Listen to the interview here!
Sue Guay
Toni Reece: Hi there. This is Toni Reece. Welcome to the Get Inspired! Project for Berks County Living Magazine. Today’s guest is Sue Guay. Hi, Sue. Welcome to the Get Inspired! Project.
Sue Guay: Thank you. This is such a privilege to be part of this program and of course this Project.
Toni: Thank you. Tell us a little bit about yourself.
Sue: I’m an Assistant Professor of English and Communications at Alvernia University. I’ve been teaching for 31 years. I’ve been blessed to live in Berks County for the last 22 years. I am also the Chair of the Literary Festival, and I’m the Site Director for the upcoming John Updike Society Conference in 2014.
Toni: Thank you. It sounds like you are a very busy lady!
Sue: Yes.
Toni: Let’s go into the Project. The first question is, what does inspiration mean to you?
Sue: I thought about this, and I’ve been thinking about it, because I think you have to live with inspiration, otherwise you just go through the routine like walking on a treadmill without really thinking about your intentions. The thing that inspires me – and there are several and I could go on but I’ll cut it short for you – first, the excitement that I see in a college student’s eyes when I advise them and help them map out their future.
In addition to teaching, I’m the Faculty Advisor for the undeclared. Each day, I am confronted with young people who really are lost as to what their mission should be in life. I spend a lot of time with them. I find out what their interests are, what their strengths were in high school, what they see themselves doing, and I come up with a profile. Then I usually ask a colleague (which it’s good that this is run by faculty) who will let them sit in on a class, and a light bulb either goes off or it doesn’t.
I’ve had such a high success rate that the University has asked me to continue with this. Seeing somebody realize what their gift is and then to know that no matter what, they’re going to go after it, that is truly inspirational.
Toni: That’s a wonderful answer, and you’ve given the answer to the second question, but I’m wondering if you could give me another example. The question is, how do you put that into practice in Berks County? So for your work, you have to realize a student’s potential and help engage them so they can take their gifts out into the world and hone those, correct?
Sue: Yes.
Toni: Is there another example, maybe a personal example, where you have been inspired by that? You said that you liked to be inspired every day in order to live in intention. Can you give me an example of how you put that into practice on a daily basis?
Sue: I read four newspapers a day. I read a lot of different magazines, because I teach magazine writing. I surround myself with what I call the “think tank” – people, and for whatever reason, they are predominantly women – who have perceptions of things in different ways. They don’t just sit back and let life happen, but they are women who take the opportunity to see the potential for change; especially the City of Reading and the students of Reading High, and how each of us can really design things to make a difference.
I know this is a personal question, but it also affects my professional life in that when I teach, my courses are designed with a service learning component. For example, my Intercultural Communication class earns three credits for the course, and a fourth credit for volunteering at the Literacy Council. They learned all the skills needed to work with people from other countries, and then they actually put that into action by tutoring ESL adults at the Literacy Council.
I see the beauty in what’s happening in our area with intercultural demographics changing, and I embrace that. I love that, and I think whether you look at what Al Boscov is doing or whether you look at what Kim Murphy is doing or Pat Giles, all of these people are trying to say, “This is a great place to live,” and I agree.
Toni: Who in Berks County inspires you?
Sue: A few years ago I taught a young woman in a class, and she was living at Opportunity House. It was my first encounter with teaching a college student who actually was homeless. She inspired me that in spite of any obstacles, political issues, or things that happen sometimes in higher ed, that it truly is about the individual.
This young woman came to me. She was in her thirties, and she wanted to be a nurse. She lived in Opportunity House for a year-and-a-half, and then they told her that she achieved a certain status, and they would help her. She had four young children. She had escaped the domestic abuse of a husband who hung her out the window, threatening to kill her. She finally got up the courage or the inspiration to get out, because the next step was, she feared for her children.
She came to Alvernia. She was in the nursing program. I remember saying to her, “How are you going to do this with four children under eight? I’m not saying you can't, but I just want you to think long and hard.”
I worked with her, and as she talked about her life, I said, “Do you realize what is a natural progression for what you’ve done in your life or been through?”
She said, “Social work.”
I said, “Absolutely.”
She is working in nonprofit organizations in the Washington, D.C. area. When I see how it translates into my life and who inspires me, I think of her.
I think of another student. She was a disabled student at Alvernia who was in a wheelchair. I saw in the paper recently she graduated from Hershey Medical School. She was in a wheelchair, she did not have the ability to use her legs. She came and wanted to become a physician. She’s starting this fall her residency in OB/GYN in the Chicago area.
I can't imagine that there are too many more inspirational things about people who have odds and obstacles against them who see that they can rise above it, and a lot of it takes just the power of inspiration and thinking.
Toni: And it absolutely came full circle during the interview, because what inspires you is being able to cultivate gifts in others, when maybe they possibly can't see it or they’re a little confused. Those are such great examples of how someone, when they recognize their gifts, can go as far as they want. Thank you for sharing that.
What do you want your legacy to be?
Sue: That’s a great question, and some may interpret it as being a little morbid, but each day when I read the paper, I read the obituaries. Partly because I teach journalism, but also because I’m fascinated by the legacies of people. I often say to my students, “What will your obituary say? Were you just here? Were you born? Did you go to this school or that school, and then did you die? What will be written in those other lines, or will they be blank?”
Life is so short, you really have to think about this and plan it, because you want to live magnificently.
The obituaries serve a dual purpose. I like to know if students are suffering, if students are going through hard times, but even more, I look at these lives, and it doesn’t matter whether they were short or long, but it really reminds me that it’s not about this life – it’s about the life and legacy that you leave behind you. I truly believe just because now with the Internet, so many of them contact me from the past, that you have to make a difference. The world is much bigger than any of us. A student I taught 31 years ago contacted me, and he’s teaching at the Harlem School for Boys. He said, “Wow – that lit class really made a difference in my life.”
Toni: Sue, I so appreciate that you came out in this horrible weather today to be part of the Get Inspired! Project, and I love the way you answered that question with, “You have to live magnificently.” We will end on that. Thank you so much for being part of the Get Inspired! Project.
Sue: My pleasure. Thank you.
