Then & Now: An Alum Returns to Work at HMI

Q: What did it feel like to return to HMI as an employee? 

In many ways, returning to HMI as an employee did feel like coming home! The timing of my return was particularly auspicious– the 25-year reunion happened two weeks after I started working at HMI, and it was amazing to be reminded so explicitly and joyfully of the profound impact that HMI has had on so many students. Some of my most generative intellectual habits were sparked by my HMI experience, so it’s amazing to be able to cultivate those tendencies as professional skills. 

Q: As a student, did you think you would return to work at HMI? 

My first experience with HMI was as a Summer Term student in 2014, then I returned for Semester 35. There are videos of me as a student in which I actually threaten to never leave, and I was pretty positive that I would come back in some way or another. In more recent years, I didn’t think coming back was in the cards, but I was very pleasantly surprised!

Q: What is it like to work with students after having similar experiences to them?

It’s been both challenging and fulfilling to work with students! Retrospectively, my HMI experience was profound and beautiful, but while I was a student here, I was just living my life. I feel conscious of my tendency to idealize my time at HMI and project that on to these students, who are just authentically building their own HMI experience. 

Q: What elements of your HMI experience do you hope to share with students?

I hope that current students take advantage of the tools we give them to build community. Some of my HMI friends are still my closest friends! The words “intentional community” get thrown around a lot, but here, we give students the structure to live by their own values and hold each other to high standards. In that sense, it’s such a unique opportunity for young people to build enduring relationships. I hope to share that perspective with students to help them to invest in one another and themselves.