Akil and Hong welcome Ashley to the show to discuss her role as the new Admissions and Records supervisor and where she fits in to the overall picture at A&R, which segues into a discussion about petition forms and how those can benefit students that need them. From there, the trio discuss Ashley's path to SBCC that helps to explain why she was such a good fit for the position, and then discuss some of her favorite restaurants (that serve vegan cuisine), things to cook, podcasts, books, TV shows to watch with her family, and then music. As always, check the show notes to take a deeper dive!
Mentioned in this episode:
SBCC Admissions and Records - https://sbcc.edu/admissions/
SBCC Forms/Petitions - https://sbcc.edu/forms/
SBCC Etrieve electronic forms - https://sbcccentral.etrieve.cloud/
Admissions and Records general contact email - admissions@sbcc.edu
A&R Petitions email - arpetitions@sbcc.edu
Nordstrom (customer service model) - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nordstrom
Yacht Rock - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yacht_rock
Rascal’s Vegan - https://www.rascalsvegan.com/
Your Choice - https://www.yourchoicerestaurant.com/
Masala Spice - https://www.masalaspicesb.com/
Shalimar - https://www.shalimarslo.com/
Ziggy’s Plant-Based Food - https://www.eatziggys.com/
My Thai - http://www.mythaislo.com/
Homemade Nut Milk - https://www.loveandoliveoil.com/2017/03/homemade-nut-milk-flavors.html
Homemade Granola - https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/275749/grandmas-homemade-granola/
Chocolate Chip Cookies - https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/10813/best-chocolate-chip-cookies/
Lentil Soup - https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1016062-red-lentil-soup
Armchair Expert podcast - https://armchairexpertpod.com/
Flightless Bird podcast - https://www.flightlessbirdpod.com/listen
Beth’s Dead podcast - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/beths-dead/id1842968648
The Cormoran Strike by Robert Galbraith (J.K. Rowling) - https://robert-galbraith.com/strike-books/
Degrassi - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Degrassi
Rupaul’s Drag Race - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RuPaul%27s_Drag_Race
Bridgerton Official Playlist - https://open.spotify.com/playlist/37i9dQZF1DX5Hl0iWtr5b3
Lindsey Stirling - https://www.lindseystirling.com/
Dancing on My Own by Robyn - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CcNo07Xp8aQ
Vundabar - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vundabar
Captions provided by Zoom
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Hong Lieu: Hello, and welcome to another episode of SBCC Vaquero Voices, a podcast highlighting the unique voices that comprise our campus culture, and how we're all working together to serve our students and the community at large. As usual, I'm joined by co-host, Akil Hill.
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Akil Hill: What's good, y'all?
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Hong Lieu: And today, we are honored to welcome Ashley Gujia to the show. Welcome, Ashley!
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Akil Hill: Welcome, Ashley.
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Ashley Guggia: Thank you.
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Hong Lieu: So you're… you've been in admissions records as it… is it about a year now? Has it been a year?
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Ashley Guggia: Yep, just shy of a year. Yep.
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Hong Lieu: Alright, and you are the director?
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Hong Lieu: Of admissions records, is that your official title, or what's the actual title name there?
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Ashley Guggia: I am the supervisor.
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Hong Lieu: Okay.
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Ashley Guggia: Yeah, we don't have a director. There's not a position that is here anymore, so it's…
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Hong Lieu: Oh, that was a form of… okay, it's been re… kind of… okay, I see, got it now. So I guess that's a good chance to lead into my first question in terms of…
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Hong Lieu: where do you fit in in the overall hierarchy? Like, when do you… when do you step in? Are you just part of everything? Like, do you… you know, like, this… is it like the front of house where everything touches? Like, you have to clean the plates off, or you send it out, or… I mean, what is… what kind of… where do you fit in piece? Like, where… where… where's your piece of the puzzle in admissions and records?
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Ashley Guggia: Well, I tend to be somebody who kind of gets involved in everything, just by nature, so I definitely know, like, what's going on.
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Ashley Guggia: all the time, I mean, maybe not in every situation, but I'm, like…
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Ashley Guggia: staffing stuff constantly, I know what's in the loop, so definitely, like.
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Ashley Guggia: I'm the person who deals with upset people. That, for sure, is definitely… comes by way.
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Ashley Guggia: if, you know, somebody doesn't like what the specialists have told them or whatnot, then they come, they come my way for sure. But, the way it works here is we just sort of, like, all work together all the time, and so my staff are, you know, coming to me, being like, hey, this is what's going on, am I doing this, you know, am I…
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Ashley Guggia: second pair of eyes, that's me, but I like to be in the know about everything, and I prefer more information than less, so…
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Ashley Guggia: I'm always, like, I tell myself, CC me on everything, just, like, you know, let me know, but at the same time, I don't like to micromanage, so, I'm super involved with petitions.
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Ashley Guggia: And Akil and I kind of tag-team faculty, like, managing, assisting faculty, but I'm really involved in the petition process, and so, Isabel's a specialist that works on that, and, I review pretty much
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Ashley Guggia: all of the petitions that come through here, and then decide if we need to take it to a committee, or if we can proceed, or that sort of thing. So, yeah, I mean.
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Ashley Guggia: I wouldn't say that I… what was the analogy I used? Touch the plates before they go out?
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Hong Lieu: clean every plate before it goes out to… you send it out to the table?
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Hong Lieu: Yeah, I, I.
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Ashley Guggia: Yeah, I just… I like to be up in the biz that's happening.
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Hong Lieu: So, for students that aren't familiar with the petition process, and I, as a non-student, am not familiar with the petition process as well, also asking.
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Hong Lieu: when does that come into play, and I mean, when would a student even be thinking about
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Hong Lieu: submitting a petition? Is this for, like, a to-pass-no-pass, or is this beyond that and something else?
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Ashley Guggia: There are various, yeah, there's various types of, all of the above. Various types of petitions, and Akhil, feel free to… to jump in, because…
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Ashley Guggia: he… he gets in the mix, too. So, Pass No Pass is not a petition anymore, so students control that in the new, you know, Banner 9 self-service, so that was…
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Ashley Guggia: great for us, great for students. So, before it was like, you know, it was delayed, somebody had to manually review and deny. That's not happening with Pass No Pass, so that's off the list now.
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Ashley Guggia: A big bulk of them are excused withdrawals, so students that have, extenuating circumstances that impacted their, you know, ability to
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Ashley Guggia: perform academically. A large amount of petitions that we see are for excused withdrawals, so,
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Ashley Guggia: I'm trying, and we're trying as a department to make everything electronic now, so we're building more and more E-Tree forms, so now the EW is, an E-Tree form. Before, it was, like, sometimes people would walk them in, sometimes they would email them, so it was kind of all over the place.
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Ashley Guggia: play, so now that's streamlined.
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Ashley Guggia: And so, that goes to a specialist, either a senior specialist or the admissions specialist, and then they will come to me if they require, you know, there's certain criteria of when they need to come to me, or if they can just be processed immediately.
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Ashley Guggia: And then we also have, sort of the,
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Ashley Guggia: the catch-all petition, right, Akil? We see the…
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Ashley Guggia: petition for waiver of college regulations, which essentially, like.
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Ashley Guggia: a student can almost ask for anything that they want. So, there's a few in there which would be, like, reversal of a pass, no pass, a late withdrawal with a refund,
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Ashley Guggia: But essentially, if a student… I mean, I have seen some pretty creative, requests from students, even in my short time here, of things that they would like us to… to review, and so that's sort of like the, like, yeah, miscellaneous petition type, if you… if you will, where…
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Ashley Guggia: students submit that and say, like, hey, this is what happened, this is what I'm hoping can be done.
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Ashley Guggia: There's also petitions for students who, I don't know, lost their priority registration date, and they want that to be reconsidered, so those come to me, and I review those too.
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Ashley Guggia: What other kinds of petitions do we see, Akil?
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Akil Hill: I mean, I think you're hitting it all, all…
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Akil Hill: on the head with everything, I think,
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Akil Hill: the petition of the, the waiver of College Regulations, that's kind of like the catch-all, the A, B, C, and D.
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Hong Lieu: But the ego…
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Akil Hill: as a… go ahead.
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Akil Hill: I was gonna say, the EW positions come through a lot, that's like…
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Ashley Guggia: Yeah.
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Hong Lieu: And that is something I have a lot of experience with in terms of failing classes when I was in college, so I guess the follow-up question, as someone who doesn't know about the petition, but knows about failing classes, what is the advantage of petitioning for an excused withdrawal versus just taking the F and just eating the GPA? Does it not go against the GPA, or does it not… I mean, is there… what's the benefit there?
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Ashley Guggia: Yeah, so it,
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Ashley Guggia: it replaces whatever grade you had, and literally your transcript says EW. It doesn't count negatively towards your GPA, and it doesn't count against your attempts at a class. So students have 3 attempts to pass a class, so, like, if you
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Ashley Guggia: got an F or a D, you could retake it, and it would still… both classes would show.
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Ashley Guggia: this would still give you, say, 3 attempts if it was your first try, so it doesn't… it doesn't count against you in that. From what I'm gathering, some colleges don't kind of utilize the EW as much as we do here at SBCC, but it is,
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Ashley Guggia: I mean, some of the hardships that our students go through when we read these, and, you know, they have to provide supporting documents, and the…
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Ashley Guggia: really personal, like, vulnerable stuff that students have to share with us through that process. I mean, it's…
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Ashley Guggia: it's really intense sometimes. I mean, I've seen…
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Ashley Guggia: Yeah, I've seen a lot of serious things, definitely come through. So, it's an advantage, and it's like, it communicates to other institutions as well, like, something happened.
