Backdrop: Reflections From Faculty: In Conversation with Dr. DeJuran Richardson
The tale of teacher motivation is often told as a single consistent story.
Nevertheless, there are two components to it. The first concerns the teacher’s own motivation. The second concerns the teacher’s interactions with their students. This second part from the story of Dr. Richardson is one marked by supportiveness, a view shared by many of his students.
Whether it characterizes taking students’ perspectives in the classroom or helping their initiatives outside of it, Dr. Richardson adopts a supportive-style method vital to the Black community at the college. Yet, the full story would not be told with only the student perspective.
This interview follows as a walk-through of who Dr. Richardson is through his own story.
Part One: Life Story and Experiences
- What’s your current position? How long have you been in this position?
I am the Ernest H. Volwiler Professor of Mathematics and the Chair of the department of Mathematics and Computer Science. I am also a recently appointed Senior Advisor to the President. I have been the Chair of my department for about four (4) years. I have occupied the Ernest H. Volwiler Endowed Chair for about 2 years now.
- I want to understand how and why you ended up here working in this position. What led you to this job? What were you doing before you came here? What attracted you to work for Lake Forest College?
Just before entering what was to be my final year of graduate school at Northwestern University, I applied for teaching jobs at a bunch of local colleges and universities. I was tired of being a cash-poor and energy-depleted college student and anxious to move to whatever was next. LFC offered me a position as an instructor that provided enough flexibility for me to finish writing my dissertation while I taught. That was in 1986. I finished my dissertation during that first year, was promoted to an assistant professor, and then stayed on for two more years. I then left LFC in 1989 for a lot of reasons, most of them personal. In my mind, although I had worked hard to gain the credential of being a mathematician, I felt underprepared to be a truly effective scientist or even a really good faculty member. From where I stood then, I could not see a pathway to becoming the kind of scholar and researcher that I wanted to be, so rather than risking becoming stagnant - that’s the way some of my grad school advisors had schooled me to view teaching at a liberal arts college - I decided to leave.
I left Lake Forest to occupy a postdoctoral research position in clinical biostatistics, my chosen area of expertise, at the University of Wisconsin Madison. After a year or so, I began contemplating accepting a full-time faculty position there when I was approached by the Chair of the Department of Biostatistics at the Harvard School of Public Health, who happened to come to Madison to give a colloquium talk. This occurred during the height of the HIV crisis around the world and the intense research effort to develop effective treatments; Harvard was at the forefront of this scientific effort and my research work and interests happened to fit well with theirs. The department Chair offered me a faculty position.
Before receiving the offer to go to Boston, my plan was to stay in Madison a few years and then try to come back to Chicago. But, that plan changed, and off I went to Boston. Within six months of arriving there, I knew Boston and Harvard were not a good fit for me. Yet, it took almost two years for me to craft a diplomatic and graceful exit (it is important to leave a job on “good” terms, especially when top folks in your field work there!) and for a faculty position to open at LFC. I returned to Lake Forest in the fall of 1993 and I have not looked back for a single moment.
3. What would you say most motivates you to do what you do? What are you
most excited or passionate about?
I am first and foremost a teacher. I have always wanted to be a teacher; even as a little kid. As a youngster in 2nd grade, I had to babysit my younger sister, who was in kindergarten at the time, until our mother arrived home from work. Coincidentally, my mother had brought home a small chalkboard, partially as a remedy for our tendency to draw on the walls. To entertain my sister while babysitting (or, to induce low-grade torture, depending on your point of view), I created a make-shift classroom in our dining room and lectured her on 2nd grade arithmetic using my textbook (that I conveniently converted into a “Teacher’s Edition” copy by writing-in the answers to all the homework exercises with my trusty magic marker). I loved every minute of it, but please don’t ask my sister how she felt about it!
I became fixated on becoming an elementary school teacher. That aspiration preoccupied me until I got to high school and realized that I had no patience (at all) dealing with younger kids. I later realized that, in reality, I was bereft of the heightened sensibilities and creativity required to be an effective elementary or secondary school teacher. I then concluded that teaching at the college level was my only option, which meant I had to go to graduate school.
