00;00;00;15 - 00;00;25;02 

Darice 

Welcome, everyone, to another episode of Yale College Voices, where we dive into the stories of Yale College staff who are making a profound impact on the community. I'm your host, in case anyone doesn't know, Darice Corey. Today we have an awesome guest, Earle Lobo, whose commitment to student development and community service is truly inspiring. 

00;00;25;02 - 00;00;54;14 

Darice 

Welcome, Earle. I'm so glad you could make the time to be with me today. Thank you, I'm going to tell you a little bit about Earle. Earle is a dedicated professional who serves as the Assistant Director of Student Conduct and Program Manager for Student Affairs. Earle wears lots of hats. He's also the assistant secretary of the Executive Committee Managing Case Materials and acting as a fact finder. 

00;00;54;17 - 00;01;22;16 

Darice 

I had the joy of working and collaborating with Earle during our time together as part of the second Emerge at Yale Cohort, a leadership development and training program here at the university. So just to tell you a little bit about Emerge, Emerge is a presidential initiative designed to retain staff and develop leaders throughout campus. It's coordinated by Yales Organizational Effectiveness and Staff Development. 

00;01;22;19 - 00;02;06;14 

Darice 

This initiative is the newest of Yale's many programs and resources designed to help staff strengthen their leadership skills. The intensive eight-month training period, which Earle and I enjoyed this past year, includes immersive classes, group assignments and insights from Yale leaders on topics ranging from strategic analysis of problem solving to financial and business acumen. Prior to coming to Yale, Earle served as the Student Development and Student Conduct Coordinator at Connecticut State Colleges and universities, specifically at Gateway Community College. 

00;02;07;16 - 00;02;34;03 

Darice 

Earle is more than just an administrator. He's a guiding force in shaping the educational experience for countless students. Earle has been the judicial affairs point person in investigating violations of the code of conduct, counseling students on appropriate behavior, and conducting seminars on student rights and responsibilities. His impact goes way beyond disciplinary matters. Beyond the professional realm, Earle has a flair for creativity. 

00;02;34;06 - 00;02;45;18 

Darice 

He enjoys writing music, an appreciation for fashion, and photography. So, Earle, thank you so much for finally making it here today. 

00;02;46;18 - 00;02;49;15 

Earle 

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for that glowing introduction, I appreciate it. 

00;02;50;15 - 00;03;10;07 

Darice 

Absolutely, that was easy. I'm just so happy you could make it. I’m looking forward to hearing more about your journey before you came here to Yale and hearing more about your current role. I wanted to have you start off like, just tell me a little bit more about your current role here. 

00;03;10;07 - 00;03;27;12 

Darice 

Before you do that, maybe tell me about your journey before you came to Yale and what attracted you to working with students and Student Affairs. Also, the different things that you did before you came to Yale? 

00;03;27;13 - 00;03;58;02 

Earle 

Sure. Thank you and thank you again for providing this space. I always tell people I have a very colorful journey. Before I became a part of the Yale community, from the most basic sense, I always had a desire to be an elementary school teacher. I thought I would go to college, graduate, teach fifth grade and become a millionaire by like 26. 

00;03;58;06 - 00;04;31;07 

Earle 

Life had some different twists and turns, and I'm still not a millionaire and I'm far beyond 26. Education was always my intro, both to my professional desires and just, I guess, personal interests as well. All through college I was a substitute teacher in public school, so every time I was home for break, I'd sub. That exposed me to all different types of grades, all different types of students, all different types of teachers, and teaching styles. 

00;04;31;09 - 00;05;20;01 

Earle 

By the time I graduated college, I realized I was lucky enough to secure a job role. In 2010, when jobs were not that easy to secure as a family liaison for a pre-K through a school in the New Haven public school system. During this time, the school was a turnaround school, so there were new administrative positions that were created to help support staff, students and family. It was through that experience, I realized that I could probably be more effective outside of the classroom because my scope was greater to reach a larger number of students opposed to just your classroom size of 26 or 27. 

00;05;20;03 - 00;05;55;06 

Earle 

It was also a time that was really illuminating for me as to what a lot of the students were confronted with outside of school. Both in the community and in their homes. As a person who's just moving back, even though I am born and raised, Hamden, New Haven, Connecticut, just moving back and kind of learning their story, I think shed new light on what I really wanted to do, which was ultimately help students. 

00;05;55;08 - 00;06;37;12 

Earle 

I felt like being a classroom teacher was kind of restrictive at the time. I continued in the role of the family liaison officer. I had another opportunity that came very swiftly that was, you know, very appealing to me. It was with a nonprofit organization. I worked with the nonprofit organization for a short stint. I was very green, and I was not yet, I didn't have the professional acumen yet to handle the responsibility that the role required so I can take accountability for that now, at this juncture of my career. 

00;06;37;12 - 00;06;57;05 

Earle 

It was a role that didn't have much support from upper management because it was kind of like you kind of fly on your own and do your thing. At that time, I needed a little bit more support because I just hadn't had that much responsibility. I found that role to be kind of challenging. 

00;06;58;07 - 00;07;32;04 

Earle 

The organization itself was in a process of transition, so leadership had changed. There was a lot of just new things that I think I was not equipped for in the moment. I ended up going back to New Haven public school system and this time as a permanent sub, because the previous role that I had was no longer in existence. I did the long-term subbing for a little bit, after which point I pivoted completely. 

00;07;33;09 - 00;07;34;24 

Darice 

Really? 

00;07;29;26 - 00;07;47;19 

Earle 

I went to the Connecticut State Colleges and universities. I started at Quinebaug Valley Community College in Danielson, Connecticut. 

00;07;47;19 - 00;07;48;10 

Darice 

Oh, my gosh. 

00;07;49;12 - 00;08;19;21 

Earle 

Where I was a part of a program that was funded by the Department of Labor to assist with job development for persons who were incarcerated, 90 days pre their release of incarceration. We would go into facilities, teach a job development course and then do follow up case management once those persons were released from prison. 

00;08;19;23 - 00;09;03;15 

Earle 

I think that was another illuminating experience for me because through that I kind of realized that my passion was working with young people. I was a young professional still myself. There were, you know, my caseload ran a range of participants who were 19 to 60. It was interesting to work with now, adults. What I struggled with the most was that whether my participants secured a job or not, I still was able to get paid. 