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Ashley Guggia: And, you know, you needed… you needed a… just…
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Ashley Guggia: You know, a free pass, and other institutions don't look negatively on that when they see it on your transcript as well.
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Akil Hill: Yeah. I mean, it's also so good, because, I mean, I'm gonna date myself, but… you know, back in the day, if you failed a class, that was, like, RIP. That was almost like…
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Akil Hill: a sentence you couldn't get out of, right? And so, it's really good, you know, these days in higher ed, where
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Akil Hill: the students have so many options. You know, there's the EW option, there's the option of failing and retaking the class and getting it excluded from your GPA. There's all these different ways of remedying
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Akil Hill: a student so they could have success and transfer on. And so, just, it's a good thing, for students to know that there are multiple options, because,
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Akil Hill: the challenges that they may run into, while a student here at Santa Barbara City College.
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Hong Lieu: And it's probably something that they did have when I was in school, but I was that kind of student that was like, oh, I don't need help with anything, I did pretty well in high school, I can handle this. And like you said, Akil, you failed one class.
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Hong Lieu: You get an accurate information. Luckily, I went to a Cal State. UC academic information is another level that I would have just not been able to handle, but Cal State, it was, like, three strikes and you're out. So you could be an academic probation twice, but if you get off that third time, it would reset again. So, you know, UC was, like, one, and then you're, like, already on… about to get kicked out, and that would have been no good for me, but…
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Hong Lieu: So I was able to, like, kind of roll with the punches and go two on.
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Hong Lieu: one off a couple times, and then I realized I had to change my major, but knowing about all these programs, knowing about just all the options that are available to me, I could have made my college-going experience much more…
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Hong Lieu: convenient for me, because the stress of going through that process, speaking about it now, 20 years later, I still… I still have nightmares about failing classes and things of that sort, so the.
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Ashley Guggia: Totally.
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Hong Lieu: I dealt with then still carries over to this day, so I could have saved myself a lot of emotional anguish by just, you know, taking advantage of the opportunities and programs available to me in terms of helping me with when I was failing a class, but also those kind of situations where when I just know it's just not going to happen.
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Hong Lieu: that I had other levers I could pull that I didn't even look into, and that was to my detriment, so…
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Ashley Guggia: Thank you all for… in the department, for taking care of that. Just having our.
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Hong Lieu: to folks, and then also for, you know, going through all this and then helping folks out. I mean, for you, Ashley, it feels like a position that you kind of have to be a little bit
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Hong Lieu: You know, good at everything, because you're dealing with something that's very… a process that's very procedural, you're requiring supporting documentation, so there's a bureaucratic aspect to it, but it also sounds like you're dealing with, you know, really emotionally, whether it's people complaining and you're dealing with emotionally charged people.
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Hong Lieu: Or people really kind of despondent and just laying their heart out to you. Just, there's just a lot of…
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Hong Lieu: Emotion, and a lot of bureaucracy at play.
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Hong Lieu: So, in terms of how you balance that, or if there is a way, I mean, how do you approach this… how do you approach things and maintain, you know, your positive demeanor that every time I see you, you're just like, you know, a beacon of fresh air, you know?
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Ashley Guggia: Okay, well now, now you're… now you're pushing it. Thank you, I appreciate it.
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Hong Lieu: That's what I gotta do.
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Akil Hill: That's… no, that's accurate. I would have to say that's very accurate.
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Ashley Guggia: Okay, well, thank you.
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Hong Lieu: But even folks, even folks that are kind of thinking about this kind of work.
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Hong Lieu: You know, or just there's so many positions… there's so many jobs out there that are like that nowadays, where
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Hong Lieu: You know, Akil's former employer, Nordstrom, I blame them partly for sending a customer service example that was somewhat, you know, definitely unsustainable, but everyone carries that with them wherever they go, where they want the utmost of customer service, and the utmost of efficiency and speed, and no guff while anything is happening.
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Hong Lieu: So, I mean, yeah, how does that… how does that balance play out for you, in terms of maintaining your sanity through all of this?
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Ashley Guggia: Yeah, for sure. I think it is…
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Ashley Guggia: kind of twofold, in that, just by nature, I love rules. I'm a total, like, rule-following person. I love, like, policy.
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Ashley Guggia: procedure, like, those kind of parameters, like, I love them. Like, my husband, for example, like, he's completely opposite, like, he thinks… he's like, why… how could you do a job like that, right? Like, he's… but, so…
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Ashley Guggia: In that part of it, like.
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Ashley Guggia: I'm just naturally sort of like that, and I'm also a problem solver by nature, and so, like, anything that comes my way, my brain's automatically like, what applies to this? How can we figure this out? How can we solve it? So there's that part of me. There's also my…
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Ashley Guggia: work experience that comes into play, because I was a probation officer for 12 years.
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Ashley Guggia: And I wrote, I did investigations, not for the whole time, but that was kind of my specialty. And,
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Ashley Guggia: I dealt with…
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Ashley Guggia: very serious cases, and a lot of very serious, like, subject matter. And so, for a lot of years, I've been sort of… I definitely am not desensitized, like, I don't want to suggest that, because that kind of tends to remove, like, that human element.
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Ashley Guggia: But…
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Ashley Guggia: I have been, you know, reading and interviewing victims, and I mean, doing that sort of thing for a lot of years, and so that's sort of, like, initially, and in that process, all bound by code, right? Like, I used to say, the penal code is my favorite book, right? Like,
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Ashley Guggia: I'm that cool, that's right.
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Ashley Guggia: And so… Like, that kind of got me accustomed to dealing with people in really hard, difficult situations.
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Ashley Guggia: people coming from backgrounds that are, you know, very difficult, and I have a lot of experience working with trial welfare services. I have, you know, a lot of experience working with mental health professionals, and so all of that experience is really helpful. And then.
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Ashley Guggia: Prior to working here for 7 years after I was a probation officer, I was assistant principal at a high school, and so I dealt with teenagers and, like, all the stuff that they were going through, all the stuff their families were going through.
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Ashley Guggia: So, I think that… just a combo of just nature and experience. So, you know.
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Ashley Guggia: a lot of what I deal with here is a bit less intense than I sort of had to pre… on certain levels than I previously dealt with, but people are all the same…
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Ashley Guggia: the emotions that they're going through are all the same, but I think it helps me keep, like, I can be very balanced and be like.
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Ashley Guggia: I can still…
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Ashley Guggia: feel that this person was going through something that was impactful and significant, yet they don't meet whatever the criteria is that we need to be able to move forward. Like, I feel like I'm able to, like, separate those two things in that
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Ashley Guggia: You know, just because something impacts me emotionally, or I feel badly for somebody, doesn't automatically mean
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Ashley Guggia: that we get to move forward with whatever they're asking for. Or, you know, just because it was hard, or just because I had a convo… conversation with them, and they were a super nice person, or whatever it is, like.
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Ashley Guggia: You have to be able to still, you know, like, see someone as a human, treat them with dignity, evaluate their situation, but still keep in mind, like, whatever parameters, policy, you know, is…
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Ashley Guggia: Is coming into play.
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Hong Lieu: And I think you touched on a really important element there in terms of
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Hong Lieu: The circumstances are one thing, but how it feels to them emotionally?
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Hong Lieu: It's probably… there's a lot of similarities there, where there's things, you know, there's like me failing… me failing a class in college.
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Hong Lieu: felt the same as when, you know, we might not… when I was a kid and we didn't have rent due, we might get kicked out of our house, but in terms of the actual, like, magnitude of each, it's drastically different to the… to everybody around it, but in terms of where I was, it felt similar. I was like.
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Hong Lieu: freaking out, stressed out. So it's just about understanding that folks… folks are… the feelings are justified to them. So you have to at least meet them there.
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Hong Lieu: And then just… and then from there, you can just, you know.
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Hong Lieu: work with them there, and acknowledge how they feel is valid, and also try to work with them and get to a resolution or a place where you can at least get to a better point. So it's something where…
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Ashley Guggia: Yeah.
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Hong Lieu: Your life experience has helped give you this spectrum of seeing, like, the circumstances that can lead to emotional response, but you can all… you've also probably seen throughout the years
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Hong Lieu: how… not uniform, but how consistent that emotional response is in people when they really feel fight or flight, or when they're just starting to begin to understand what the… what is really going on, what's unfolding in front of them. So you've been able to take those commonalities and kind of
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Hong Lieu: in, you know, infuse them in your work throughout the years, which is really cool.
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Akil Hill: Yeah. Yeah.
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Akil Hill: Yeah, I was gonna say, one other thing, too, that I'll have to, you know, say is it's been really, like, Ashley's been, like, a…
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Akil Hill: breath of fresh air in our department, you know, I mean, a lot of people know, like, about Emission Records. Most people have been in the office. We got people that have been here over… multiple people that have been over 20 years, 25 years, and so…
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Ashley Guggia: 30.
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Akil Hill: Yeah, over… yeah, exactly, even 30 years. And what… one thing that I have witnessed and known to be,
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Akil Hill: Such a benefit is.
