Success Stories: Teacher to Trainer with Devin Torres

Luis Malbas  
Hello, everybody, welcome to the training learning and development community. Thanks for joining us today. We're starting a new series kind of specific to this month, maybe after this month, and after the event we have coming up. We'll continue with this one. But we're sort of building a group of testimonials, calling him success stories teacher to trainer. And today our guest is Devon Taurus. We're talking about basically, going from teaching to training. And but I do think this applies to any, any career that is interested in moving into l&d. And specifically, we're going to be kind of promoting the event that we're premiering on the week of August 29, which is called transitioning to learning and development, I call it T to LD for short, you can go to T to ld.com. If you want to get more information about it, we've already got most of the you know, most of the speaker slots filled, it's looking great. So far, we'll probably have the rest of it completed within the next week or two. But if you're somebody that is looking to transition into learning development from another industry or space, it'll be a great event to learn more about what it takes to be an l&d professional. And so with that, here is Devin Torres, who has actually made that switch from was it from actually being a teacher or higher ed or academia like how, tell us a little bit about your story. Of course,

Devin Torres  
thank you for having me on. I made the transition to instructional design from higher ed. I had a regular full time position. And I also was adjunct faculty. So B, so I was in the classroom there. I also came from K 12. I used to be an ABA. And we've learned a lot about that practice. And it wasn't something that worked for me anymore. So I actually transitioned K 12 to higher ed. And I started out in data analysis, institutional research, and I actually worked for a underrepresented student program. And so I did all the data for that. And I really missed working with students, because, you know, I love the collegiate experience, I like the hired, but I really miss kind of being in front of students and getting to know them. You're gonna hear my cat in the background, I apologize in advance. In that role, I had a really great boss, his name is Fj. And he led me teach a course in our summer bridge program for those underrepresented students. And I think the first course I taught was communications, I taught it in a group with a couple of my other co workers and it, it was different than K 12. It was different from having an actual class and having a rubric and having to grade and I was like, Okay, I could get used to this. I like this age group. I like the flow of this, like the flexibility. And so throughout my time at the college, no matter what, nine to five role I was in, I was always kind of adjunct in some capacity, whether it be career education, I taught a course around Teachers of Tomorrow. So incoming first years who wanted to do our MIT program and go into education. We taught some career guidance for that. So that's kind of my teaching, experience, classroom experience.

Luis Malbas  
You know, I'm really interested in the whole underrepresented student thing. Can you just tell me a little bit about that? I'm just curious. Yeah, absolutely.

Devin Torres  
Um, so I worked at a PWI small institution, rural area, middle of nowhere, kinda. And we had a program that was to help underrepresented students. So first gen, rural area, low income minority students transition to college. I myself was a first gen student. And when I went to college, I didn't really have that support. It was like, Hey, here's student loans, sign up for them figure it out. Yeah. This institution had a program that did a startup with a Summer Bridge, where you come to campus like two, three weeks early for a two week period. You get to know your peers, you build a support network as an underrepresented student. And then you enter you enter college a little bit more prepared. You have people around you who are kind of going through the same thing. And then they did programming throughout the year, which about financial literacy, identity, impostor syndrome, all of these things that typically were affecting students who were underrepresented and it was kind of like a nice, nice cohort building exercise and you know, you you're with these people for four years, and then as you move up in the program, you can become a man tour and then you're working with new, you know, first year students. So it was it was a really good, it's a really good program. It's shifted a little bit. And but when I started, I just I loved using the data for the program and getting that feedback and stuff. But what was really impactful was like meeting those students and seeing those connections and getting to be a part of that, like, programmatic planning.