00;09;03;17 - 00;09;30;16 

Earle 

Many of them had challenges securing jobs, which caused them to resort to risky behaviors that landed them in kind of the predicament they were already in. I really struggled with the fact that, you know, folks were challenged to sustain their livelihood while whether they got a job or not, I was okay. So that was rough for me. 

00;09;30;18 - 00;10;00;03 

Earle 

This is like 2013. So as a state agency, there were some budget cuts and because I was last to come, I was first to leave. I was okay with that because again, I was kind of like, I don't know if this is something that I want to do forever. Then they made it sound so good, I can collect unemployment. I'm like 25. I don't have to do anything. Collect a couple thousand maybe. 

00;10;01;13 - 00;10;02;01 

Darice 

It's just easy. 

00;10;03;02 - 00;10;27;00 

Earle 

Yeah, I'm like, all right, that's fine. Unfortunately, I was unemployed for two years after that and it was discouraging. I often questioned, why did I go to college? I saw many of my friends being very successful who did not complete college, right? They took the entrepreneurship track, or they were successful in the arts. 

00;10;27;02 - 00;11;27;06 

Earle 

I struggle with what is my purpose? What am I doing here? Why am I in all this debt? Why did I go to school to come home and collect? The first six months was cool, but after a while I just started to feel unfulfilled. I went back to subbing. Now this time I was no longer subbing in pre-K through eighth grade. I decided, listen, I want to go to high school now. I don't really necessarily want to be with the little babies anymore. Let me try high school, because it seemed like it would be an easier thing, like just tell students what the assignment was for the day. I was actually also very nervous because I had never worked with high schoolers. The eighth grade was the highest grade that I had worked with. You hear horror stories about high school.  

00;11;28;20 - 00;11;30;25 

Darice 

Like what did I get myself into? 

00;11;30;25 - 00;12;25;10 

Earle 

Yeah, what am I getting myself into? It just so happened that the very first high school sub assignment I had was an English course. I was an English major. I have a degree in English, that's up my alley and I liked teaching, so I really enjoyed having that as my first high school subbing experience. I remember being in the classroom early because high school starts at like 7:30 and having a little nerves, right? I'm this new face, I still look very young, and I didn't know if the students would take me seriously until the door flung open. The first, like four students that walked in, I had already known because I had them in elementary or middle school. So now my second and third graders are now ninth, this was a freshman English course, so they were like ninth and 10th graders. 

00;12;25;11 - 00;12;41;02 

Earle 

I instantly felt the connection and, in their face, saw the same young person that I might have seen five or six years prior. It was in that moment that I kind of fell in love with the high school demographic, that age group. 

00;12;41;04 - 00;12;42;24 

Darice 

Nice. 

00;12;43;24 - 00;13;19;28 

Earle 

I did that for some time, and I ended up a couple of months after securing a job with the city of New Haven Youth Services Department. That job was a very rewarding experience for me because we did some transformative work, life changing, life altering work for at risk young people around the city of New Haven. We worked mostly with the highest identified, highest risk youth around the city. 

00;13;19;00 - 00;14;04;01 

Earle 

We use three markers to try to identify their high risk, which was significant trauma. PTSD, failing in reading or math, and chronic absenteeism. So those three markers helped us to work with all the high schools in New Haven to identify students who fit that criteria and who were at risk of either being susceptible or purveyors of violence, particularly youth violence amongst the city, which at the time in 2014 was rather rampant. 

00;14;04;01 - 00;14;37;09 

Earle 

That was another job where I was a little nervous because I'm like, I don't know if I have the same shared lived experiences as the students that we'll be working with, and I want to ensure that I am impacting their lives and influencing them in a positive way. Shortly found out that again, this is a group of students that I had either encountered in previous roles or they were now friends of students that I had already known. 

00;14;37;09 - 00;15;14;14 

Earle 

We worked really hard with a program which was part of Mayor Tony Harp's initiative for Youth Development. It was called Youth Stat. It was loosely based out of the CompStat model for the police, where we would get together weekly at different schools and it would be city officials, community partners. So those are youth serving organizations, juvenile probation, the Department of Children and Families. 

00;15;14;21 - 00;16;02;13 

Earle 

We would sit around the table to think about a success plan for these students based off the markers which had identified them. We also did social networking to kind of identify the students’ friend groups to be able to connect them to resources and just kind of make sure everyone had a mentor or someone outside of their school community and outside of their home that they could connect with. Our mentors ranged from all sorts of community members. One of the revered programs were our veteran mentors who made really deep connections with the students because essentially, they had both been in battle, in different ways. 

00;16;02;19 - 00;16;03;15 

Darice 

In different ways, yeah. 

00;16;04;15 - 00;16;39;24 

Earle 

There was a shared connection between them where trust was built and again, those kind of transformative life experiences ensued. I loved the work. We provided summer jobs to the youth of New Haven. We hosted a hoop it up outside of City Hall for three consecutive years in collaboration with the cities of Hartford and Bridgeport. We worked on some really great things and it was really nice to work with so many people from around the community because we all had this shared desire to just help these young people. 

00;16;40;01 - 00;17;21;25 

Earle 

We saw a significant decrease in youth violence in those years from 2014 to about 2017. Then in 2017, I took my talents elsewhere. After doing that work, an opportunity was presented to me to come to Gateway Community College as a Student Development Coordinator working with conduct. I was unsure about that because I'm like, I'm going to college now. 

00;17;21;25 - 00;17;54;02 

Earle 

I've done, you know, every grade pre-k to 12. College seems a little like not my domain. I don't really know much about college. I do know about behaviors, right? I've been working in that space all this time. I don't know. I was convinced that I had transferable skills that would blend nicely into the role. I pursued it and I ended up taking up that position at Gateway Community College for another two and a half years. 

00;17;54;04 - 00;18;44;11 

Earle 

It was a similar situation, kind of like my experience with the high schoolers with those nerves and like not knowing what the student population is like until I walked in the building and now, I'm seeing students again that I've had either in high school or previously in middle or elementary, because now they are of college age. One of the things I had noticed immediately is some of the same students who used to be isolated or sitting in the hallway or would have to spend the day with me when they were in elementary and middle-we're still having challenges by the time they were at the community college level with minor disruptions or violations of the regulations of the time. 

00;18;44;14 - 00;19;12;29 

Earle 

There was definitely a pattern that I could see. I think that perspective in scope gave me a really unique understanding of the breadth and depth of student experiences. Formally being a student myself and then kind of being a student of life, of always working in some sort of academic setting. 