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Akil Hill: When students… it used to be when students would come in, and they would submit a petition, and the res… the… the… whatever the determination was, it was just that, right?
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Akil Hill: And what I've kind of noticed that has shifted in our office since Ashley came aboard is that there's a sense of giving the student the option if the first option isn't available to them. So, in other words, if the petition, let's say, wasn't
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Akil Hill: approved, then the comeback is like, well, this is not gonna work, but you also have this, this, and this to choose from, right? And sometimes, for students, that's really empowering, right? Because it used to be, like, that cut-dry note, sorry, you don't make it.
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Akil Hill: petition denied. Now it's more like, okay, this… you don't meet the qualifications for this, but here are 3 other options, or 2 other options that you might want to consider, exploring or working around. And that's a whole shift in culture, that has occurred within the last year, so…
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Akil Hill: Appreciate you for that, Ashley.
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Ashley Guggia: Yeah, yeah, of course. And also, sometimes, too, students are pursuing something because they think that's what they should be doing, right? Or they think that's what is best for them, but in reality, like, I'll see petitions come in, and I'm like.
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Ashley Guggia: well, I could approve this, but it's actually not what's best for the student's transcript, or it's not what's best for the student, so…
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Ashley Guggia: Yeah, well, we'll often, not only in no situations, but even in yes situations, I'll put a note on it and say, I would give… this student qualifies for an EW, even though they're just asking to repeat a class. Like, an EW's better for them. Reach out and say, like, hey, would you like to take this option?
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Ashley Guggia: And it's… it's often just because they think that
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Ashley Guggia: they're pursuing what they're supposed to be doing, and it's just they don't… they just don't know.
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Hong Lieu: That was me as a computer engineer my freshman year at Cal Poly, so yeah. Definitely, definitely wasn't built for that life, but…
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Ashley Guggia: I learned…
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Hong Lieu: reasonably quick.
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Akil Hill: Well…
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Hong Lieu: So I guess, follow-up question, for students that are looking
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Hong Lieu: for that kind of help, or might want to apply for a petition, is the first step just to come to the desk in Student Services? Is email the best first step? I mean, what's… how should students get in touch with y'all if they need help?
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Ashley Guggia: We have… I mean, different, different options, so…
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Ashley Guggia: I try to keep our website as up-to-date as possible, and try not to bother Johan, unless I have to.
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Hong Lieu: You know I don't mind, but yes.
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Ashley Guggia: So our website is always a good bet, like, the forms website is up-to-date, the admissions website is as up-to-date, as possible.
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Ashley Guggia: If someone sees something that's not, please let me know so we can get that, done. So, some students like to kind of explore that on their own. Some students like to just come to a window and say, hey, this is what I have going on, like, what should I do? We'll help guide them there.
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Ashley Guggia: Or we do have,
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Ashley Guggia: We have our general admissions email inbox, which is just, you know, admissions at
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Ashley Guggia: sbcc.edu. Like, all general questions could go there. If it's a specific question that… that…
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Ashley Guggia: should go somewhere else, they get forwarded to whoever should answer those, so that's kind of always a safe bet. And then we have our, petitions email specifically. I would encourage, you know, if you know for sure you have
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Ashley Guggia: a petitions question, go with AR petitions.
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Ashley Guggia: that, that inbox. And all of that is on the… the website, too, because we deal with residency as well, so we have a residency page, and, so all those contact
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Ashley Guggia: ways are fine. Apparently, there's still, like, a fax number floating around. I wouldn't… I wouldn't advise…
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Ashley Guggia: I wouldn't advise that.
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Akil Hill: I can give that 805-965-0581. That's the fax number. But people don't even use that, but…
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Ashley Guggia: Where that goes, like…
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Akil Hill: It doesn't go anywhere, it just gets stuck in the person's head who's been in… worked in the department for 20 years.
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Hong Lieu: I will get all those emails into the show notes. I will omit the fax number, although folks will definitely remember that.
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Ashley Guggia: Thanks, Aquil, thanks so much.
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Hong Lieu: Segwaying to our next section, though. What brought you to SBCCC? Now, I heard you mentioned, probation, assistant principal, or assistant at a high school, and I mean… Yep.
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Hong Lieu: How far back before that you want to go, or what started you on that path?
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Ashley Guggia: That's a lege.
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Hong Lieu: over Anywhere you want to start, let's hear about your path to SBCC.
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Ashley Guggia: Alright, well, yeah, my first grown-up job, if you will. So, after college, I did some research for a while, but that was just because…
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Ashley Guggia: I didn't really know, like, what kind of job I wanted to get, so, I did major in psychology and sociology, so general enough to get lots of different jobs, but, I didn't really know what I wanted to do, so I did research for a little while, and then, we moved to the Central Coast, so,
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Ashley Guggia: I… Became a probation officer in… 2005.
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Ashley Guggia: I think, yeah. And I, I did that for…
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Ashley Guggia: for 12 years, and, I did adult, I did juvenile. My last assignment, actually, I supervised all of the,
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Ashley Guggia: juvenile services in Santa Barbara, actually, so, I commute to Santa Barbara, so I was doing that then, but honestly, it was… like, my kids were little then, and it was just sucking the life out of me. Like, it was…
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Ashley Guggia: I was… I would see them for, like, maybe an hour every day. I worked almost 24 hours a day. It was just, like.
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Ashley Guggia: not great for me. And I knew that I was gonna continue to want to, promote, and so I saw, like.
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Ashley Guggia: okay, I… I… but I… I couldn't really… I didn't see any other avenue, like, I didn't know what I wanted to do, and out of the blue, somebody called me and said that,
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Ashley Guggia: high school, actually, that I attended.
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Ashley Guggia: was looking for a dean of students, and they were like, we think it would be super great if you came in with the dean of students.
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Ashley Guggia: Which I kind of thought was funny, and then, long story short, I just decided I was gonna take this leap.
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Ashley Guggia: take a humongous pay cut, and work 7 minutes from my house, and have a way better schedule, and it was very good for my family. Like, that move was very good for my family.
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Ashley Guggia: And I'm, like, a super loyal person, like, I… and so leaving a job for me was, like…
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Ashley Guggia: difficult, right? It was… it was a really difficult decision.
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Akil Hill: Okay.
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Ashley Guggia: I mean, I had great options, but it was a really hard thing for me, but, I'm really glad that I did it, and my family was really happy, and the transition to the high school, it was like, oh my gosh, at that point, like, a breath of fresh air. Like, it was so different, I was out and about, like, I was in charge of discipline, but, like.
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Ashley Guggia: it was a private school, so, like, the discipline that I was mostly dealing with compared to what I had been working with, it was, like, you know, no biggie, and, it really, like.
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Ashley Guggia: since I went to that high school, like, a handful of my teachers still worked there. Like, it was a great community to work in. Like, they just really welcomed me. It's really, like, family atmosphere, and
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Ashley Guggia: you know, my kids could come after school. I wasn't afraid for my clients to see my kids anymore. Like, I wasn't in law enforcement, so it was, like, safe for my kids to be around, and, like, that was just… that was really cool.
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Ashley Guggia: And…
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Ashley Guggia: you know, like, just kind of gradually over time, and I think, as we know, COVID had a lot of impacts, and, you know, we'll still be seeing the impacts forever, but…
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Ashley Guggia: I… the school that I worked at, we transitioned back to on-campus
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Ashley Guggia: education right away. Like, I think by…
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Ashley Guggia: September or October of that next school, like, we were in school full-time in person, and so…
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Ashley Guggia: I was, like, the COVID liaison during that time, and I just was like, oh my gosh, it was…
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Ashley Guggia: It was a lot to handle, and enforcing all the rules and policies, and like, that was just really intense, and then…
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Ashley Guggia: You know, some of the stuff that I just started seeing at the school, and
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Ashley Guggia: I gotta be honest, like, I don't think that teenagers are my favorite people. Like, largely, teenagers are not my favorite people, and, like.
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Ashley Guggia: like, there are groups within… but it just felt like everything that I was doing was just really negative. Like, all my interactions with students, they were all about discipline, it was also… it was…
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Ashley Guggia: starting again, like, I felt like I had been the bearer of bad news.
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Ashley Guggia: All of my years at probation, and then all of my years at the high school, and, you know, the parents became…
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Ashley Guggia: a challenge to work with. They really… they really did, and
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Ashley Guggia: So, I felt like I was kind of, like, you know, swimming
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Ashley Guggia: Against the current a lot of… a lot of the time, and I just decided, like, still.
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Ashley Guggia: I don't really know what I want to do, and now I have, like, kind of an
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Ashley Guggia: Odd, like, work experience of…
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Ashley Guggia: law enforcement and school… high school administration. Like, it's kind of a weird… a weird combo. And so I decided at the end of the, school year that I was gonna, not renew my contract for the following year, and then,
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Ashley Guggia: for the first time, I was unemployed. And for me, like, my work is a huge part of, like, what fills me up, and it's a huge part of, like.
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Ashley Guggia: kind of, like, accomplishing things makes me feel good, and I love being in the workplace, and so, like, I was like, oh my gosh, like, what's my identity going to be if I'm not working, you know?
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Ashley Guggia: But let me tell you, I got to be a mom for the first time. Like, I took my kids to school for the first time ever. I picked my kids up from school, like, it was… it was…
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Ashley Guggia: actually, like.