There was no alternative for me in my mind; I just had to figure out how to make it work given there was no money to pay for it and I questioned by ability to handle it all.
Teaching continues to be one of my passions, along with a drive to facilitate and support people becoming “better”. I get energized when I can identify ways to help someone become better than they are. College teaching is a great vehicle for doing this because of being able to affect people in so many different ways. You can obviously motivate and impact people intellectually within the classroom, but if that was as far as it went then the job would not be so satisfying. But there’s also the one-on-one with individual students, finding out what their interests are and helping them to see to what extent their assets are aligned with that. That’s energizing. There is also the one-on-one mentoring that occurs, helping students navigate their way through the vast discovery process that is the essence of the college experience.
Beyond the ability to impact students, teaching also affords the opportunity to learn from, and share with, staff and faculty colleagues. In my position, I am responsible to colleagues and I am invested in their success. I am also fortunate enough to have mentoring relationships with scientists and faculty at other institutions, assisting them to develop their research programs and to become more effective faculty members. Being a Lake Forest College faculty member provides me with the opportunity to be involved in all those things simultaneously. That’s why I do what I do and stay where I am.
4. What are the goals you most want to accomplish in your work? Not so much the
goals that are in your job description, but the goals you hold personally?
My personal goals are very much aligned with my passions. I’ll put it this way, being an effective facilitator requires you to be knowledgeable. You gotta know your way around the block; I consider it a real goal to learn as much as I can so that I have plenty to draw upon in order to be effective.
I am always in a learning mode and anytime I accept a responsibility, I first and foremost think in terms of how that experience can increase my skills base. Knowledge and experience are currency.
5. Now if we can, I’d like to go way back for a little Where did you grow up? What was it like to grow up in Chicago?
I grew up on the South-side of Chicago, though my parents were raised in Mississippi and relocated to Chicago as part of the “Great migration” of the 1950’s. My parents were card-carrying members of the “working poor”, earning enough to keep an adequate (but not at all fancy) roof over our heads and clothing for us to wear. I was raised in a neighborhood called Woodlawn that is, literally, located two blocks from the University of Chicago campus. At that time there were lots of gangs in Woodlawn; it was the stereotypical urban environment. As an example, a source of evening entertainment for my younger sister and I was proceeding to our living room, turning out all lights, opening the curtains, and peering out the window in anticipation of an evening brawl in the street that frequently erupted between rival street gangs in the neighborhood.
For reasons that were never fully shared, my mother lost her job and was unable to find another, forcing our family to depend on government public assistance, or “food stamps” as it was called, for our livelihood. I recall life being “interesting” during that time as our family’s rhythm revolved around the first-of-the-month arrival of food stamps and the “aid check”. Melementary school experience was similarly interesting. The affirmative actio era within the U.S. was in full swing then, a time when the ethnic integration of public schools was mandated. Many kids from the overwhelmingly Black neighborhood of Woodlawn, I among them, were forced to attend middle-school in the nearby predominantly White neighborhood of Hyde Park (though, White kids were never required to attend schools in Woodlawn). Although the two neighborhoods were adjoined, life and living within the two were worlds apart.
I remember the start of my first year of middle school, 7th grade. For me and all of my friends, this marked our first life experience with White kids and a predominantly White social environment. We very quickly noticed that everyone in the school were afraid of us, as if we all were hoodlums, savages, and thugs who had invaded their space. Many of us quickly fulfilled that expectation and began running a bit amok, as kids will do when they sense the combination of disdain and fear among those in authority over them. However, having been motivated by two formidable adults who were pivotal to my thinking at that time, I took advantage of being placed into the advanced classes in Math and English. The overwhelming majority, if not all, of the students in each of these classes were White; almost all Black kids were placed in the general or special education classes. In this very real sense, the school remained segregated even while satisfying the statutory requirements of educational integration. (There’s a lot more that can be—and has been—said about all of this, highlighting both the successes and failures of such government efforts, but that requires much more space and time than is appropriate here.) Overall, I enjoyed my time growing up and my time in school, although the contrasts between my elementary school life-view and what I observed during middle school churned up more than a bit of resentment within me. This resentment was amplified once I finished high school and began college life where I was vividly exposed to folks who were truly privileged and, yes, rich. It wasn’t until I was well into college that I learned how to process, understand, and manage these feelings.=
6. Did you have any key mentors or people who deeply influenced who you are, what you believe, in and what you’re committed to in your work and life? Tell me about them.
