Title: A Tap on the Shoulder Led Her into Student Affairs. Now, She’s Paying It Forward.

In her office, Daelyn Moon keeps cushy chairs and a few magazines for students who may wander in. She wants them to have a place to rest, even if she’s locked into work herself.

“The best part of the job is that they know my office, our department, is a landing space for them,” she said. “They can just be and catch their breath.”

Moon, the assistant director for academic success in the Center for Multicultural Equity and Access (CMEA), knows firsthand the importance of creating these spaces. 

The California native attended Loyola Marymount University, a Jesuit institution in Los Angeles. As a first-generation college student, she found the transition to college tough. But she found support in a program for first-generation college students, similar to the one she helps run at Georgetown.

She also found a home in the university’s student affairs offices, where she worked. The team there helped her navigate college, access resources and gave her a space to camp out before she commuted home.

“This group of professionals ushered me through my collegiate experience,” she said. “If there was after-office hour programming, they would let me come, hang out, wait out traffic, grab dinner, the whole nine yards.”

Gradually, Moon realized she wanted to help fellow students access the same resources and support she did. She earned her master’s in higher education and student affairs from Loyola University Chicago and, after working for Louisiana State University, joined Georgetown in 2020. 

Since arriving on the Hilltop, Moon has designed the curriculum for the Community Scholars Program’s five-week summer program, which helps first-generation and limited-income college students transition to college. Last summer, she designed a new curriculum for CMEA’s Total Hoya Readiness: Introduction to Vocation & Excellence, a pre-orientation program that helps first-year and transfer students find community and support on campus.

In addition to her daily work ensuring that students have the resources they need – tutoring services, loaner laptops, skill-building workshops and seminars – and supporting the Community Scholars Program – she’s been presenting on her work at national conferences. 

For Moon, this work is a vocation. She shares many of the same experiences with the students she cares for. And she knows how to find the tools to meet them where they are.

“This work is deeply personal, but also because of a shared lived experience, it allows me to be a much better advocate in my role,” she said. “The day-to-day is around programming and advising, but the magic and the vocation of what I’m doing is in the minutia and the intersections of my students and their identities and what they’re experiencing at the university. 

“I truly mean it and believe it when I say I’m walking with students in their collegiate journey. I’m right there side-by-side with them.”

When the reality of being a first-generation college student hit me: I went to an all-girls Catholic high school. I was in all APs, all honors [classes]. Arriving at college, I felt like I was getting left behind, even though, allegedly, I’ve gotten the academic preparation to be here. People would reference things, and I was like, I don’t know what that is. Something as simple as office hours or figuring out my meal plan and having to budget this money. You can’t call home and say, ‘Mom, dad, auntie, uncle, cousin, whoever’s been through this before, what are those tips and tricks?’ I couldn’t even begin to figure out who I could lean on.

How I found who to lean on: I participated as an incoming first-year student in a program very similar to the Community Scholars Program, which I help run and support in CMEA. That program instilled all of the academic, social, how-to-do-college. Because of my connection, I was able to hop around on campus and get introduced to folks who helped me study abroad and wrote my letter of recommendations and pitched me to be in spaces I had no idea existed.

My career lightbulb moment: My junior year, I finally admitted out loud, I don’t want to go to law school. The career center did an assessment, and it boiled down to going into the legal field or a university administrator. I was working in the intercultural services [office]. I remember my supervisor at the time was like, ‘Hey, this is my job. What you tested for is my job. I think you would be a great fit for this.’ I was like, Oh, we’re not just hanging out? You get paid to do this? Oh, you have a degree in this? 

These were folks who cared about me as an individual and cared about my success and paid it forward. I was also doing this work already as a work-study student and helping students get access to resources. I was like, This feels like the best next right step for me. 

Why I do this work: Someone saw something in me and tapped me, and then I saw it for myself. Now I get to do that with this generation of college students. College is such a transformative, beautiful, enlightening experience. My role as a student affairs professional is to help students navigate that more easily, more seamlessly, more effectively, and equip them and help shine the light in the right direction. 

I want them to discover who they are and what they value and how they envision taking that beyond the Hilltop. I tell [students] all the time, ‘We’re doing what we need to do to get the degree, but who are you becoming in the process?’ That’s what I’m more interested in.

What brings me joy in my job: The day-to-day experiences I have with my students. They’re such a joy to be around. Even though four years is short in the grand scheme of things, so much happens in those four years with students. I’m a mess by the time we get to our multicultural graduation celebrations. I’m usually in the back with tissues. 

You cultivate this really personal relationship with students, and you’re part of their day-to-day. That’s the joy that I find: They pass the test; they get the internship; they discover a new thing about their identity. It could be any and everything. It’s a celebration every day.

By the way, I’m also a salsa dancer: Growing up in Los Angeles, we danced at all of my friends’ family gatherings. Then, I started taking lessons when I studied abroad in Madrid, which has a really international salsa scene. When I moved out here, one of the first things I did was tap back into the salsa scene. On a good week, I’m probably going two or three times a week. Growing up hearing salsa music all the time, it helps me feel connected to the West Coast while being on the East Coast. 

What I’m reading, watching, listening to: Too many things. I’m an avid reader. I’ve been really into fantasy, speculative fiction. I’m finishing up the Throne of Glass series, and then I’m going to start A Court of Thorns and Roses. I’m watching The Wire. It’s a masterpiece, period. Listening, it’s always salsa, bachata, meringue, French rap, German rap, French pop. It’s an eclectic medley of any and everything – jazz, R&B. 

One word to describe Georgetown: Unique — which seems like a generic cliche, but there’s something at Georgetown. Everyone is rooted in why they do the work and also invested in our students’ experiences on campus. That’s a really cool place to be in, especially for me, who has always been guided by my own calling, to be surrounded by people who also are rooted in this deeply personal mission that lines up with this institution. It makes for really beautiful professional development, no matter what stage you are in your career.