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Ashley Guggia: while I felt really unsure, it was very cool at the same time. And then, I was just, like, looking for different jobs, like.
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Ashley Guggia: I live by Hancock College, I was looking for jobs there, I was looking to go back to the county, I was just kind of, like, feeling around, and honestly, one of my friends said, well, have you looked at Santa Barbara City College? And I was like.
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Ashley Guggia: Yeah, no, never crossed my mind.
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Ashley Guggia: So that day, true story, that day, My position was closing.
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Ashley Guggia: the day that I looked at the website. And so I thought.
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Ashley Guggia: okay, I'm just gonna submit my application, like, why not, right? And so I, like,
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Ashley Guggia: Got my application submitted, and yeah, so…
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Ashley Guggia: that's kind of, honestly, how I ended up here, but it really is sort of a perfect combination of what I did before, when you think about it.
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Ashley Guggia: And I… I was in charge of, admissions and academics at the high school, so, like, over the years, I gained more responsibilities. And so, a lot of what we do in A&R, it's the same as what I did there, they just, like, have different names for it.
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Ashley Guggia: You know? So,
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Ashley Guggia: My experience is all, like, super relevant, and then, like, my strange affinity for policy and procedure and rules and all that sort of thing is, like.
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Ashley Guggia: Great, so… that's kind of how I ended up here.
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Hong Lieu: It does seem like a really good fit, and hopefully the amount of bad news you have to deliver does not reach that critical threshold.
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Hong Lieu: you know, it took you over the N4, but it, like I said earlier, this position does give me a mix of, like.
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Hong Lieu: bureaucracy and a lot of emotional intelligence, high emotional intelligence requirement, and you do seem to be well-suited at both in terms of diplomatic when you need to be, but also a stickler for the rules, which is almost… it does feel like a really good match. So we're definitely grateful you're here, and again.
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Ashley Guggia: Yeah.
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Hong Lieu: Hopefully, as long as that bad news threshold stays at that acceptable level, it'll be good, so…
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Ashley Guggia: Yeah, for sure. I mean, it cracks me up that sometimes, like, one of my staff will come and be like, somebody's really upset, can you talk to them? I'm like, yeah, sure, no problem. And then I'm like.
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Ashley Guggia: Oh, oh man, like, they weren't screaming at me, they weren't berating me, like, oh, it's totally fine. So, yeah, the level of, like, you know, upset here is definitely, definitely lower, and…
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Ashley Guggia: I think that
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Ashley Guggia: you know, each of my previous work experience in workplaces all had different things that were great for me at that time, or, you know, something that I needed, and I do think that, like.
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Ashley Guggia: Genuinely, this is probably the most calm workplace I've ever been in.
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Ashley Guggia: like, I'm used to being, like.
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Ashley Guggia: flooded every single second having to put out a fire, which, you know, I put out lots of fires here, but, like, the work environment, it's very calm.
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Ashley Guggia: And, like, it's actually…
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Ashley Guggia: quiet, like, Akhil can hear my music down the hall, and I have it, like, hardly turned up, so, sometimes he'll send me a chat, and he'll be like, oh, okay, like, I hear you.
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Akil Hill: I hear you in there, I hear you in there with all that yacht rock.
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Ashley Guggia: Sometimes we have to go with yacht Rock, you know? But it's just like, yeah, it is… is certainly much more positive interactions and,
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Ashley Guggia: I feel like not only, like.
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Ashley Guggia: like, I hear a lot of positive feedback from staff, like, not… I mean, students, not just about me, but just about, like, their experience in general, like, I think that not only is there less negative interactions, but there are more positive interactions, which is…
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Ashley Guggia: Lovely.
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Akil Hill: Yep.
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Akil Hill: I mean, also, too, like, again, right, talking back, going back to the point about, you know, like, just changing the culture of the office, right? And, you know, if you're always seeing the cup, like, you know, half full, then people are gonna start reflecting that in their job responsibilities, you know what I mean? Always trying to find
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Akil Hill: the, you know what I mean? Like, the solution to whatever the challenge is before them. And I've just noticed that. I mean, I think that's kind of how our office kind of rolls. It's like, okay, so how… what can we do for the student? How can we…
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Akil Hill: you know, make their situation better. And, you know, the truth of it all, too, is, like, I think the power in admissions is really trying to get students to understand what they…
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Akil Hill: what they… what are their options, right? So they're so used to coming from high school, and the high school's like, you do this, this, this, this, right? Like, there's no, like, any room for you to have…
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Akil Hill: a thought process of, like, okay, what's… what is best for me, right? It's more like, this is what you're gonna do because this is what…
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Akil Hill: you have to do, right? And so, really just trying to arm our students, you know what I mean, with, all the options, so they can make the best sound decisions for their, you know, academic journey here at Santa Barbara City College. And so, yeah, I mean, I think that's what we're, you know, the culture shift of… that actually has brought into the office.
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Ashley Guggia: Thank you. And I also think, too, that
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Ashley Guggia: like, I'm high on control, like, I… like, I am a person who's high on control, but at the same time, there's only so many things that are within our control. So, I really try to, like.
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Ashley Guggia: embody, but also encourage people around me to, like… there's… I don't see a benefit to us getting upset or, you know, losing it over something that, like, we… we have no control over. Like, if technology doesn't work.
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Ashley Guggia: Like…
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Akil Hill: Call home.
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Ashley Guggia: What do you about that?
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Akil Hill: Blame it on home.
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Ashley Guggia: Or, you know… They don't give me the keys to those castles for a reason, so yeah, no, I can't use that for you.
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Ashley Guggia: For sure. But, you know, we're so dependent on so many different systems, and, like, sometimes they just don't work, or sometimes they go down, and, you know, Banner is, like, we… we live and breathe Banner in A&R, like, it's what we do, but, like, it goes down sometimes, and it's like.
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Ashley Guggia: Alright, well, let's find other work to do, or even, like, you know.
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Ashley Guggia: chat with Akil, it's always a good thing to do, but, like, there's, like, I understand, like, people are upset, people are, you know, just listen and be like, great, this is what I know I can do to help you, and then let me figure out what else I can get somebody else to help you with, but, like, let's try to just stay calm.
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Ashley Guggia: And, you know, figure out what we can and can't do.
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Akil Hill: Yep.
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Hong Lieu: So I have one follow-up question in terms of…
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Hong Lieu: As someone, you said you were, you know, fiercely loyal to your work, it's hard to leave. What was that tipping point? I mean, because for listeners at home, I mean, not to say everyone's working this and that, but we've all been there. I was at the city for 12 years, and I did not want to leave, and… but then coming to SBCC was the best thing I ever did for both my professional and personal, you know.
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Hong Lieu: advancement. So, it's one of those things where
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Hong Lieu: I mean, especially because now I know you're someone that's very emotionally resilient. You can take it, you can handle it, it's not too much, you know, it's not breaking you, but what was that tipping point where you're like, okay, it's not breaking me, but my life would probably be better if I did something else? Like, was there a moment, or was it just a slow buildup over time?
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Hong Lieu: And just kind of an attrition thing.
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Ashley Guggia: I kind of think that it was a buildup over time, but also.
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Ashley Guggia: There was a moment, too, where
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Ashley Guggia: I have a tendency to, like, just endure things. You know, like, if I'm running, and there's, like, a rock in my shoe, like, I'm just gonna keep running. I'm not gonna stop and take the rock, right? And, like.
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Ashley Guggia: that has its advantages, but at the same time, like, that's… I don't think, the way that I want to be. So, I kind of got to a point where I was like.
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Ashley Guggia: what's my loyalty? Like, am I being loyal to something that is not serving me?
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Ashley Guggia: And, you know, what's keeping me where I'm at? And I think, like.
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Ashley Guggia: I don't like the unknown, and I feel afraid about that, and so, like.
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Ashley Guggia: I didn't leave my first job until I had a second job, so deciding that I wasn't going to renew my contract when I didn't have another job was terrifying.
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Ashley Guggia: So, I had to be able…
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Hong Lieu: That's what I'm like, very difficult for me to fathom, honestly, yeah, so…
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Ashley Guggia: Yeah, and I'm not gonna lie that it probably took me several years to get to that point.
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Ashley Guggia: because it was just… it was too… too… too scary, and, you know, I'm also, like, a fiercely independent person, and so I knew, even though I have a spouse, like, who has a good job, like, financially, we're gonna be okay, but I'm… I don't want to depend on anybody else, and I… I like to, you know.
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Ashley Guggia: So that's another component for me that was really scary, but there was one day
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Ashley Guggia: I was… I was at work, but I was doing an independent task that was sort of, like, isolated from everybody else, and it was this beautiful, warm day. And I had this moment when I was like.
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Ashley Guggia: I don't have to do this.
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Ashley Guggia: Like, it just dawned on me, like, I have agency, right? Like, I can make a choice in what's going to happen, and in that instant, I felt like this huge weight off my shoulders.
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Ashley Guggia: Like, I was just like… now, I didn't walk in and, like, quit my job that day, right? I didn't do that, like, but in that moment, I was just like, oh my gosh. I felt like my options opened up, I felt like even how I felt being at… at my job, like, it just was…
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Ashley Guggia: just a moment where I just was like, whoa.
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Ashley Guggia: like, I don't have to sign my contract just because somebody offers it to me. Like, I can, you know, and it doesn't have to be, like, a negative interaction, it doesn't have to be, like, upsetting that I'm leaving, you know, like.
