For more than 15 years, Rosalyn Jimenez has had a significant influence on students in higher education. As a senior advisor in the Pre-Professional Advising Center, she provides students with resources, tools, and a supportive environment as they navigate their academic journeys and professional goals. 

A first-generation college graduate, Jimenez applies the lessons she’s learned from her own experiences in higher education to her work with students. Along the way, she’s discovered how to nurture her love for lifelong learning by pursuing courses in entrepreneurship and exposing her younger siblings to university life through programs such as the UNLV Music Lab.

Family is at the heart of everything Jimenez does in her professional and personal life. After experiencing the loss of her mother two years ago, she has made it her mission to “create the life she wants.” From traveling abroad and making time for hobbies to learning new things, Jimenez is laser-focused on this next chapter of her life. 

What is your role at the university?

I’m a senior advisor with the Pre-Professional Advising Center (PPAC), and I've been at UNLV since 2020. But I have worked for NSHE since I was 19. For context, I turned 35 in January, so it’s been a while!

Before I came to UNLV, I worked in the recruitment office at College of Southern Nevada. Before that, I was an advisor.

What does it mean to you to be a first-generation college graduate? 

I graduated from UNLV in 2015 with a degree in English literature. Being a first-gen student who didn't know what they were doing, I started at CSN first. I was trying to figure out life there and got good at learning how higher education works. Then, I enrolled at UNLV.

On my first day at school, my mom dropped me off at the front and said "Good luck! Have a great day." And I was like, "I don't know where I'm supposed to be. I don't know where to go." It was an experience of not knowing and encountering other students who don't know either.

My innate personality is to step in and help or say, "Hey, if we don't know this, let's figure it out together." That's really what working in higher ed is about; connecting people and helping them find solutions to issues so that they can get through this journey and come out of the other side relatively unscathed.

Being a first-generation graduate means a step further. My parents were able to get so far, and then they handed the baton to me to take it further. I have younger sisters. There's a large age gap between us. Whenever there are events at UNLV, I bring them because I want them to take the baton from me and go even further. I'm carrying my family with me, because it's through me they also achieved. It's for all of us.

What inspired you to get into your field?

Very much like higher ed, I fell into [pre-professional advising]. In all of the different areas that I've been in, this was another arena I hadn't stepped into. And I'm curious, I love to learn things. I'm constantly on the internet like: What can I learn today?

I felt that it was scary, because [working with pre-med students] was an area I'd never been in before. I'd ask, "What do they need to do?" 

We have this idea from pop culture of the crazy lives these students live. But sitting on this side, I was excited to learn something new within higher ed. It played to my strengths of wanting to help students reach their goals, but in a different way. That inspired me to be where I'm at, and what I love about where I'm at right now is the conversations I have with my students.

It's not as transactional as I've had with other experiences. We get to talk about life. We get to talk about what they want and what tools they can use to get where they need to go or to achieve whatever dreams they have. I like to help them figure this out. Life is like going to the market. I always equate it to shopping for experiences. "I want to be this kind of person. What are the ingredients?" Let's shop for that stuff.

Who did you look up to when you first started your career?

I've been so blessed to have so many mentors in higher ed. I would not be here without them. It started at CSN and many of those individuals are at UNLV as well. I was like a little flower that they watered. They helped me better understand how to navigate this field and taught me how to step into a room, represent myself, and advocate for myself, as well as navigating the ups and downs, harnessing my talents, and putting them to good use. I'm a very creative person, and in every job that I've had here, I've implemented that creativity in some shape or form. It’s not just one person. It's been multiple people in several departments that helped either pull me up or push me up.

Is this what you thought you’d do when you grew up?

No. I love telling students that this is not where I thought I would end up and not in a bad way, but to let them know that life sometimes takes you in a totally different direction than you thought.

I went to what is now called the Southeast Technical Academy (SECTA). I studied film in middle school, then I studied film in high school and that was my dream. I wanted to create things that made people feel and write stories, bring stories to life, and that was kind of my thing. I was involved in a lot of competitions and somehow ended up going into graphic design.

When I started my college academic journey, I was a film student. And, unfortunately, I didn’t get too far. Back then, I felt like it was still very male-dominated. I had a mentor say it's very hard for women to make it in this career field. I took that to heart. I feel like I should have kept going, but life had other plans, and that's OK. 

If you weren’t working at UNLV, where do you think you’d be?

I would be traveling abroad. So, maybe this is the best context of where I can continue the conversation of where I would have liked to be because I'm so curious and obsessed with learning. As a kid, I loved National Geographic and the Discovery Channel. My dream was to go around the world and teach people about the world, documenting different cultures — kind of like what Anthony Bourdain was to my generation. I would have loved to go around the world and share the world with people.

We know our faculty and staff can have a profound effect on their students — but tell us about a lesson you learned from a student.

I think to listen better, to not jump to conclusions, to not assume, just listen. Sometimes students don't need direction, they just need to be heard. They've taught me to ask, "Do you need my feedback, or would you like me to listen?" I try to integrate that with every student.

Are you part of any organizations or clubs?

I recently got started with ALAB, which is the Adult Learners Advisory Board. They asked me to join, and I wanted to help build community. I'm a faculty advisor for a pre-health student organization. I also took advantage of an opportunity to participate in a micro-externship for advisors to learn about other centers and how we can bridge communication and understanding so that we can improve how we guide students.

Tell us about an object in your office.

It's the number three. I use it in the concepts of my students all the time. The whole process of applying to a professional school comes down to three things: the numbers, your experiences, and other components. How do we culminate those pieces together? Then when I advise them, they say, "Well, what do I do? How do I grow?"

I tell them in everything they do, try to grow: academically, professionally, and personally. Three is such a balanced number. I feel like you can organize a lot of complex ideas into parts of three.

What do you like to do with your family?

One of the things about me that surprises people is that I have much younger siblings. They range from 14 to 6 years old. We like to do $5 Tuesday movie nights at the theater, have sleepovers, and do activities. We're a very close-knit family. We're going to Disneyland in May. They're very excited about that. We walk at the Wetlands Park, and we'll chat about life.

We're very integrated into each other's lives. There are so many different creative things that we do. I also bring them to UNLV. My sisters are very involved with the UNLV Music Lab. They've done several research studies. They have visited when the university has kid-friendly events. They're very hardcore UNLV fans, so I try to foster their interests. 

What advice would you give your younger self?

You got this. You can do it. You don't need anyone else's approval or validation. Do what you want to do for yourself and not to please others. Follow your dreams.

What does the future look like for you?

I am so excited, because I feel like I've been starting to implement a lot of the advice I give to my students towards myself, which is growth. I've started to learn that there is no endpoint. There is no finish line. There are checkpoints, and I'm excited right now to get to the next checkpoint. So for me, growth in my personal life and my academic life is important.

I applied for a certificate program to learn innovation and entrepreneurship, because it's something I love doing. In my personal life, I want to do more of the things that I love, to nurture things that I am passionate about. Whether it's writing, taking pictures, or helping people learn how to communicate their ideas, creatively and professionally. I want to learn more about how I can be better. I don't know what that looks like yet. That's perfectly fine, which is rare for me because I always have to have a plan. I live off of my Google calendar and my planner; I have to write down things that I want to do.

I think right now I'm super excited, because I have the bones of what I want to do, but I'm also open to experiences that will help me get there. Look at where I'm at right now, this was not in the plan, but it's helped me so much as a person — 2024 feels good. I feel like I am finally in a good place. I've done my healing after loss, and I'm ready. I'm ready to not be afraid to go and get what I want, even if it means I have to do it by myself.