Provost/Dean of College, Georgetown College

In July of 2004, I became the first woman to serve as Chief Academic Officer in Georgetown College’s 218-year history. Previously, I served as a faculty member at the college for 20 years, including approximately eight years as chair of the English department. As a teacher, I was the first faculty member to win all three of the college’s awards for excellence in teaching. I have also been named multiple times to Who’s Who Among America’s Teachers. My research field is Renaissance drama, but I also teach classes in Milton, Neo-Classical Literature, Women in Literature and journalism. I was for many years the faculty advisor for our award-winning campus newspaper. I hold a Ph.D. and an M.A. in English Literature from Vanderbilt University and was valedictorian of my class at Hillsdale College. I am married to Dr. Todd Coke, who is also a faculty member at Georgetown College.

I learned to challenge myself. Because my professors believed in me and believed in my capacity to learn, I felt compelled to live up to their expectations. I was from a small town and needed a great deal of mentoring. But I learned to rely on others—my professors, my fellow students and the College itself. I learned self-reliance and gained the courage to stand up for my beliefs. I learned how to work with others—whether in a theatre production, or with the college orchestra, or on the Collegian newspaper staff or with other campus organizations. A true liberal arts education sets one free by providing one with flexibility of mind to rise to new challenges. At Hillsdale, my mind was set free.

Study what you love. Don’t worry too much about the marketability of a particular major—the liberal arts education itself will provide you with the sort of flexibility of mind that will serve you well in our fast-changing world. Get involved in a variety of campus organizations. You will learn to relate to people in ways that will prove valuable for the rest of your life. And I had more fun in campus organizations than in anything else. Experiment with new experiences, and don’t be afraid to fail. Don’t be so protective of your GPA that you don’t take difficult classes, and don’t be so afraid of looking foolish that you don’t take risks in social and extracurricular activities. For instance, I was by no means a good actress, but to this day I value my participation in five plays (I think I had a total of three lines in my acting career). I throw like a girl, but I loved the chance to embarrass myself in intramural softball. I’m a bit of a perfectionist, and I needed to learn that perfection is overrated. Make friends. I still love my Hillsdale friends, and I talk with them (mostly via e-mail) every chance I get. If you can do it, study abroad. It puts things in perspective. Enjoy every unbelievably precious moment of your undergraduate education.

I wish I could say I made an intelligent, reasoned decision. The truth is that my high school guidance counselor had attended Hillsdale and recommended it, and when I visited I was enchanted with the look of the campus, which was so much what I had envisioned a college should be. I didn’t apply anywhere else—it just felt right to come here. I look back and chastise myself for the thoughtless approach I took to the decision, but I also am incredibly thankful that I was led to this jewel of a campus and that I had the chance to be educated by my beloved professors.

I got an extraordinary preparation in my subject area—a preparation that allowed me to score in the top one percent in the nation on the Graduate Record Exam. This preparation in my subject area got me ready for my graduate education, and when I graduated from my doctoral program I was already in school again—as a professor. For me, there is no such thing as life after graduation, since I am constantly working toward graduation on behalf of a new group of students. I also learned skills in leadership and management from participating in a broad range of extracurricular activities. Perhaps the most important management skill I learned was the ability to see the world from a perspective other than my own—a lesson I learned from my friends and fellow students as well as from my professors.

The relationships I developed with kind, caring, supportive faculty members were definitely the highlight of my Hillsdale experience, and the element of my Hillsdale experience that has shaped my own career. Because I valued so highly the influence my professors had on me, I resolved to be the same sort of professor and to try to pass that legacy on to my own students. I loved my Hillsdale experience so much that I never wanted to leave it behind, and now I have the opportunity to help lead another small liberal arts college that reminds me a great deal of the Hillsdale I loved.

Rosemary_Allen@georgetowncollege.edu