Hey, hey, hey. This is Lisa A. And you're listening to Who's That Star? On LCC Connect at Lansing Community College. Who's that Star? Is a behind the scenes show where I sit down and talk with the employees at the college. This is an inside look at LCC where you will have a chance to learn about their passions, projects, what inspires them both at work and in their personal lives. I'm your host, Lisa Alexander. I'm so excited to get a chance to talk to all the people who make LCC great. This show is for you to get to know the people that work at Lansing Community College a little bit more and see what makes them tick. Are you ready? Okay. Let's go see who's today's star. Hey, hey, hey. This is Lisa A. And you're listening to Who's That Star? Trustee Edition on LCC Connect at Lansing Community College. Who's that Star? Trustee Edition is a special segment where we are showcasing the members of our LCC Board of Trustees. You're getting an inside look where you will be able to learn more about their passions, project and what inspires them to serve on the board. I'm your host, Lisa Alexander. On these special editions, I will have special guest hosts to help me. Are you ready to learn more about who our special guest host is? Drumroll. Okay, I'm super nervous. Okay, I want you all to know this because our special guest is nobody but Dr. Robinson and the president of LCC. So can we give him an applause?

Thank you Lisa

I'm so excited to have you here Dr. Robinson,

I'm excited too. And you shouldn't be nervous. Cause, you know, we did this before. You know, a couple months into me being here at LCC, you and I went on TV together.

Yeah. But you, you know, you have this down to a science. And I'm still learning. And so I appreciate you.

Well, we're all still learning, but I don't mind telling your listeners that I'm not supposed to have a favorite LCC Connect show, but I do. This is my favorite. Cause I love learning about our colleagues and I love the way you do the show. And I'm excited about Trustee Edition. So let's get into the Trustee Edition and you and I are gonna learn about one of our amazing trustees.

Who's our trustee today?

Well, I'm really excited, Lisa, because our first trustee is Trustee Samantha Vaive. And we're gonna hear from her in a little bit. Trustee Vaive was elected to the board in November of 2018, and this trustee edition actually came out of a conversation that she and I had. She likes what we're doing with LCC Connect, and she thought that a podcast or a radio program would be a great way to introduce trustees to our community. And I said, I have just the idea. We got the best show for you to come on. And so you're our very first guest trustee. Vaive. Welcome for being here.

Thanks. I'm really excited to be here. And I'm excited that it says right here on this piece of paper in front of me that I was elected in 2018. Because this morning I was trying to remember what year I was elected and all I had for you was I was elected the same election that recreational cannabis passed. And I know that because I was at a viewing party and I used to go to a lot of viewing parties when I was more active in politics. Although there's always this like, do you go? Do you not go? Because you don't know what the outcome's gonna be. And it's really, really nerve wracking. But it was my viewing party, so I had to go. And my best friend shows up and he has a bottle of champagne and he walked in and I said, that's so nice you brought this bottle of champagne for if I win. And he looks at it and he looks at me and he goes, oh, no, this isn't for you. This is for when recreational cannabis pass.

Well, it could have been for you too.

Hopefully you can be added on to this event.

But that's right, so. And you know, well, I'm glad that the number, the date is there. That's just our awesome LCC Connect staff being prepared. But we're so glad to have you here and I don't know if you had a chance to see Lisa Alexander around in a to being the host of Who's That Star? She's one of our amazing employees here at LCC and we're gonna have a great conversation. And so glad you're here.

I'm really excited to meet you.

I'm excited to meet you too. Because I've always wondered what a trustee does. You know, I try to run away from the trustees, kind of. So I've seen you. No, no, no, we're joking. And so, I mean, it's just you have so many things that you do, and I don't necessarily understand everything, so I'm excited to learn more about it.

I don't know if we all ne understand it completely, so don't feel too bad.

All right, let's Do a great job. So we have some questions for you, and we're going to keep it really natural and conversational. And, Lisa, why don't you start off with the questions You've got the first question for.

All right, Dr. Robinson, so what's your favorite part about being a trustee at LCC?

I was going to make some fun joke about, like, the cookies that we get upstairs before, but it's. I would say it's twofold. The first part is sort of the reason that I decided to do this in the first place, and it's that I care about helping people. I want to make things better. I'm not from Michigan, and I never really planned on staying in Michigan, but I am still here.

