By Jake Thomas
Cameron University has recently instated Kristine McCarty as the new Vice President for University Advancement, but while her time at Cameron has just begun, her life has been focused on pursuing education for as far as she can remember.
Growing up in Idaho as a first generation College student, McCarty prioritized education above everything else. Coming from rocky beginnings, McCarty’s earlier career began when her mother enrolled her into ISUs Early Learning Center (ELC), while her mother tried to fund her own college degree while supporting her child. McCarty remembers looking out toward the college from the playground fence, watching college students commune with heavy backpacks and thick textbooks, imagining herself in their shoes. While unfortunately college did not work out for her mother, that didn’t discourage McCarty from wanting college for herself.
“I just wanted to be there one day,” she said. “We always struggled financially, and I knew pretty early on that my path out of that was through higher ed and through getting an education.”
When it came time to choose a college, McCarty faced difficult realities. Although she was accepted to several universities, family circumstances and financial barriers made decisions a little more difficult. A strong scholarship package from Idaho State University allowed her to stay close to her mother while moving out on her own “I chose ISU begrudgingly at first, but I loved it,” she admitted. “And a lot of that was because the faculty and staff were so supportive – it reminds me a lot of Cameron and the interactions that faculty and staff have here with students.”
McCarty started out college as an anthropology major, but she soon found out that even if she got a doctorate degree, her job opportunities would be sparse. “Financial stability was a huge goal for me,” she said. “So I really started to dive into opportunities wherever I could find them.” Even though she began unsure of a future career path, she eventually immersed herself into college life further through advising jobs, tutoring and assisting with their Honors Program in the student Success Center. To her, those experiences were securing a future for herself.
Her undergraduate career eventually led her to pick up a marketing minor, which sparked a new interest for her. Her connections at the university eventually led to her being recommended to join the MBA (Masters of Business Administration) program.
“I never thought I would end up there as an anthropology major,” she said. “I ended up loving the program; it gave me so many skills and confidence in a lot of areas that I wouldn’t have had otherwise.”
Through kind advisors and a newfound spark, she found passion for fundraising, recruiting and alumni engagement. She loved the program so much in fact, it eventually led her to the role of the MBA director which she worked for six years, increasing enrollment by nearly 50 percent within the first few years of her service.
Soon after her time with the MBA, then Dean of the College of Business at ISU Shane Hunt encouraged McCarty to transfer into development. According to Hunt on the “Bengal Business” podcast, she made record breaking progress in scholarship creation and fundraising.
“I don’t want to take credit because it truly goes to our generous donors,” she said. “The person who’d been in my role previously had done an excellent job of building donor relationships, so I was really able to build off of the hard work that she’d done and even the person before her.”
These experiences led her to understanding the growth and generosity of kinder philanthropists.
When McCarty first applied to become the Vice President of University Advancement at Cameron, she knew the hiring process would be competitive. Nevertheless she prepared thoroughly for her interview and gave it her all.
Now she serves as Cameron’s very own Vice President for University Advancement. McCarty found herself most drawn to the school’s environment. During her interview period, it was her conversations with students that held up the most.
“They told me stories about why they chose Cameron.” she said. “Their favorite classes, faculty, and that said a lot about the culture here, just how much people care about one another.”
One of McCarty’s goals at Cameron is to create a student philanthropy board, where they would work to engage students more with the work they are doing to advance the university further. “I have missed working with students,” she said. “So I guess selfishly it gives me the opportunity to work with students a little bit more closely.”
As far as advice for students goes, McCarty had one thing she thought to share.
“Say yes to opportunities,” she said. “Get involved. Try things. My years in college where I started working on campus totally changed my experience and opened up a lot of doors for me.”
She also encourages students not to panic over choosing the “perfect” major.
“I felt if I made the wrong choice the rest of my life could be a disaster” she said. “If you’d told me at 22 that I’d be a fundraiser one day, I would have said that doesn’t sound quite right.”
McCarty said that her own path is a prime example of how college careers are not straight lines.
“If you work hard, stay open and build relationships, opportunities will come,” she said. “College is the time to experiment.”
For McCarty, that exploration led her back to the very thing that first inspired her as a child, the power of higher education.