There were two adults, actually. The first was the indomitable Assistant Principal of my elementary school, which I attended from kindergarten to sixth grade (before being required to complete 7th and 8th grade in the nearby community of Hyde Park). His name was Howard Felder, a truly formidable force. I guess he had to be a bigger-than-life figure in order to keep the peace and maintain even a modicum of excellence within a poorly resourced school whose kids were also poorly resourced. He was a well-educated and articulate Black man who was the second in-command among an overwhelmingly White staff (which was unusual in late 60’s Chicago). He had a no-nonsense style that was absolute, and it characterized his interactions with both students and staff alike; he had a super intimidating persona, and a thunderous voice that at his will could reverberate throughout the entire building, regardless of the number of doors separating him from the main hallway. He was one who could crush the psyche of any individual, friend or foe, by activating a scary sharp wit and, as needed, an equally sharp temper, though he always seemed fully in command and in control. Although an equally phenomenal teacher in his own right, he chose to teach only one class period each academic year, either a 5th grade Math class or a 6th grade class that he called “Language Arts” that was a mixture of English grammar and vocabulary. Participation in his class was via personal invitation only, in response to a student’s self-nomination. It was one of the proudest and most intimidating achievements of my elementary school life when he invited me to join his two classes. To say that I respected that man would be a bit of an understatement.
The second person was the Pastor of the church that I attended all of my life (and continue to attend to this day), Pastor Clay Evans of the Fellowship Baptist Church of Chicago. He too was a bigger than life individual. By virtue of what he taught, what he espoused, and the faith he exuded, he not only earned the respect of parishioners, but also of those far beyond the community that he served. He, too, was extremely intelligent, passionate, and he had a formidable and bigger-than-life personality. Both of these individuals have passed on, yet both of them continue to be pivotal influences in my life.
7. Did you have any life-changing experiences that put you on the path that led you to be doing what you’re doing today? Tell me about them.
One pivotal event for me was choosing to go to Northwestern University for college. I believe I would not be doing what I’m doing now if I had I not been exposed to specific students, staff, faculty, and scholars who intersected with Northwestern during my years there. A second pivotal event for me was choosing to leave a job that I had always wanted; deciding to leave Lake Forest just two short years after being offered a position. I had concluded that I needed to leave in order to learn how to really be a scientist, experience academic life in a more expansive way, and to experience more of the country than “Chicago”. I concluded that I was too sheltered and inexperienced and that annoyed me and prompted me to leave, only to return a bit more than four years later. So much of what I do today and who I am has been shaped by these two events that I cannot imagine the form my life would have taken otherwise.
Part Two: Reflections and Lessons
- What are the lessons for someone like me, or for any other black student especially those transitioning in and out of college?
Especially for students of color, life continues to be hard. No matter how well off you are, skin color continues to impact our day-to-day life. This is not conjecture; it is the reality of today’s existence. However, this reality should not be used as an excuse for being anything less than your best.
It’s just like needing to go outside when you know it’s 5 below zero…. it doesn’t mean you change your mind, don’t go, and stay indoors. Instead, it means you must get prepared. You put on your hat; not just any hat, you put on your serious hat. You put on the serious gloves, the serious boots, the serious coat. The challenging environment doesn’t and shouldn’t stop you from moving forward, it just affects how you equip yourself for the move.
In short, be fully aware of what you are up against, but let that not deter you from doing your best. Just take the time to fortify and properly equip yourself.
- From your story, if there was one thing you could do differently, what woul it be? Why?
I could have done a whole bunch of things differently. But, would I want to go back and do them differently? No, absolutely not.
