When Anya Boyd, ’23, M.S. ’25, was an undergraduate at Southern, trying to decide what direction to take with her studies, she was in a quandary. “I wasn’t the type to go into something that had a straightforward path,” she said. “I wanted something where I could have multiple options. And I knew I wanted to work with people. I just didn’t know how.”
An academic advisor helped steer Boyd towards the Interdisciplinary Studies (IDS) major, which turned out to be perfect for her, and later, when her IDS advisor helped her over some rough patches, Boyd realized gratefully that both advisors had given her suggestions “that just made sense, calmed my nerves, and made me feel like it was going to be OK.” When she began to think about her future beyond her bachelor’s degree, she thought, “I want to be that for other students — the calm voice, the voice of reason, the voice that just is going to look out for their best interest.”
Boyd turned to the Sociology Department, where she had taken courses during her undergrad, and she decided the M.S. in sociology degree was her best choice for what she wanted to do.
“I want to be a student affairs professional,” she said. “I see myself working as an advisor or in admissions or in DEI — hands-on with students.” Boyd was drawn to sociology “because it focuses on working with people, working with their backgrounds. And I thought that I could apply that to what I wanted to do.”
In her graduate program, she focused on courses about race and gender studies and emerged from her studies with a heightened passion for helping students. “I really want to be an advocate for all types of marginalized people,” she said, “I find it to be very important, especially in the time that we’re in right now.”
When it came time for Boyd to choose to do a thesis or a special project in her final semester, she thought about her desire to pursue a career as an advisor. She decided to do a special project that would help her in that career, so she chose to develop a training manual on how to advise students with different identities, and how to approach advising with equity.
Sociology Professor Venezia Michalsen worked with Boyd on her project. “When I work with a student on their special project,” Michalsen said, “I like to think about who they want to be once they finish the program. I have been encouraging students to have a product that’s more than a paper — that’s really a deliverable that they can bring to a potential job application. With Anya wanting to be an academic advisor and wanting to take a sociological lens, an intersectional perspective, on advising, her project just felt right to me. This way she can walk in the door saying, ‘I have something research-based, something theory-based, that I can start using on day one of my time at this job.’”
Boyd’s training guide focuses on intersectionality and equality, she explains, showing the reader how to apply different identities, lenses, and knowledge to the advising experience for college students. “You could look at advising as just working with students through their academics,” Boyd said. “But there are so many things that will impact and affect their college experience. And that comes down to their background, where they live, who they’re surrounded by, and their experiences in the college, and usually their identities are a big part of those experiences.”
Boyd said she felt it was important to make a training manual for advisors to not only look at the student as a student, but as a whole person. She wants advisors to consider each student’s identities as part of the advising experience, and to see how those identities might be impacting their academics, their grades, or their campus involvement.
Aimee O’Shea, associate director, Office of Career and Professional Development, served as a reader on Boyd’s project and finds her work both timely and deeply necessary. “Now more than ever,” O’Shea said, “students need to feel seen, heard, and supported in their full identities. Anya’s training manual offers advisors a valuable framework to do just that. It goes well beyond defining key concepts; she offers thoughtful, actionable strategies for integrating anti-oppressive, affirming, and identity-centered practices into advising.
“Anya’s project is a compelling example of what the M.S. in sociology program at Southern makes possible,” O’Shea added. “It reflects the program’s commitment to social justice, student-centered learning, and the empowerment of future changemakers. Her work is already sparking important conversations, and I’m excited to see its continued impact.With her scholarly depth, practical vision, and genuine warmth, Anya is exceptionally well-prepared for a successful and impactful career in higher education.”
Boyd’s research in developing the guide involved studying existing advising training guides to learn how to approach and present the content. The content came from “the past six years of my college experience, really,” Boyd said, referring to the courses she had taken as an undergraduate and graduate student at Southern. She also met with members of Southern’s DEI staff to learn about case studies, which she includes in her manual.
And now, Boyd said, she is ready to take what she’s learned into the world and begin advising students. Michalsen said, “The value for graduate students in the sociology master’s program is that we’ll take a person’s actual real interests and use sociology to give it real-world applications.” Through her training guide, “Advancing Equity in Academic Advising Through Intersectional and Inclusive Practices: A Training for Academic Advisors,” Boyd hopes to bring her vision of advocacy and compassion to her work.
O’Shea has no doubt of Boyd’s success. “She has continued to lead with insight, empathy, and purpose,” O’Shea said. “She’s truly exceptional.”
