Meet Your Colleagues: Joe Selmont

Meet Your Colleagues is a weekly feature highlighting employees who make a positive impact at UAA through their work every day. This week, we're featuring Joe Selmont. For questions or to nominate someone for an upcoming feature, please contact University Relations at uaa_news@alaska.edu.

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Joe Selmont

Director, UAA Summer Engineering Academies
College of Engineering

How do you contribute to student success?
The main thing I do around here is run a summer camp for the College of Engineering. Each week through June and July, more than 50 third-graders through 12th-graders come to UAA to learn core engineering concepts through super fun, hands-on activities. Building and programming robots, coding video games, constructing and destructing bridges and towers — this is how I get to spend my summer. Of course, my background is decidedly not in engineering, so none of this would be possible without the amazing faculty and college students who serve as camp instructors and assistant instructors, respectively.

The kids who participate in our summer camps are an integral part of the pipeline of students who come to UAA. So, in that sense, the camps help UAA's future students succeed by getting them interested in STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) at an early age. This encourages them to pursue advanced math and science classes in high school, setting them up for success in college.

How long have you worked at UAA? Why did you decide to join UAA?
As an undergrad, my first job at UAA was at the Student Union Information Desk in 2008. I held a number of student positions before (finally) graduating with a B.A. in English in 2014. After a couple years of working for the Anchorage Concert Association, one year of travelling in the U.S. and South America, and an exhausting summer as a tour guide on the Alaska Railroad, I got wind of a job opening with my old department, the Office of Student Life & Leadership. One thing led to another and before I knew it, I was also working on a master's degree in public administration. Then I jumped at this opportunity with the College of Engineering and I'm coming up on two years in this position.

So, why UAA? In short, I believe in our mission. I love Alaska and I think our state deserves a top-notch university system. I'm proud to do my little part to help make that happen.

What is the most common question you receive at work?
"Can I borrow your robots?"

What do you enjoy most about working at UAA?
My colleagues, the students (both college students and the K-12 variety) and the opportunities for self-development. Higher education is a challenging world to operate in, but it can be incredibly rewarding.

What do you consider your greatest accomplishment while working here at UAA?
Mostly, I'm proud whenever I see a student find success. I've also been part of organizing some big events at UAA, which is always a lot of fun.

What is your favorite Alaska activity?
I'm a big fan of the typical granola activities — backpacking, canoeing, taking advantage of the state's public use cabins. Plus, I serve on the board of directors of the Anchorage Folk Festival, which is a huge two-week event in January that gets hundreds of Alaska musicians on stage, along with a few super talented acts from around the world. I also help organize mountain bike races for the Arctic Bicycle Club. The mountain bike trails at Kincaid, Hilltop and out in the Valley are pretty amazing.

Tell us a fun fact about yourself.
I like to write poetry and short stories.

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