Helena Gardener: Welcome to, Here’s the Story, a part of the Student Affairs NOW family. I’m excited to be here today. I’m your host, Helena Gardner, and I have spent, I don’t know, 20 plus years working in higher education all around the globe. Today I am here with you as a mother, a mentor, a daughter, a friend, a leader, and I want to introduce you to some really fun people.

Today we’re gonna have a really good story and I’m gonna turn it over to my special guest co-host. Thanks so much, Helena. It’s so great to be here today. Some of you may know me from the Student Affairs NOW podcast. I also work in higher education and my student affairs story actually began at Colorado State University.

Heather Shea: I did my undergraduate there and also my master’s degree, which is my connection to today’s guests. And so I’m super excited to hear. From BlancheHughes, Dr. BlancheHughes has been a mentor and an incredible person and role model for so many of us as we’ve navigated this really complex field that we know of as higher education student affairs.

So I’m excited for Blanche to be here today. What about you, Helena?

Helena Gardener: I’m very excited for Blanche to be here. And I’m excited that you agreed to join me on this journey of sharing this common space. I, too had the fortunate opportunity of learning from Dr. Blanche Hughes during my time serving under her leadership at Colorado State University.

One, I think it’s cool. To find another person who’s experienced that in Heather to be together in this Student Affairs Now journey, because I think that just speaks to the incredible development that we’ve gotten along the way. But more importantly, anytime I get some wisdom from Blanche, some real talk from Blanche, I feel like it really highlights my life.

And so we were talking about her all weird. So we might as well let you introduce yourself, Blanche, and you

tell

Helena Gardener: us a little bit about you.

Blanche Hughes: All right. Yeah, that is a little weird, but I, I’m here. No, I’m really honored that you asked me to, that you asked me to do this, and actually, you talked about the podcast and the cool stories you heard, and I’m like I’ve never done a podcast.

Maybe I’d like to do this, but mainly because you approached me Helena, and

Helena Gardener: thank you.

Blanche Hughes: So yes, I Blanche you and I am. The Vice President for Student Affairs at Colorado State University. I have bidded that position. I’m starting my 19th year as the vice president and I have bid at Colorado State starting my 39th year.

And I came to Colorado State as a graduate student in student affairs in the student affairs and higher ed program. And, I came here. I came from Indiana with my husband and two little kids, planning to go back to the Midwest, and I came to Colorado State and realized Colorado in particular, and realized that there was no humidity here.

I came here in June and I thought, I didn’t know such a place existed, and I’m not going back. And so I’ve been fortunate enough in my career at CSU. To be able to move up and to move it to the position that I have right now. So it’s been a good experience that I look forward to telling you a little bit more about that.

Helena Gardener: Thank you. And again, we are definitely excited for you to be here and to be in Colorado. I just think whatever things are out there that we were all able to have this past ’cause I just, yeah. I am very grateful that you decided to try the podcast and to try it with us. Thank you for that.

Yeah. Before we get started, I wanna give a shout out to our sponsor. Evolve. Evolve is a series of leadership coaching journeys designed to bring clarity, capacity, and confidence, empowering courageous leadership to reimagine the future of higher education. Thank you Evol. Okay, blanche.

Heather Shea: Okay.

Helena Gardener: Now I know you got a story to tell.

I have heard you tell stories. Some of your stories still rule how I move in the world, so take it away. Tell us a little something today.

Blanche Hughes: All right I have to share that I did ask Helena, like as you, as I just told you, I’ve been in. Career for a long time, and even longer than that, because I worked for four years before coming to grad school in student affairs at higher ed.

And so I was like, gosh, I got a lot of stories. But what I guess I, what moved me to talk about in the short time, and then we’ll have a chance to talk about it, is. How did I even get here? Because I’m not supposed to be a vice president of student affairs. Like I, I didn’t start out wanting to have this position.

I didn’t even know what it was. I didn’t even know what a vice president was, and I certainly didn’t think I’d be in Colorado. And so it, I think reflecting, especially the older you get. Reflect, at least I do. I reflect more on my early years and how did I get here, right? What are the things that helped me to get here, and what are those values that still help me be who I am?

And so my story is, I was born in legal segregation in Lexington, Kentucky. And a lot of people, you tell people legal segregation, especially current students, they’re like, wow. Like in the 18 hundreds. I’m like, okay, first of all, no. And but they just don’t know that history.

And and and I was born first generation. Neither one of my parents had the opportunity to go to college. One did graduate from high school, my mom, but my father didn’t. He had to quit school in the fifth grade and he loved school because his mother died in childbirth, get with his 10th sibling, so he had to go out and bring food home or pennies or whatever he could do.

Just walk in the streets. This was like in the early 19 hundreds, right? To just try to help his family. And so I say that because they were determined the two of them that their children would get an education and go to college. But growing up in that kind of environment and and in segregated communities where.

All the black folks lived in the community for the low income people, which was the housing project, and then, or the more affluent black community, and that’s where your teachers and your ministers and that’s where those folks lived. But we all went to the same churches and we had the same pharmacy and we, because you couldn’t go to to, to white establishments at that time, the theater where you had to go.