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Ashley Guggia: I'm…
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Ashley Guggia: a internally emotional person, but not an externally emotional person at all. Like, there's maybe, like, 5 people who have ever seen me cry.
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Ashley Guggia: And in the meeting where I announced that I was resigning, like, I actually started crying, like, in front of a whole group of people, because it was like…
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Ashley Guggia: that big of a deal, and it was just, like, this moment that I was just like, I can't believe this is happening, but I felt really, like.
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Ashley Guggia: empowered once… once I kind of had that realization. And I just…
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Ashley Guggia: somehow got to a point where I'm like, everything is gonna be okay.
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Ashley Guggia: Like, I'm not gonna be, you know, I'm not gonna be homeless, like, I'm not gonna, you know, like, all of these things, like, my basic needs are gonna be met, my parents live locally, their support, like, you know, I have all these things, and I also really think, like, I needed a period of time
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Ashley Guggia: To be able to separate myself from work.
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Ashley Guggia: To just try to figure out, like.
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Ashley Guggia: what… what do I want to do? Like, you know, just chill, be a mom for a little bit. It felt like it was, like, 5 or 6 years, even though it was 6 months to the day that I got this job, to the day that I quit my job and got a new job. It felt like an eternity.
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Akil Hill: Which, by the way, my 6 months was preceded by 3 weeks in Hawaii, which is, like, a good way to ease into that transition.
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Ashley Guggia: But, yeah, it… it definitely, like, if somebody is not sure, like, don't… I would say don't rush a decision, and do something that you know you're gonna feel good about. If you don't feel good about it.
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Ashley Guggia: then maybe it's not the right time to make that decision, you know? Because, yeah, it was definitely, like, it was an evolution for me to get to that point.
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Hong Lieu: Sage advice right there.
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Ashley Guggia: Thank you.
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Hong Lieu: for that.
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Hong Lieu: And that segway right along. Now we get to the fun stuff. Good eating.
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Ashley Guggia: Alright.
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Ashley Guggia: Alright.
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Hong Lieu: Anything you want to shout out, whether it's something you make, or something that you enjoy eating, or any restaurants you really, you really want to shout out, anything you got?
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Hong Lieu: Who you… who we want to hear.
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Ashley Guggia: I… am super into food.
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Ashley Guggia: Akil and I have.
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Akil Hill: a bunch of people.
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Ashley Guggia: Yeah, Akil and I have conversations about food and restaurants and stuff all the time.
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Akil Hill: All the time.
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Ashley Guggia: So, .
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Hong Lieu: And with the.
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Ashley Guggia: That's.
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Hong Lieu: Wrinkle of vegan food, right?
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Hong Lieu: So it's, I mean, in terms of… people are always looking for where the bomb vegan spots are, because people have… restaurants have vegan options, but you can tell when it's kind of like, oh, you're just gonna get full-on sides over here, or when they actually.
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Ashley Guggia: I feel like…
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Hong Lieu: can create a dish for you that, like, excites your senses, you know, hits all the… hits all the little… yeah, so… Yeah.
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Ashley Guggia: I do love to cook as well, and I am happy to travel for good food. Like, sometimes, like, so I, I live…
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Ashley Guggia: I live in Santa Maria, and sometimes my son will be like, you want to go to LA for lunch? We'll just, like, drive and go get some good food and make a day out of it. So, happy to travel. It's like, it's the,
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Ashley Guggia: because we live… I live in a city that is not vegan-friendly at all, not even vegetarian-friendly, not even, like, healthy food friendly, we are constantly, like, in San Luis, in Santa Barbara, like, constantly just, like.
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Ashley Guggia: seeking out good food, but I do really, really love to cook. Cook a lot as well. I would say…
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Ashley Guggia: In Santa Barbara, like, Rascals is a vegan place that's really good. Yeah, and the story's cool, Dallin, the owner, is cool, you know, if you've been in there, you've seen him, he's all tatted up.
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Hong Lieu: He's a punk rock guy, so he came.
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Ashley Guggia: Totally.
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Hong Lieu: DIY scene, so definitely, yeah, he's been holding down in the community for a long time, so yeah.
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Ashley Guggia: For sure, and then he had, like, a little pop-up place, and then he shared a space with a… was a wine bar, I think was, like, one of his locations, and then, you know, for maybe
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Ashley Guggia: 2 years? Over a year. Two years. Had his own space. I just ate there on…
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Ashley Guggia: Friday, actually, and they… he's doing seasonal menus now, too, by the way, which…
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Hong Lieu: Oh…
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Hong Lieu: I loved his food, because he was one of the first places I had an alternative Crunchwrap, because, you know, the Crunchwrap…
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Hong Lieu: his Taco Bells thing, he was one of the first ones that did, like, I'm doing my own crunch, because now I see him everywhere. Everywhere you see that you look around, someone's doing a crunch wrap, but he'.
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Ashley Guggia: For sure.
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Hong Lieu: first ones that I ate, and I was like, oh man, it really is elevated. It's so good. It's, like, really thick and hearty. Oh, man, that crunch wrap, it hits, for sure.
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Ashley Guggia: Yeah, I definitely recommend going there right now, because they have, like, this fall seasonal menu, that's really good. He's doing a passion fruit cheesecake that's pretty, pretty bomb.
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Ashley Guggia: Yeah, and then you have… I think there's, like, maybe 3 or 4 different,
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Ashley Guggia: different dishes on the… the first time I went there when they had the… I was like, yeah, I'll just have the whole thing. And she was like, oh, you want something? And I was like, yeah, the entire menu.
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Hong Lieu: Oh!
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Ashley Guggia: Oh, okay. It's interesting because, like, people don't see me, like, eating a ton around here, because I'm very, very, like, regimented, I guess you could say, in my
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Ashley Guggia: intake.
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Akil Hill: Okay, regimented is… It's an understatement, I'll say that.
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Akil Hill: I always know, it's like, I can tell… I could tell… if I wanted to, I could tell the listeners what Ashley eats, because it's very regimented in that way.
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Akil Hill: I'm a…
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Ashley Guggia: Yes, for sure.
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Akil Hill: It's time for the chia pudding!
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Ashley Guggia: That's right, cheer pudding time. Yeah, so I tend… I'm either, like, very kind of restricted in what I eat, or I eat.
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Ashley Guggia: Like, if I go to Rascal's, like, I'm not messing around. Like, I'm getting all the foods, I'm eating all the foods, like, I'm doing it. So… yeah, it's just… it's kind of funny that that's how I am, but.
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Akil Hill: I'm… That needs to be a shirt. I'm eating all the foods.
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Akil Hill: That could be, like…
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Ashley Guggia: It could be the… or the tagline for your podcast.
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Akil Hill: Yeah, I've eaten all.
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Ashley Guggia: I eat all the food.
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Akil Hill: beats.
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Ashley Guggia: Yeah,
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Ashley Guggia: we, like, for Thai food in Santa Barbara, we like going to your choice, because I never have to, like, doubt that if I order something and I modify it to be vegan, or I'm ordering, like… they're not hiding fish sauce anywhere, right? They're not doing, like.
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Ashley Guggia: So, there… Very, very,
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Ashley Guggia: I feel like their ingredients are pretty clean, and I feel really safe eating their food. Akil wants to take me to an Indian place up on the Mesa, but I haven't been there yet.
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Hong Lieu: Masala spice? Oh.
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Akil Hill: Let her know, Hong, let her know. And it is good.
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Hong Lieu: They get some good vegan options, because they do some curries with coconut… coconut milk, so it gives you that… you know that they explicitly in the menu, like, cite vegan, gluten-free, all those, so it's not one of those.
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Ashley Guggia: Right.
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Hong Lieu: Like, a lot of times it's accidentally vegetarian, just because that's the way the dish is made. This is, like, actually modifying dishes to be sensitive to diet, so yeah. The vegetable is a really good vegan dish, so yeah.
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Akil Hill: This is how much.
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Ashley Guggia: Go ahead. This is how much Ashley…
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Akil Hill: is a foodie. So, when we went… the first time I went to Masala Spice, which wasn't that long ago.
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Akil Hill: I… I sat down, they brought us the menu, and I was actually looking at the menu for the vegan stuff.
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Akil Hill: So, like, and everyone knows I'm not vegan, but the fact that, you know, we talk about food and good vegan food and stuff like that, and so I'm going through the menu, and I couldn't… the person I was like, oh my god, I gotta come here with Ashley, because it's… I see all the vegan stuff that's on the menu, so… but yeah, that's how much we talk about good, healthy vegan food.
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Ashley Guggia: And my family, my immediate family, we do, Friday family dinner. So, every Friday, we go out to dinner, and we rotate which member of the family gets to choose where we eat. And so, because we live in Santa Maria, we…
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Ashley Guggia: almost always eat in San Luis. So we're there a lot. Like, we have a Thai spot, an Indian spot that we rotate regularly. There's, aren't that many Indian restaurants in San Luis, so it's gotta, I mean…
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Ashley Guggia: No, I think there might be 3?
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Hong Lieu: I was thinking, yeah, I can think of two off the top of my head. Yeah. Yeah, so…
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Ashley Guggia: Yeah, Chalamar is the restaurant that we go Okay.
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Ashley Guggia: Yeah, we've been going there since before we even had kids, and then we… I mean, we're, like… it's just such a family place, like, we walk in, and Grandma's there, she gives us this big ol' hug, she brings us, like, secret candy stashes from… from the kitchen, you know, like.
