Meet Rigby Bendele, Associate Director of Advising, Humanities

Sometimes the path toward a college degree can be challenging – just ask Rigby Bendele.
Rigby Bendele

When Rigby was a junior in college, their dad passed away. “It drastically affected my grades and how I was doing,” they said. Support was hard to come by at their academic institution, and though Rigby did make it through, it’s an experience that informs their work as the associate director of advising for the humanities. 

When did your career begin at VCU and what brought you here? 

I began my career at VCU in 2014. I had started in the sociology program as a graduate student. At that time, sociology was leaving the Wilder School and they were hiring graduate students to be academic advisors to help with that transition. I was actually paired with the Department of Political Science and I started advising students over there. I stayed with political science for a couple of years and then I moved around the university. 

What do you do at VCU?

I'm the associate director of advising for the humanities. I oversee the academic advisors and I also work with students who have escalated needs. I have spent my career working with students who are returning to school after they have been away for a long time. 

I'll work with students who have had medical crises and needed to take a semester or two off, or students who have had whatever life circumstances affect them and need a little bit more assistance and creativity to figure out what their degree plan looks like. 

I also do a lot of administrative work that isn't necessarily student facing, for example, I do a lot of graduation application processing. I also look at various advising processes like students requesting overrides and try to figure out how we can make that an easier process for everybody involved. And lastly, I do a lot of big centralized outreach to students, often reaching out to students to check in and see what we can do to help their next semester be better.

What is the most rewarding part of your job?

I really love working with students whose academic path has not been the smoothest. When I was a junior in college, my dad died in the middle of the summer and it drastically affected my grades and how I was doing, but I was in an institution that didn't know how to help students  who are in those circumstances.

For me, it's really rewarding to get to work with students who are not having a smooth go of it, who are having a lot of challenges and then do what I can to help with those challenges.

What is something about yourself or your job that you’d like people to know?

I think one thing that I always try to talk about is that I've been openly non-binary and trans for basically my entire career. When I first started in 2014, we were at a moment culturally where trans people were starting to be more open and visible in the workplace. It's been really rewarding going from often being the one trans person around or the only trans person in the workplace to now having multiple trans coworkers. VCU’s been a great university to work for and there's a reason why I've been here for a while.

What is one of your favorite hobbies?

In addition to my professional life here, I also am a tabletop game designer, so I have a ton of published work. I do that in my free time for various tabletop role-playing games, like Dungeon and Dragons.

I write adventures that game masters will take and play with their group. Then their group of five or six people will use it to tell the story about their characters doing whatever world saving thing it is that they do.

What is one of your favorite spots in RVA?

What I like so much about the city is that things have become more accessible over time. With transportation like the Pulse, it is so easy to go up and down Broad Street so you're not stuck on campus. I would just take the Main Street bus line to and from work to grab a bite or visit the local places. My go-to coffee place is Blanchard's! 

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