00;19;13;29 - 00;19;41;04 

Earle 

I was able to kind of see those patterns. I did that work for some time, and that was where I got my introduction to working in the student conduct sphere in higher education. It was rough, right, because I was responsible for making decisions for people, right? It didn't go to a committee unless after adjudication it was appealed or something like that. 

00;19;42;04 - 00;20;15;12 

Earle 

The way the process was designed is that the Student Development Coordinator kind of makes the decisions because they were the main person for the judicial affairs. That was interesting, but it taught me how to make decisions that were fair, that were consistent with precedent and ultimately decisions that are helping folks learn from their mistakes, right? 

00;20;15;12 - 00;21;18;23 

Earle 

I had never been interested in punitive measures, especially coming from doing a little bit of work in carceral systems. I didn't feel that it really helped folks transform and make changes to themselves that ultimately will better them in their futures. I learned so much about higher ed and in a community college is interesting because you wear several hats. I think that's just a higher ed thing. In community college, being a small staff in small departments, we did wear several hats and we cross pollinated I guess you can say, across different departments. I started academic advising. I didn't know exactly how to do it, but I learned, throughout the process. Then I had a colleague there who stalks higheredjobs.net and was just always looking at different opportunities. 

00;21;19;08 - 00;21;49;22 

Earle 

Yale had a newly created position for assistant director of student conduct and community standards. That colleague kept telling me, apply, apply, apply. I'm like, okay, okay, okay. I honestly, I did not feel that I, quote unquote fit the Yale pedigree, right? I didn't think that I had the experience. I didn't have any Ivy League background. 

00;21;49;24 - 00;22;31;25 

Earle 

I don't have any professional degrees. At the time, I just didn't feel that I would be a contender for a community like Yale. Though I had been a member of this community, the broader, greater New Haven community, Yale was something that I didn't have much of a connection to. It seemed far-fetched that I would be selected for that position, given my experiences and again, learning moments, learning how your experiences do come together to give you skills that can transfer anywhere. 

00;22;31;25 - 00;23;23;29 

Earle 

I kind of procrastinated on applying. Then the final day before it closed, I remember her barging into my office like, did you apply? I said, I'll do it right now. I thought, they're not going to call me. Just because of the trust and relationship we have, like I will do it just as a good faith effort to. So you know that I took you up and thank you so much for thinking so highly of me that a place like Yale would want me to take on this inaugural role. Fast forward, I did all that. I went through a very interesting interview process here at Yale. We have a very unique interview process. I ended up securing the role, and I have been here ever since. That was in the spring of 2019. 

00;23;24;12 - 00;24;24;08 

Darice 

Wow, and then so the spring of 2019. Then several months later, by the end of the year, the pandemic. Total chaos, right? I mean, talk about a lot of changes for students, but before we even get into that, thank you for sharing that because a lot. I still didn't know about you although we've worked together and participated in Emerge as well. I didn't realize, your timeline and all the experience you had. It's a great point that you brought up about how your skills were transferred. Well, two things, how your skills were transferable. Also at the time, you didn't think, or you had doubts about fitting in at Yale. We have similar stories where it was, it's intimidating at first, right? 

00;24;24;27 - 00;25;10;04 

Darice 

I'm curious, all of those experiences that you shared, what kept you going in terms of working, all throughout each experience, you worked with students, and you worked with students who were going through really rough times in their lives. What kept you going? What drew you to that? Did you ever think about changing gears or what drew you to that? Tell me that first. 

00;25;10;05 - 00;25;44;25 

Earle 

I'll answer that in two ways, right? Some of my personal interests involve the arts. I did consider shifting gears to pursue another passion. Education was a passion that I just couldn't shy away from. What kept me going was the humility that came from working with all these young people, acknowledging that we all deal with trauma. 

00;25;44;27 - 00;26;51;21 

Earle 

It humbled me to learn of their experiences, to walk alongside them in some of their experiences. For me to sit back and reflect on my own life and kind of take inventory and understand that we all have a story. We've all been through something, but there are people out there in predicaments that are just worse than ours, and that really, really, really, really, really humbled me. It made me want to continue to strive and fight for and advocate for these people, these young people who were playing the cards they were dealt most with little to no support. I loved being that kind of constant figure for some of them outside of their pre-identified family members or for some. 

00;26;52;02 - 00;27;37;27 

Earle 

The reality is some had no one. Seeing the impact is what kept me going once I started working with at risk youth, my desire to keep them alive and out of the system is what made me keep going every day. It was always the young people. There’s just a source of inspiration that I get from students. Which is funny because I was an interesting student myself. That's a story for another podcast. 

00;27;38;00 - 00;28;01;06 

Darice 

Well, that's great because one of the things that I observed about you because realizing that you came in spring of 2019 and we had, I know we worked on a couple things together throughout the pandemic. 

00;28;02;12 - 00;28;04;26 

Earle 

Oh, yeah. Quite a few things. 

00;28;05;26 - 00;28;07;23 

Darice 

Yeah, we did, right? 

00;28;07;29 - 00;28;09;22 

Earle 

That's how we started, established our connection. 

00;28;09;25 - 00;28;56;02 

Darice 

Yeah, isn’t it crazy? Then once we returned to the office, we really, you know, we collaborated here and there. Then my first direct experience was during a merge and, one of the things that I don't know, you can tell that you carry it, it's your personality, the way you interact with people. You have this way of just showing that you care. That you do understand that everyone has a story, and everyone has an experience. That was one of the things that struck me about you and just your interaction with everyone. It's like everyone loves Earle, you know. 

00;28;56;13 - 00;28;59;20 

Earle 

I don't know about that, but I appreciate that. 

00;28;59;22 - 00;29;29;01 

Darice 

In my experience, you know. I'm curious we participated in Emerge and your current role here at Yale College, has there ever been like a specific highlight or specific lesson you learned throughout all of these experiences that brought you to your current role today that stands out in your mind? 

00;29;30;03 - 00;29;37;13 

Earle 

Yes, there's tons that are standing out. They’re competing with each other. 

00;29;37;16 - 00;29;40;29 

Darice 

Maybe the first one that came to mind. 