Luis Malbas  
Yeah, yeah. I was actually a part of the program like that in high school. Yeah, I didn't realize. I mean, it was just it was kind of a thing where I had like, extra coaches and guides to help me through and I get thrown together with a bunch of other students that I wasn't quite sure why I was there with them. But I was, you know, they just, you know, I was, I, my dad was a migrant worker. And so I was like, you know, put together with them. And I was given more guidance, and it was helpful. I made some interesting friends, too. That was, that was really, really cool. And we used to tour colleges and stuff. So that's awesome that you did that. Because it really is really, really helpful. So yeah, nice. All the

Devin Torres  
roles I had there, I feel like that was even when I stopped working in that specific role. And for that program, I still came back and did bridge every year, because it just, it meant so much. And those students are amazing. And I still am in contact with some of them. So it feels really great.

Luis Malbas  
That's cool. That is great. That's great. But then, and then you moved into you shifted your career. Right, you're now you're in in l&d, or as an instructional designer, when and why did you decide to do that?

Devin Torres  
Yeah, so it's kind of interesting, um, I was working as an academic support and tech specialist in the education program at my institution at this point. So I set up student field placements, did some student kind of informative training on going into the public schools and a lot of assessment work. And the role wasn't really structured. So I had, I was still doing the adjunct faculty career education. So going through that curriculum. And then in January, I found out I was pregnant have 20 of 2020. And right after that COVID happened. So we shut down, we were we stopped being in person in March, we moved classes. Online, we taught through zoom, Google Hangout, definitely a really interesting experience. But my master's degree is actually in distance education and elearning. And it's not something that the institution I was at really had a kind of venue for, and really supported. And even through the pandemic, there were just, we weren't structured that way. So I was never really getting to use those skills that I learned in that program. And I had been home doing the job for a couple, couple months. And then I was on maternity leave. And while I was on maternity leave, I just started thinking, like, I like being remote. And I like doing the student support in the way that I'm doing it from home, and that I had my daughter, and it was kind of like, why am I not using the skills that I went to school for? Like, why am I not doing the thing that I set out to do or that I wanted to do? Right? And so a career, a position in the Career Center had opened up, it was an externship coordinator, and the components of it involves doing faculty training, and still setting students up. But that faculty training piece is really what kind of pushed me to start looking and instructional to one. And, yeah, when we, when they made the decision to bring us all back to campus, I was like, Okay, I'm giving myself an end date. I don't want to be in person anymore. It's doesn't work with what I want. I'm lucky enough that I had the ability to kind of make that call. And so I started looking and I interviewed for a few places and the company that I'm at, and just they really stood out. They were one of the only companies that mentioned the learner journey when I was applying, and, you know, that's what I kind of got into this for so I accepted an offer in September of 2021. And so I'm coming up on my one year here as an instructional designer, and it's been really great.

Luis Malbas  
Wow, that's

amazing. You know, it is it is such a relevant thing, that that the pandemic and just the circumstances surrounding all that really accelerated the decision for for us to move to a, you know, a remote kind of scenario. And I never imagined that, you know, I didn't know whether or not that would happen even in my lifetime. But you know, I'm you know, pretty much 100% remote. Absolutely. And I don't ever want to go back, you know, and it was you know, and I've done it in the past before It was, initially it was uncomfortable, but you know now I totally got got it down. I think so. Yeah, it's it forced us to make a decision about all of that. Now, I do want to learn more about you getting your degree in your master's in distance learning and e learning. Talk a little bit about that.

