Presson leads through enthusiasm for Southeast community

Dan Presson wakes up every day passionate about making student connections on Southeast Missouri State University's campus. After all, he once was in the same boat himself.

Presson graduated from Southeast in 2007 with a bachelor's degree in mass communication with an emphasis in advertising. He went on to Lindenwood University and completed a master's degree in communication with an emphasis in promotions and marketing in 2012.

But there was something about Southeast and the Cape Girardeau community as a whole that captivated him. He returned to work in the Office of Admissions in 2013 as assistant director for transfer recruitment.

On Nov. 2, Presson was named the Office of Career Services' coordinator of employer relations. He also is an active member of the National Association of Colleges and Employers, the Cape Girardeau and Jackson chambers of commerce, Southeast's Professional Staff Counsel and KRCU Generation Listen, as well as its Community Advisory Board.

Whether Presson is working with students or employers, on or off campus, early in the morning or late at night, in that moment, he's invested and all there.

You're a Southeast graduate yourself. What made you want to come back and work here?

I have always been drawn to Cape Girardeau and to Southeast, and after leaving the university and living elsewhere -- I had grown up in the St. Louis area and moved back after I graduated -- but there was just something in my blood, there was something that kept drawing my wife and I back to Cape Girardeau. Whenever we had the chance, we jumped on it, and it's been fantastic ever since. There's really just something about this campus that gets into your veins, and you love it so much, so that was the reason we decided to come back. It's an adjustment, but you know what? It's an adjustment that we've both really enjoyed.

You were previously the assistant director of admission for transfer recruitment. What did your job entail there?

So in admissions, what I did is I worked with students that were looking to transfer into Southeast. I worked with students that were from four-year institutions or from community colleges and helping them transition (to) the university through their application process. The big thing that I did there was working with students through the whole processing of credits, actually transferring over their credit. So working with them to clarify their questions, answer any questions that they had about credit that hadn't been brought over to the university before. It's a pretty labor-intensive process, because every student is completely different, because they all have taken different classes, and they're all coming from different locations. But it's really exciting, because last year we were able to increase enrollment. So it's fast-paced; it's a lot of fun.

Transitioning over to the Office of Career Services, you're the coordinator of employment relations. What do your duties include now?

Well, after working in admissions, I'd gotten a lot of students into college. This actually gives me the opportunity to help students successfully launch from college. This new position allows me to help students get out of college and into careers. By doing that, I'm going to be working with employers from the region, trying to make sure that they use the resources on our campus to get students best informed about job opportunities. I'm going to be the inward face of making students realize that Career Services is here, and I'm also going to be the outward face of the university, helping employers realize what Southeast has to offer, because this is a pool of 12,000 students, and they're all going to graduate at some point. So I want to make sure employers put their opportunities in front of our students.

What has the switch of offices been like?

Working with employers is actually pretty similar to working with transfer students, because everybody's different; everybody has different criteria that they're looking to fill; everybody has different requirements from their offices that they're looking to fill. Same thing with transfer students -- everybody is coming from a different school [and] has taken different classes. So the transition in that regard has actually been fairly simple, because I was working with everybody individually on the transfer side, and I'm still working with everybody individually, just on the employer side. Instead of trying to convince them to transfer those credits into Southeast instead of another institution, I'm now convincing employers to put their jobs online at Southeast or come onto our campus to set up a table and do some recruiting or come to the college fair. It really is very similar -- a change of office, but really similar things.

Where would you say your current position demands the most leadership?

Getting out, being that outward face into the community, working with people in the area, working with some of the larger employers in the area, working with our office up in St. Louis and our director of corporate and government relations, just spreading the word out there about Southeast graduates, that's where I really think that the most leadership is needed and the most leadership is going to be required, is going out there and spreading the word and making sure everybody knows that Southeast students are here, and they're some of the best employees people are going to have the opportunity to hire.

Who's been a leader for you in your time at Southeast?

Throughout my career in higher education, I have always maintained a friendship and I've always looked up to Dr. Debbie Below. I remember her whenever I was graduating from Southeast and interviewing for jobs, and I've always seen her as a great role model whenever it comes to the way you present yourself professionally. I've gone to her with a lot of questions, and she's a great person that I can go to ask questions about. And I've had just wonderful supervisors at this institution. The director of admissions, Lenell Hahn, the director of career and [academic] advising services, Michele Tapp -- they're wonderful people to work with and to work for, and they make the university environment, they make the university position everything that it is, and it's fun and exciting and all over gives me a really great opportunity.

To you, what qualities make up a good leader?

Somebody that is fair and excited to work, somebody that gets up every morning and just thinks, "Yeah, today's going to be the next great day, and there's always something unique that's going to be happening," somebody that's always forward thinking and is forward thinking with a really positive attitude. ... That's one thing, in this role and in my role in admissions and working for the institution that I attended, I seriously just want to stand up on the tallest building and yell out from the top of my lungs, "Southeast students are the best students that there are," and I think this is the greatest institution that somebody can go to. ... One thing that I always keep on my desk is this, and it's a small bag of rice from the Malden (Missouri) campus down in the Bootheel. This always is indicative to me about the huge amounts of degree programs and university-related things that some people don't even know about. A lot of people don't know about our agreements and what work we do with the Missouri Rice Research Council, and I just think [the work is] so cool because this is from Malden, this is from Bernie (Missouri), this is actual rice that's been worked with by Southeast staff members and students. ... Every day I get excited because there's always something unique. That's what's great about the admissions office; that's what's great about this office, is every day I come in, and I get to work with something different, a different employer. Today it's an IT company up in St. Louis, and then tomorrow it might be a textile manufacturer or manufacturer of plastics or something just unique and different.