Name: Ryan Mazon
Hometown: Fairfax, Virginia
Year: 1st year grad student
Major: Masters in Career Counseling
Age: 23
Dressed sharply in a bowtie and wearing a watch that matches his belt that matches his shoes, he saunters up to my table near the lake at the FSU Reservation. Tossing a “hello” behind him to a lifeguard, he takes a seat across from me and flashes a smile. “Let’s get started.”
This is Ryan Mazon, one of the most charismatic young men I have ever met – and he has a track record to prove it. From being an Orientation Leader to a Challenge Facilitator to a current Career Advisor, Ryan has done it all. He carved a few minutes out of his busy schedule to sit down with me to talk about life and how he got to the successful place he’s in today.
Her Campus (HC): If you could describe yourself in 3 words, what would they be?
Ryan Mazon (RM): Passionate, genuine and personable.
HC: Who has been the most influential person in your life?
RM: Definitely my mom. She taught me a lot about grace, what unconditional love means and patience. How to be compassionate with people, especially strangers. She’s just always there. She’s my best friend.
HC: What’s the biggest risk you’ve ever taken?
RM: Shoot, all I can think of is skating down Woodward Avenue at midnight just hoping that someone isn’t crossing a crosswalk or that a car isn’t coming. It was worth the thrill.
HC: Oh my goodness, and how old were you when that happened?
RM: I was a freshman.
HC: If you could visit your freshman self right now [pictured above], what would you tell him?
RM: Value education more. I did a lot with extracurriculars, and I’m very proud of that. It actually really shaped me and brought me to a lot of places and opportunities, but I did not value education enough. And it wasn’t just about grades. It was about being present in class and with my academics.
HC: So you worked at the Student Disabilities Resource Center. Talk to me about it.
RM: I’ve had a couple pretty cool jobs but working at the Student Disability Resource Center was the first job that I had really using my passions. It was a pivotal point because professionally I grew and really developed my customer service and also my patience with people. All those things I knew were there. I really developed and I got a bigger picture of where I wanted to go with it with higher education, with human services, and then I think from there I started with my specific passion in counseling. Those connections and networking there really set me on a trajectory to literally every other opportunity I’ve had on campus, first and foremost Orientation.
HC: Being an Orientation Leader is amazing! What’s your favorite memory?
RM: There was a lot of fun that we had as Orientation Leaders but what’s more memorable to me are the tough moments that really shape you and hopefully influence the student that you’re involved with. So for me, I encountered a student in the hallway really late at night before it was time to go to bed, I just talked to them about life and what was going on, because there was obviously something going on, and I ended up just being a really big part of her life as a mentor. She became an Orientation Leader and is now a Team Leader for the OL’s, and will hopefully become more. She’s already accomplished so much, so just being able to be a part of that process for her and seeing her growth has been the most rewarding thing. That’s just one person, and that’s what makes it all worth it to me.
HC: You are also a Challenge Facilitator at the FSU Reservation. How did that come about?
RM: Challenge came into the picture when an old roommate of mine talked about working there and being connected with the summer camp. It’s just a really different outlet for something that I’ve really been interested in since I was a kid, which is the outdoors and recreational experiences. I grew up, especially in my adolescence, in an urban area so I didn’t have the outdoors through those tough years, which was hard. And now, coming back and being able to do something outdoors has been a great outlet for me. I’ve learned a lot about the style of experiential learning. How an hour of play is more quality than a day of conversation. How you can learn a lot about someone just by playing with them.
HC: Continuing off of that, you were a Camp Counselor at the Rez [pictured above] this summer as well. Do you have any specific stories from that?
RM: I helped a student who was on the spectrum for autism. I have worked with a lot of students and kids in varying environments on different spectrums with different disabilities, both visible and not visible. Working with this student in a day camp that was outdoors and experiential was really constructive and although it helped me develop things that I already knew, such as patience and adaptation in crisis management, it also taught me [how to be] empathetic in the sense that needed to put myself in this individual’s shoes to basically gauge what my job was, what my primary concern was. Not only did we want to get through the day, but we wanted him to have a good time, to basically help him navigate through life experiences that were harder for him than other people. I did have to have a lot of help from the staff, support from people who had previously worked with him, but overall as an experience it taught me a lot about myself. What I can and can’t do, what I need to humble myself with, and how to be intentional with students that are even just a little different.
HC: And now you are a Career Advisor. How is that going?
RM: Becoming a Career Advisor was a hard and arduous process. It definitely wasn’t the plan first of all; it really happened and clicked less than a year ago. After I graduated I didn’t even know I wanted to be a counselor. I knew that I wanted to use counseling skills and styles to work in a higher education field, but becoming a career counselor is something that came into my mind after things didn’t work out. I think life works like that sometimes and its meant to be because [being a Career Advisor] is really a culmination of everything that I’ve been investing in and learning, and I didn’t even know it. It was just an opportunity for me to use everything that I really built up for a greater good. I think a lot of people dream of having that occupation for a lot of their lives, I know people that go throughout their life that never experience it and I just think that it’s ironic that my dream career is to help people find their dream careers.
HC: Is it ever scary knowing that you are helping students discover their career?
RM: As a career counselor, especially in training, you get nervous because it’s our nature and personalities to first of all care about these students and in that sense we are super critical of every piece of our technique, our approach, all of that. So yes, it is scary sometimes. But you kind of have to get past that, let it go, because any help is going to be extremely helpful to them because they’re gonna progress and know something more than when they came in. I know because I got past my insecurity that I can help someone, even if it’s just one piece of information in a 30 minute session. So on the other side of it is that I just graduated 6 months ago, so as far as being a peer counselor and helping them through that portion it definitely can be hard on both sides. So it’s really trying to distinguish that but at the end of the time they’re a priority and I care about them.
HC: What is the biggest lesson you’ve learned in college?
RM: To really throw yourself into everything that you can. Go 100% into everything that you’re interested in, and then make sacrifices along the way. Like, prioritize your time afterwards, after you figure out what you like more. And then on the other side of it, don’t sacrifice relationships. Be very intentional about who you know and who you spend time with because quality time with a person is really important.
HC: What are words to live by?
RM: If you do anything, be passionate about it. Make sure you’re proud of it. Never hesitate to help others. I think you’ll never regret it. You’ll always learn something from it. And every experience can be a great experience if you have a great attitude.
HC: You have been so involved, what advice would you give current students on how to be involved?
RM: Basically what I learned in college. Definitely get involved with whatever you can, make no excuses. Even if you’ve never done something. I had never been in an a cappella group but it just interested me so I auditioned and I got in. I think academics is just one side of it and if you can think of it in a professional job sense, that can be your 8-5 but it’s really what you do for the rest of your day that shapes you as a person.