"I like to talk," Josalynn Gibson, says with a laugh. That serves her well as a student caller and supervisor in CSU’s Phone Center, a place she’s worked since she arrived on campus as a freshman in 2008.

Since then, Josalynn, a junior political science major, says she's learned quite a bit, especially about how universities are funded and how being a public university doesn't mean that school expenses are primarily covered by the federal and state governments.

That knowledge fuels her phone conversations with alumni. But for Josalynn, it’s more than asking for money. The alumni have experiences to share and she likes to listen.

"We try to build rapport," she says.

It's likely she shares a meaningful connection with those experiences.

When she arrived on campus, Josalynn, like many students, was unsure which academic path she should take.

It wasn't until an encounter with Dr. Joel Lieske in his American Diversity and Cultural Diversity classes that she set her sights on Cleveland-Marshall College of Law and a career as a lawyer.

"He engages us in open discussion which compels us to think," she said of Lieske.

Her case to alumni then isn’t merely lip service. She knows how the power of higher education, and specifically CSU, can steer the course of a student’s future.

And in Josalynn’s case, it’s a bright one.

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