Austin Arias
Austin Arias is a leadership expert who uses personal stories and experiences to help students have an impact on their communities, grow personally & ensure their organizations have a lasting legacy.
TOPICS
- Authenticity
- Community Building
- First-Year Experience
- Fraternity & Sorority Life
- Leadership
- Officer Training
- Orientation
- Organizational Development
- Personal Growth
- Recruitment
- Values
KEYNOTES
- The “Balancing Act”: Finding Balance as a College Student
- Make Your Founders Proud
- Ready. Set. Recruit
- Your First Year Advantage
WORKSHOPS & CUSTOM PROGRAMS
Getting to know
Austin Arias
Austin Arias is an educator, speaker, facilitator, and consultant with a goal to help individuals and organizations think bigger and do better through more values-based and mission-aligned actions. By sharing thought-provoking dialogue, and humor, and developing genuine connections, Austin works to ensure individuals feel ready to take on the challenges ahead of them. He knows firsthand one very vital truth: leadership is not easy, but when done right, can transform ourselves and our communities. He hopes to provide his audiences with the tools they need to lead more confidently and solve the root of their organization’s problems to ensure sustainable change.
As an award-winning professional and speaker, Austin is a trusted voice in the areas of leadership, belonging, organizational development, and personal growth. He is energized by the opportunities to create custom learning experiences to help you better meet your goals for your audience.
Austin has been a higher education leader for over 11 years with immense expertise in student engagement, transition, and retention. He received his master’s degree in higher education from Illinois State University and his bachelor’s degree in mass communications from the University of South Florida. He is an active volunteer in the leadership and harm reduction spaces for inter/national fraternal organizations. Austin is a proud brother of Pi Kappa Phi Fraternity.
Austin currently resides in Nashville, TN with his rescue dog, where he spends most of his free time enjoying live music, exploring the growing food scene, and finding a new trail to explore. His favorite role in life is that of uncle to his niece Capri.
PROMOTIONAL MATERIALS
To help you promote your event with Austin, CAMPUSPEAK has created promotional templates you can use. In this folder, you will find resources for social media, a promotional poster for printing, and press photos you can use for your event.
Link to Promotional Materials
LOGISTICAL MATERIALS
Below you will find logistical resources for the day of your event with Austin.
In-Person Event AV Needs (PDF)
Speaking Introduction (PDF)
SEE WHAT PEOPLE HAVE TO SAY About Austin Arias!
KEYNOTES
The “Balancing Act”: Finding Balance as as College Student
College is more complex than ever and is truly a balancing act for students – academics, involvement in clubs and organization, friends, family and the demands of a personal life can leave students feeling unstable. That is why finding and maintaining balance is so important.
In his program “The Balancing Act,” Austin addresses how students can be successful in the classroom, while being involved on campus and managing the demands of a personal life. Students who attend this program will understand how to prioritize key tasks, while managing their mental health, and not wavering from academic pursuits.
Learning Outcomes
As a result of attending this program, students will learn:
- how to recognize the common practices in student leaders that prevent growth and development for themselves and the organization, such as struggling to say no, lack of delegation, and competition,
- how to incorporate person-first behaviors into their daily life, while still upholding responsibilities as students and student leaders, and
- how to create a culture of positive student leadership on campus, utilizing their advisors, mentors and/or supervisors.
Ready. Set. Recruit.
For too long, our recruitment practices have been focused on outdated techniques that don’t accurately represent our values and the lifelong benefit of joining a fraternity or sorority. Plus, we have shifted away from building relationships during the process. Our campuses have changed, so the same set of events, recruitment training, and marketing techniques no longer work. It’s time to assess what you are doing and use your purpose to reframe your work.
Let’s create more meaningful, inclusive experiences to explore membership, focus on building authentic relationships that foster belonging, and create a framework more current members can buy into. Reimagining your recruitment into a values-focused growth strategy will help you find those ready for membership more effectively.
*This program is applicable to student organizations, fraternities, and sororities and will be customized based on audience.
Learning Outcomes
As a result of attending this program, students will learn:
- how to assess their current recruitment tactics and understand their effectiveness,
- how to create a culture of recruitment strategy in order to maximize chapter and council success, utilizing all members to create collaborative action,
- how to be more inclusive throughout the recruitment process to acknowledge the identities of all potential new members, and
- the importance of relationship building and meaningful conversation in both recruitment and creating a sense of belonging for potential new members.
