Tell us about your family.
At home it’s my wife, Carrie, our son, JP, and me. Carrie and I have been married for fourteen years, we met while I was a graduate student at the University of Kentucky. Carrie is an entrepreneur and owns coffee shops in Kentucky and Michigan, I’m the President of Kentucky Wesleyan College. JP is nine and attends Highland Elementary. He’s an active guy, swims with the Owensboro Marlins and runs the cross country meets at Yellow Creek. But his favorite sport is golf. He’s played in the Go Junior Golf Series for the past three years. For years we lived at the Summit, just off the 8th hole. We now live on campus at the President’s Home. It’s really more of an event space than a home; over the past year and a half we’ve had dozens and dozens of formal and informal events, everything from pizza parties with students to weddings to alumni gatherings and fundraisers. Being a stone’s throw away from the stadium is also interesting—they start their practices at 5 a.m.! But we’ve loved every second of it! In my job, it’s essential that I be plugged into everything that goes on here—even though it means I never really have a “day off.”
What do you love most about leading Kentucky Wesleyan College, and what makes the KWC community so special to you?
What I love most is the people and purpose of our campus. Faculty, staff, students, and alumni all share a belief in what this experience means for our students and our community. In short, it’s about faith, family, and traditional values. It’s a small college with a big heart. We know all our students, where they’re from, what they study, and where they want to go. We’re supported in that by everyone in Owensboro. Our students enjoy the advantage of being well known in a community that wants them to succeed. We all hope they’ll stay and build their lives here in Owensboro, but we also realize their goals make take them elsewhere—we just hope they’ll come back someday.
What has it been like for your child to grow up on or around the KWC campus?
It’s been amazing. JP has the run of the campus—he has forts strategically placed all over the grounds outside the President’s Home. He goes to most campus events— loves the women’s soccer team and Coach Stauffer most of all—but cheers on all of our teams. There’s something special about being able to watch evening football games from his bedroom window! He sees college students as his big brothers and sisters. He and I will eat dinner in the cafeteria with students a few nights each week—if mom’s not there, he gets to eat pizza and ice cream. So Kentucky Wesleyan isn’t just where his Dad works, it’s his home and a big part of his childhood. I think that’s a gift that he’ll look back on for the rest of his life.
How has your family felt welcomed and connected to the Owensboro community since moving here?
Owensboro has been extraordinary. From our first day, people went out of their way to make us feel at home. We’ve made life-long friends here. We feel more connected to community every year that goes by, at our church, at school, at Friday After 5, or just around town. Anyone who’s live here knows that folks from Owensboro show up for each other so we’re out most nights at different events around town. But we’re grateful for the love and support people have shown us from the start.
As both a parent and an educator, what advice would you share with other parents about supporting their children’s education — from little learners to college-bound students?
Just to respect the kinds of interests children have—whether you find it interesting or not. It’s the natural sense of wonder and inquisitiveness that should be stoked from an early age. Sometimes it’s easy—JP was fascinated by country flags and geography early on. Sometimes it’s not—it’s hard for Dad to get in to video games. But most of the time we can find middle ground and things we both enjoy. Recently, JP’s shown an interest in American history so we talk for hours about famous battles, events, and people. We’ll look through maps, visit battle fields, or read together. Showing an interest in learning shows them you care about education. They’ll see that learning never stops and that all of it, no matter the subject or how immediately relevant it is, can be good and useful.