First Look into: Built with A-State

A university can hand you a diploma, but can it hand you a future? From a brand new podcast studio at Arkansas State University, we talk with Chancellor Todd Shields about a builder’s approach to higher education and why he believes students deserve a direct line from learning to a real career.

We get into the engine behind that promise: industry partnerships that tell the truth about today’s skills gap. Shields explains how A-State listens to employers, pressure-tests what students still need, and then updates programs without losing the rigor of accreditation. That can mean reworking curriculum, adding hands-on experiences, or embedding micro-credentials and industry certifications, such as IBM or Microsoft certificates so graduates stand out in hiring.

Along the way, we explore what makes A-State and Northeast Arkansas bigger than most people realize, including major regional industries and distinctive pathways that connect students to advanced health careers. If you care about workforce development, career-ready education, and talent pipelines that actually work, this conversation lays out a practical blueprint built around feedback, flexibility, and outcomes.

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Transcript

Welcome To The New Studio

SPEAKER_01 0:10

Hey everyone, thank you so much for joining us. I am Parker Dotson with podcastvideos.com. We are here at the brand new Arkansas State podcasting studios here in the Student Union. Um, it got its backdrop today, so we're in our final version of how it's gonna look.

SPEAKER_00 0:24

That's great.

SPEAKER_01 0:24

There'll be a few little enhancements that we make here and there to kind of add some more extra wow. But um, first off, shout out to Chancellor Shields for having the vision to want to do something like this and then entrusting us to come in and actually bring it to life.

SPEAKER_00 0:38

Once I heard all about it, I'm like, we gotta have this.

SPEAKER_01 0:40

Yeah. Yeah. It's it's it's just a major resource, you know, and we'll we'll get into some of that down the road. But um, Chancellor Shields, I want to thank you for taking the time. Oh, I'm glad to be here. Thank you. Would love to have you

Chancellor Shields’ Path To Leadership

SPEAKER_01 0:52

just share. I know most people know who you are, um, but just share a little bit about yourself. Like, tell us where you're from, um, what got you into education, okay, um, and what you're loving about Arkansas State and the great things that you're seeing here.

SPEAKER_00 1:04

So um I'm born in New Jersey, Fort Monmouth, New Jersey, which is a fort that's been closed. I'm a military kid, so I can tell you where I've not been more than I can easily than I can tell you where I have been. Uh, we moved about every year and a half, two years. I went to four different high schools. I'm the kid in the yearbook that you go, I think I remember that guy, right? Um I was in school and went to grad school or went to college and then had a job. My only real job I've ever had is a lifeguard in Atlantic City. Okay. And I thought I don't like working as much as I like being in school. Yeah. And so, not really having an idea of what I wanted to do, I kind of just stayed in school and I'm still here.

SPEAKER_02 1:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:45

And really, um, you know, I'm an example of somebody who really I didn't really have a goal of going into administration. I didn't even know what that was. I just wanted to teach and stay in college. So um, I don't know, people kept giving me responsibilities and I try to do the best I could at that, and then they'd throw something else at me, and I tried to do the best I could at that, and then I just kind of found myself working my way up. And then um, I was at the University of Arkansas until 2022, um, from 1994 till 2022, and then just really started thinking, well, you know, the University of Arkansas was much different in 1994 than it is today. And I wanted to have much more student impact, I wanted to have much more involvement with the students. I wanted to be I if you'd have told me 15 years ago that I like to build things, I would have not even really known what you meant. But as I got into leadership, I was building things like an art school or you know, a new data science program with the engineering college and with the business college, and I just enjoyed the building process. And I really wanted to do that more than I wanted to like say make a 3% increase in this metric or something, and that just kind of bored me to tears. Um, and I didn't really know if it was having a real impact on students' lives, so I knew when I built something, it really was, um, not only with you know the community, but with students and their families.

Why Arkansas State Felt Different

SPEAKER_00 3:12

Um, and so that when this um job opened up, um actually I didn't even really know about it. My daughter, um, Savvy Shields was Miss America, and she was came to Jonesboro eight times.

SPEAKER_02 3:25

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 3:25

Uh they had her back more than any other place really in Arkansas, and she loved it. Uh, she loved the people, loved everything. She's the one who really called me and said, Dad, you've got to apply. You'll absolutely love it. And I didn't even know that it was open, but I was definitely at the point where like just incremental change wasn't exciting. I wanted to do really something big. Um, and so when I came here and I saw even half the things that they'd started, I was just so excited that I'm like, gosh, not only is she right about the people and the place, but then all the things that they have that the rest of the state and country doesn't know about. I was just so excited. I was like, I really want this job.