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Ashley Guggia: It's, it's, it's an experience, going there, for sure.
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Hong Lieu: They were definitely my favorite lunch buffet in town, because I went to the two… Yes. Yeah, and they were way, you know, head and shoulders above the other one, so…
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Ashley Guggia: Yeah, for sure. There is, do you know the vegan place called Ziggy's in San Luis? It's kind of near Cal Poly?
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Ashley Guggia: Oh, it's really good. Yeah, it's like, just a little tiny place. They have, like, two little tables, so it's almost exclusively to go, although we eat in when we go there.
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Hong Lieu: Take a look.
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Ashley Guggia: But the… yeah, it's really good.
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Hong Lieu: Which, which is your Thai place in St. Louis?
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Ashley Guggia: Mai Tai.
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Hong Lieu: Okay.
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Ashley Guggia: Up by the train… up by the train tracks? Yeah, so when… when we first moved…
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Ashley Guggia: To Santa Maria, they… that restaurant was an all-vegan Thai restaurant.
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Ashley Guggia: And then…
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Ashley Guggia: it changed, and they had a full vegan menu, and a full non-vegan menu. And then, we're on the third iteration, which it's been for many years. But they still make us food that used to be on the vegan menu, because we've been going there for so long. Also, like.
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Ashley Guggia: family atmosphere. I mean, they've known our kids since they… since I was pregnant, like, that's a huge…
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Ashley Guggia: component of, like, our Friday night family dinner is also going to places that are very family-oriented, and it's funny, my kids will be like.
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Ashley Guggia: gosh, people… people really, like, love you guys, and I'm like, it's just because, like, we regularly go to their places of business, they get to know us.
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Ashley Guggia: And they want us, you know, like at the Indian restaurant, Grandma will say to us all the time.
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Ashley Guggia: thank you for coming to my house when we went to the restaurant, you know, because it's, like, having us over for dinner. So that's, like, a huge, part of food for me, too, and I am…
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Ashley Guggia: I like to take care of people, and I'm, like, a gift giver, so me cooking is, like, a way that I can do both of those things. So, like, for Thanksgiving and that sort of thing… and my brother's actually, by coincidence, also vegan.
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Ashley Guggia: my parents are not, but they're happy to eat whatever, so, you know, my mom will always be like, oh, you're the best cook, so I make almost all the food for all the holidays and stuff, too, which…
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Ashley Guggia: Which is cool, we had vegan food at our wedding, even though it was, like, you know, Santa Maria wedding, and I told everybody, like, we're not serving spring mix.
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Ashley Guggia: Right? Like, you're gonna have…
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Ashley Guggia: legit food that's gonna taste good, fill you up. People were, like, blown away, and it's like…
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Ashley Guggia: It's not a huge…
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Ashley Guggia: it's not a… I don't know. People always are like, what do you eat? I'm like.
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Ashley Guggia: What do you mean, what do I eat? Like…
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Ashley Guggia: So, yeah, let's see, what else?
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Ashley Guggia: And I mean, I can make… I don't want to say pretty much anything, because I'm not really, like, dialed in on making any type of Asian cuisines, which is a bummer, because…
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Ashley Guggia: My… we love, like, All kinds of, you know.
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Ashley Guggia: different types of Asian food, so that's kind of a bummer, but I really sort of love just, like, random food ingredients, and then I make something. Like, I can follow a recipe, and I can do that, but, like.
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Ashley Guggia: I really kind of feel like
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Ashley Guggia: I'm just more inclined of just, like, whoa, what do I have? Like, I don't really meal plan. Like, people think I would be a meal planner. I would think I would be a meal planner. But, yeah, I don't really plan meals. I just, like, well, what do we have? What's everybody feel like? And…
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Ashley Guggia: Sometimes I make multiple meals for people in my house, because, you know, they like custom-order things, and my husband's always like, what are you doing? And I'm like, I don't… I just want to make them what they want. So, I enjoy that a lot. Cooking is not a chore for me.
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Ashley Guggia: It's not a task. And the rule in my house is if you cook, you don't clean.
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Ashley Guggia: So, I don't have to clean.
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Ashley Guggia: Because I cook.
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Hong Lieu: As long as you use those powers responsibly, and don't have, like, 80 tasting spoons and, like, 6 pans to make, like, one thing…
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Ashley Guggia: I try.
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Akil Hill: I… I can testify that Ashley's an amazing baker, and so, one day there was some stuff in the, some baked goods in… in the…
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Akil Hill: break room, and so… I didn't know who brought them, so I was like…
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Akil Hill: I'm not gonna… I didn't wanna… I just didn't want to eat, and I didn't know how long they had been back there, but then, everyone kept talking about them, and then… and so I went back to go get some, and they were gone, and so I was bummed, and she made some more… it's like a… was it a muffin? It was like a cinnamon muffin.
417
00:53:00.400 --> 00:53:03.840
Akil Hill: Yeah. Man, she brought those things again, and it was like…
418
00:53:04.010 --> 00:53:20.499
Akil Hill: it was, like, the hyena was back there, man, I was back there, I was, like, I took, like, 5, 6 of them, because they're, like, bite-sized, and I think that's… it's so good. And also, what Ashley had to talk about that I know that she also makes is, her own milk.
419
00:53:20.640 --> 00:53:25.949
Akil Hill: What, you know, like, lavender milk and stuff like that, and so, yeah.
420
00:53:26.150 --> 00:53:26.730
Akil Hill: Jesus.
421
00:53:26.730 --> 00:53:27.750
Ashley Guggia: True. Very true.
422
00:53:27.750 --> 00:53:29.530
Akil Hill: She has many hats.
423
00:53:30.170 --> 00:53:32.169
Ashley Guggia: I do.
424
00:53:32.330 --> 00:53:42.950
Ashley Guggia: Yeah, I, when my… when my kids were transitioning, from breast milk to… I started making milk for them, because I was like, well, we don't…
425
00:53:43.510 --> 00:53:50.980
Ashley Guggia: you know, have any cow milk or any other milk in our house, so, I started making milk for them, and,
426
00:53:51.460 --> 00:54:09.660
Ashley Guggia: Yeah, I will customize milk, like, some of my staff will tell me what… what nut they want, and what flavor they want, and I'll… I'll make it, customize it for them. Same thing with granola. I make granola a lot, and people will, like, tell me what they, what they want, like.
427
00:54:10.440 --> 00:54:22.809
Ashley Guggia: or don't want in their granola, and my chocolate chip cookies are also a thing that, like, people are usually asking me for. Like, my mom, seriously, for, like, her birthday or for Christmas, she'll be like, I just want…
428
00:54:22.910 --> 00:54:31.249
Ashley Guggia: some granola and some cookies, or… or soup. I make lentil soup, and that's a big thing that, like, people are asking me for, so,
429
00:54:32.530 --> 00:54:33.330
Ashley Guggia: Yeah.
430
00:54:34.860 --> 00:54:45.109
Hong Lieu: I will get standard recipes for all of the above in the show notes. I don't know if there's any, like, secret wrinkles you want me to throw in there as well, but you, you know, you don't need to tell tales out of school, you can leave those secret as is.
431
00:54:45.520 --> 00:54:51.350
Hong Lieu: So… And I'll also highlight all the restaurants you mentioned as well. Thank you for that. Oh, cool.
432
00:54:51.350 --> 00:54:54.220
Akil Hill: And then, the next time the muffins are in the break room, I'll give you a call, Hong.
433
00:54:54.440 --> 00:54:55.050
Hong Lieu: I ain't.
434
00:54:55.050 --> 00:54:56.070
Ashley Guggia: I actually didn't…
435
00:54:56.070 --> 00:54:56.660
Hong Lieu: Yeah, I…
436
00:54:56.660 --> 00:54:59.889
Ashley Guggia: I remember. Yeah, I was gonna say. Oh, they were delicious. Yeah.
437
00:54:59.890 --> 00:55:01.119
Akil Hill: That's right, I did give you some.
438
00:55:01.120 --> 00:55:02.369
Hong Lieu: Well, yeah.
439
00:55:02.370 --> 00:55:18.169
Ashley Guggia: I need to bake as a thank you for everybody for all the hard work they did with our Halloween decorations. I've just had some busy weekends, so I haven't had a chance to… to bake, but there… there's… there'll be some cookies and some super cinnamon muffins.
440
00:55:18.420 --> 00:55:31.160
Ashley Guggia: And you know, I pump those things full of nutrients, too. I hide all kinds of stuff in there, like superfood powders, and, like, protein… I hide a lot of stuff in recipes that people aren't aware that they're eating, so…
441
00:55:31.900 --> 00:55:32.450
Akil Hill: Nice.
442
00:55:32.450 --> 00:55:36.150
Hong Lieu: I did feel the energy boost afterwards.
443
00:55:36.400 --> 00:55:38.220
Ashley Guggia: Yeah, for sure.
444
00:55:38.220 --> 00:55:53.749
Hong Lieu: Thanks, echoing along, bring us home, higher learning, pieces of culture, anything, TV, book, movie, music, video game, whatever has meant anything to you, whether it's recently or throughout your life that you want to highlight and shout out for our listeners at home. I will get all that info in the show notes, but yeah, go ahead, let us, let us know what you got.