Devin Torres  
Yeah, so when I started college, I wanted to be a social worker, I watched a lot of judging Amy growing up, and I was like, that's what I want to do. That's how I'm gonna help. And then I started talking to social workers and taking the classes and I have a ton of respect for it. But I would burn out. Yeah, I was a caseworker in a mental health facility for a little bit. And I did it for about a year and a half. And I was like, okay, like, not working for me. And it taught me a lot. And that's, I think the, in all of this transition, everything I've done has taught me something. And so I think that's why this transition has been so successful. But I was I went to undergrad for sociology and social sciences. And then I got to a point where I was like, Well, I want a master's degree, and I'm working in education. I'm on this education truck. What do I care about, and I care about making sure that people have access to education. And also, as an introvert, like, going to school online really worked for me. And it wasn't something that a lot of my friends did, or a lot of people that at the time, but I was like, I can work and I can go to school, and I have to work. And then just being in kind of a traditional classroom setting made me a little anxious at the time. And I was like, I don't know that I can I want to go back in person for a master's program, and then I can't have a job. So I was in UMBC. And I was looking at their master's, master's program offerings, and I was like, distance that an elearning. How, you know, how can I combine the two things I like the giving access to education, that education as a whole. And in a way that makes me comfortable. And so I just started taking the classes. I know, I know, that's like not the ideal. People always are like, you know, you got to know what you want to do. Because it's a lot of money. I got lucky, I didn't really know what I wanted to do. And it ended up being exactly what I needed. So I started taking classes and I just got really interested in the way distance education works and the way we learn remotely and what looks different about it than traditional education. I think sometimes when we talk about what happened with COVID, it's like, oh, well, you just throw a class on Zoom, and it's good. That's distance education. And there's, there's theories behind it. It's not and I think what we learned as a whole was taking a class and just throwing it online doesn't work, because we have to take into consideration how people learn. Yeah. So I went through that program. And I just, I loved everything about it. And I started looking even when I was at my old institution, I started looking for opportunities to teach online, if somebody was like, Hey, you can do a Winterim session, I would pitch a course. I did a talk at UMBC about building community in a kind of distance learning environment, because I think the thing you people don't think about it, you, you know, you're in person, you have a cohort, you get to meet people in your program. When you're a distance learner. I think some of the fear comes from how am I going to know people? Or am I going to interact? And the thing I like about distance learning is you don't have to have that experience if it's don't if it's not what you're interested in. But for my master's program, I did find like a cohort of people. And we did a lot of projects together, we communicated through the program. So I made those connections. And I was like, Well, if I can do this, and maybe other people are looking for how to do it, so I kind of just stuck with it.

Right, nice. So I know that this is something that people are probably wondering, but you know, getting that master's degree, how important was that to your career, to finding a job to moving into instructional design? Is that something you think everybody needs? Or just how is it set as far as a priority is concerned?

Personally, I think my experience outside of what my master's degree was focused in was more helpful. Having a master's degree got me the jobs that provided me the experience, because I think a lot of times in education, higher ed, especially it's, for us it was you have to have a higher degree than the students you're teaching. So I did. I wasn't teaching distance, education. I was teaching career and leadership and things like that. But that degree opened that door for me to get in front of those people and just have those experiences. Like the externship coordinator position. I needed a master's degree for it. And I wouldn't have been able to do that kind of train the trainer development. If I didn't have that took Right. So I think in some ways, depending on like, what path you're going, yeah, it could be important to open the door. But I, for me, personally, my experience in doing these things is what got me the job because the interviews were portfolio based, or something. I know that's not the case for everybody. But I do see a lot of people saying, like, oh, you can take this course. And you can take this certification, and it's X amount of dollars, and it's super expensive. And I think there's something to be said, for professional development upskilling and getting experience. I think it just depends on what you're looking for, and how how you plan on using it as you build for me, it was a door opening, it wasn't necessarily gaining the skill.

Luis Malbas  
Right? You know, it's, it's a fascinating thing right now, especially like, over the last like, couple years. With T LDC and just sort of the topics and what we talk about overall, a lot of it, the conversation is really has shifted to career because that is sort of like, what is at the top of a lot of people's minds, right? Because, you know, people are like reacting to the pandemic, they don't want to, you know, work in the office anymore. So if they did have a job, even in l&d where they were in, you know, where they had to work in an office, they're like, Well, I want to find a remote job. So I'm just going to look for something else. And so there is all this movement that way. And I'm finding myself even, you know, like Lisa, Lisa Crockett isn't in the broadcast right now in the audience. And like yesterday, she had a great conversation with Susan Manos, where they actually talked about instructional design, like project management things that were really, really practical to ID and that conversation is happening a lot less until DC I think, then, then then it was like, say, two years ago, now we're talking a lot more about career and things like di and accessibility. And, and it seems like the conversation has shifted in that direction. But you making a lot of these decisions about your career. Was it really was it mostly in reaction to the pandemic? And the move to remote work is, is that primarily it like when you decided to get your distance learning and elearning masters? Was that before the pandemic or was that? Okay, it was before?