Up at a balcony until they gave us our own theater. And so all of that, and, and I said low income my father was a jockey for he was a horse trainer and a jockey. Early in his career. And he was a jockey at first, and then he was pretty successful at that until and most jockeys if for horse racing, for people who don’t know this, were black because they were generally ex-slaves.

’cause it was considered very dangerous work. And and that’s who they used to ra, train the horses and all of that. And it wasn’t until money came into horse racing. That they kicked most of the black jockeys out and brought in white jockeys. And then he, they all became horse trainers. So my father just did that for really the first 40 years of his life.

And and then until, and I have an older brother and sister until my mother my mother and father got pregnant again. When they thought they were done, ’cause they, my mother was in her forties and just thought it was a change of life and then realized that no, you actually are pregnant. So I came along and my mother told my father, you gotta get off the racetrack because she traveled a lot and helped raise this last child.

’cause we did this together. So I had the benefit of that. But so he was a domestic worker. He did everything from cleaning the janitor to. Serving parties, becoming a bartender, doing everything that he could, sometimes two or three jobs in one day to bring money, to support us.

My mother was a stay at home mom. She was a beautician for a while until she had me and because I didn’t like people at the time she had to give up her career. ‘Cause I cried all the time and I guess her customers didn’t like that very much. So she, but then she did ironing and she did nannying for basically rich white folks and all of their friends did the same work because that’s the work they had to do.

If you weren’t a teacher and was fortunate enough to be able to go to college, then that’s what you did. And so I actually grew up in a segregated community, but I was around white folks my whole life. Would I go to work with my mom or with my dad? And so that came, that helped me later in life because I had a comfort with that.

But what my parents also taught me was. It doesn’t matter that you are black and yes, and we work for these folks and we can’t do things that we should be able to do, but they said, but you have this opportunity to help change that. And that’s why education is important that you will go to college and my older brother and sister and myself, you will go to college and you, your responsibility is to help change the world.

And how by particularly my father had that wisdom, I don’t know. And I was like, I don’t know what you’re talking about, but I like school, so that works for me. And, but that really was different, helped to help me understand and love education. Love school. I went to segregated schools all the way up to junior high school, and my teachers were also community leaders.

They were also church leaders and they also pushed education. And so even though I was poor, didn’t have, we didn’t have much money. I was happy. I didn’t realize that somehow I was disadvantaged because my community said, no, we’re not disadvantaged. We can still do what we need to do.

So it started there and that I think helped me when I was, we went through desegregation and I was bused. So they closed all the black schools in the inner city. I went to a white high school and felt very comfortable in that environment when many of my friends did not because they hadn’t had that experience.

And and I was involved in everything because my father would not let any of us work. Because he had to work what he was, in the fifth grade. And he said, you have, you get to work the rest of your life. You only get to be a child once and experience the things that you can experience. So as long as you do other things, you don’t have to work.

So I was in the band, I played basketball. I, I was at just about every club that you could have at the high school I went to. And I really had a wonderful life with two loving parents and a loving community. And I believe that set me up to be able to take chances to go to a predominantly white college, a small college, and to learn and to.

Build confidence, which I didn’t really have when I went to the school. And we could talk more about what that was like to be a first generation student going to a white school because they were open to us now and paid us to come. But that was an experience, but I really appreciate. I really appreciate that for my parents that I think about, I reflect on more now and my community that set me up to say, you know what?

You have a responsibility and and we couldn’t do it, but we’re doing everything we can so you could do the next step so that then your children there will have better opportunities. And I guess I’ll end the story with, I just remember when Barack Obama was elected president and all I could really think about were my parents.

And ’cause they had passed away by then and I’m like. Gosh, look at this. You had a vision that one day maybe this could happen. And it has, and it was just, it just, that was just a great feeling that night and now we’re here today in this environment. And anyway, I guess that’s what I, that’s what I wanted to share in the short time.

That’s how I got my foundation that has led to the things that I have done since then. So

Helena Gardener: thank you for sharing that. And Heather, since you’re a guest, I’m happy to give you this. First question.

Heather Shea: Yeah. I, so some of the things that struck me, that I wrote down as you were talking blanche is around kind of family and legacy and community.

And I’d love to hear you reflect a little bit on the various people. It sounds like your parents were a huge part of that experience, but the community also was really supportive and wanted to see. You move forward. And I think that’s just a really interesting part. So I’d love to hear more about

Blanche Hughes: the community.

The community. So I said I, I grew up in a housing project government housing project. And low income and it was relatively new when we, when I was born and growing up at it, and. It, we, it was townhomes and we all we had yards and it was very kept, it was beautiful grass and all of that. And just, I re, remember going outside and playing and you just, everybody just came out and played and, parents sat on the front porch and we had this rule that you could play outside until the streetlights came on. And then you were to go home and if you were misbehaving, it was understood that if your, if you weren’t in front of your mother’s house or your parents’ house, you were in front of somebody else’s house, they also would say straighten up that’s not good.