445
00:55:54.330 --> 00:56:08.120
Ashley Guggia: So my current obsession, because I commute so much, I have a lot of time to, like, take in content, right? So I have my standard podcast that I listen to every single week, so I am an armchair expert.
446
00:56:08.120 --> 00:56:15.410
Ashley Guggia: fan, and so I listen to their whole umbrella of shows, so it's Monday, Wednesday, Friday they put out,
447
00:56:15.510 --> 00:56:34.860
Ashley Guggia: new episodes, and then, any of their sort of, like, branch-off shows, like, Flightless Bird is one of their podcasts that's, a branch off of their show. Monica, who's the host, has a new, kind of, like, spooky podcast that calls Beth's Dead.
448
00:56:35.410 --> 00:56:46.259
Ashley Guggia: So that is, just being released right now, weekly. So I'm totally into those, but my current book obsession is the Cormor and Strike series.
449
00:56:47.360 --> 00:56:52.140
Ashley Guggia: And Galbraith is the author?
450
00:56:52.270 --> 00:56:56.010
Ashley Guggia: What's the author's first name?
451
00:56:57.170 --> 00:57:01.030
Ashley Guggia: It's actually, the Harry Potter author, but she's…
452
00:57:01.240 --> 00:57:02.730
Hong Lieu: Use the PIN name, I see.
453
00:57:02.730 --> 00:57:03.660
Ashley Guggia: Yeah, exactly.
454
00:57:03.660 --> 00:57:04.420
Akil Hill: Yeah.
455
00:57:04.420 --> 00:57:14.320
Ashley Guggia: And I think there's 6 or 7 books? I'm on book 5, but listen, when you… when you're doing an audiobook, these things are 33 hours.
456
00:57:14.820 --> 00:57:23.110
Ashley Guggia: 32, 33 hours, like, it is a commitment, and I think I'm on book number 5, And, I…
457
00:57:23.530 --> 00:57:34.430
Ashley Guggia: love them so much, like, not only are the stories really good, but the person that narrates, it's the same person so far, I think, through all of the series.
458
00:57:34.770 --> 00:57:42.770
Ashley Guggia: And he… they take place in, like, in London, and so he's got an accent, and he does voices for everybody.
459
00:57:42.850 --> 00:57:58.549
Ashley Guggia: And there are, each book stands alone, but there's a carryover from each book to book, so same, you know, carryover of, like, some characters and some things. So you could read a book as a standalone, but I definitely recommend
460
00:57:58.550 --> 00:58:03.840
Ashley Guggia: starting from the first book, going through. It's amazing, like.
461
00:58:05.060 --> 00:58:18.979
Ashley Guggia: when somebody recommended it to me, and I thought, how… it's so long, and then I started listening, I'm like, oh, I get it. Like, I totally get it. Super amazing. Very good use of language, very descriptive,
462
00:58:19.510 --> 00:58:28.369
Ashley Guggia: a lot of just really good vocabulary and terms, and I… any… I'm not gonna lie, anything that's, like, British, I'm a little bit more drawn to it.
463
00:58:29.300 --> 00:58:49.240
Ashley Guggia: So, we have all the apps, every single app with any British TV show I'm in. But really, I don't watch TV very much, mostly because I don't have time, because I'm just, like, my days are jam-packed. But what I'm watching right now is that my daughter is 12,
464
00:58:49.270 --> 00:58:53.810
Ashley Guggia: And she's obsessed with the Degrassi series, like, from back in the day.
465
00:58:54.560 --> 00:59:01.290
Ashley Guggia: And so, she's watched all the series in their entirety, and has now asked me to rewatch with her.
466
00:59:01.440 --> 00:59:08.160
Ashley Guggia: And so that's any, any free time or any TV time, like, is…
467
00:59:08.840 --> 00:59:22.460
Ashley Guggia: me, her, and at least one of our dogs, sometimes all of our dogs, but it's like our little special time together, and then we go for a walk in the evening, we talk about the character, we talk about the character development, we talk about, I mean.
468
00:59:22.620 --> 00:59:29.639
Ashley Guggia: this child could talk about this series for, like, endless days. So, that is…
469
00:59:29.640 --> 00:59:42.409
Hong Lieu: I know folks that were really into Grassy. I didn't watch a bunch. I was Saved by the Bell, you know, California Dreams, TNBC, but I did watch some episodes later on because, you know, there's a punk rock character, Spike.
470
00:59:42.410 --> 00:59:54.099
Hong Lieu: And they did a good job with all the, you know, like, the teen archetypes and the characters. I mean, I… For sure. I definitely fell off by the time Jimmy was on the show, Drake, and all that, but the…
471
00:59:54.100 --> 00:59:54.639
Ashley Guggia: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
472
00:59:54.640 --> 00:59:58.800
Hong Lieu: first era with Spike and all them, I definitely watched a few episodes. It is a good show.
473
00:59:59.160 --> 01:00:02.629
Ashley Guggia: Yeah, and dude, some of this series, they have, like, 42 episodes.
474
01:00:03.210 --> 01:00:14.989
Ashley Guggia: Like, this isn't, like, any, like, 2025, like, 7 or 8 episodes, like, I mean, they're only 20 minutes, but I have to say, like, I'm… I'm looking… I look forward to it, I'm getting into it, and…
475
01:00:15.500 --> 01:00:22.940
Ashley Guggia: They tackle every single, like, parenting issue, every child… like, I'm like, okay, this is great, like, it actually…
476
01:00:23.190 --> 01:00:31.369
Ashley Guggia: opens the door to have conversations about things, even though sometimes it's overdramatized, or, you know, whatever. Like, it's actually, like.
477
01:00:31.480 --> 01:00:34.350
Ashley Guggia: I'm really happy that… that we're doing that, because it's… it's.
478
01:00:34.350 --> 01:00:34.970
Hong Lieu: I definitely…
479
01:00:34.970 --> 01:00:35.560
Ashley Guggia: rule.
480
01:00:35.560 --> 01:00:39.960
Hong Lieu: Yeah, they definitely covered a broader depth and breadth than Saved by the Bell and the.
481
01:00:39.960 --> 01:00:40.609
Ashley Guggia: Oh, yeah.
482
01:00:40.610 --> 01:00:53.189
Hong Lieu: shows that I grew up watching, so… For sure. They actually covered a lot more things and really went in on some stuff, so it… I can see where it's pretty rewarding watching that with your… with your family, and being able to have conversations, like, being a catalyst to conversation.
483
01:00:53.880 --> 01:01:00.500
Ashley Guggia: Sure, and then RuPaul Drag Race is the show that I watch with my son. He's all in on RuPaul Drag Race, yeah.
484
01:01:00.710 --> 01:01:03.209
Hong Lieu: Difference in my children, for sure.
485
01:01:03.820 --> 01:01:04.510
Hong Lieu: But it's good.
486
01:01:04.510 --> 01:01:04.950
Ashley Guggia: Yeah.
487
01:01:04.950 --> 01:01:17.759
Hong Lieu: See that? And that's a great example of the pieces of culture, why we like to highlight it, because, you know, you never know the things that you can bond over, the things that will connect you, and how rewarding and fulfilling a lot of these things can be.
488
01:01:17.760 --> 01:01:34.990
Hong Lieu: in the right context. So, you know, like, something like Degrassi, RuPaul's Drag Race, you look at it on one angle, you're like, oh, I would never watch, but on the other angle, if it's really fulfilling to someone else, and you watch it with them, then it becomes this communal aspect to it. So there's just so many ways to approach everything that it's really, really, really awesome.
489
01:01:34.990 --> 01:01:38.150
Ashley Guggia: So great. Yeah, for sure. Same thing with food, and… yeah.
490
01:01:38.150 --> 01:01:48.659
Hong Lieu: And I… but I couldn't leave you without a couple music recommendations, so if there's any… if you have a Desert Island album, or a song, or any, you know, like, because… because you cover the gamut! We've got books, we've got podcasts.
491
01:01:49.010 --> 01:01:49.760
Ashley Guggia: Yeah.
492
01:01:49.950 --> 01:01:55.609
Hong Lieu: You know, like, the media has been covered, but without… I mean, I know you love your music, so…
493
01:01:55.990 --> 01:02:00.659
Ashley Guggia: I do. I do. I really, really love music, and in fact, like.
494
01:02:02.030 --> 01:02:06.239
Ashley Guggia: It's difficult for me to work without music, or it's diff… you know, like…
495
01:02:06.240 --> 01:02:12.019
Hong Lieu: My mother drives in the car with no music on? I'm like, what is… are you a crazy person? What is happening?
496
01:02:12.310 --> 01:02:18.720
Ashley Guggia: So, I do like a wide variety of music,
497
01:02:18.860 --> 01:02:26.090
Ashley Guggia: And I love going to concerts, and I love going to shows, and I love seeing musicals. So that's something that…
498
01:02:26.700 --> 01:02:30.199
Ashley Guggia: I, I do as well. I would say…
499
01:02:30.300 --> 01:02:33.819
Ashley Guggia: that… let's see, what am I currently…
500
01:02:34.260 --> 01:02:45.779
Ashley Guggia: What I… what I'm not good at is, like, following, like, new albums that come out and stuff. Like, my husband is way into that scene. I'm more like, I hear a song, and I like it.