Devin Torres  
Yeah, so I finished in 2019, I want to say I started in 2017, I had just started at the college. I think for me, it was more about figuring out who I was, and like what I was doing and where my life was going, I think the pandemic and I've talked to my therapist about this, like full transparency. It made a lot of people think like we're at home and priorities are shifting and the culture of work in general, shifted, whether you're in person or not. And so I think it was the pandemic was like the final push, I had been going back and forth with what I wanted to do. For a while I'm like, I'm in these positions at the college because I am comfortable. And I like these. I like students, and I like getting to be adjunct. And I like getting in front of a classroom, in a capacity that feels comfortable for me, but I wasn't making the impact that I wanted to I wasn't getting to kind of look at what a learner needs and build and work with people who have that, you know, SMEs, who know the content, I wasn't getting to, like, create, right? And so when I was home, and I was sitting there thinking, and then I, you know, had my daughter, and I'm like, Well, you know, what, what do I want her to see me do? Do I want to do I want her to stay in this position, and feel like I'm not growing? Or do I want to you know, just try to do something different. And you know, during the pandemic, I like LLC, my, my business my like part time do it when I feel like it content creation business. And I did a couple of things for some people. And I'm like, if I'm spending time doing, like this website stuff, and these flyers and things like I could work on my portfolio to show that I you know, I know how to build a class, I know how to design a course that's effective. And so it kind of gave me time and it gave me a push, but it wasn't the main factor. I think me just kind of saying like, I don't want to be stagnant anymore. Was the was the real factor.

Luis Malbas  
Right, right. You know, and it's, gosh, I feel like I could talk about this stuff for a while just because it has been just almost painful, though, how we've reacted to all of the change and the turmoil that's been going on over the last night, even pre pandemic, right, just some of the social stuff and everything and that's, that's where a lot of this activity is coming from. I think we're just reacting to all of these things that are going on around us and reassessing and all that but um, you Let me go back a little bit and just get to like, the kind of mistakes that maybe you made or things you would have done differently coming up in your career? Or did everything end up working out? Okay for you, I mean, or were there things you'd go back to, to changing?

Devin Torres  
I think it all worked out in the end, like, I'm extremely happy now. And the end result. I think one of the things, you know, we talked about impostor syndrome a lot. Making the shift made me really, really worried because I'm like, I haven't done this particular thing. And so I started doubting myself. And then I was like, going back through everything I've ever done written, I was thinking about, like, in my head, I was like, Oh, I remember that horrible teaching experience I have, because to be completely honest, I was teaching in person for a little bit when I was pregnant, and I apologize to all my core students that year, because I was sick, I was tired. And I was, I was not, you know, delivering content effectively, to be honest with you. Um, and so I started thinking about that, and it was a lot of, Can I do this, should I do this? If I do this, I'm not going to be comfortable anymore. And I'm not going to be great at it walking in. So I think I got in my head a little bit. And then I kind of pulled back and I wasn't giving 100% to this particular, you know, next step. But I have a really great supervisor, multiple great supervisors who are like, you know, what you're doing, you know, you, the thing I like about the way I've interviewed for instructional design, in comparison to the way I've interviewed for other things is everybody that I've interviewed for so far has asked me to deliver something, or better yet have a conversation about how I would change something. And I know, there's a lot of conversations about how that turns into free labor. And I 100% agree with that as well. But for me, because I was doubting myself so much, it felt good to be able to get that feedback on stuff I would put together. So I think working through some of that, I would probably go back and change and just try to be a little more confident. Additionally, additionally, I think I would stop saying yes to everything. I think that's another thing I'm guilty of, I would have downtime in my old job and just be like, Yeah, I can totally do that. It sounds like something I want to do. Because it gets me back in front of students, or it lets me build a course or design curriculum. And instead of thinking, Hey, maybe I shouldn't make that shift. And to doing that I was just taking on more tasks additionally to what I was already doing. So had I you know, I could have made that shift to that job. years earlier. If I if I hadn't just said, oh, yeah, well, I'm doing it because I love to do it. I'm just going to add it on and it's going to be fine. And then I'm burnout. Maybe I could have done that differently. But overall, no, I definitely think it uh, it worked out well, and where I want to be, I think I'm a much happier person in instructional design. And that's not to say that I wasn't happy in the classroom or doing those things. But what I realized is I wasn't doing it the way that worked best for me. And, you know, we, in my old position, I have a close friend, and she was always telling students in our Ma T. If, if you find that this isn't for you, what you don't want to do is be the teacher that gets in front of the class and gets with students and hates it like that. That's the worst, right? Yeah. And I think as an adjunct faculty, I was getting in front of classes. And as time was changing, I'm like this, this really isn't the way I want to support students. This isn't the way I want to work in education. It just wasn't for me, and I think figuring that out was like a big wake up call.