I do not believe in living life with regrets. One of the ways I avoid having regrets is being intentional when I must make a choice. I strive to obtain the best available information, from confidants and broader trusted resources, that I then weigh and make a choice. If it turns out later to be a bad decision, I have no regrets about that. I made what I considered to be the best decision based on the information that was at my disposal. To me, intentionality is the best remedy for regret.
- What did you learn from the people you met along the way to become who you are now?
Probably one of the most significant deposits people along the way made to my well-being was their ability to instill within me doses of healthy self-worth and self-value. It is easier to “shake off” negativity and push through challenges when you believe yourself to be worthy of better.
I can still remember the advice of my freshman academic advisor when I arrived at Northwestern to register for my first college classes. When I told him that I wanted to major in mathematics and needed to take Calculus and Chemistry, he laughed derisively, with the phrase “oh you silly little delusional kid” ringing in my ear. He noted that both my SAT and ACT scores suggested not only that I could not handle calculus, but that I needed serious remediation in both math and English. There’s no way you can be a math major, he concluded, so find something else!
Fortunately for me, pivotal influencers in my life had generated within me enough healthy pride and self-esteem that I rather easily ignored his pronouncements; I remember letting that stuff go in one ear and directly out the other and without any pause.
- What’s next for you in your work? What are you looking forward to?
I really don’t buy into professional trajectories for myself, though they are winning tools for many. For me, consistent with my passions, professional trajectories can be limiting; they can lead to tunnel vision in which you ignore golden opportunities that come your way only because you had not considered them. As I said earlier, I prefer to maximize opportunities to learn new things and new ways. If an opportunity comes my way that can supplement my know- how, then I’ll take advantage of it regardless of whether it fits some pre- defined plan I had adopted beforehand.
- What gives you a sense of hope? What makes you concerned or worried?
What distresses me at times is that human beings have demonstrated an incredible capacity for doing the most damnable things. Even a casual review of history supports this assertion. But, here’s the hopeful part: humans are not static; change is built into our DNA, our inherent sensibilities, and even our environment. Beyond an abiding belief in an omniscient and omnipresent God,
I know that change is an inevitable component of every condition and circumstance. So, whatever is true today, can change on tomorrow. That’s very hopeful and quite reassuring.
The tale of teacher motivation is often told as a single consistent story.
Nevertheless, there are two components to it. The first concerns the teacher’s own motivation. The second concerns the teacher’s interactions with their students. This second part from the story of Dr. Richardson is one marked by supportiveness, a view shared by many of his students.
Whether it characterizes taking students’ perspectives in the classroom or helping their initiatives outside of it, Dr. Richardson adopts a supportive-style method vital to the Black community at the college. Yet, the full story would not be told with only the student perspective.
This interview follows as a walk-through of who Dr. Richardson is through his own story.
Part One: Life Story and Experiences
- What’s your current position? How long have you been in this position?
I am the Ernest H. Volwiler Professor of Mathematics and the Chair of the department of Mathematics and Computer Science. I am also a recently appointed Senior Advisor to the President. I have been the Chair of my department for about four (4) years. I have occupied the Ernest H. Volwiler Endowed Chair for about 2 years now.
- I want to understand how and why you ended up here working in this position. What led you to this job? What were you doing before you came here? What attracted you to work for Lake Forest College?
Just before entering what was to be my final year of graduate school at Northwestern University, I applied for teaching jobs at a bunch of local colleges and universities. I was tired of being a cash-poor and energy-depleted college student and anxious to move to whatever was next. LFC offered me a position as an instructor that provided enough flexibility for me to finish writing my dissertation while I taught. That was in 1986. I finished my dissertation during that first year, was promoted to an assistant professor, and then stayed on for two more years. I then left LFC in 1989 for a lot of reasons, most of them personal. In my mind, although I had worked hard to gain the credential of being a mathematician, I felt underprepared to be a truly effective scientist or even a really good faculty member. From where I stood then, I could not see a pathway to becoming the kind of scholar and researcher that I wanted to be, so rather than risking becoming stagnant - that’s the way some of my grad school advisors had schooled me to view teaching at a liberal arts college - I decided to leave.
