Do you wonder what your dean did over break?
Students weren’t the only members of the Poly community who got to enjoy a fun spring break – our deans, some of the strongest support systems for Poly students, had very eventful spring breaks of their own. Tune in for inside scoops of what the deans—Cherkira Lashley, Perri Meeks, Francesca Walker, Alex Carter, and Everett Nelor -were up to over break!
Q: What did you do over spring break? Did you go anywhere? If so, who did you travel with?
A: Lashley:
“I rested a bunch, watched some TV, and coached an AAU basketball team, which had lots of practices. I went to Los Angeles for a couple of days for a conference for writers and to visit some colleges to introduce myself. Another colleague from here also attended.”
Meeks:
“I stayed home, hung out with my cats, and went on a walk every day, which was really nice. I also bought a bunch of meals with friends and went to my circus training unsupervised for the first time.”
Walker:
“For the first week of spring break, I slept. I slept, and I binge-watched ‘House.’ It’s a great show, so I binged the whole season and just laid in my bed! I went to a conference on the weekend in between. I was presenting at a conference at Vanderbilt. It was a workshop about how educators can take care of themselves. Then I went to a concert and I had a wonderful time!”
Carter:
“I took the golf team to Jacksonville, Florida, to get ready for the season. The second half of the break, I spent time with my two sons going to museums, rock-climbing, and adventure parks.”
Nelor:
“Over spring break, I took a couple of trips. We went to the Catskills, I went with my partner and her best friends. Then, the second part of the break, my best friend, who lives in Detroit, came to visit, and then we went back to the Catskills again. This time I brought the dog, and we just watched ‘Severance.’”
Q: Could you paint a picture of an average day in your life over break?
A: Lashley:
“I usually woke up around seven thirty, quickly worked out, then showered. I would go to Starbucks, park on the University of Southern California’s campus, and take a prospective student and family on a tour. That would last about two hours, and then I would head to grab some lunch. Later, I went to this workshop about an author named Yusef Komunyakaa. And then grabbed some dinner with two former classmates from Poly.”
Meeks:
“I tried to wake up before 9 AM every day to preserve the sleep schedule. I would either make a coffee or go out and get a coffee to walk around my neighborhood. I live kind of close to Herbert Von King Park, and going there in the morning was really nice. Then I would probably take a walk somewhere, like a store, just to see what’s going on, and come home to hang out with my cats and read a book. I would probably get either lunch or dinner with a friend who also works at Poly.”
Walker:
“On one specific day of break, I went to get my hair done by my hairstylist. Then I went to brunch with my godsister, which was fun. I went to get my nails done, and then after that was the concert. After the concert, we were so hungry that we went to a diner at three o’clock in the morning, so that was a nice, fun day of break.”
Carter:
“We landed on the morning of Sunday, and we checked into our hotel. We basically spent two days with the PGA Tour Academy practicing, going over technique, course management stuff. The last two days, we actually played the courses where we were. We went individually as a team– we didn’t see or play any of the other schools. The other schools typically go to Orlando, Florida, but we go to Jacksonville.”
Nelor:
“ Usually, I woke up, walked the dog, and made breakfast. Then I caught up on shows. Usually, I also have a midday nap.”
Q: What was the most memorable part of spring break?
A: Lashley:
“I’d say the most memorable part was probably meeting my high school best friend’s daughter. She just had a baby almost two years ago.”
Meeks:
“I had a really nice coffee meet-up with Emn Haddad Freeman, who is one of the English teachers. We sat and chatted with each other for around two hours, and it was really lovely.”
Walker:
“Probably the Vanderbilt experience; however, the concert was very fun. I won’t tell you which concert because I don’t wanna run into anyone there if I ever go again, but it was a great time!”
Carter:
“The most memorable part of my spring break would probably be that both of my sons passed their ‘learning to skate’ class. They both want to play hockey, so they’re learning how to skate!”
Nelor:
“Oh, definitely seeing my friend Angel and getting to show him the Catskills, because he had never been to upstate New York. He’d been to the city, and he was like, ‘I don’t wanna do that.’”
Q: Did you find it difficult to balance work and relaxation over spring break?
A: Lashley:
“I definitely did find it difficult, especially since I had a work trip over the break. I like to opt into doing more with coaching outside of Poly, so it felt busier than restorative for me.”
Meeks:
“I didn’t. This was actually the first break I had this year where I had very few families reaching out to me. At this point in the college process, things are mostly settled, and people are just getting information back that isn’t immediately actionable. We are obviously hiring for a new dean, and we are doing some interviews for that, but it wasn’t too much. I felt like it was a pretty good balance this year.”
Walker:
“Actually, not really. I definitely had some meetings here and there, but I had a maximum of one meeting a day. I did use a nice chunk of the break to clear my inbox, so it’s not too bad when you can watch TV while doing stuff like that.”
Carter:
“Absolutely. You know, the deans are still working hard to support students. So we continue even during spring break– there are meetings and emailing at the hotel and then, of course, meetings when I come back home the next week.”
Nelor:
“No, because I kind of purposely removed myself and put myself in a more remote location, just so I could come back refreshed right away. So I did a little bit of emails and stuff, but I tried to actually be more hands off.”
Q: How did your expectations for spring break differ from how it ended up as? Did anything spontaneous or unplanned happen?
A: Lashley:
“Yeah, totally. Spontaneous moments with friends or meeting new people and not expecting to make the connections with people that I did – that was a surprise. I’m surprised I didn’t get to watch more of “Severance.” I really wanted to at least finish one season.”
Meeks:
“A meetup I had planned to go to was a flying trapeze class, but then it didn’t work out, so we got coffee the next day. I got to see my friends who work at other schools who were also off, and I cleaned the leaves off of my outdoor space. That was fun.”
Walker:
“I went to the Vanderbilt conference with another student who’s in my doctoral program, out of school. It was actually our first time really hanging out in person, so that was super cool. We went to a very fancy restaurant. I spent way too much money on that restaurant, but it was so worth it. At the end, we thought we were getting a slice of carrot cake, but they brought out basically an entire cake. It was homemade. It was so good, and I highly recommend it. So that was something not exactly spontaneous, but something fun.”
Carter:
“What’s interesting is that my kids are a little bit older now; they’re five and six, so we get to do different things over spring break that we didn’t get to do the year before.”
Nelor:
“I didn’t really do anything spontaneous. Everything was planned in advance. But it was actually much more fun than I thought it would be. I knew it would be fun, but I just ended up seeing a lot of people that I hadn’t seen in a while.”
Q: How did your spring break go this year compared to last year? Did you think it was busier compared to last year or years past?
A: Lashley:
“Last year, during spring break, I went to North Carolina to visit a friend and a family member. I was also traveling, not for work though, so last year felt less busy.”
Meeks:
“Spring break was great last year. I went on a big international trip. I chose not to do that this year, and it was really the right decision. Last year, I did that in the first week and then came back, and I was just jetlagged and recovering the whole time. To stay in one place and go where the day takes me, whether it’s a visit to the museum or to the botanical garden, was much calmer and easier.”
Walker:
“I feel like last year, I definitely had more meetings for sure. I’m not sure why, but I had more family meetings. I think what we did was we front-loaded a lot of the meetings this year that we would’ve had over spring break. So I basically tried to get most of my meetings done before spring break.”
Carter:
“I’ve been doing the Florida golf trip for at least the past four years, so my expectations didn’t really change.”
Nelor:
“I think this year was definitely relaxing. Knitting is one of my big hobbies, and it was just nice to reconnect with myself and my hobbies. I had the time to sit with them for a while during this spring break.”