00;29;41;01 - 00;30;37;23 

Earle 

Well, as you were talking, I was thinking about how we connected and what keeps kind of floating around up there is this idea of working with others. The pandemic kind of forced our hand in student affairs because we were on a hiring freeze, and then there were turnovers, people got new jobs. Business was still going on during the pandemic, and that required me to kind of pick up some new tasks, learn some new things that were more directly related to student affairs and not so much student conduct. I loved the fact that, one, I am now working with people across the institution that I wouldn't necessarily have worked with otherwise, right? 

00;30;38;14 - 00;31;35;26 

Earle 

The need wasn't there. I would have easily been in my little corner and stayed there. This kind of took me out of my corner and forced me to collaborate with other folks, learn new things I had no idea about and continue to learn Yale, right? Yale's a very interesting place and there's a lot of layers to learn. I think simultaneously I was also learning Yale at the same time. I find value in working with people. I've always considered myself like a people person, as cliche as that sounds. I get bored very quickly with myself and my own thoughts. I like to hear, that's why I like stories, or hearing other people's experiences because there's always something that kind of inspires me or a nugget that I can take and kind of selfishly motivated applied to my own experiences in life. 

00;31;36;24 - 00;32;30;26 

Earle 

One of the experiences that I probably appreciated the most would be my involvement with the First Year Scholars at Yale program (FSY), which is a six-week summer intensive program for first years before they start here at Yale. It's for the first-generation low-income community. That program was just dope to me because it mirrored many of the things that I think I faced when I entered college, and which was a whole other level of illumination because I went to a historically black college. I left Connecticut thinking that I came from the Cosby’s. 

00;32;31;02 - 00;33;26;01 

Earle 

I learned quickly that we were just making it, you know what I mean? Compared to some of the other friends that I had who were part of a wealthy black population, it was eye opening for me, like you don't really fit in that container. Those are your friends but once we start looking at your taxes, it's not the same brackets. So that program in seeing those students who many of them feel like how I felt even when I joined the Yale community. Seeing that transformation over six weeks from how they enter to how they leave for the remainder of their summer with hope and excitement to come back with an understanding of this community, our values, and just knowing the lay of the land a little bit before the rest of their classmates enter. 

00;33;26;14 - 00;34;32;23 

Earle 

It makes a difference and it's a great experience. I don't work as directly hands on with those students, but I'm a part of the committee. The committee is extremely thoughtful. There are some amazing colleagues on that committee who put the program together. I love supporting, my biggest support is the ice cream truck that I gave the students during the first and last week of the program. We would do ice cream socials so that committee members can meet the students because we're often off to the side as a committee doing our work all throughout the year. Then when the program starts, those who are kind of on the front line of programming are the ones who the students interface the most with, particularly a few colleagues, but mostly the FSY counselors. This includes seniors who are working throughout the summer to help work with these students. 

00;34;33;22 - 00;35;21;25 

Earle 

I think that was one of my favorite experiences. I also love when we're able to kind of see the light bulbs go off with the students when they're going through our disciplinary process. Acknowledging that the process is nerve racking, right? At the end of the process, when students are like, wow, I get it, or I didn't think about it like that, or I have tools now moving forward to make sure that I don't find myself in a situation like this again. Now they know I need to communicate with folks, or I don't realize all the resources that are here at my disposal. 

00;35;21;25 - 00;35;52;21 

Earle 

Our process is designed to educate students. That is what the committee hopes to do, educate them and help them learn from their mistakes. Take accountability and responsibility in areas where they should and move forward in a way that acknowledges the vote of confidence that the committee has in a student. Also, confidence that they have in themselves to know that this moment in time won't define their entire trajectory here at Yale or beyond. 

00;35;52;26 - 00;36;33;04 

Darice 

Yeah, and that's awesome. I'm curious if you could tell me a little more about your college experience. This has been a common theme through the other episodes, comparing your experience and resources you had available to yourself. What that was like compared to being involved with this committee? Do you find that, if you had these kinds of resources, that it would have changed your college experience? By the way, tell us where you went to school. 

00;36;34;14 - 00;37;05;14 

Earle 

Oh, yes. I have no problem doing that. I am a graduate of the Hampton University in Hampton, Virginia. We are also known as the real HU. There are other historically black colleges that have those two letters who think they're the real one, but they're not. My college experience was also colorful. There was a lot of human growth and development that occurred for me during college, especially being on my own. 

00;37;05;14 - 00;38;14;14 

Earle 

When I think about resources, I think about the time that I was in college, I think about the fact that as an HBCU, we were not resource rich, right? We had just enough. I also think at the time some of the things that administration is super intentional about now and super thoughtful about wasn't really on the list of priorities or folks didn't know how to tend to some of those needs. Now we're in such a better place. I do think that if there was some more intention around how students are cultivated when they first become a part of the community, it would have helped me in some ways. My institution was very strict. We came in on curfew, non-coed dorms, living spaces, and some of that strictness only pushed me to want to push boundaries a little bit more because it felt like home. 

00;38;15;06 - 00;39;12;28 

Earle 

Home was strict. Now we're paying thousands, and thousands of dollars for it to be strict. I push boundaries a lot. I might have been a student who went through disciplinary procedures in college and would have learned something through that process. I think that's what I see every time a student sits before us. I will say, no, we didn't have the resources that we have now, right? Restorative justice wasn't a conversation. Thinking about wraparound services and needs for students wasn't really a conversation. Mental health was not such a huge conversation on campus. I think had those categories been areas that were more developed at the time, yeah, for sure it would have been a beneficial resource for me. 

00;39;07;29 - 00;40;02;10 

Earle 

College was still the fondest years of my life thus far, and I recognize that you'll never live like that again. I think that's the piece that I romanticize is just like, wow, in the moment you don't realize that this is the only time that you're going to get this, so enjoy it. Which I did. Maybe too much. I also learned, I think that those experiences have helped shape myself as an empathetic leader, as a person who leads with understanding and listens, to hear folks’ stories, and their experiences because it helps you to make sense of how people see and show up in the world. 

00;40;03;28 - 00;40;47;06 

Darice 

Yeah, definitely. I totally agree. It shapes your experience and how you interact with people. It's always interesting to me just talking to everyone on each episode how it's a critical point in your life when you're of college age, whether you did college, or not right? At that age those experiences kind of shape and mold you as a person, your values, and how you interact with others and of course, you develop more as an adult you still carry those things because here I am. 

