Judy Watson Daniels was a timid 17-year-old freshman at the University of Southwestern Louisiana. Inside the classroom was all she knew. She was not involved with any extracurricular activities.But a friend of the Lafayette native convinced her to join Residence Hall Assistance. Through the organization, not only would she be involved with campus life away from academics and earning her own money for the first time, but she would also learn how to deal with people and their problems.

Just a year later as a sophomore, Daniels applied for an open R.A. position and got it. She held the title until she became a hall director as a graduate school student at USL (now the University of Louisiana at Lafayette).

“Through my experiences with the residence halls, I knew my gift was working with people,” Daniels said. “I’m not an accountant because I can’t balance my checkbook, and I’m not smart enough to be a doctor. Working with people is how I can make a positive contribution to the world.”

Although Daniels served as a licensed counselor and associate dean of students at USL since 1990, the skills Daniels learned as a student working in the residence halls are the same skills that convinced a committee of 20 – including students, faculty, staff and administrators – that she was the right person to fill the vacant dean of student life position at Nicholls.

The office opened after Eugene Dial, the previous dean of student life, became vice president for student affairs. The committee chose Daniels from a field of 24 applicants. She took office on July 1, 2001.

“The past 2 1/2 years have been both exciting and challenging,” the 51-year-old Daniels said. “Seeing young adults grow over a four- to five- year span is quite an experience. Watching them reach their goals and make a mark on their profession and contribution to the world is the reason I wake up every day and come to work.”

As dean of student life, Daniels oversees departments and student activities outside the classroom such as residential services, parking enforcement, judicial affairs, student programming, student organizations and campus recreation. She also plays an influential role in recruiting prospective students and convincing students to stay at Nicholls until graduation.

“Students at ULL and Nicholls are very similar and have the same traditions,” said Daniels, who also taught psychology classes at ULL. “But ULL is much larger. Nicholls is small enough for a personal touch. Students are not just a number here. Nicholls offers as many quality undergraduate programs as any other university.”

While academic concerns are not a direct responsibility for Daniels, she promotes academic success though campus life activities sponsored by her department. Academics and life outside the classroom are of equal importance to her, she said.

Daniels, also the assistant to the vice president for student affairs, works closely with the office of student affairs. When Dial, her immediate supervisor, is off campus because of a conference or an illness, Daniels fills Dial’s duties. The office of student affairs handles broader areas of student concerns such as admissions, financial aid, international students, health, student life and others.

“My goal is to work with students in any way I can to help develop them into the best citizens they can be,” Daniels said. “I want students to embrace diversity and be more tolerant and patient with one another. Understanding each other and each culture adds to the quality of life and the education experience.”

As a student, Daniels earned a bachelor’s degree of science in sociology and psychology from USL in 1973 and her master’s in counseling in 1976. She later earned her licensed professional counseling certificate from the University of New Orleans in 1988. As a counselor, Daniels, a past president of the Louisiana College Counseling Association, is licensed to work with students dealing with family and personal problems.

Daniels views many women administrators, faculty and staff members on campus as her professional role models, but her deceased grandmother made the biggest personal impact on her. Because Daniels’ grandmother worked on a farm and was the oldest child, her family required her to work. She never attended school. Yet, she enforced the importance of education to her granddaughter daily.

“She’s the wisest person I’ve ever known,” said Daniels, who taught her illiterate grandmother how to read and write a few letters. “Because of my grandmother, I never doubted that I would go to college. She taught me how to deal with people and how to enjoy every moment I have.”

Married to real estate and insurance specialist Ernest Daniels for more than 25 years, Judy Daniels values the rest of her family more than anything else. All three of her daughters graduated from high school. Camille, 24, is currently studying at a graduate school in Florida, while Erica, 22, teaches at an elementary school in Baltimore. Her youngest daughter, 19-year-old Erin is a senior at a community college.

“My family is very important to me, and they have always supported me,” said Daniels, whose husband is from New York. “Family is the single most important thing in life.”

Passionate about studying and promoting history and diverse cultures, Daniels reads many biographies during her free time. She also loves to travel and learn the various traditions of different sects of people across the nation and world. She hopes to one day set out on many cultural adventures.

“I wish sometimes that I could just get on a plane and just go to many places and just watch people and observe what they do. I would travel all the time if I had the chance,” Daniels said. “But that’s for the future. As long as Nicholls will have me here as dean of student life, and I feel I can make a positive contribution to students’ lives, retirement is not something I’m thinking about.