Luis Malbas  
You know, it seems that you, it's nice that you you have a vision of what you want to do and you're constantly shifting or tweaking sort of how your situation to make sure that it fits what you want. I think that's really, really important. And maybe not something that you're totally aware of that you're that you're doing, but it's nice, you're you're you're taking control of what the situations are that you're involved in. And and that's good to hear. And I think that that's important. Are there any shortcuts? Because that's

one of the things that I feel like I see a lot of conversation about, you know, just on Reddit and other places, like in, in in l&d groups online where people are looking for like, I'm a teacher, how do I just,

I just want to make this change, like, what's the you know, do I sign up for this boot camp for whatever $5,000 And do it or, or what should I do, but what's your what's your response to that?

Devin Torres  
For me, and I know this won't work for everybody, but there's so much free content on the internet. or just free, free support. So like finding the TL DC, like, there's a group of people who if I didn't know something, I could say, hey, like, I really want to learn more about this, or I'm having trouble with this and like, I can reach out to people now and just say, hey, like, I've never done this. I want to learn about it. Do you have any recommendations? And yeah, that recommendation may be a bootcamp. It may be a YouTube video, it may be a tick tock at this point, because that's another good venue of getting this information. I'm not gonna say it's gonna build a whole career off of it. I'm not done building mine, but it's, the information is out there. And most and majority of the time, hopefully, we're getting to a place where it's more accessible. I watched a lot of video. Like I said, I worked in an education department. So I had a fact the faculty around me who taught instructional design, and I could go to them and say, Hey, so I have a question about this. And, you know, I was building rubrics for things, I was starting to do a lot of evaluation and an assessment. And I had a data background. So even outside of, like, Instructional Designer learning development, specifically, I would go to other educators and just say, like, how do you do this? Or how have you done this? So it's so hard, because I don't want to say like, yeah, it's a, it's a shortcut. I, it depends on what works for you. But I think if you do kind of use your like, use your resources. So many people share things that are free. Now, and I remember like, during the pandemic, there was like a spreadsheet for educators of just free resources for students so that you could work remotely or free training that you can bring back and apply. And I love a good you know, I love a good conference, I love a good training. So if even if they're not free, if they're like 100 bucks, especially like virtually right now, I try to invest in it, I have like a black woman and data summit that I'm going to attend in October that I'm super pumped about. And although it's not directly, it's not necessarily l&d lined up, it impacts things that I do for work. So I think just like kind of looking at what's out there relying on peers, I mean, boot camps are great, I also enjoy them. But I know they can get financially pricey and you know, about a half that maybe I don't have money to

