutra said.

In his future in the fellowship program, Dutra hopes to write a capstone project employing his data skills. 

“I don’t know exactly what that capstone project is going to be,” Dutra said. “Maybe I’ll have a better idea in a few months. But I think one of my goals is to come up with a creative idea [where] I could use my skills and data and find some interesting patterns to help [the Office of] Advancement figure out the best ways to improve Wesleyan or student life here.”

Dutra has a year-long contract with the fellowship program, as do the other fellows. After his time here ends, he hopes to continue using his data analysis skills at an administrative capacity. 

“I think the one thing that I’ve learned from my time here is that I like using data to help people come up with ideas to actually improve their businesses, or improve their organizations,” Dutra said. “So one of the things that I think is really fulfilling for my job here is to provide data that is actually used with a purpose. And I think that’s something I want to do going forward…to use data and business insights to actually help people.”

Eismont is a Presidential Fellow in Student Affairs, working closely with Student Academic Resources (SAR) as a whole and more specifically with Accessibility Services. Their work has two primary goals: to educate the campus community about the role of Accessibility Services and to promote the idea of universal design.

“[Universal design] is the idea that…when we’re creating something, we’re thinking as much as possible about possible barriers that folks may experience, so that we’re creating things that are [as] accessible as possible, even without the use of accommodations,” Eismont said. “[We are] helping to make sure that as much as possible things here, whether it’s academic or extracurricular, are accessible as possible for the whole Wesleyan community, but also largely focusing on the student experience as well.”

Eismont previously worked for five years at a school in New York where they focused on admissions and residential life. They applied for the fellowship because they wanted to continue to work in education. 

“It seemed like a really unique opportunity,” Eismont said. “I’ve always known I wanted to work in education…. It was a great chance to come back and work with Dean [for Academic Advancement Laura] Patey and [Director of SAR] Crystal Rose Hill-Farrell, who are folks that I had the opportunity to work with as an undergrad.” 

As Eismont is a less recent graduate and spent some time away from the University, there was a different sort of readjustment when they returned to campus as a staff member. 

“It was kind of funny coming back to campus because I actually hadn’t been here since I graduated,” Eismont said. “I personally like that it’s been a little bit of time since I’ve come back because it’s kind of a fresh start getting to work with a whole new group of students…but it has been truly wonderful.”

Currently, Eismont is busy working with many students to set up accommodations for classes. In the future, they will be working with more students also employed by SAR.

“There is an awesome group of students who work with us who are academic peer advisors and peer technology specialists,” Eismont said. “And there is a special group, a liaison group, around Accessibility Services. So I’m really excited to work with those students around different programming, as well as hear more [from them].”

Through their position as a presidential fellow and as someone with disabilities, Eismont hopes to advocate for those with disabilities and help them navigate the University. They emphasized that they welcome all questions from students. 

“It’s good working with students and helping them understand their own lived experience and how to navigate an institution like Wesleyan,” Eismont said. “I’m really passionate about social justice works. I also really focus on an intersectional approach and thinking about the ways that all of our identities intersect and influence one another. So I’m really happy to talk to anybody about the work that Accessibility Services does, or any questions they have about Student Academic Resources in general.”

Kisicki is a Presidential Fellow in University Communications and is responsible for working on the Democracy in Action initiative.

“At its core, the initiative explores the relationship between democracy and higher education.” Kisicki wrote in an email to The Argus. “I spent the first couple months researching and becoming an expert on the topic. Now, I’m in the production and execution phase of my fellowship, where I get to tell the story of how Wesleyan fits into this larger conversation about what role universities play in fostering democracy.”

After graduating in 2022, Kisicki spent a year teaching English Language Arts to fifth grade students in New Haven. They applied for the fellowship to delve deeper into education practices. 

“I loved teaching, and [I] want to be back in the classroom someday, but I found myself craving opportunities for research, creative production, and writing,” Kiscki wrote. “My students animated my interest in education policy but kept me too busy to really dig into this new fascination. Eager to continue learning but still needing to support myself, I began looking for paid opportunities in higher education that would foster my interest in creative research and media. Seeing the Presidential Fellow in Communications listing, I immediately felt it was the ideal next step in my career.” 

Kisicki has been living in Connecticut since their first year as an undergrad, and they shared that they have always been in or close to Middletown during their time at Wesleyan, even during breaks.

“Returning here for work feels like coming home, but it certainly doesn’t feel like I’m still in college,” Kisicki wrote. “I’ve been living in New Haven for the past year with my freshman roommate from Wes, who works as an artist assistant for a Wes professor. Continuing to live in New Haven while commuting to Wes for work gives me access to the Wes community while allowing me to grow beyond it, too.”

Kisicki shared that they value the role Wesleyan plays in the Democracy in Action initiative and looks forward to further progressive action toward equity and inclusion from the University. 

“Wesleyan’s prioritization of the Democracy in Action Initiative really speaks to its sense of responsibility in the public sphere,” Kisicki wrote. “In the wake of recent Court decisions and political messiness, Wesleyan has emerged as a leader in aiming for more equity of opportunity in the service of the public good. I look forward to seeing the [Communications] team continue telling the authentic story of Wesleyan’s role in setting a precedent for higher education’s commitment to fostering a world worth striving for.” 

Roth is grateful to be able to lead these early-career individuals into administrative vocations. 

“We are excited to provide a rich opportunity for talented recent graduates to launch their careers and I am excited to see the result of their efforts this year,” he wrote.

Gabrielle McIntosh can be reached at gmcintosh@wesleyan.edu.