We trap you. I just want you to know that. We trap you.

Michigan will grab you. It will.

It really, really does. And I like a little bit like, don't let the secret get out about how great Michigan is. But I am. It's. I've lived in a lot of places. In a year or so, Lansing will be the longest I've ever lived anywhere.

Really. That's very cool.

And I felt like this community really did a lot for me, particularly at a hard time in my life. And I wanted to do something to give back to the place that had given so much to me. And I am really passionate about education and specifically higher education. I went to an early college. I dropped out of high school because it was not an appropriate environment for me. I wonder a lot what my life would be like if I had tried to stay in high school. And I just don't know. But so higher education has always been really important to me. I think it's a place where people can really step out and into themselves. Because everything before this, unless you get to go to, like a specialized arts high school or, you know, you get enrolled in a STEM program or a STEAM program, you know, it's very much this sort of education can be toe the line and learn the skills to participate in society, but not really to figure out who you are. So when I was asked to consider running for the board of trustees, you know, the person kind of needled at me, like, aren't you really passionate about higher education? I was like, well, I am. Education is really important to me. And I think community colleges are so important because they're not just education. They are a staple in the community. They're part of the community. Dr. Robbins and I talk about this all the time. There's so much more to offer then certificate programs or two year Degree.

Right.

We're an integral part of. Of the community and providing resources to the community at any age, no matter what age you are, there should be something for you at a community college. So that was the first part, is I like that I'm doing something to help the community. What I didn't expect, maybe I should have, but I didn't expect until I was in the role was, I get to meet the coolest people.

Yes.

I mean, everyone here is just. The employees here are so great. They're so passionate about things. And when you get the opportunity, because we don't get a lot of opportunity, you know, we kind of are sort of locked away on the third floor or behind a diet. You know, we try to be accessible, but we get these little moments where people run up to say something before or after a meeting. But then over time, you grow to meet people, and then before you know it, you know, Kevin and I are talking about our experiences living in Oahu, eating shaved ice at a faculty kickoff.

Oh, you're talking about Kevin Fowler, photographer? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

He's great. I ran into a different employee at Strange Matter the other day, and I got to meet his partner, and we talked about books and bike riding, and it's just. It's nice because LCC is a large employer in this community.

It is.

It's nice to be out and about in the community and go, oh, I recognize that face. Like, now's an opportunity where I can learn more about another person that shares this space with me.

That was a great question, Lisa. You know, Trustee Vaive, you've talked about to me about your. Your background in higher education, where you went to college, and it's been really cool to see you kind of dive in and be so passionate and interested about community colleges. That's a great segue to the next question we have, Lisa. All right, so you've talked about what you've kind of learned and seen since 2018, when you joined the board. But I'm interested in what was your impression about LCC before you became a trustee? You must have had some mental picture of what the college was like before you ran. Then you win, and you're elected. What was your view beforehand?

Can I pass?

No. I mean, you can if you like.

No, no. You know, I have never run a college before.

That's fair.

I've chaired a couple caucus meetings, and that, in and of itself, is a difficult endeavor. So I can't imagine what it is like to do this job. But I was asked to run because there were concerns about LCC. And so I really sort of came in with that perspective of things are not great, things need to be adjusted to become better. And it can be kind of sad when you approach something with an idea like that already in your mind.

But. But actually not very uncommon across the country. Right. And. But that's why we have an elected board. As, you know, people are being, you know, responsive to things that are going on. But so. So you're running. What. What did you think about it, though, from your own perspective?

I mean, I. I thought it was almost hidden. I knew some people who went here. My husband had gone here twice, actually, and I had friends that had come in and out of being here class or two. But from my experience as someone who didn't grow up here, it was just kind of like this thing that happened to be in the middle of town, and maybe you went there if you weren't ready to go to msu. And it was a pretty narrow perspective. And while some of the students that I talked to had had really great things to say about being here, Derek, my husband included, you know, still to this day, talks about the poetry teacher that he had while he was here. So I knew there was a lot of value here, and I wanted to see that value become more accessible to everyone.

