Clay Cox- Academic Advisor, Biological Sciences
Meet Clay. Clay has been with Boise State as an Academic Advisor since 2006, but with Biology since 2013. Clay is busy meeting with over 75 students a week. (WOW!) He works with students on obtaining their degrees in the most efficient way possible. Not only does he advise academically, but he offers personal and professional advice as well (he charges hourly). Clay’s motto: More good advising for more students.
One of the most rewarding parts of Clay’s position is seeing students reenergized when they see the light at the end of the graduation tunnel. Nothing is more rewarding than seeing the student’s work hard and reach their goals. He also loves the challenge of no two students’ needs being the same. Every student that comes into his office (which is located in the Science Building, Room 107A) has a different requirement.
Clay finds a lack of resources to be one of the most challenging parts of his job. When a student knows what they want, and they want to get into a class and that class is full or is only offered once a year, that is discouraging. However, Clay is a master at finding alternatives to get his students to commencement in a timely manner.
Clay is most proud of his professional achievements, being involved with students on a daily basis and seeing their potential, how they get to the end of their degrees is what it is about. He does have a secret to being happy and successful (just one the rest you have to pay for): leave your desk for lunch. Every. Day. We all get caught up in checking emails, or this problem can’t wait. We all need a breather. Take some time and clear your head. It does wonders.
Now for some fun stuff about Clay! Clay really enjoys being outdoors; he prefers the mountains to the beaches, yet he has a fear of heights (weird). So, to explain, he mentioned that as long as he has sure footing, he doesn’t mind how high he goes. But just doesn’t particularly care for doing crazy things up in the air. He actually got “off track” in the mountains one time for a day, but recovered quickly and survived. He loves to spend time with his family, camping, biking and the like. He rides his bike to work every day. EVERY DAY. Rain, snow, sleet, wind, sun (no he isn’t a postman; he’s our Biology Academic Advisor!). If Clay could drive any car it would be a 1976 Jeep CJ7 (he had one once, he misses it). Clay loves Science Fiction books and can’t get enough of the Walking Dead. One thing you probably didn’t know- he spent 6 months hitchhiking across Australia. Just flew on over to the land down under and toured the country with a lot of trust in humanity. He ran out of money for a short time and worked at a youth hostel. That was pretty amazing, but so was Belize. I know, this guy has been around. If he could go anywhere in the world it is a tough decision between Central America or Europe. So, he’ll probably do both…someday.
Thank you, Clay, for your hard work and dedication to our students. And also, for just being a plain old cool guy.