Gold Within: Emma Bailey '21
Emma Bailey '21 muses on what makes her DePauw experience truly "gold within."
Community Service - My DePauw experience started before Welcome Week with Servicio en las Americas, where I engaged in service-learning alongside my new classmates. We spent time in the Greencastle community before venturing down to Costa Rica where we did different projects and maintained Spanish Immersion. That trip helped me connect with the Hartman Center where I found more opportunities for service - including Student Friend, a program I coordinated with a local elementary school. My love for community service and engagement continued after DePauw and I now have the opportunity to serve my community through my work as a volunteer board member for a local non-profit organization, Foster Village Northeast KS where our mission is to support children whose lives intertwine with the foster care system and the families who care for them. We aim to support foster, kinship, and reunifying families through equipping community members with resources, developing spaces and opportunities for connection, and advocating for reform within the foster care system. As I am further removed from graduation, I realize how impactful my DePauw experience was in shaping me and reminding me to center service and community care in my everyday life.
Connections to Staff/Faculty - I expected that I would make wonderful connections while at DePauw, but it has truly been the gift that keeps on giving. My DePauw experience was shaped by the people who make up the campus community and I feel so lucky to have such wonderful connections, even 4 years post grad. Though I have been out of college almost as long as I was in it, I still hear from Becky and Dondra - two members of the facility management team who worked on my floor freshman year - every year for my birthday. I still chat with Erin Confer-Staggers about life and appreciate the wise advice she gives. I still text Sarah Fears, who was my assigned mentor when I was a senior and is someone I now consider a friend. The list goes on for miles - returning to campus feels like coming home because it is full of the people who pushed me to become the woman I am today and who continue to support me, far outside the scope of their job duties.
A love for education - At DePauw, I majored in Economics and Spanish because I loved the coursework and the professors who made those classes special. But it was the much more over-arching love for education that ended up shaping my career. When COVID hit my senior year, I pivoted my post-grad plans and applied for grad school, inspired by so many wonderful staff members like JC Lopez and Sarah Ryan who encouraged me to dig a little bit deeper into my love for education. I ended up attending Harvard Graduate School of Education where I earned my Ed.M. in Learning Design, Innovation, and Technology. I now work full-time in education technology, supporting colleges and universities of all shapes and sizes across the United States in supporting students at their institutions.
GOLD Board Service - DePauw was the transformative education experience that I continue to call back to when I think about the person I am and who I want to be. I give back by serving on the GOLD Board - working alongside a group of recent graduates to give back to DePauw and support the mission of the institution. I am the Chair of the Development Committee and I have the honor of working closely with Sarah Fears to support the upcoming Day of Giving. Financially contributing to the institution is a great way to support ongoing efforts that strengthen DePauw and to offer support to students. I know I personally benefited from the generosity of alumni several times over my tenure at DePauw and I am grateful for the opportunity to continue making the DePauw experience golden for current and future tigers.