I left Lake Forest to occupy a postdoctoral research position in clinical biostatistics, my chosen area of expertise, at the University of Wisconsin Madison. After a year or so, I began contemplating accepting a full-time faculty position there when I was approached by the Chair of the Department of Biostatistics at the Harvard School of Public Health, who happened to come to Madison to give a colloquium talk. This occurred during the height of the HIV crisis around the world and the intense research effort to develop effective treatments; Harvard was at the forefront of this scientific effort and my research work and interests happened to fit well with theirs. The department Chair offered me a faculty position.
Before receiving the offer to go to Boston, my plan was to stay in Madison a few years and then try to come back to Chicago. But, that plan changed, and off I went to Boston. Within six months of arriving there, I knew Boston and Harvard were not a good fit for me. Yet, it took almost two years for me to craft a diplomatic and graceful exit (it is important to leave a job on “good” terms, especially when top folks in your field work there!) and for a faculty position to open at LFC. I returned to Lake Forest in the fall of 1993 and I have not looked back for a single moment.
3. What would you say most motivates you to do what you do? What are you
most excited or passionate about?
I am first and foremost a teacher. I have always wanted to be a teacher; even as a little kid. As a youngster in 2nd grade, I had to babysit my younger sister, who was in kindergarten at the time, until our mother arrived home from work. Coincidentally, my mother had brought home a small chalkboard, partially as a remedy for our tendency to draw on the walls. To entertain my sister while babysitting (or, to induce low-grade torture, depending on your point of view), I created a make-shift classroom in our dining room and lectured her on 2nd grade arithmetic using my textbook (that I conveniently converted into a “Teacher’s Edition” copy by writing-in the answers to all the homework exercises with my trusty magic marker). I loved every minute of it, but please don’t ask my sister how she felt about it!
I became fixated on becoming an elementary school teacher. That aspiration preoccupied me until I got to high school and realized that I had no patience (at all) dealing with younger kids. I later realized that, in reality, I was bereft of the heightened sensibilities and creativity required to be an effective elementary or secondary school teacher. I then concluded that teaching at the college level was my only option, which meant I had to go to graduate school.
There was no alternative for me in my mind; I just had to figure out how to make it work given there was no money to pay for it and I questioned by ability to handle it all.
Teaching continues to be one of my passions, along with a drive to facilitate and support people becoming “better”. I get energized when I can identify ways to help someone become better than they are. College teaching is a great vehicle for doing this because of being able to affect people in so many different ways. You can obviously motivate and impact people intellectually within the classroom, but if that was as far as it went then the job would not be so satisfying. But there’s also the one-on-one with individual students, finding out what their interests are and helping them to see to what extent their assets are aligned with that. That’s energizing. There is also the one-on-one mentoring that occurs, helping students navigate their way through the vast discovery process that is the essence of the college experience.
Beyond the ability to impact students, teaching also affords the opportunity to learn from, and share with, staff and faculty colleagues. In my position, I am responsible to colleagues and I am invested in their success. I am also fortunate enough to have mentoring relationships with scientists and faculty at other institutions, assisting them to develop their research programs and to become more effective faculty members. Being a Lake Forest College faculty member provides me with the opportunity to be involved in all those things simultaneously. That’s why I do what I do and stay where I am.
4. What are the goals you most want to accomplish in your work? Not so much the
goals that are in your job description, but the goals you hold personally?
My personal goals are very much aligned with my passions. I’ll put it this way, being an effective facilitator requires you to be knowledgeable. You gotta know your way around the block; I consider it a real goal to learn as much as I can so that I have plenty to draw upon in order to be effective.
I am always in a learning mode and anytime I accept a responsibility, I first and foremost think in terms of how that experience can increase my skills base. Knowledge and experience are currenc
5. Now if we can, I’d like to go way back for a little Where did you grow up? What was it like to grow up in Chicago?
I grew up on the South-side of Chicago, though my parents were raised in Mississippi and relocated to Chicago as part of the “Great migration” of the 1950’s. My parents were card-carrying members of the “working poor”, earning enough to keep an adequate (but not at all fancy) roof over our heads and clothing for us to wear. I was raised in a neighborhood called Woodlawn that is, literally, located two blocks from the University of Chicago campus. At that time there were lots of gangs in Woodlawn; it was the stereotypical urban environment. As an example, a source of evening entertainment for my younger sister and I was proceeding to our living room, turning out all lights, opening the curtains, and peering out the window in anticipation of an evening brawl in the street that frequently erupted between rival street gangs in the neighborhood.