Make Your Founders Proud
What would it look like if we refocused our community’s actions to be in alignment with what our founders intended? Would your founders recognize your organization today? Make Your Founders Proud challenges leaders to take a more critical look at the state of their communities and chapters to determine what must change to ensure their legacies continue. It’s time to get to the root of the issues and create actual solutions.
Through honest dialogue and tough conversation, this program encourages all to look beyond competition and ego, take accountability for their actions, and understand how they can help create a more sustainable, inclusive, and forward-thinking fraternity and sorority movement. We have the potential to be the organizations our founders always hoped for. Let’s make them proud in a way that is both authentic to our values but has evolved to better meets the needs of today’s communities.
Learning Outcomes
As a result of attending this program, students will learn:
- how to identify the current issues plaguing both their community and fraternal movement,
- how to understand how those issues affect the health of their membership and organizations,
- how to address concerns around diversity, equity, and inclusion in their community,
- how to more effectively build relationships with one another to inspire collaborative action, and
- how to determine a plan of action to confidently tackle their community’s issues and opportunities for success.
Your First Year Advantage
Your first year of college can be filled with challenges and excitement. You want to find your people, explore your interests and get settled into your major. While it may feel overwhelming, let’s help you realize your first-year advantage. The time is now to set yourself up for success. Through sharing his own difficult turned rewarding college journey, humorous stories and experience from his everyday work, Austin helps students embrace their new adventure from the start. Students will walk away with a toolkit they can use right away to explore but not overcommit, find belonging and create an action plan for success.
Learning Outcomes
As a result of attending this program, students will learn:
- how to recognize and address common feelings preventing first year success,
- how to create first year action plan combining personal wellbeing, academics,
and involvement, - how to better identify which opportunities are best for them, by recognizing their interests, talents and identities, and
- how to best utilize campus resources and peers along their journey.
WORKSHOPS & CUSTOM PROGRAMS
Refocus Your Board Workshop
Designed for Programming Boards, Student Governments & Governing Councils
As a vital part of your campus community, it is essential your board is a cohesive group with a clear vision. The hustle to make it all happen can cause us to lose sight of our purpose and our role in helping our peers find belonging and each other grow as leaders. Also, instead of repeating the same events, traditions, and initiatives, maybe it’s
time to be bold and do something new!
Refocus Your Board will help you RECALL, RETHINK, and RECREATE how you approach your organization, how plan programs for your campus, and serve your student body.
Learn tips, tricks, and tools from an organizational expert your group can use now. You will leave this interactive workshop with a strategy to keep your organization on track, bolster your marketing and outreach efforts, and build dynamic events or initiatives your students want to see. This is great for campuses of all sizes and officers at all levels.
Learning Outcomes
By attending this featured workshop, participants will be able to:
- determine if their board is operating effectively with a clear understanding of their
purpose - learn how to improve their overall event and marketing strategy
- articulate opportunities to better meet the needs of their community
- understand the importance of teamwork and relationship building in their success
Organizational Coaching
Are your organizations struggling to shift their culture and continue to evolve? Is collaboration non-existent? Do we need to reframe your recruitment strategy? Bringing in Austin to provide coaching to your organizations, councils and governing bodies that will provide them with steps they can take to diagnose chronic behaviors preventing change, reframe their programming and set a meaningful plan for the future. This can be done as a full-day of coaching sessions including a pre-assessment, small and large group discussions and planning sessions and debrief with professional staff. This can be added on to a keynote experience.
Curriculum Development & Facilitation
Austin is a skilled leadership educator with years of experience developing learning outcomes-based curriculums for student leaders for training and on-going leadership development. Austin can develop a curriculum that elevates your student’s development and training, rooted in leadership theory and models, best practices, and alignment with the institutional need and goals. Curriculums can include a series of workshops or one or multi-day retreats, including in-person or virtual delivery methods. This work includes an intake form to understand your needs and can include pre-and-post assessments for attendees and a debrief call post-program with the campus professionals. As a trusted facilitator, Austin can also facilitate your program too.
AUSTIN’S BLOGS
The following are past entries Austin has written for the CAMPUSPEAK Speaker’s Voice Blog
