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On Tuesday of this week, I drove up to Tampa for a quick visit at USF and the Honors College. I went because I wanted to see Dr. Silverman, who had been the director of the Honors Program when I was at USF (1994-1998). They were dedicating a new walkway outside in his honor as the inaugural director of the program and the eventual dean of the Honors College. I had hoped that Ms. Sharon Geiger, his assistant, would also be present for the occasion, and she was. The two of them had a profound impact upon my college experience and taught me so much about leadership that I have incorporated into my own style. They put me forward for student leadership on the Honors Council, encouraged my thesis work on women in ministry and gave me a job on campus with the international exchange students so I could live in the dorm my last two years. 

 

 

 

Dr. S. looked the same all these years later and he remembered me straight off - "Deborah Keller you changed your hair color but otherwise you look the same." And he gushed like a proud dad when finding out about my recent DMin graduation.

 

Ms G looked the same too and we had a blast reminiscing together about the days when the Honors program had a total of four rooms in Cooper Hall, compared to the new 85,000 square foot Honors College building we were standing in. 

 

And I got to run into an old friend and meet his family in person - Matt Thatcher and I overlapped in the honors program by one year - he was a senior when I was a freshman. His wife Keri and I have a bunch of friends in common because she works for Metropolitan Ministries in Tampa and knows a lot of Methodist pastors. Their son Henry was adorable. 

This is Dr S. with the current dean of the Honors College along with the past president of USF, Dr. Judy Genshaft, for whom the Honors College is named. She and her husband Steve Greenbaum donated most of the money to build the Honors College building. I got a chance to talk with all of them. But it was especially meaningful to be able to talk with Dr S and Ms G and thank them personally for their investment in my life. It was a really great afternoon.