Meet Your Hosts

John Edmonds

John is an academic advisor in the College of Liberal Arts. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Advertising and Public Relations and a Master of Science in College Counseling, both from Minnesota State University. He started his career working for various print media outlets that keeled over during the Great Recession. John created advertisements, wrote special interest pieces, and eventually realized neither were making him enough money to pay rent. Ever resourceful, he landed a job as the assistant manager of a liquor store. After three years of selling booze and beer John went back to school because he wanted to help students.

John has spent the last three years working at the U of M, helping the aforementioned students. Prior to working at the U, he worked for a community college. With over five years of higher education experience so you can trust most of what John says. If he’s ever wrong Adriana will correct him.

Adriana Taborda

Adriana works as a Collegiate Advisor in the College of Liberal Arts as well as a Department Advisor in the Department for Spanish and Portuguese Studies. She has been an advisor for over 12 years. She majored in Family and Social Science at the University of Minnesota, because she liked helping people, and she thought that she wanted to be a social worker. Things changed, as they often do, and she ended up going to grad school out east to pursue Intercultural Relations, with the express interest in working with college students.

Adriana has spent the last three years doing just that here at the U of M and loving almost every minute of it. She met John on a dark and stormy night when she happened to have an umbrella and he didn’t; they’ve been friends ever since.