For reasons that were never fully shared, my mother lost her job and was unable to find another, forcing our family to depend on government public assistance, or “food stamps” as it was called, for our livelihood. I recall life being “interesting” during that time as our family’s rhythm revolved around the first-of-the-month arrival of food stamps and the “aid check”. Melementary school experience was similarly interesting. The affirmative actio era within the U.S. was in full swing then, a time when the ethnic integration of public schools was mandated. Many kids from the overwhelmingly Black neighborhood of Woodlawn, I among them, were forced to attend middle-school in the nearby predominantly White neighborhood of Hyde Park (though, White kids were never required to attend schools in Woodlawn). Although the two neighborhoods were adjoined, life and living within the two were worlds apart.
I remember the start of my first year of middle school, 7th grade. For me and all of my friends, this marked our first life experience with White kids and a predominantly White social environment. We very quickly noticed that everyone in the school were afraid of us, as if we all were hoodlums, savages, and thugs who had invaded their space. Many of us quickly fulfilled that expectation and began running a bit amok, as kids will do when they sense the combination of disdain and fear among those in authority over them. However, having been motivated by two formidable adults who were pivotal to my thinking at that time, I took advantage of being placed into the advanced classes in Math and English. The overwhelming majority, if not all, of the students in each of these classes were White; almost all Black kids were placed in the general or special education classes. In this very real sense, the school remained segregated even while satisfying the statutory requirements of educational integration. (There’s a lot more that can be—and has been—said about all of this, highlighting both the successes and failures of such government efforts, but that requires much more space and time than is appropriate here.) Overall, I enjoyed my time growing up and my time in school, although the contrasts between my elementary school life-view and what I observed during middle school churned up more than a bit of resentment within me. This resentment was amplified once I finished high school and began college life where I was vividly exposed to folks who were truly privileged and, yes, rich. It wasn’t until I was well into college that I learned how to process, understand, and manage these feelings
6. Did you have any key mentors or people who deeply influenced who you are, what you believe, in and what you’re committed to in your work and life? Tell me about them.
There were two adults, actually. The first was the indomitable Assistant Principal of my elementary school, which I attended from kindergarten to sixth grade (before being required to complete 7th and 8th grade in the nearby community of Hyde Park). His name was Howard Felder, a truly formidable force. I guess he had to be a bigger-than-life figure in order to keep the peace and maintain even a modicum of excellence within a poorly resourced school whose kids were also poorly resourced. He was a well-educated and articulate Black man who was the second in-command among an overwhelmingly White staff (which was unusual in late 60’s Chicago). He had a no-nonsense style that was absolute, and it characterized his interactions with both students and staff alike; he had a super intimidating persona, and a thunderous voice that at his will could reverberate throughout the entire building, regardless of the number of doors separating him from the main hallway. He was one who could crush the psyche of any individual, friend or foe, by activating a scary sharp wit and, as needed, an equally sharp temper, though he always seemed fully in command and in control. Although an equally phenomenal teacher in his own right, he chose to teach only one class period each academic year, either a 5th grade Math class or a 6th grade class that he called “Language Arts” that was a mixture of English grammar and vocabulary. Participation in his class was via personal invitation only, in response to a student’s self-nomination. It was one of the proudest and most intimidating achievements of my elementary school life when he invited me to join his two classes. To say that I respected that man would be a bit of an understatement.
The second person was the Pastor of the church that I attended all of my life (and continue to attend to this day), Pastor Clay Evans of the Fellowship Baptist Church of Chicago. He too was a bigger than life individual. By virtue of what he taught, what he espoused, and the faith he exuded, he not only earned the respect of parishioners, but also of those far beyond the community that he served. He, too, was extremely intelligent, passionate, and he had a formidable and bigger-than-life personality. Both of these individuals have passed on, yet both of them continue to be pivotal influences in my life.