00;40;48;06 - 00;41;39;04 

Darice 

I don't want to say my age, I won't say my age, but X number of years later, you know, a lot of those experiences, I even told my son this last night, little things are stuck in my head that people have shared with me, people who mentored me, or were empathetic. You think of those things, right? Years later, they resonate with you. That's awesome. I'm wondering if you could tell me a little more about, you know, your other hats that you wear here at Yale. What's something if you could tell me something that you enjoy the most out of all those hats, what would it be? Or at least today, maybe there's something you enjoy this week? 

00;41;39;01 - 00;41;41;25 

Earle 

Oh, that's a rough one. 

00;41;41;25 - 00;41;42;23 

Darice 

Is it? 

00;41;43;25 - 00;42;12;01 

Earle 

I don't say this, like for form or fashion, I really do enjoy the multiple, I told you I like fashion, so that means I like to switch hats. So my day to day as serving as the assistant secretary to the executive committee which is Yale's disciplinary body, so kind of maintaining alongside you know the dean of student affairs and student conduct and our amazing team. 

00;42;13;03 - 00;42;48;20 

Earle 

We start the process for adjudication for when referrals come to us for a student who may have violated the undergraduate regulations. Notice I said may because we don't just assume that a student is responsible until we've heard from the student, they've had a chance to amplify their voice, and that their side of things. Then a committee that is made up of both student and faculty members will vote on a responsibility and vote on the most appropriate outcome based off precedent. That alone is the job, right? 

00;42;48;01 - 00;42;50;02 

Darice 

That’s a pretty big one. 

00;42;50;04 - 00;43;30;29 

Earle 

That can take up everything. The awesome part about the leadership and YCDO is that I've been given autonomy and, the room to stretch in other places even beyond the need for during the pandemic, right? My favorite part, I will have to say I thoroughly, thoroughly, thoroughly enjoy love, get satisfaction, and just joy from advising Yale Black Men's Union. 

00;43;31;05 - 00;43;58;14 

Earle 

Which is a resident student organization of the Afro American Cultural Center. Those young men are just so inspiring that they don't even know how inspiring they are, right? I typically get that from students anyway, in all my experiences working with students, they didn't know that they were so inspiring, right? No matter what they were dealing with, there was still something about them that inspired me. 

00;43;58;28 - 00;44;03;24 

Darice 

They didn’t realize that they were giving you, they think you're giving them something but they're giving something to you. 

00;44;04;24 - 00;44;57;06 

Earle 

They were giving something to me. I just love working with these young men. They are just so bright, they are so ambitious, and they are so committed to themselves. They are so committed to their family, making their families proud, and upholding the values that have been instilled in them. They are very committed to the black male experience which does not exist in a monolith, which is very colorful in colorful. I love working with these young men. The talks that we do, the speaker series. I really am a peripheral support. They have it down packed. 

00;44;58;25 - 00;45;26;03 

Earle 

Yeah, they have it completely under control. Again, selfish motivation. I'm just around because I get life from them. They could easily fly without me. It's been great to just connect with them and I've been an advisor to the Black Men's Union since the fall of 21. No, I'm sorry since spring of 21. 

00;45;26;03 - 00;45;27;16 

Darice 

Oh okay, yeah. 

00;45;21;19 - 00;46;25;17 

Earle 

It's been an incredible year. Yeah, almost three years. I work closest with the board of directors. I'm sorry, the executive board. I love the relationships that we've been able to establish. I love when they think I know something, and they come to ask me for advice or my thoughts or input or insights on certain things. One of the greatest highlights so far of my experience with them probably was this fall during the NAACP Harmony Classic we did. A colleague of mine through the Association for Student Conduct Administrators, which is a national association of all folks who do this work. He holds a role at Emory University, where he advises their black male initiative, which is the equivalent of our Black Men's Union. 

00;46;26;26 - 00;47;07;09 

Earle 

He brought their executive board up to Yale for the weekend during the game. They enjoyed all the festivities. We had lunch, we connected the e boards, hen as a culminating event, and we went for crepes. We talked about, well we kind of sat to the back and let the students talk about what it's like as a black male navigating campus spaces, what that experience means and how they kind of shift through challenges that are unique to a black male just trying to make it in society. 

00;47;07;12 - 00;47;59;16 

Earle 

It was very powerful. I absolutely, I could talk for days about the work that I do with the Black Men's Union. I think they are phenomenal, and I count it as an honor to have been considered to advise this group of such dynamic individuals. I hope it just continues to grow in membership. Our students are so busy, all over the place and the induction ceremony is out of this world, right? There's always a guest speaker. We started the induction ceremony up again last academic year, and it's just phenomenal. They have dinner, then they kind of like a flash mob, walk somewhere, they're all in their suits, and they'll take pictures. 

00;47;59;16 - 00;48;00;14 

Darice 

Yeah, I’ve seen it on social media. 

00;49;55;15 - 00;48;34;03 

Earle 

Yeah, they're awesome. It's just a great time of solidarity and community and each first year will sign the induction book as a commitment to the values and goals of the Black Men's Union. Also empowering black people both in the Yale community and the greater New Haven community as well. It’s really, really cool. You have to look up the induction write ups because it's a really great event and next year you have to come. 

00;48;34;23 - 00;48;43;20 

Darice 

Yeah, absolutely. I'll try to make it. I would love to. As you know, I love photography too, and I would love to capture that somehow. 

00;48;43;27 - 00;48;51;16 

Earle 

We got it. We got you committed. That’s awesome. Yes, we will. Yes, we will. 

00;48;51;24 - 00;49;17;03 

Darice 

Yeah, that is so cool. I wanted to hear a little bit more, I know you have a love for the arts, photography, and fashion. I'm curious, how do you carry that over to your work? Your creative interests? How do those and maybe enhance your work here at Yale, or do you find you integrate them somehow in your advising or how does that work? 

00;49;18;04 - 00;49;48;24 

Earle 

Sure. I think with that being a personal interest, it helps me connect with students in that for the most part, I'm up on popular culture. I'm starting to realize now that I'm getting further and further away, but I think for the most part I can still have a coffee break conversation with you about some stuff going on in popular culture. It's funny because a little-known fact about me is I do sing, right? 

00;49;49;13 - 00;49;52;18 

Darice 

Yes, I've heard this. I have not witnessed it. 