Well, you know, in my career, working with trustees, that's not an uncommon story to not have kind of a surface or small picture of what the college is like, and then through your trusteeship, get this huge appreciation. My former college, we had a bunch of trustees who. And they were appointed, not elected, but going to the community college was kind of their consolation prize. They really wanted to be appointed to a university board, but when they got to the community college, they got so excited. They said, there's so many cool things happening. And I see you doing that. When we bring things to you and you see what our employees are up to, what our faculty and staff are doing, I see that excitement. So it must look different now that you're a trustee.

Oh, absolutely. And it's interesting when you said consolation prize, because I don't at all think about this as a consolation prize. And you said university board, which is. I thought you were going to say city council or state rep. And I think about that a lot because here I'm one voice among seven. And sometimes that feels very small, but it's a good percentage versus, if you look at, like, someone who's a state rep, who's one member in a party, that is maybe 50% of the makeup. And the ability to affect change feels so much smaller in other places, but here the ability to effect change feels real. One of the questions that was on the list that Lane had sent me, you know, said, what do you think your legacy will be at LCC? And my first initial maybe self deprecating thought was, oh, I'm not gonna have one of those. And then I thought, that's not true. I mean, we have.

You'll make an impact.

We have menstrual products in the bathroom.

Right.

That is huge. That impacts.

Well, that's something that you brought to the trustee. That happened before I came. But that's one thing you brought to the table.

It was something that was really important to me because I know it impacts people.

A basic need.

It's a basic need. And it's sort of this. You know, sometimes things can be so entrenched in the patriarchy, we can't even see that they're that. And it's like the fact that this is something that we wouldn't automatically just supply the same way we supply toilet paper or paper towels or soap. Soap in the bathroom is mind boggling when you really start to like, dig into the issue.

See, I. I like that you're msw. Right. See, that's where that comes from, right? That social work thinking that looking at what people are needing to be successful. And when you don't have basic needs, it makes it hard. You know, you're nervous or scared or what if this happens?

Right.

And so to me, that forethought is. That's just great. Right, Right. Because you don't know what people don't have or need. Right. And that's a good thing that you did. And so I want to get. Can I give you the applause for that, please. I love this show.

Lisa, you make this show so fun.

I mean, but you're absolutely right. I mean, it's one thing we talk about students missing class. Right. Because they don't have access to menstrual products. But, you know, you also think about the student who is not focused on the test that they're taking because they're worried they're gonna bleed through onto their chair. And then now they're getting a failing grade because they're focused on something else that was so easy to rectify.

Exactly.

So that I'm just. I'm excited about that. I'm excited that other colleges are doing it now too. I had the incredible opportunity to present about it at acct. At a national conference. And I think 30 colleges asked for my PowerPoint presentation afterwards to bring it back.

That's cool.

It is.

Now you talk about impact, but look, you talked about, oh, I'm not gonna make an impact, but now 30 other colleges is looking at the things that you've done, Right?

No. She and her colleagues presented on this at a conference in San Diego, and it was very well attended.

Yeah, it was a great experience. I love public speaking.

Well, I want to ask you another question to piggyback off. Dr. Robinson said. So someone asked you to run for the board. Right. Because they had heard whatever they heard or thought. Whatever they thought. But now that you are in the position and you've been in here for what, like, going on five years, four years?

Yeah.

So what do you do now when you meet people in the community? Like, what do you tell them about LCC now that you've been in here so long? What do you know?

I tell them that Dr. Robinson is amazing.

Yes. Yes, he is. Thank you.

Hopefully, you tell them a lot more than that.

Well, you know, it's usually the first question I'm asked, what's the new president like? What's it like now? And I can honestly say everyone is really happy with Dr. Robinson.

Oh, thank you.

Which has been really nice. I guess maybe if I got to put, like, another legacy feather in my cap, I would be happy to take a small part in the fact that we have Dr. Robinson here.

Yeah. That you guys were the ones that hired him, so. Yeah, and we're happy for that, too.

Yeah. But so your question was, what do I tell people now in the community? I mean, I tell them that LCC is full of really hardworking, really amazing people.

That's so true.

The people here are so passionate about our students and about our community and about doing the right thing. And I think, in general, you know, not to get too political, but everyone, I think, for the most part, believes to some degree that they are trying to do the right thing. And we can get into conflicting ideas of what the right thing is, and that's where sort of discourse comes in. But I think this community is sort of really united around what I would define as doing the right thing and helping get students educated with diverse opportunities and diverse perspectives. So they are coming here and leaving here with a broader vision of the world and of themselves and so that they can go out into the world confident and compassionate and excited about the future.

