The Excellent Emily

For the last two years I have been remarkably fortunate to have the amazing Emily Clemons serve as my work-study student in the Global Modules program, and yesterday, sadly, was her last day. When we hired her on two years ago I didn't know that I had actually taught her before (and she still, amazingly, agreed to work for me). She had been my student in an online class a couple years before that, so I had never actually seen her before in person. And no matter what I threw at her for two years she handled it all easily and with good humor (and Lord knows I can be difficult to be around, even on my best days). Whether it was spending hours setting up Global Module shells or receiving emails from me all hours of the night (she said she learned to turn the volume off her phone early on) with student/faculty problems from around the world she never missed a beat. Many of the tremendous improvements we've made in the Global Module program, especially the website, over the last year stem from her ideas. A couple weeks ago I walked into the office and she told me to send someone an email and to cc her - and it became even more clear to me who the real boss of the operation was. What I will miss most if her ability to get her work done, always be cheerful in the face of my generally dyspeptic mood, and adapt on the fly to a constantly changing job. Last Tuesday was a classic example - we were trying to finish up some GM planning while I was also complaining about my inability to achieve a rolled r in Arabic. She called me over to her computer to show me a couple things - one related to the GM, and the other to a YouTube video she had just pulled up to help me with my r's. And the rest of the day alternated between discussions of GM problems and how to roll r's (most folks would have been driven crazy by the chaos, but she was quite at home). Here are a few pictures of the final day, including a great picture of Emily with our beloved Darlene (who organized the party, just as you organizes our daily lives in the Core division - that is, brilliantly). We'll miss you, Em.