00;49;47;18 - 00;50;50;28 

Earle 

Right, because I always like separated the two for some reason. It's just one of those things I did. Recently in the last year, the Yale Divinity School had a few opportunities where they brought gospel music giants for a free community concert in New Haven. There was one in the fall of last year, one in the spring, featuring the legendary Clarke Sisters. Each concert convened a community choir. I sang in the community choir. It would be funny because folks who are at the concert who are part of Yale Community are like, what's going on here? We don't know this side of you. I'm kind of shy about it for whatever reason. That's one way where I saw those two worlds collide, and I enjoyed it. 

00;50;51;02 - 00;51;36;03 

Earle 

I think my interest in art and, fashion, I wouldn't even say just fashion. I just love aesthetics. I think that some little things like the type of presentation style that I may use. I may use fun fonts or not too many colors to make you dizzy, but something that's unique and different. 

I always say it's the teacher in me. I will have a ball on canvas designing a presentation that has some smiley faces or post-it notes or font that looks like handwriting. Those are those little pieces I think that represent me. 

00;51;36;13 - 00;51;37;09 

Darice 

Yeah. 

00;51;37;11 - 00;52;19;10 

Earle 

It does help me stand out from maybe standard templates or kind of drier, just boring or just information only. I’m the type of learner that needs to be always engaged. While you're talking, I may read your slide and listen, but if you’ve got a little picture or something to engage me-that kind of peels back another layer of thought for me. I appreciate that. I think aesthetically, aesthetics come into play. People come in my office and are like, oh, your office is like so cool. I say, I didn’t even finish it yet. I’ve been finishing it for the past four years. 

00;52;19;19 - 00;52;22;16 

Darice 

You need to come decorate my office. My office is so boring. I’m embarrassed.  

00;52;22;18 - 00;52;28;07 

Earle 

Well, you know, I don't think mine is all that. For whatever reason, people are like, it feels so cozy in here. 

00;52;28;08 - 00;52;31;07 

Darice 

Oh, that’s so cool. Yes, please decorate mine. 

00;52;32;07 - 00;52;58;23 

Earle 

Sure. I'll come take a look. I appreciate aesthetics. I think that does come to the fray when we must do presentations or when we have to think about thematic approaches to something. I'm into that I love wordsmithing and alliteration as well. It’s the English in me.  

00;52;58;23 - 00;53;32;03 

Darice 

That's awesome. Yeah, I'm serious, come decorate my office. That's great because I do think that that particular presentation style stands out more to folks, they'll remember. I'm very visual so you can have all the text in the world on a slide but if you have a visual attached to it, I retain it longer. It’s better versus just plain old-style bullets. So that's awesome. 

00;53;33;08 - 00;53;35;15 

Earle 

I love incorporating music too, right? 

00;53;35;15 - 00;53;36;22 

Darice 

Yeah, yeah. 

00;53;37;24 - 00;54;05;24 

Earle 

I also am a co-chair of the Conflict Resolution Committee of Practice for the Association of Student Conduct Administrators. We do a monthly meeting, and as folks are gathered in this room, I'm always playing like Stevie Wonder or something like Motown Classic. Just the way that people perk up when they get on the zoom screen. They start bobbing their head and those little aesthetic pieces make a world of difference in someone's experience. 

00;54;06;03 - 00;54;35;17 

Darice 

Right? It really does. I'm so glad you brought that up because you mentioned your experience with the Black Men's Union and I was going to ask, how does that pull into your experience as a staff person? As a black man on campus how you view your experiences so far working here at Yale? 

00;54;36;19 - 00;55;17;01 

Darice 

When you brought up playing music, something so simple makes an impact with how you interact with staff and how staff perceive you. I want you to tell me a little bit more about that. What was your experience like once you got here? Once you started your career as a black man at Yale? Were there certain experiences that changed your views and made you want to show this other side of yourself? Please tell me a little bit about that. 

00;55;17;02 - 00;56;17;08 

Earle 

I don't think you'll catch me signing at Woolsey or at Schwarzman. There was a mind shift in my experience here. I'm going to answer your question in two parts. First, from the staff perspective. I chuckle a little bit because when I came here, I'm like, why is everybody so nice? I was always waiting for another shoe to drop. I like to get to know people and things based off my own experience. As a resident I might have held my own preconceived notions about Yale. Partially learned behavior and partially just based off assumption. Based off harm that has occurred historically, right? Like, let's name all three of those things. 

00;56;18;13 - 00;56;59;07 

Earle 

Once I became a part of this community, I recognized that folks, and I can only speak from my experiences. I acknowledge that this may not be everyone else's experience, but I am adamant about always using I statements in speaking about what I experience. From my experience, the values that we talk about a lot have been upheld with the closest colleagues that I've worked with and the one offs that I have maybe done just one project with or supported with something. 

00;57;00;07 - 00;57;29;14 

Earle 

There is a value of camaraderie, of value, or of listening. I remember all the times I used to be like nervous, trip over my words if I was sharing in a staff meeting, speaking in front of a whole group of colleagues, because in the back of my head, it was always this voice like, shut up, you don't know what you're talking about. You know what I mean? It’s that imposter syndrome. We learned and emerged. We’re ditching that. 

00;57;29;23 - 00;57;31;29 

Darice 

Yes, we got rid of it. 

00;57;25;29 - 00;58;24;06 

Earle 

It's out of here. It's something that I kind of made up on my own, right? People were finding what I had to share valuable. It’s just this level of amicable partnership that I just truly, truly, truly appreciate and not to compare it to any other experiences, but this has been the first community that I've felt that so authentically. Which helped make me more comfortable to talk about my personal interests or what I do outside of the Yale bubble or outside of my 9 to 5. I don't think in other places I was that comfortable doing, so I kept them very separate. I still kind of have them separate, but they are starting to come closer and closer together. 

00;58;24;06 - 00;58;25;10 

Darice 

Yeah. 

00;58;25;11 - 00;59;04;09 

Earle 

Yale has held that as a value to say, hey, show up how you are, like you are, right? Sometimes it's like, do you want that? Overall, that trust has been established through the amazing colleagues that I have worked with in the past who are no longer a part of the organization or who I'm working with currently or who has come on since I've been here. It's remained consistent across all those different layers. 

00;59;05;21 - 01;00;15;06 

Earle 

For me, it’s the experience of partnership with colleagues who have this doctorate in that advanced degree, this certification, and this laundry list of experience. To still have a seat at the table, to still be honored, and to still be heard is what will sustain me as being a part of this organization, because I recognize that as being unique, because not every organization has that. I recognize not everyone at Yale has that experience. I can only hope and that's why I love moments like this and a lot of the things we're building in hopes that folks do get to that experience. I believe it's possible and I believe it does exist because I've lived it. That makes some folks just roll their eyes in the back of their heads because it's not the same thing that they experienced. I am hopeful that with carving out more opportunities to share stories, to listen to stories, and to just teach one another, we’ll get closer to that goal. 

