I want to share a story. My oldest daughter Aly graduated a couple of years ago from Western. Then she worked at Western, while still taking a couple of classes after graduation. For her own reasons, she needed some time off before pursuing her bachelor’s degree. This January, she left Rock Springs for California and now lives 710 miles from me. This is hard because even though she is 22 years old, she will always be my little girl.
This semester, Aly is taking a history class, two psychology classes and a math class as she pursues her psychology degree. Not long ago, we were talking and I asked her how classes were going. She told me (as I already knew), that even though I personally love math she dislikes math. However, she was very quick to point out that she is doing well in that class thanks to Sarah Pauley, a math instructor at WWCC. When Aly was in her classes, Sarah didn’t help her like math instead as Aly pointed out, “she helped me NOT be afraid of it and to KNOW I can get through it. She never made me feel stupid because I didn’t understand something the first, second…or fifth time. She just continued to help me.”
Aly told me that both of her psychology classes are very interesting and even though they are quite challenging she loves them. She said she was so fortunate to get to work with and learn from Marissa Vishnu-Mack, a former WWCC psychology instructor, who helped her more than she will ever know. She helped her learn, but moreover, she listened to Aly and made her feel valued, as all students should feel.
Aly also told me about her history class and she said that while she is not a history major, she always enjoyed classes from Bruce Anderson, WWCC political science and sociology instructor, because he made classes relevant to her world and once again, he valued her opinions. He truly wanted to hear them. He made her feel important.
Aly finished our conversation by telling me she absolutely valued her time at Western as a student-athlete because even though she learned so much (and graduated) as a student, her experience here would not have been complete without Mustang Athletics. As a member of the women’s soccer team, she said she learned about teamwork, sacrifice, grit, determination, goal-setting, how to recover from a loss and how to win graciously. (All very important lifelong learning skills.)
Aly was also very quick to point out all of the help she received from people in Mustang Central and many other offices on campus. She said that because she is a long way from home and “on her own” she is thankful Western helped her develop necessary skills in reaching out to resources, asking questions and advocating for herself.
To me, this is what Western is and should be about. One of our guiding principles is that students are our priority. One of the things I try to remember is that even though I might “know my stuff” because I have been an educator to thousands of students, they themselves are one student and this is their first time going through all they are going through. They should feel valued, supported and important. I am not a teacher, but rather a facilitator of their learning. They don’t need to know how smart I am. They know that the college hired me and as such I should be an expert of sorts in my area. They simply need me to help them develop, learn and grow.
As a fellow educator and more importantly, as Aly’s mom (and Payton’s Chloe’s, Jax’s, Madi’s and Gracie’s too) I want to thank everyone that has worked with my children while they have been at Western, including the fine staff in the Children’s Center for teaching them in their very formative years. I want to thank everyone, from administration, to faculty, to professionals, to staff, to paraprofessionals for teaching my children that doing their best is enough and instilling in them that they are wonderful people.
In this crazy, sometimes very negative society, being positive, and real, with our students is so much more important than we may actually realize.
We may not know today the difference we make to our students later on, but we do make a difference, and that’s why we do what we do. Thank you all for helping students and have a great day.
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