7. Did you have any life-changing experiences that put you on the path that led you to be doing what you’re doing today? Tell me about them.
One pivotal event for me was choosing to go to Northwestern University for college. I believe I would not be doing what I’m doing now if I had I not been exposed to specific students, staff, faculty, and scholars who intersected with Northwestern during my years there. A second pivotal event for me was choosing to leave a job that I had always wanted; deciding to leave Lake Forest just two short years after being offered a position. I had concluded that I needed to leave in order to learn how to really be a scientist, experience academic life in a more expansive way, and to experience more of the country than “Chicago”. I concluded that I was too sheltered and inexperienced and that annoyed me and prompted me to leave, only to return a bit more than four years later. So much of what I do today and who I am has been shaped by these two events that I cannot imagine the form my life would have taken otherwise.
Part Two: Reflections and Lessons
- What are the lessons for someone like me, or for any other black student especially those transitioning in and out of college?
Especially for students of color, life continues to be hard. No matter how well off you are, skin color continues to impact our day-to-day life. This is not conjecture; it is the reality of today’s existence. However, this reality should not be used as an excuse for being anything less than your best.
It’s just like needing to go outside when you know it’s 5 below zero…. it doesn’t mean you change your mind, don’t go, and stay indoors. Instead, it means you must get prepared. You put on your hat; not just any hat, you put on your serious hat. You put on the serious gloves, the serious boots, the serious coat. The challenging environment doesn’t and shouldn’t stop you from moving forward, it just affects how you equip yourself for the move.
In short, be fully aware of what you are up against, but let that not deter you from doing your best. Just take the time to fortify and properly equip yourself.
- From your story, if there was one thing you could do differently, what would
it be? Why?
I could have done a whole bunch of things differently. But, would I want to go back and do them differently? No, absolutely not.
I do not believe in living life with regrets. One of the ways I avoid having regrets is being intentional when I must make a choice. I strive to obtain the best available information, from confidants and broader trusted resources, that I then weigh and make a choice. If it turns out later to be a bad decision, I have no regrets about that. I made what I considered to be the best decision based on the information that was at my disposal. To me, intentionality is the best remedy for regret.
- What did you learn from the people you met along the way to become who you are now?
Probably one of the most significant deposits people along the way made to my well-being was their ability to instill within me doses of healthy self-worth and self-value. It is easier to “shake off” negativity and push through challenges when you believe yourself to be worthy of better.
I can still remember the advice of my freshman academic advisor when I arrived at Northwestern to register for my first college classes. When I told him that I wanted to major in mathematics and needed to take Calculus and Chemistry, he laughed derisively, with the phrase “oh you silly little delusional kid” ringing in my ear. He noted that both my SAT and ACT scores suggested not only that I could not handle calculus, but that I needed serious remediation in both math and English. There’s no way you can be a math major, he concluded, so find something else!
Fortunately for me, pivotal influencers in my life had generated within me enough healthy pride and self-esteem that I rather easily ignored his pronouncements; I remember letting that stuff go in one ear and directly out the other and without any pause.
- What’s next for you in your work? What are you looking forward to?
I really don’t buy into professional trajectories for myself, though they are winning tools for many. For me, consistent with my passions, professional trajectories can be limiting; they can lead to tunnel vision in which you ignore golden opportunities that come your way only because you had not considered them. As I said earlier, I prefer to maximize opportunities to learn new things and new ways. If an opportunity comes my way that can supplement my know- how, then I’ll take advantage of it regardless of whether it fits some pre- defined plan I had adopted beforehand.
- What gives you a sense of hope? What makes you concerned or worried?
What distresses me at times is that human beings have demonstrated an incredible capacity for doing the most damnable things. Even a casual review of history supports this assertion. But, here’s the hopeful part: humans are not static; change is built into our DNA, our inherent sensibilities, and even our environment. Beyond an abiding belief in an omniscient and omnipresent God,
I know that change is an inevitable component of every condition and circumstance. So, whatever is true today, can change on tomorrow. That’s very hopeful and quite reassuring.