01;00;16;00 - 01;01;17;23 

Darice 

Yeah, absolutely. Thank you for saying that, because I think that that's part of the goal of this podcast is not everyone has the same experience. Maybe something will spark or inspire, whether it's someone who hasn't had that experience or someone who can help pave the way for the experience for someone else. I'm really hoping and praying that, managers are listening to the podcast to really get to know the staff who are contributing to this awesome place. Maybe they'll have some takeaways to figure out, okay, what do I need to do as a manager for those who don't have this experience or don't feel this way. Right? That wow, this is an amazing place, I have amazing colleagues, and do all these things. I'm really hoping that that's what the takeaway is. 

01;01;18;07 - 01;02;05;12 

Earle 

I as well. There's a level of intentionality that goes with it, too, right? Not trying to be like toxic positivity. I always use the example of looking at the glass half full or half empty. I've always tried to look at the glass half full, even in circumstances where you're like, yeah, that's a stretch right there, right? That has helped me to be able to move forward in life, both professionally and personally. I apply that state of mind to everything. I just want to name that I'm not like toxic positive here, but I really, really do mean that from my experience. 

01;02;06;07 - 01;02;58;28 

Darice 

Absolutely. That's awesome because I think that sometimes when we speak our minds. Speaking from my own experience, right, when you speak your mind as a black woman, sometimes it can be misinterpreted into a negative thing. I'm really hoping that once you get to know because you know, if I speak my mind in a forum, if you get to know me or get to know me through the podcast or just meeting with me or whatever. I hope that you really understand where I'm coming from versus judging based on this little snapshot that you get. 

01;02;59;03 - 01;03;43;05 

Darice 

I mean, and it's okay, right? It's okay that you've had a great experience which is wonderful. I'm really hoping that knowing that and people who hear this and know what made your experience so great that it's like, okay, we have a little template here to follow, right? I had another episode yesterday with Sam Cohen and we were talking about having room to grow like managers giving staff some free time, some wiggle room, some freedom to grow and to include your passion in your work. How much happier it makes you as an employee. 

01;03;44;28 - 01;03;45;28 

Earle 

Yeah. 

01;03;46;00 - 01;03;49;09 

Darice 

Which is amazing, right? It makes you want to come to work every day. 

01;03;44;09 - 01;04;15;07 

Earle 

That happiness is priceless. You can't even put a price tag on it. I also must name that I've just had incredible managers, right? From their managers, to them, to me, that have helped me grow and my growth always being a priority for them as well. It’s something I really appreciate. 

01;04;15;07 - 01;04;16;14 

Darice 

Yeah. 

01;04;16;15 - 01;04;22;18 

Earle 

That's something I didn't necessarily get elsewhere, right? So that helps to inform this experience of working with just amazing people. 

01;04;22;18 - 01;04;43;17 

Darice 

Right, yeah, that's amazing. Gosh, I could sit here and talk to you all day, Earle, and I haven't seen you in so long that I’m like, no we have to catch up, I need another hour. I've been saying that to everyone. I need another hour. We don't get to everything. 

01;04;43;19 - 01;04;46;02 

Earle 

We’ll follow up, maybe we’ll follow up. We love a follow up. 

01;04;46;05 - 01;05;28;06 

Darice 

I'm going to try to wrap this up a little bit. I'm wondering if you can share with listeners whether it's staff or maybe some students, if they are listening to our podcast, what would be a piece of advice or some sort of guiding principle that you think is essential to anyone who wants to make a positive impact in the educational experience for students or as staff at Yale? What would you share? 

01;05;29;08 - 01;05;32;12 

Earle 

I would share, ditch the imposter syndrome. 

01;05;32;14 - 01;05;35;10 

Darice 

Crumble it up. 

01;05;35;12 - 01;05;59;27 

Earle 

Get it out of here. Also recognize folks as human beings first. Before you're a colleague, before you're the dean or director of this, that and the third, you’re a human being and seeing the human element in people helps make the work that much easier and enjoyable. Just that simple. 

01;06;00;00 - 01;06;26;28 

Darice 

I love that. Yes, it's a common theme. Just treat people like human beings with respect and you don't know what anyone's journey has been until the moment you come face to face with them, which I think is amazing. If you just use that as your sort of guiding principle throughout your day, I think it makes such a difference. 

01;06;27;28 - 01;06;52;05 

Earle 

Yeah, and like you said, a guiding principle because things do get challenging, Things do get rough. It's not always roses and unicorns. If you go back to your why, your purpose and you want to impact, I say students, but when I'm talking about students, I'm talking about the entire community because ultimately the student experience is as strong as the community that's serving them. 

01;06;52;05 - 01;07;26;02 

Earle 

We are doing as administrators. I'll talk from an administrative perspective; we are serving these students right. Part of serving them is serving ourselves. It's kind of like if you're no good, you can't be good to anyone else. Working more intentionally and diligently to make connections, share stories, listen to stories, and connect with the folks who are on the front line, makes it that much easier to connect with the community we're providing service to, which is our students. 

01;07;26;04 - 01;07;33;01 

Darice 

That’s so awesome. Looking back on your journey, what accomplishment or initiative are you most proud of? What's the first thing that came to your mind? 

01;07;33;02 - 01;08;19;20 

Earle 

The restorative Justice Working Group. It started as just about seven or eight of us and just grew into something enormous that is going to continue to grow, continue to take shape, and form here for our community. Having restorative justice as a hallmark of the fabric of this institution will transform the experiences for all. Now we're talking about building community, but every single person who's a part of the community is one of the folks who are laying the stone. 

01;08;19;22 - 01;09;54;04 

Earle 

It is a communal effort. It takes time, right? Like it's a paradigm shift. It does not happen overnight. It's not going to happen overnight. I learn every day something new within that domain. I'm very proud of the shape that it's taken. From that it’s grown into, more education and training around conflict resolution, which is applicable to not only student conflict, but the things we learn we can apply to conflict that occurs in everyday life. Not just at work, because conflict is going to happen whether we want it or not. It’s coming. I think that being so aware of the tools to help shift through conflict and to help folks when harm and to help the entire community when harm occurs, I think it’s just an amazing thing. It's actually a principle I live by. To see it manifest formally in a workspace and in an academic space is really exciting. I look forward to seeing how much more is going to grow because I know that something is going to grow that withstands any of us sitting in these seats and roles. I'm excited to know that for some moment in time I was a part of its development. 