Lisa, you're such a good interviewer because you got great answers out of Trustee Veva. The stuff about our employees. I'm so happy to Hear you. Because this place runs on amazing people who do have that passion that you talked about. And before I ask the next question, and trustee Vaives heard me say this, but I just want to thank you for your service to LCC. You think about the 1100 community colleges across our country. They run on volunteer trustees who see.

They don't get paid.

They do not.

Oh, wow. I thought that you guys got paid for that.

No, we don't get paid. We don't get health insurance either.

Wow.

So this is really, truly doing this for the love of higher education and helping the community.

It's public service. And so when you think about it and do the math problem, we've got seven trustees. But you know, I've got a very good friend who's community college president, has 19 trustees. Just do the math. He got thousands and thousands of Americans volunteering to power our wonderful community colleges. And the most rewarding thing I heard you say was giving credit to our amazing people, our faculty, our staff, who really make this place super special. So I want to ask a little more about your education. You talked about being an early college student. You and I have talked a lot about your background in higher education. Lisa mentioned you're a social worker. You have a msw. But I know that you had a really interesting and I would say unique undergrad experience at Simon's Rock. Can you talk a little bit about your own education background?

I could talk for years about Simon's.

Rock, but yeah, tell us a little bit about it.

Yeah, so you're going to get the whole story because you asked about my whole education background. So I. I grew up an hour north of San Francisco and I went to a place called Stewart School, which was more or less a commune school right in the middle of the city where people's parents could teach classes to sort of offset the cost of going there. My mom taught art sometimes my dad taught after school guitar lessons and also magic.

Wow.

The tricks, not the gathering. And it was Pre K through eighth grade, 64 kids. And it was a very diverse experience. My sort of cohort, cause we moved together even though the classes were blended or whatever, was myself a boy who was the second youngest kid in a Mormon family with six kids. A first generation immigrant from Japan whose parents didn't speak English, and a boy whose mother had recently decided to come out as a lesbian. We had interracial gay couples adopting kids from Africa. We had kids with parents who had known HIV infections. It was just this very diverse place. But I didn't know that I thought this was everyone's experience.

Right, and this is your high school experience?

No, this is pre K through sixth grade.

Oh, okay. Pre K through.

Yeah. So this was. I just thought this was the way the world.

Yeah. That set a different foundation.

Right. Yeah, absolutely. I. Yeah, this was the world I thought everyone lived in, where everyone was accepted for who they were, and kids wore clothes that was not typical of their assigned gender. And kids did, you know, it was just a very welcoming place where everyone was required to play the violin.

Wow.

And then I got moved to a small farming village in New Hampshire. Stratham, New Hampshire. Right. When I was entering middle school, where I suddenly became aware of the fact that I was the only Jewish person in a very Christian town, which was something that had never even really crossed my mind before, because everyone was just whatever they were, and there wasn't this sort of in group out, group thing, and it was very, very different. There was a way to be and a way to act, and everyone sort of tried to scramble to fill those roles. And around this time, I became aware that I was very. Was really struggling with dyslexia and also dyscalculia. I still really struggle with numbers to this day. And that's when school started to become a little bit difficult for me. And it was very frustrating because my teachers would tell me, you're very bright, but the grades aren't there. At the time, the high school in the area had lost its accreditation because it was going through a massive construction project, and the class sizes were too. Like, they had too many kids in a physical classroom. And so there was this weird sort of panic of what were we doing with all of these kids that were going into the high school. I also lived in the town where Phillips of Exeter, a very famous private school was. So it was this.

Right.

Yeah, that's very famous.

This sort of divide of the kids who could go to Phillips of Exeter and the kids who were gonna get lumped into this high school that maybe wouldn't end up with high school degrees. And then I was sort of in the middle. I didn't get into Phillips of Exeter, which was like a. I mean, it's a hard rejection to take when you're. What are you, 13?

Everybody's supposed to be. You're supposed to be there.

So.

Yeah.

And so I got sent to a different boarding school in Massachusetts. It was very difficult. It was.

You went to a boarding school, a boarding school from when you were Miss O Free and everybody. And then you had to go to.

This skype Quite a culture shock.

Yeah, that's the culture shock.

