In response to “Learning to Lead,” UNC Magazine Spring 2022
I was involved in Hall Council in Harrison Hall my freshmen year, 1980, and then tried out and received a Resident Assistant position the next year in Harrison. I then applied and received a Senior Resident Assistant position my Junior year in Lawrenson. That was the highest student position at the time in residence life there, but as I reapplied for the SRA position for my senior year there was a sudden full-time Hall Director position that came open, and they gave it to me. So, my senior year I was the full-time Hall Director of Grace Hannah Wilson Hall on Central campus and with my three years of residence life experience and the excellent training and supervision I received in my time at UNC throughout my undergrad, I decided that student affairs is what I wanted to do.
I went off to a first job at Colorado Northwestern College as a Hall Director/Director
of Residence Life where I taught Communication, using my UNC Communication degree,
and coached baseball, using the field experience I got while coaching at Greeley Central
High School from the UNC Field Experience office. Then I was off to Regis University
as the Dean of Students for eight years, and now as the Senior Vice President and
VP of Student Life and Enrollment at Colorado Christian University where I have been
for the last 28 years. In all, UNC student leadership launched me into a 40-year
career in student affairs work — what a valuable experience then that has turned into
a lifetime of college work.
–Jim McCormick ’84, Lakewood, CO
