Scaffolding Leadership Through Kindness
By Autumn Boaz and Serena Kopf
“My job is to help build the skills and achieve the goals that [students] want,” stated Julie Caruccio, Assistant Vice President for Research on the Student Experience at the University of Virginia.
Julie Caruccio, Assistant Vice President for Research on the Student Experience at the University of Virginia
A double ‘Hoo and Charlottesville native, Caruccio uses kindness to empower student leaders to embrace the challenges of college life and discover their true potential. As someone who has spent the majority of her career dedicated to student affairs and researching the student experience, Caruccio is committed to ensuring that each student has scaffolding to support them. Caruccio understands that “there are 17,000 different students at UVA, meaning there are 17,000 different places that students need to be met,” and she is responsible for building those support systems.
| What sets her apart is not only her kindness but also her unwavering commitment to seeing students thrive - Anonymous Student Leader
Caruccio spoke of her orientation to kindness through Brené Brown’s concept of Clear is Kind. This mindset prioritizes honest, compassionate, and productive conversations as opposed to feeding half-truths to others for the sake of making them feel better. Caruccio explains that supporting students includes providing critical guidance for a student to realize their full potential and develop the skills necessary for their future. With this, she believes that the role of Student Affairs is to recognize when students need to be nurtured or challenged in order to achieve their goals.
| She uses her complex understanding of UVA’s past to inform the future, taking on countless mentees and caring for them deeply - Anonymous Student Leader
Through her many years at UVA, Caruccio has vast experience in the university’s culture of student self-governance and pushes for further integration of kindness into student life. She believes that providing students with the opportunity to become leaders lays the best foundation for their future success, as they are given real responsibilities and the scaffolding to support them. The support system that Caruccio provides helps her build trusting relationships with student leaders by asserting her role as their number one supporter, while also being there to drive them toward their goals. These meaningful relationships with students inform her knowledge and practice of kindness to inspire the next generation of leaders.
| Her work to ensure that students are heard and seen is remarkable. - Anonymous Student Leader
Caruccio practices kindness not only in her work with students but also in her interactions with her colleagues. Working in the Northeast wing of the Rotunda in a hallway lined with offices, Caruccio makes a concerted effort to start every morning by greeting everyone that she sees.
This may be asking about their weekend as they pass each other in the hallway or popping her head into her co-worker’s office to wish them a good day. For Caruccio, kindness in the workplace can be spread through small actions like these daily greetings, or even by holding the door open for someone behind her. Kindness can also come through in language, from verbal praises to open collaboration to thoughtful email composition. Caruccio even goes as far as commending her colleagues for being present and engaging during meetings, in addition to notifying their supervisors to celebrate their achievements and impact. In short, Caruccio enacts the power of small acts of kindness and models the importance of recognizing a person’s contributions in a meaningful and genuine way.