Luis Malbas  
do it, you know, and I'm seeing a lot of the boot camps too are like, they're they've sort of just popped up in response to the demand of teachers that are interested in transitioning. And so the content of them can be really questionable only, I only say that, because I have had people tell me that this was a terrible experience doing this or that. And so you kind of have to be careful about that. And also, you know, devenue, luckily, I mean, you have this experience with the bridge, right? Where you were helping these, these kids find guidance, and, you know, through their experience in education, and so you kind of know that there are organizations, let your community set up to help people and for free, you know, to guide them. And that's pretty much what TLD see at this point can really function as that is, you know, you just find the right kind of people to sort of follow and learn from and as long as you know, they're trustworthy and have some sense of integrity like you, Devin, I think people should follow you on LinkedIn and sort of see what you're posting about. They know that, you know, people can turn to you and ask you questions that are going to be important, I mean, that are going to be answered well, and and have some, you know, have some relevance to them. So that's a good thing that you know that. We see what other questions I have here. So future goals for you. What do you now that you're working as an instructional designer, I suspect more in a corporate and enterprise sort of environment. You got any next steps that you want to take?

Devin Torres  
Yeah, I really want to bridge data and instructional design. I know they're tied, right. But so like I said, when I started in higher ed, I was an Institutional Research Analyst. I was honestly probably the worst employee. So shout out to Anne Marie Brady, for dealing with me, but I learned so much in data. And I in she was amazing, because she really showed me how data could be super impactful and working for an underrepresented student program. Data was financially impactful, but we were also seeing student journeys, we were seeing why we weren't retaining students. Sophomores for example, we lost them. They were like the highest group of people who we couldn't keep. And so the program built a initiative specifically for sophomore students. And so I I want to do more with data and instruct To design, I want to, you know, figure out how to take that algorithm bias and use it in a positive and positive way, for evaluations, and that's actually part of the reason I'm doing I want to attend that summit in October. It's a big part of it. But yeah, I think if I could find a way, long term to just do something big with data and instructional design, that's, that's where I want to go next. And luckily, like I'm in a space that really does support professional development, and really does kind of support those goals. So I'm excited.

Luis Malbas  
There is a, I did do a data, event, data and instructional design event. For TL DC. I think it was pre pandemic, because what had happened was I went to DevLearn. Live, I think it was in 2019, or 2018 was pre pandemic, and I was looking for people that were doing data and l&d and only found one booth. And, and I'm like, okay, so I need to find more people. So I ended up putting together an event for that. I'll put it into the chat afterwards. This is over because I can't I can't get into Crowdcast that way when since we're in a broadcast, but that might be helpful for you. But that's great to know, if I if I run into anybody that specializes in that. I'll I'll send them your way. Yeah, no, it's great that you're doing that. Um, yeah. And that's, I think, pretty much it we fit our time. And Devon, thank you so much for doing this. For folks in the audience T to ld.com is the domain is the URL if you want to check out our transitioning to learning and development event. It's free, I think, I mean, we've got over 100 people already registered for it. I haven't even really been pushing it yet. So it's going to be a good one. And it's a week long event at the end of this month. Please sign up attend if you're interested. I think it really really enjoyed Laura. It's T two LD. So let me type that in chat T two ld.com. And, yeah, that should take you to the actual page where you can register. And then and also Laura, since you just typed in chat there, Laura was saying that she's interested in. She's an instructional designer interested in segwaying into the talent development training arena. I would like to talk to you about that, Laura, because that is an interesting segue. And I'd like to learn more about that actually. All right. And so Devin, thanks again for for taking the time to do this. Devin is actually on the team helping build the transitioning to learning development event. So yeah, and then next week, I think it's Jennifer, Natan. We're going to have on same sort of discussion and anybody else if your teacher became a trainer and you want to talk about your success story, or even some of your failure stories, we'd love to hear it here on CLDC. And with that, I'm going to shut it down. Thanks, Lisa. Thanks, everybody, for showing up today. We'll see you next time. Bye, everybody. Bye.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

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