501
01:02:46.560 --> 01:02:57.589
Ashley Guggia: And I have this thing where, like, I can hear a song, like, one time, and I can almost sing it. Like, I learn musical lyrics very quickly. So, for me, like, I'm all about, like.
502
01:02:57.690 --> 01:03:13.899
Ashley Guggia: how a song, like, makes me feel, and how a song sounds, and I don't really usually care, like, who it is, or, like, what it is, and, you know, my kids are, like, analyzing lyrics and stuff, and I'm like, yeah, I have no idea. Like, I just like the way it sounded. So,
503
01:03:14.490 --> 01:03:26.890
Ashley Guggia: I really just, like, will often put on, like, the Ashley Station for… to see, like, what Apple Music thinks I will like, or whatever, and I find a lot of my new music like that,
504
01:03:27.720 --> 01:03:34.210
Ashley Guggia: I am… let's see… I love.
505
01:03:34.410 --> 01:03:37.100
Ashley Guggia: The soundtrack from Bridgerton.
506
01:03:37.910 --> 01:03:39.250
Hong Lieu: Code.
507
01:03:40.290 --> 01:03:41.160
Hong Lieu: Nice.
508
01:03:41.160 --> 01:03:46.680
Ashley Guggia: And it is… Akil will probably say it's fire, because it's like.
509
01:03:46.680 --> 01:03:48.680
Akil Hill: Yeah, it's definitely fire.
510
01:03:48.680 --> 01:03:53.630
Ashley Guggia: Yeah, pop music, but played… By, like, an orchestra.
511
01:03:55.350 --> 01:04:02.579
Ashley Guggia: So, I'm really into that kind of music, like, it sort of blends, like, this, like,
512
01:04:02.790 --> 01:04:16.120
Ashley Guggia: emotional, instrumental side of music that I love, with, like, the pop side of music that I love, because, fun fact, I actually love to dance, and so,
513
01:04:16.490 --> 01:04:17.320
Ashley Guggia: like…
514
01:04:17.870 --> 01:04:28.380
Ashley Guggia: that kind of music, it pumps me up big time. Like, it really motivates me, and, like, it gets me energized, and
515
01:04:28.920 --> 01:04:30.540
Ashley Guggia: So,
516
01:04:31.260 --> 01:04:46.509
Ashley Guggia: Yeah, like, I had a teenager in my car who was like, what's this? And then when I… they were like, wait, is that, like, Lady Gaga? I was like, yeah, it is, but played by an orchestra. Like, it's… it's very cool, and for some reason, it just sort of, like.
517
01:04:47.200 --> 01:04:59.710
Ashley Guggia: hits all the different parts that my brain enjoys about music, so I guess that would be my one recommendation, would be, like, Bridgerton-type playlists, instrumental, hip-hop, pop.
518
01:05:00.400 --> 01:05:04.509
Ashley Guggia: Instrumental music, yeah. Lindsay Sterling's pretty cool.
519
01:05:04.510 --> 01:05:07.759
Hong Lieu: Yeah, that's a great choice, too.
520
01:05:07.760 --> 01:05:08.410
Ashley Guggia: Is it?
521
01:05:09.200 --> 01:05:14.169
Hong Lieu: Definitely getting on folks' radar through, like, you might not have wanted to check it out, but…
522
01:05:14.510 --> 01:05:18.899
Hong Lieu: It does sound really cool. Now I'm looking at a lot of the tracks, I'm like, oh man, I want to check this out.
523
01:05:18.900 --> 01:05:19.740
Ashley Guggia: Yeah, it's…
524
01:05:19.740 --> 01:05:21.740
Hong Lieu: I covered all these songs. Yeah.
525
01:05:21.740 --> 01:05:22.090
Ashley Guggia: Yes.
526
01:05:22.090 --> 01:05:24.929
Hong Lieu: Dancing on my own is, like, a good Robin song. Oh yeah, I'll do it.
527
01:05:24.930 --> 01:05:40.430
Ashley Guggia: Yeah, and then my kids have very different music tastes than I do, and so I'm getting to, like, learn and get, accustomed to different types of music that I don't, like, I'm not really generally into kind of, like.
528
01:05:41.100 --> 01:05:53.950
Ashley Guggia: hard rock type, you know, that kind of music, and my daughter's really into that music, and so I'm more open to it, because it's something that she loves, and so, like, do you know the group Bundabar?
529
01:05:55.110 --> 01:05:55.780
Ashley Guggia: Yeah, like…
530
01:05:55.780 --> 01:05:56.250
Hong Lieu: forward.
531
01:05:56.250 --> 01:05:57.339
Ashley Guggia: Yeah, we did, that's right.
532
01:05:57.340 --> 01:05:59.209
Hong Lieu: I'm at the Ventura Theater, I remember that.
533
01:05:59.210 --> 01:06:09.480
Ashley Guggia: Oh, good memory! Yeah, so, like, I went to that concert, which, like, I normally would have never gone to that concert, but it was great to do that with her, it was cool to be around a different type, like.
534
01:06:09.480 --> 01:06:21.659
Ashley Guggia: So my appreciation and my, you know, I'll… when I get in the car with my kids, I'll be like, who wants to DJ? And then one of them will, like, either hook up their phone or use mine and, like, DJ while we're in the car so that I can listen to, like.
535
01:06:21.660 --> 01:06:24.130
Ashley Guggia: different stuff that I just normally wouldn't…
536
01:06:24.570 --> 01:06:26.810
Ashley Guggia: find my way to, I guess.
537
01:06:28.820 --> 01:06:46.270
Hong Lieu: And that is the most important part, to be at least open and, you know, receptive. You don't have to, like, you know, you don't have to love what you're listening to, but you have to at least just be okay with it. That does help me get a long way in terms of my musical discovery journey, for sure, is just be open and accepting of everything that comes my way, so…
538
01:06:46.970 --> 01:06:48.260
Ashley Guggia: Yeah, for sure.
539
01:06:49.650 --> 01:06:53.289
Hong Lieu: Awesome. Excellent picks. I will get those all in the show notes.
540
01:06:53.440 --> 01:06:55.530
Hong Lieu: Thank you, Ashley. You did it!
541
01:06:55.530 --> 01:06:57.359
Ashley Guggia: Yeah, of course. Thanks for having me.
542
01:06:58.180 --> 01:07:09.270
Hong Lieu: So, before we sign off, say goodbye to everybody. Any final words, or any, last little points you want to shout out about admissions records, or anything in terms of folks want to get in contact, or…
543
01:07:09.430 --> 01:07:16.140
Hong Lieu: I mean, all the information for it will be in the show notes, so they will have that, but if there's any final, you know, parting words.
544
01:07:17.930 --> 01:07:21.200
Ashley Guggia: I would say if you…
545
01:07:21.330 --> 01:07:28.149
Ashley Guggia: think you need help, but you don't know what to do, or you're unsure, just come and talk to us. Like, our…
546
01:07:28.150 --> 01:07:41.600
Ashley Guggia: sole purpose is to serve students and to, like, guide them and help them get to where they need to go. So, even if you're… you're lost and you don't know what's up, stop by A&R, we'll take you to where you need to go, and
547
01:07:42.200 --> 01:08:03.080
Ashley Guggia: I love questions. I don't know about anybody else, but I love being asked questions, so, we would… we would much rather help somebody, like, from the start than have to try to undo some other process that, like, they thought they needed to, so don't hesitate to ask us questions. You don't have to feel bad. You know, we deal with students, and basically.
548
01:08:03.080 --> 01:08:08.800
Ashley Guggia: They're issues. All day. Every day. It's what we do, that's why we're here, so just…
549
01:08:08.900 --> 01:08:16.840
Ashley Guggia: Feel free to stop by, even if you're not sure whether we're the right place or not, and we'll either help you or get you to where you need to go.
550
01:08:17.109 --> 01:08:20.130
Ashley Guggia: And I think, like, The whole…
551
01:08:20.340 --> 01:08:24.399
Ashley Guggia: Place here is just set up to help students, and so, like.
552
01:08:25.470 --> 01:08:36.999
Ashley Guggia: Utilize your resources here. I think a lot of students are floating along and not taking advantage of all the goodness that Santa Barbara City College has to offer, and, I would just really
553
01:08:37.590 --> 01:08:39.790
Ashley Guggia: I don't like asking for help.
554
01:08:40.270 --> 01:08:43.109
Ashley Guggia: so I can get that if students don't, but, like.
555
01:08:43.359 --> 01:08:47.040
Ashley Guggia: Please, please don't hesitate to come ask us.
556
01:08:49.899 --> 01:08:55.129
Hong Lieu: And if folks don't feel comfortable coming in, I'll also put the email, all the emails in the show notes you mentioned earlier.
557
01:08:55.130 --> 01:08:55.550
Ashley Guggia: Of course.
558
01:08:55.550 --> 01:09:04.790
Hong Lieu: I'll also link to the website, so we should be covered. If you need help, folks, please reach out. Someone… someone here can help you. But yes, in the meantime, thank you so much, Ashley.
559
01:09:04.790 --> 01:09:05.640
Akil Hill: Thank you so much, Ashley.
560
01:09:06.290 --> 01:09:07.640
Ashley Guggia: Of course, thanks for having me.
561
01:09:07.640 --> 01:09:10.979
Hong Lieu: Thank you to everyone, this was Vaquero Voices. Until next time, take care, y'all.
562
01:09:11.300 --> 01:09:11.979
Akil Hill: Peace.