Helping Students Every Step of the Way – Meet IT Specialist Lauren Fosgett

Lauren Fosgett thrives under pressure. A noble trait when IT systems begin acting up or going down and students need help.

Lauren is an IT Solution Specialist at Bryan. She works on the University help desk and supports students by doing some of the back-end administration work that often goes unnoticed. Lauren is there if students have any technical issues and that is something that often causes students to get overwhelmed and can lead to them feeling like giving up. It’s Lauren’s mission to help these students and show them that their technical issues are not insurmountable.

Lauren loves her job because she helps students every day. She is there as a resource for them when they have technical issues whether there is something wrong with their computer, or they can’t get into class, or even if they have trouble submitting their assignments. Lauren is there to walk them through it, and show them that it’s not an impossible task, that they can get through it and get back on track. She recognizes it’s a really cool opportunity to work with students “hands-on” and show them a problem that they may see as something really big isn’t necessarily as much of an issue as they may think. She can get them back up and running pretty quickly.

Lauren also helps manage some of Bryan University’s communications systems, so when the phones go down for example, or if we have any technical issues with those, she is usually the one to identify the issue and help get it resolved – which is challenging and fulfilling to her.

Lauren describes her job and the IT department as a series of very distinct processes – the IT team gets a ticket and first they determine what the student is experiencing. Next, they figure out which system the issue is impacting. If it’s a student, someone on the team calls them, walks them through the issue, and has them show what they’re going through. It’s kind of like being a detective – trying to understand the clues: is this something specific to their system, their internet, or perhaps something on our side with the tools that we use for classes?  As we walk through the issue with them, we follow the clues and figure out the right solution.

When asked to share a student story, she recalls one almost instantly. Recently, Lauren helped a student who was having trouble with his computer – he couldn’t get into class, all the coaches were on another call and working with other students. And so Lauren walked him into class, helped him get into the zoom and get everything done so he could go to class. Lauren loves that this student still calls back every now and then, and expresses his gratitude for Lauren’s help getting him started. The experience was special to Lauren because this student didn’t really know how to get things rolling on his own. Lauren loves that the Bryan University IT team lifts each other up and helps the students and the focus is on doing whatever they can to support each team member and ultimately the students.

She works at Bryan because she loves the culture, people, and the ability to help other people. Lauren also believes in Bryan’s mission statement to “liberate the innate greatness in people.” She says that mission statement has really resonated with her. In her time at Bryan, she’s been motivated to go back to school. This motivation has also helped her find her passion in technology and ultimately enhanced her role on the technical support team.

Lauren loves learning new things every day, and getting to help students find their pathways and journeys. Her most exciting aspects of her job involve having a moment with students when they’re really struggling and frustrated and going through challenges – she loves being able to walk them through the other side of that and get them back on track and feeling good about school.

Helping students under pressure everyday fulfills Lauren’s purpose at Bryan University – a purpose she plans to continue to grow and nurture.