A Check-In With Josh McKenzie

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WILLIAM KRAMER: It’s the summer of 2022. You’re taking it pretty easy because, well, you just got into Northwestern. But September is coming soon, and there’s so much to do. What’s a TND? When was that medical form due again? You’re feeling lost. Then, like the sudden appearance of an oasis in an arid desert, your phone lights up with a welcome sight: It’s an email from the Purple Prep prodigy, the wizard of Wildcat Welcome, social media sensation and assistant dean of students, Josh McKenzie.

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KRAMER: Even more than two years after his departure on that fateful winter day, Josh McKenzie’s shadow looms large on Northwestern University. What was it really like writing all those emails? How did it feel to be a campus icon? What is he up to these days? Northwestern students were long overdue for a Josh McKenzie check-up, so I hopped into a Zoom with him to get some answers.

First, his origin story.

JOSH MCKENZIE: Northwestern was my first stop after I got finished with my own education, well, formal education. Really, I was looking around for jobs that were in transition programs, so like, orientation and transition experiences. I did not know anything about Northwestern before I applied. But really, what sold me on that series of interviews in particular was the students. I fell in love with them from the interviews and just the way that they thought, the questions that they were asking. And then I learned everything else of what Northwestern was.

KRAMER: McKenzie was promptly hired into his first role at Northwestern as assistant director of orientation and parent programs. Back then, there was little preparation for peer advisors in advance of Wildcat Welcome. There was also a need for more family involvement.

MCKENZIE: My position was overseeing all of the student leader components of the program. So, they didn’t really have any type of training or leadership program. They just kind of would arrive a day or two in advance of Wildcat Welcome and prepare at that point for what they were going to be doing over the next few days. So it was building out a development, a leadership program, training for that population. It was also building a lot of family programs, initiatives, events, because they’re an important support system in a student’s web of support. So those were kind of my two primary focal points in that first role, and that kind of evolved from there.

KRAMER: During his 13-year-long tenure at Northwestern, McKenzie would be promoted to associate director of onboarding and communication, then finally to associate dean of students, where he would become the face of a new emailing program, Purple Prep.

MCKENZIE: When I started, one of the things that I was finding was that students were receiving, when they were coming into Northwestern, emails from 50 to 60 different offices throughout the summer that all had conflicting information. They had conflicting deadlines and dates, and no one was talking to each other. And so, the ability to work with so many different people across the university, to pull all of that together to create, in turn, Purple Prep — that was wild, but so satisfying and cool to be able to do, especially at that time period I was doing that. 

KRAMER: From the start of the program until his departure, McKenzie would personally write each email. Within, he’d provide vital information for orientation, but also discuss things like the weather and how excited he was for the incoming class to arrive on campus. Most emails contained an invitation for students to meet with him if they needed anything. Many students took him up on that offer.

MCKENZIE: Part of that was because sometimes students really just didn’t know where else to ask. And so while I didn’t always have answers for everything, I was able to utilize my own resources that I had — my own connections — to make sure students were being heard in that process, but also helping them navigate a place that can be really confusing, especially when you’re brand new to it. If you can have someone that you have some type of trust with, that you feel is personable and not wildly robotic in interaction or whatever else, that makes it a bit easier and removes at least a barrier at some point.

KRAMER: Perhaps Purple Prep was too effective, though — McKenzie was unexpectedly thrust into campus stardom thanks to publicity from the new initiative.

MCKENZIE: That certainly evolved in a way that I wasn’t anticipating, in certainly some fun ways. It always made work really interesting. 

KRAMER: But it soon became clear that this was no simple popularity. McKenzie had truly cemented himself as an icon, a person who would go down in Northwestern history. People would brag about spotting him on campus. A song was written. 

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KRAMER: I had to ask — what was it about him that attracted the undivided attention of students?

MCKENZIE: I don’t know. I don’t know! I worked at Northwestern for 13 years… I don’t know. I hope, I hope, I hope it’s because people found that I was helpful, that I was approachable and personable, that they felt that someone genuinely cared about their progression and transition. So I hope it was that. I don’t know.

KRAMER: Despite his initial confusion at this newfound celebrity status, McKenzie would take advantage of his fame to continue serving the student body. He frequently attended campus events and was plastered all over Northwestern-affiliated social media accounts, always providing direct support to students adapting to life at the university.

MCKENZIE: From the beginning until I left Northwestern, I worked so closely with students, and I got to learn both directly and indirectly, about myself, about others, about how not only we can improve, but how me, myself, as an individual, can improve. That’s still one of the memories that I hold most dear, is all of the different ways that learning for me happened in my time — how I interacted with students and what I learned from them, in all of these small one-on-one settings.

KRAMER: But, after spending over a decade making life easier for Northwestern students, and moonlighting as a local superstar, it was time for a change. Following his departure in January of 2023, McKenzie moved across the country to Austin, Texas.

MCKENZIE: I live with my partner, which has been a really wonderful, personally fulfilling experience for me to be able to be with family in that way, and so that’s been one of the most exciting pieces. 

KRAMER: Nowadays, McKenzie enjoys working outside of higher education, although the transition initially wasn’t so easy.

MCKENZIE: I don’t know what people do in September, like, what people can still travel or do other things in September. I’m used to being on Evanston campus from the end of August to the end of September, and not seeing really anything else outside of that. So my first September away from Northwestern, was a little bit of a shock. 

KRAMER: And even though he certainly can’t complain about the weather in Austin, he still finds himself missing those meaningful interactions he had with students on campus.

MCKENZIE: Really, what I enjoyed were just the spectrum of experience that I had with students, both the really cheerful, happy, excited moments — moments so happy you just want to throw up — but also moments that we were able to be really vulnerable, open, mourn with each other as well. I knew at the time that I was leaving Northwestern, that would be a part that I missed. So, I guess I’m just proving that part of myself right.

KRAMER: You can take the man out of the campus, but you can never take the campus out of the man. Even from over 1,000 miles away, McKenzie still has that drive to help Northwestern students. Although he isn’t here to welcome them himself, he had some advice for the incoming class:

MCKENZIE: Please take time to be kind to yourself in all of this — Northwestern is a really challenging piece. And so taking time to understand that it’s not supposed to look overly rosy at every single step of the way. And, if it doesn’t, that’s okay. That’s a part of growth, that’s a part of learning, that’s a part of the whole experience. And so how are you learning about yourself as you go through that? And that is something beautiful in and of itself. Taking advantage of those missteps that you’re making, taking advantage of what that then can turn into in the long run. Nothing is meant to be perfect. Nothing should be perfect. And there’s no definition of what perfect is when someone thinks about a college experience. 

KRAMER: Josh McKenzie, alongside members of Northwestern faculty, staff, and the student body, helped thousands of incoming students find their place here. On top of that, his popularity as a campus icon is everlasting. Still, he has always been willing and eager to talk one-on-one — to show students that they aren’t alone. 

And even now, he’s just a Zoom call away.

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KRAMER: On Northwestern’s Evanston campus, William Kramer, WNUR News. 

Music credit: “Josh McKenzie” by AJ Denhoff and Saint Zo (Taj Smith). I received expressed permission to use the song