SPEAKER_01 4:07

Yeah. You know, it's something over the that I've personally experienced. I came here once on a visit, goodness, age myself a little bit, probably about 15 years ago now. Um, and I had a couple of my best friends I went to high school with were over here going to the state, and I just wanted to come check it out and um actually had enrolled and then they transferred, and I was like, well, I don't know anyone here now, so I transferred. So yeah, I was enrolled and accepted actually as a Red Wolf. Um and then they all left and I was like, Well, I don't know anybody else over here, so I guess I'll just follow them. Uh but I hadn't been here in a decade and a half, and then I came over here, and there's key elements that you remember, but then I remember the first time we came on and we met with you and had a conversation, and one saw your vision and passion for what it could be. And then you walk around, you kind of walked us around campus, took us to the athletic facility. Yeah. You see the drone robots driving around delivering coffees everywhere. You see students interacting, and it was it was such an exciting energy and to see how much it had changed from me being here 15 years ago and drive around campus, and there's a Wingate building almost being completed.

SPEAKER_00 5:12

The vet school is rocking and rolling down there, and it's like you're gonna open in June and stuff to our first class this fall.

SPEAKER_01 5:18

Yeah, and it's I drove by it and I'd seen pictures of it, and you were telling us about it. And so last time I was over here, I looped by it and I was like, oh my goodness, this is this is like a really nice building. I mean, it stretched a couple blocks, like it was beautiful. And you know, just to see the momentum that's going on here was really exciting. And, you know, I was listening to you say you wouldn't expect yourself to be a builder, which leads us into your show, which is built with a state. So I know you know we're obviously focusing on this part of the media network around the community and partnerships and that workforce training and development.

Building Career Outcomes With Industry

SPEAKER_01 5:52

So tell us a little bit more, your show, what you're gonna be diving into when we're talking about being built with a state.

SPEAKER_00 5:58

So, you know, one of my passions is that we shouldn't just be giving an education or a diploma, but we should be giving you a career and something you should be successful in. And so my big mission has been to make sure I'm talking to industry, whatever industries that are out there, because there's so many more jobs and so many more careers than I ever even realized that there were. Um, and there's so many needs that industry has that higher education typically just sits back in their ivy tower and we don't know that they need these things, right? Um, so I'm trying to do my best to get into everybody's business and help understand what are your gaps, what do you really need? The students that you're getting, are they trained well? What things do they still need to have? And then really co-creating with businesses. So we're not set in stone with like this is our curriculum for say name and degree, but like here's what we have to have for accreditation. But what is it that you as an industry need to have? And so we can put it either into the program or put a micro-credential in it, or put something in it that you'll get an IBM certificate or a Microsoft certificate or something in there too that also helps you stand out. Yeah. Um, and so it's just been really great to have this industry university partnership in just about everything we do.

SPEAKER_01 7:16

Yeah, and so with the show itself, we're going to be, you know, really diving into why those connections are so important. I mean, at a very surface level, you get it, okay. Well, I'm gonna talk with businesses, understand what they need, and we can implement it in there. But that is not always the standard when it comes to higher education.

SPEAKER_00 7:33

No, it's not, it's not. But you know, when I talk to a parent and I tell the parent, look, you know, you're gonna give us your most precious possession, your most prized possession. I want to be able to with confidence tell them not only are we gonna take care of them, we're gonna educate them really well, but we're gonna set them up for the career that they want so that they're really set for success. And often in ways that they don't even realize they're ahead of everybody else. But then when they get there, they can see like, wow, I'm really well trained, I'm better trained than everybody else. And industries are seeing that.

SPEAKER_02 8:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 8:04

Industries are seeing that, like, gosh, I want an A State kid. Yeah. Because they they're really trained, they've got the gaps. And then if they don't, we're in conversations so that we're constantly tweaking what it is that we're training and what it is so that we know that they're gonna succeed when they get there. And that's the thing too.

SPEAKER_01 8:18

You mentioned these people really want these A-State kids, and it gives them such a better platform for for success because they've met and talked with you and addressed and you've listened to as a university right what it is these industries need. And what that does is not only do they have this, you know, accreditation or whatever else it is, we help them talk through the specifics of what we were looking for and lacking.