It really, really was. And I mean grateful to have found the theater department in the way that I did. And I guess because of my aptitude for acting was as a freshman sort of shuffled into the advanced acting program which got me a lot of freedoms. I was allowed to get out of required sports to do extra plays. So rather than doing two sports a year, I only had to do one. And in that other one I did rock climbing. So I was able to find these little sort of like outcast niches to get a little bit of self expression. But it was still, it was, you know, getting up at 5:30 in the morning and there you get a 10 minute shower and then you have to be out of the bathroom and it's 6:45. You're sitting in an ancient history class trying not to fall asleep at this round table, you know. And the expectations, they just didn't fit with who I was or how I learned. And I was really fortunate that Simon's Rock was one town over and I knew a day student who applied and.

I just, I'm sorry, I just never heard of Simon Rock before. Like where.

So Simon's Rock is a very small school in the Berkshires in Massachusetts. And are you familiar with like the Bill Gates high schools? Yeah, yeah, they're modeled after Simon's Rock. He used to come to our school all the time and walk around and ask questions and wow.

Everything.

Yeah, everything he did he learned at Simon's Rock.

I'm gonna go look Simon's Rock up. I'm telling you, as soon as I.

Get there is a great website with a lot of history.

So Simon's Rock actually started as an all girls school and it was made to give girls opportunities that they weren't otherwise given in higher education. But the idea was that if you are in the traditional system, you spend all of your junior year trying to get into college and all of your senior year coasting because you already did. And I don't actually know if that's the experience cause I didn't have it. But so they said kids at this age, a lot of kids, some kids, many kids at this age are capable of doing more. They're ready for what's next, they just need the place to do it. And so they take kids after their sophomore or junior year. You cannot go if you have a high school diploma. Now they're sort of expanding and there's BSEC and there's these dual enrollment programs and there's all These other more complicated things that didn't exist when I was there. When I was there, you were 15, 16, 17. In college, they actually. I say early college because it's a term that people understand, but they fought really hard against that. And it's a very. Like, we are not an early college. We are a college. We have the same. Same academics and certifications as everyone else. And actually, for 15 years now, maybe longer, we beat out Princeton, Harvard, Yale, and the Princeton Review every year for academic rigor, which happens in a school that small. I mean, you're tied. The largest class I ever took was 22 kids. And that class, it was like a big deal. There were all these exceptions. Too many kids signed up for it. So it was a. We, like, were functioning outside the rules, having 22 kids. The smallest class I ever took was two students. And it wasn't uncommon when you were in your upper years to just have one on one with a professor.

Oh, that's fortunate.

Yeah, it is.

It's fantastic. I mean, I had my professors house phone numbers. Not a lot of people had cell phones, you know, if they did. And we would talk in the summers, on the weekends. I mean, you were.

I'm sorry, did you get through college quicker?

It's still four years, but I started at 16, so I graduated at 19.

Oh, wow. With a bachelor's or.

Yeah.

Wow, that's amazing.

It is, it is.

You actually get two because we're owned by Bard College. So you get a bachelor's from Simon's Rock and a bachelor's from Bard.

Wow.

And where did you do your msw?

University of Denver.

Oh, you are a traveler.

Yeah. So it was two years there doing that, which was also kind of a fun fluke I had. So at Simon's Rock, after two years, most students leave and go somewhere else. You get your aa, they give you a graduation because it's when you would be graduating high school and the parents really care. So you get your aa, and then a lot of people go. We have a very high percentage of what we call RAs or readmits, which are people who go out and come back. I had friends who went to Harvard, and they were like, this is a party school. I want to go back to where the academics count.

Wow.

And came back to Simon's Rock. But so then if you stay, you do this thing called moderating, where you sit in a room with your advisor and all of the faculty for your department, which may be two people, because I moderated into Psychology is two people. And they say, here Are all of the things that are basically your shortcomings that we've noticed in the past two years. If we let you stay, how are you gonna rectify these? How are you going to really utilize this time? If we give you the opportunity to stay and you sit in that room and you say, well, this is what I would do. And you'll have a professor say, I will advocate that, I will help them do this or help them do that, or we'll get them these services. And then if you stay, you write a senior thesis and you spend your entire senior year in your junior year, you do your whole proposal and then you spend your senior year doing it. And it is an undertaking. I was mocked so hard because my thesis was only 97 pages long.

