Name: Bridger Talbot
BYU employee since: 2015
My job at BYU is… Enrollment Services counselor. I help students with questions about admissions, financial aid, registration or anything else they need to succeed!
I’m currently working on… new campaigns to provide outreach and support to students immediately after they are admitted to BYU. The hope is that we can give them confidence that they can do well at BYU and navigate the higher education system before they even step foot on campus.
Taking a student job as an advisor and specialist in the Academic Support Office sparked my interest in working in higher education. I loved being able to make the student experience a little better!
My most cherished memory at BYU is… my first (blind) date with the woman who would become my wife at a BYU volleyball game. She had misunderstood my text and thought we were going to play volleyball for our first date. Neither of us are very athletic, so she was relieved that was not the case.
My favorite part about teaching is... encouraging students to keep trying. I teach UNIV 101, and I see the first-year students' optimism and energy fade throughout the semester. I try to make my class a place where I remind them, You’ve got this! We’ve got this! We’ll figure this out together.
On Saturday mornings, you’ll find me… researching, tracking down and documenting old LDS chapels, tabernacles and temples. I’ve documented over 200 on my blog in the past decade, but I’m always looking for more.
I’ve hiked Y Mountain... probably around 100 times. I had a year where I hiked it twice a week, thinking it would get easier. It did not. But it did spark my passion for hiking, and since then I’ve hiked all around the valley.
You’ll never find me without… a book. I love historical nonfiction. My colleagues have made fun of me for walking around campus buried in a book — but I need to squeeze in my reading time somewhere.
I became a BYU fan when… my family visited campus when I was about eight or nine years old. I fell in love with BYU long before I attended a football game!
When I have 30 minutes of free time, you can find me… at the library. I can spend ages just walking up and down the aisles, browsing books that look interesting. I’m not sure what I’d do without the HBLL in my life.
