When Brian Hubbell began his journey in higher education, he didn’t think he’d still be on a college campus over 30 years later.

His first time attending college in the 1990s, he had a 1.2 GPA. His second time around, as a student at Syracuse University, he got good grades but left school for a high-paying job in sales.

But the third time is the charm. Now a senior majoring in sociology, Hubbell is flourishing at the University of Oregon—and he’s using his decades-long experience in the professional world to help his student colleagues find their own path through the UO Career Center.

“Once, I was back in a classroom around other students of traditional age, I was just so inspired on a daily basis by other people's greatness,” Hubbell says. 

Before coming to the UO, Hubbell found his initial inspiration on the Portland Community College campus. After earning a 4.0 GPA during his first term there, he knew he had to continue his education.

Two of his professors were UO alumni, and they told him, “You need to be in Eugene.”

Alongside his pursuit of a sociology bachelor’s degree, Hubbell also found a home at the UO Career Center in Tykeson Hall. He started out helping fellow students as a peer coach, but his manager soon approached him with another opportunity.

“My boss said, ‘We have another project that you might want to consider, and we really can't train you, but we think you could probably just go and get it yourself,’” Hubbell says. “So I started to reach out to faculty and staff and do a lot of outreach to first-year students and parents, and that's how the Student Career Ambassador Program began here at the University Career Center.”

Through his role as student director of the Student Career Ambassador Program, Hubbell has worked at Duck Days over previous summers, where he connected with students and parents. When talking with prospective students and their families, he makes sure to emphasize the sense of community he feels on campus.

“This is the most supportive community on any college campus I've ever been around, and I am now, currently, on my fourth school,” Hubbell says.

A sense of community is what Hubbell also iterates when mentoring students. He recognizes that he’s in a unique position to help traditional students, as someone who’s had lived experience but is also “in the trenches” with them. He says that students asking for his advice makes everything “worth it.”

He also says that many non-traditional students don’t return to school for job advancement. Instead, they use it as a place to “expand so many parts of themselves” through both knowledge and career building opportunities.

After he graduates from UO in June, Hubbell plans to continue his knowledge building in a graduate program. He’s currently in the admissions process with three universities, including UO, but where he ends up will largely depend on a piece of advice he gives to all students he mentors: Love the people you’re around, love the place that you’re in.

“I hear so many students say, ‘I want to go here,’ or, ‘I want to have this kind of position.’ Even post-graduation, that position exists in other places,” he says. “Pick a place that supports you and that you love. That's the most important thing I could say to anyone.”

—By Grace Connolly, College of Arts and Sciences