The College Access Partnerships staff strive to build cultures that create space for authenticity. One member of our team who embodies this core value is Molly Riddle, Appalachian College Advising Corps adviser in Mitchell County. She has truly created a safe, gracious environment where students feel trusted. Today on the blog, Molly gives us a tour of her office and safe-haven and explains how she has helped to provide pathways to self-authenticity for the students she serves.
I was given my creative license at around age 2, and I promptly filed that away in my fluffy pink purse and ran with it. I can honestly say that from a very young age, I prioritized the spaces I was in; how they looked and how they made me feel. My dad decorated my first room. He painted a white picket fence all the way around my room, a huge tree in the corner, butterflies on the wall, and clouds and sunshine on the ceiling. I was encouraged to spend a lot of time outside, but my room was still a space in my house that felt like it was entirely mine. Now that I am an adult, I think a lot about the spaces I am in and how they make me feel. I think about it in spaces I enter and also spaces I create. I think about it in doctors offices, gyms, restaurants, and especially my own home.
When I saw my new office at Mitchell High School for the first time, I knew I had my work cut out for me. The space had been used as book storage for years until I came along. I am not allowed to paint walls; I can really only bring in what I can carry, and there are no windows. After a while, I realized that creating a space where my students would be comfortable might be as simple as creating a space that I was comfortable in. So I slowly started bringing in little pieces of me, little things that hopefully would remind them that not only am I human too but I also am made up of a lot of different things.
A few of my favorite things in my office are:
Fresh flowers picked on a trail by my house
Maps of some of my favorite places I have visited
Some of my favorite books that are related to my job
A picture of my dog and my best girlfriends
A sign that says “love” in rainbow colors :)
Climate change posters
College pennants to inspire students to work towards attending the college of their dreams
My students know when they walk in my office that I am slightly unconventional. I don’t know if it’s the Doc Martens, or the complete over-stimulation of posters on my wall, but by creating a space that is comfortable for me, I have created a space that is comfortable for them, and I truly think it’s as simple as that.
I have students I have met with one-on-one more than 20 separate times. I have had students come out to me, tell me things they haven’t told anyone else, and even tell me they have been hurt by people that were supposed to care for them. My office is the place where we had all those conversations. All those conversations were not easy for them to have, and sometimes they weren’t easy for me to hear, and often the place where I had to explain that I would have to pull in a counselor.
As adults, by allowing ourselves to be truly authentic, we have the ability to open the door and allow our students to be authentic as well. This space I have created not only represents me, but it also represents my students. It represents our time together and hopefully, all the other doors I can help them see that are standing wide open for them.
Persective written by Advising Corps Adviser Molly Riddle
Molly's Office at Mitchell High School with pennants and inclusive flags