SPEAKER_00 8:43

Exactly. So the alignment is great. I've had businesses come in and they're like, we really think it's great. Maybe you could tweak things here. And we've had businesses come in and go, that's terrible. You got to redo the whole thing. And we're like, okay, tell us what it is. Yeah. And we're open to that. We're not opposed to that. In fact, that's great feedback because I would because I really do want to be able to sincerely say, we're gonna change your kid and their family and their grandkids' lives. Yeah. If we can stand behind that, I know we're doing the right thing.

SPEAKER_01 9:10

That's right. Yeah, and so we're gonna really be focusing on those conversations on why that is so important within this show that you're gonna be doing. And that'll be coming out soon. I know we're gonna start doing some full episode recording soon, which is exciting. There's been obviously a lot of conversation around it. And then you start to come in here and you walk into the space, you go, okay, we're doing it. We're doing it. That is really cool. You got the lights and you've got the backdrop and you've got your graphics, and it's all ready to go. So I'm in NASA. It kicks on. It's almost like you're in a stadium type of atmosphere with all the lights.

SPEAKER_02 9:40

But yeah, it is.

SPEAKER_01 9:41

Um, and it's designed with this to be a comfortable environment. You know, we can sit in here and have a conversation. I forget that cameras are rolling. Right. It's a podcast. Podcasts are meant to engage people and be fun and conversational. And with what I love about podcasting, and I've kind of talked with all the hosts about this, the ability to have hour plus long conversations at times, yeah, in depth with industry leaders about what's really going on and what's really happening. Right, you have the ability to reach so many people. It's hard for you or people to be able to understand, like in a full scope of things, things are happening at Arkansas State. But if I can sit down with you for an hour and we have a lunch, I'm gonna walk away going, oh my gosh, how do I get involved? Or how does my business get involved? And with that, and what I love about podcasting is we can do that every week. Right.

SPEAKER_00 10:31

Exactly. And we we meet with the industries and we think we know what they need, and then we get there and they need something completely different. So for example, I knew the steel companies needed engineers, but I didn't really think through they needed accountants and they needed supply chain people, and they needed nurses. And I'm like, really? Okay, so that's actually become one of our biggest pipelines to them because you know, they've got 5,000 people building a new big river steel too. They're gonna have 3,000 subcontractors there that are gonna go through lots of issues that they need medical care right there on site. Um, and so those

What People Don’t Know About A-State

SPEAKER_00 11:07

are the types of things that I learned too.

SPEAKER_02 11:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 11:09

And then our departments learn, and we're ready to go and get students ready that they've got experiences that nobody else has.

SPEAKER_02 11:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 11:15

And that you can really only get it at a state. That's right. And I love that.

SPEAKER_01 11:19

Yeah. So one quick thing to leave us with what are you most excited about with starting a show and having these conversations around these partnerships and that workforce development? Kind of leave us with one last little thing that you're really excited to dive in and talk to and that people can expect. So, can I be really high level?

SPEAKER_00 11:34

Oh, absolutely. Yeah. So, really high level is I'm really excited to be able to tell people what is happening at A State because there's so many things that are happening, but the rest of the state and then the region, the south, people just don't know it. So, like for one example that we were talking about here earlier is that we're the steel capital, Northeast Arkansas is the steel capital of America and making more steel here than any place else. And I've lived in Arkansas since 1994 and I had no clue. Um, and we are one of only about five or six campuses in all of America that have a medical school and a vet school that's on their main campus. So, from a freshman to physician or a freshman to a veterinarian, we've got this pathway program that is going to make sure that you're don't even have to take the MCAT, that you're just moving right into your med school experience that you've already started taking classes when you're a junior or a senior. Um, and so the med school experience transitions, not even there, you've already been doing it.

SPEAKER_02 12:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 12:34

Um, there's lots of just different great things like that that I'm excited to tell everybody about.

Closing Thanks And What’s Next

SPEAKER_01 12:40

Yeah. Well, sir, thank you so much for the time. I appreciate you chat. Appreciate it. Yeah, pleasure. Thank you. We've got a lot more to come, not as much from me, but more from him and some of our other great hosts. So be sure you tune back in. We'll be releasing content here soon. So we're excited to get going and um help spread the good word and the details happening here around the campus. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 12:58

That'd be fantastic. Love it. Thank you.

SPEAKER_01 13:00

Well, thank you, sir.

SPEAKER_00 13:01

Thank you.