Isaacs’ Farewell Reception:
When: 1-3 p.m. May 29
Where: L.A. Pittenger Student Center Music Lounge
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Before coming to Ball State as a student, Mitch Isaacs, retention and graduation specialist for first time freshmen, wanted to teach high school and coach football.
Instead, he found himself back at Ball State coaching freshmen.
Now after 10 years of working at Ball State, he is moving on to work as the executive director of Muncie’s Shafer Leadership Academy.
Isaacs started his time at Ball State as a student in 1998. He said as a freshman he went home every weekend.
“As far as I was concerned, my life, my future and my friends were all 45 minutes south of here,” he said.
But that began to change when he got involved with hall council his sophomore year.
“After a year of getting involved and falling in love with campus, I decided, well the whole reason I wanted to teach high school was to make an impact on students,” he said, “and I’ve met a tremendous amount of people who have made an impact on me here ... I can just work with college students rather than high school students.”
Cathy Bickel, associate director of housing and residence life, remembers Isaac as a student. In addition to hall council, he was involved in Residence Hall Association and became a Resident Assistant.
“He was very enthusiastic about the college environment and wanted to share his enthusiasm,” she said. “I think he understood the many opportunities Ball State offers for students and was very passionate about trying to get students involved to balance their college experience and to take advantage of organizations, events, lectures, concerts and those sorts of things.”
After graduating in 2002, Isaacs wanted to stay at Ball State for his master’s degree. But one of his mentors told him he needed to try being somewhere else for a while.
“I was kind of kicked out of the nest,” he said. “But it was probably one of the best things for me.”
So he went to Indiana State University and earned a master’s degree in student affairs and higher education before returning to Ball State as a residence hall director in 2005. He worked as the associate director of student life and with the Excellence in Leadership program before becoming the retention and graduation specialist for first time freshmen in August 2013.
In this position, he finds himself coaching freshmen who were like him when he first came to Ball State.
“My job now is to find freshmen who aren’t having the best Ball State experience — and that may mean they’re struggling academically, socially or financially — and serve as a college coach to them,” he said. “I fill the role of giving them all the tricks of the trade and helping them navigate campus so they do have a great experience and so they do want to stay at Ball State. It’s really been a full circle experience for me.”
While Isaacs will no longer be working at Ball State, he said he will always stay connected to the university. He will still be living in Muncie, as his wife Becky Isaacs works at Ball State as the assistant director of housing and residence life, and his two children attend Burris Laboratory School.
As for his job at Shafer Leadership Academy, he said it reminds him of his work with EIL.
“What EIL does for Ball State students, that’s really what Shafer does in the community,” Isaacs said.
Seventeen years ago, Isaacs did not plan on staying with Ball State past graduation, but now, he said he wouldn’t mind working for the university again later on.
“What I’ve learned from taking this new job is you never know what opportunities are going to be available to you, and you never burn a bridge and you never close a door,” he said. “You can plan all you want, but life is full of surprises. So if my path comes back to Ball State, I’ll be very happy.”
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