Slaters You Should Know
Slate Community Ambassadors are active Slate users who share knowledge through forum posts, user group leadership, Slate Summit presentations, participation in calls or working sessions, and peer-to-peer assistance.
Get to know . . . Jasmine Solomon
Jasmine Solomon is the Senior Associate Director, Systems Operations in the Office of Undergraduate Admissions at New York University.
How long have you been a Slate user?
I started using Slate in December 2016 with a trip to New Haven for Launchpad.
How has Slate evolved with you?
Many Slate functions we started with in 2016 are now deprecated or legacy. This makes me feel older than the birthdates of our applicants, edging ever closer to my own kids' birthdays (and don’t even ask about their parents’ birthdates 🙀). Really though, Slate is constantly iterating and improving and keeps us all on a learning curve together.
What are your favorite features in Slate and how did you learn them?
My top three are:
The ability to export from a Slate Query to the Technolutions SFTP and pick it back up for import to allow queries to do the heavier lifting and simplify rule logic / shrink rule counts. I learned about the export query / import source format option through the Slate Community in the last few years, including finding the tip to add ../incoming to get you up that level from the outgoing to incoming folder.
Translation codes (and now also content blocks) which do all the heavy lifting for communications with our large variety of programs and processes. I learned about this at Launchpad and have been using them since day one with communications and reader assignments.
Estimate Output in Queries which I use with my library of error check queries so I know which need to be run to clean up data. I stumbled across this one in our early days in Slate exploring features during implementation.
I presented on translation codes for staff assignments and error check queries at different NY Slate User Group meetings, so feel free to reach out if you want to learn more.
What are your favorite qualities about the Slate ecosystem?
I’m excited for Bettermode and seeing how this new, more interactive platform transforms our interactions and community online; in particular, as the new home for user groups and new search capabilities to help us all find the posts and answers we’re seeking. I’m privileged to be in a role at my institution that is focused on our technical systems and allows me the opportunity to engage fully across the Community Forum (hello new Community Ambassador badge), Slack, and Facebook. I’m looking forward to fewer spots to check without sacrificing engagement as you all join me in Bettermode once it is released this year.
What are your favorite qualities about the community of Slate users?
I enjoy how the community of Slate users lifts each other up, sharing our hard learned lessons. For those of us who have been around awhile, we’ve already walked those paths and are happy to show others the way. For the new users, the fresh perspective and ideas brought in from recent experiences with other systems, they help us all see things from a different perspective and keep us moving forward together.
What recommendations would you give to someone wanting to improve their Slate skills?
I recommend attending Community Conversations on any area of Slate that interests you. Getting inspired by the questions your peers ask and thinking through how you can apply those same use cases and solutions to improve your own instance is a great exercise. If you have the budget and the time, signing up for a year of Learning Lab and setting goals for completing each course is a great option!
What do you most look forward to with Summit?
I really enjoyed presenting at Summit last year on change management and system enhancements. With Slate constantly evolving, strategic implementation of new features is key to our success. I hope to present again and share about other topics I’m passionate about related to managing Slate.
What advice would you give to someone who is a first-time Summit attendee?
Make time for affinity groups so that you can build connections with peers who are interested in similar topics and potentially facing similar challenges.