Only 97, yeah.

And I presented that thesis at the New England Psychological Association's annual conference. And at the time, I don't know about now, but at the time I was the youngest person to ever present a paper of your own work at nepa.

I mean, I'm just amazed. That's why I was saying like you start at 16 and you get your bachelor's at 19. And then did you go right. And I know I could talk to you all day, right, Because. But I can only talk so long cause we only got so much time. But I just this my. I wanna ask you one more question and then let you close out with what you like for the audience to know.

Oh yeah, sorry.

But no, I'm just saying, like I feel you. We are kindred spirits here because I would have a two hour PODC if they let me, right? But when it's all said and done, right, you had this vast educational experience. What did you take from that that's gonna help you work with the board?

Oh, that's a great question. And not the question I thought you were gonna ask. So I was already formulating a different answer. So Simon's Rock has these founding principles and one of them is that we are all equals in the pursuit of higher learning. Everyone is an expert compared to everyone else at something. Maybe that's Neil Gaiman, Sandman comics, doesn't matter. You still get to be the expert in the room. And so there's a level of respect that these, these published professors would look at these 16 year old kids and say, you and I, we are equals. You're gonna call me by my first name? I'm gonna defer to you. We would sit at round tables. We didn't have professors, we had discussion facilitators. It was Their job to guide us if we got stuck. But we were responsible for the learning, and we. There was a lot of peer pressure to come prepared to class, because otherwise you were wasting everyone's time. We were here for a reason. We wanted to learn. We wanted to know. And that sort of respect and equality is something that I've carried with me my whole life. To look at anybody and say, you are the most valuable person at something, I think that can shape your whole perspective of the world. Right. You know, we talk about.

It's empowerment.

It's empowerment.

It's empowerment. So, I mean, I think that's cool.

It is.

I'm very fortunate, and I'm so impressed, Lisa. You're such a good interviewer. You got. You got a great story, and we really got to connect with Trustee V. Yeah, I know.

I'm excited. I'm glad that I. I got to learn about you. I'm glad that you suggested doing this, because I think people, they have a different idea. Right. Because sometimes you guys aren't real. Like, you're real, but you're not like people that we can have access to. And then this just gives an opportunity so that people can know, oh, these are real people. And they're making a commitment to do this. We're not getting something back in return. And so I appreciate that, and I thank you for that.

Thanks. Can I end cap that a little bit?

End cap it.

So I'm a real person. I have a dog and two cats. One's a kitten that I've only had for a couple of weeks. They are all named after big trouble and little China characters. My husband is a huge John Carpenter fan. I'm a potter. I like to hike. My husband and I just went on a hiking trip. I am an avid baker. I like to write. I like to read, and I do bead work as well.

So that's wonderful. And I'm going to follow up on that avid baking later.

Sounds delicious.

Dr. Robinson, I want you to sum it up.

Thank you. I think I can. I have so enjoyed this conversation. First of all, Trustee Vaive. Isn't. Isn't Lisa great?

She's so great.

So this is a great show. And I appreciate, with Lisa, your idea of kind of humanizing the trustees. And so I really, really appreciate it. It's been great to explore your background. What led you to serve on the board. Lisa and I are super happy that you joined us on the show. And with everybody listening, I just want to let everyone know how much the folks at the college appreciate your service, the other trustees service. You put a lot of time into this college and we very much appreciate it. So, Lisa, what do you think? We ought to continue this and do it again, Right?

Yeah. We're gonna see who else we can get on the show.

That's right. That's right.

Well, if you get no one else, I'll just come back six more times.

We can come back and we can just do a couple more segments with you.

Who's that star Trustee veteran, right?

Exactly.

That's right.

Well, I do want to thank you, Trustee Vay, for joining us and Dr. Robinson. This was fun and hopefully we can do it again.

I'd love to come back anytime.

I'm just excited and I'm thankful. This is probably one of our longest show, but it's also one of our shows that you get a lot of information out of. And so I want you guys to stay tuned to the next edition for trustees of the board and we'll see who we'll have next. You've been listening to Who's That Star? I'm Lisa A. And you can listen to this episode of Who's That Star and other shows from LCC Connect anytime online at LCCconnect.org. Thank you for listening. Catch me next time to find out Who's That Star.