01;09;54;09 - 01;10;46;11 

Darice 

That's amazing. It’s inspiring, kind of going back to yesterday's episode that we recorded, Sam had this sort of metaphor about, I.T. being the bicycle, we build these things to become this bicycle that you use to get to other places or use it as a tool, right? That's a really great metaphor because it's like yeah. You can take the bike and go to all sorts of places and different journeys, different experiences, different all sorts of things that would take you longer if you didn't have that bike. 

01;10;46;23 - 01;10;47;18 

Earle 

That vehicle. 

01;10;43;18 - 01;11;38;19 

Darice 

Or a vehicle, right? Just like you said, having restorative justice. When you mentioned being empathetic to students who are in difficult situations or they start to realize, whatever actions may have been that that led them to whatever situation they're in. Not being so, okay, this is the punishment that that you'll receive as opposed to it being a punishment, but hey really learn from what occurred, whatever they may have done to contribute to that. They actually learn, then move on through life with that lesson as opposed and changing them as people. 

01;11;39;10 - 01;12;15;02 

Earle 

Restorative justice, it is not a pedagogy to detract from formal systems that are already designed, but it is in offering as an approach to take to those current systems or an opportunity to develop alternative systems to achieve the goal of healing, right? Punitive systems don't really achieve that goal. It's very transactional. 

01;12;15;02 - 01;12;16;12 

Darice 

It’s different, yeah. 

01;12;16;13 - 01;12;25;07 

Earle 

Whereas when we're more thoughtful, we're transforming people's lives, which to me holds greater value than a punishment. 

01;12;25;09 - 01;12;30;07 

Darice 

Absolutely, yeah because then you go out into the world and hopefully a changed person.  

01;12;30;13 - 01;12;59;25 

Earle 

Now we have precedent, that's not saying, we still, have precedent and there are still some things that occur that don't lend itself to that full approach. The approach can still be applied to the ways in which, the care that is taken when working with people. 

01;13;00;27 - 01;13;51;21 

Darice 

Awesome. So last question. I'm sure if at least one person has to be inspired by your story because, I find it very inspirational and we have a lot of similarities, but I knew we only had a certain amount of time to even talk about these things. What kind of advice would you offer to others who want to become more involved like you are with, whether it's the Black Men's Union or other student orgs or maybe some other activities or things like that around campus? If someone had to shadow Earle and figure out, here's what I would love to do, what would that be? 

01;13;51;17 - 01;14;07;25 

Earle 

Okay, my secret sauce. It goes back to as I said earlier, of being a people person, talking to people, because you learn a lot by having a conversation with someone. 

01;14;07;25 - 01;14;08;22 

Darice 

You do. 

01;14;08;22 - 01;14;19;22 

Earle 

I wouldn't know half of the things that Yale has to offer if I just didn't have conversations with people. Not everyone's a conversationalist either. 

01;14;20;22 - 01;14;22;04 

Darice 

Yeah, yeah. Some folks are shy. 

01;14;17;05 - 01;15;38;03 

Earle 

Some folks are shy, and that's okay. If there are interesting to you, there’s nothing to lose, all to gain with engaging with them, and making connections. Making connections and people are what have been the bicycle for me to get to other opportunities and just to know the things that are going on around campus, right? I started going to the House and Dean Risë Nelson at the time and we had Sophia as the A.D. There was a community that we built amongst each other. From that grew my participation with the BMU. Now I'm still a, you know, a part of the House community. I get to connect with the new Dean, Dean Bethel, who's amazing. People help keep things going. If you're not the biggest people person, that's okay. There are other ways to connect with folks. Set up that coffee, set up that tea, do that lunch. It will go, it goes a long way. 

01;15;39;24 - 01;15;55;02 

Darice 

It changes you, right? Yeah, I agree. I remember when I first came to Yale, I was shy, you know, getting the lay of the land and trying to figure out how do I fit in in this world. For a long time, I was shy about approaching people like I felt like I can't talk to that person or whatever. Once I started doing that, it changed, the ball started rolling, it changed things and led me to emerge. It led me to doing this, which has been amazing. I totally agree. 

01;16;10;27 - 01;16;46;06 

Earle 

You think about people and people think about you, right? Someone may need support, there have been so many times where I've referred someone to Darice. Do you know what I mean? I'm just saying, because I know that because you could support them. I know that you have an area of expertise that you can offer. I wouldn't know that if we didn't have conversations outside of the few times, we had to do specific tasks and works together. 

01;16;46;00 - 01;17;31;17 

Darice 

Right. Right. That's amazing. So, again, I wish I could talk to you so much longer and I'm so glad we had a chance to catch up. It's been a pleasure, Earle, because thinking back to, like I said, once we started our work in Emerge and I got to know you much more outside of just actual work. It’s just a joyful experience. That experience was just awesome because I just got to know you more and get to know your personality. Now I know you sing. We're going to find out where Earle is performing. 

01;17;32;27 - 01;18;04;03 

Earle 

I appreciate you so much. Likewise, I carry the same sentiments with you so I appreciate your kind words more than you would know because that's what I strive for. When this life is over, I want someone to say that Earle was consistent. He made me feel good or he helped bring a moment of joy for me at some point somewhere. I really take that to heart, and I appreciate it. 

01;18;05;03 - 01;18;27;26 

Darice 

I totally agree. Yes, and you do bring joy. Every time I see you, you have a smile on your face, literally and it changes people. I think when you interact, it immediately just changes folks. You just carry that no matter when I've ever seen you around campus, that's how you've been. I think it's just awesome. 

01;18;28;26 - 01;18;33;06 

Earle 

I appreciate it very much. This was awesome. Call me again. Have me come back. 

01;18;28;13 - 01;18;50;15 

Darice 

I will, part two. Thank you again for being with me today, Earle. You know, my shameless plug. As I always say, we're going to be on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and SoundCloud. Look out for our episode with Earle and thank you. 

01;18;50;16 - 01;18;51;09 

Earle 

Thank you very much. 

01;18;51;12 - 01;18;52;07 

Darice 

Awesome.