That’s not behavior. So it, it was just this really nurturing nurturing environment that I, that we had. There were issues, and I’ll be honest with you, I I wish my parents were still alive now so I could ask them, how did you do that?

Heather Shea: Yeah.

Blanche Hughes: How did you make sure that we were happy and felt safe when, from, my father, every day you left, you baby didn’t know you were gonna come home.

In terms of the, the discrimination and the

Helena Gardener: Yeah.

Blanche Hughes: In that environment, and but somehow we never felt it and we didn’t know about that, at least not in my friends or in my household. So that was that. And then school, I remember my parents’ friends would used to give me a dime for every a I got.

A dime for those who don’t know was a lot of money back then. You could get a whole lot of penny candy for a dime.

Heather Shea: Yes.

Blanche Hughes: And so I worked for those dimes and but it was just just a lot of love and support for us to do well.

Heather Shea: Yeah.

Blanche Hughes: And the teachers as well. And so that community was.

My role models, the people that I saw, that’s why I went into education. It was because of the teachers that I had. That I said, I wanna be like them because that’s who made a difference in my life and that has followed me. And in high school, there were the connections that I made in high school with with people.

College was the same way. Yeah.

It was, and particularly in college, the, there were teachers and professors, but mainly student affairs staff. Yeah. That supported me even though I didn’t know that was a career. And I just thought, boy, these are really nice people. I didn’t even think that they got paid to do it.

’cause I was looking at other careers. Yeah. And it wasn’t until I really, and I worked in student affairs, like I was a work study student in the vice president of student affairs office. Wow. Did not connect that it was a career.

Heather Shea: Wow. Wow.

Blanche Hughes: And and it wasn’t until I graduated and. Decided I wasn’t want, didn’t wanna go right to grad school.

I had gotten married while I was a undergrad student and actually had a child. And so they said you could stay here and work. And I was like, oh. And so I stayed at Rola for four years and, Wow. And went from a, I was a resident director all the way to the assistant dean. And that’s when I started, we hired somebody who had graduated from Colorado State’s Sahi program, and he was director of our student center.

Helena Gardener: Wow.

Blanche Hughes: And I said, why do you know so much? Because we go in the meetings and talk about programs. And we said, what did we do last year? And he said what is the purpose of what you’re doing? And how is it that you want, what do you want students to learn? And I’m like, dude. How do you know all of this?

And he goes, you could get a degree in this. I’m like, oh, that’s it. That’s it. So that’s what brought me to this profession. And then at CSU, I’ve been here for this long because of the mentorship that I’ve gotten. So the supervisors that I’ve had, some of the challenges that I’ve had, but also the people who were there to support me and teach me and encourage me.

I have a PhD now because of faculty and some of my supervisors that said, Hey, it’s free. You love education. Why wouldn’t you get a PhD? And I’m like, ’cause it looks like it’s a lot of work and I don’t know. And honestly, I didn’t see a lot of people that look like me.

Heather Shea: Sure.

Blanche Hughes: A lot of women, a lot of women of color that were, that had PhDs and I’m like I’m cool you, I could keep this job with a master’s degree, but I love school.

So it’s like, why not? All of those things. It is people who believed in me and saw something in me that I didn’t see in myself. You hear that all the time. Yeah. And that’s what I love to do for other people. That’s how I give back.

Helena Gardener: Yes, and I’m grateful for that because I hold on to many things that you’ve shared with me.

I think about our lunch just ahead of my departure from that campus, and there are words I play in my head every day and they sometimes sound like Blanche told me and I have to sit with it and hear it. This is the second time I’ve been in space with you and heard you say you grew up during segregation.

And it, it always does a thing to me when I think about my own dissonance and time. Like how is that possible? How can I have spent time with you? It’s been a few years, not a lot of years since I was last there. Had years this way and you got years. All these and that is still in, in our reach, is still in our

Heather Shea: yeah.

Helena Gardener: That, that just blows my mind. It just always blows my mind and I am grateful when you share it. Challenged by the experience. But overwhelmed by perseverance. Because the way I learned of segregation. It’s unfathomable. Unfathomable to me that your grass was green. That’s such a small thing, but I never was thinking about play and fun. I think I only hear it. And the stories are told as really hard times. And so also appreciate you adding, just say yeah, we were living. There were systems, but you were functioning flourishing, and your family was functioning.

Heather Shea: Yeah.

Helena Gardener: The question I have for you. And it might take us to wrap, but I’m curious. It started with, I’m not supposed to be here. Based on those circumstances. Based on that journey. I don’t know the quite form of the question I wanna ask somewhere. The question is around what do you think about your belonging today?

What it, how’s, what’s that like when you put your story, between that day, whatever day that was back then and this day. What do you think about where you’re supposed to be?

Blanche Hughes: That’s a great question, Helena. And. And it’s one I still, I struggle with a little bit, but I, but it also has brought me some courage that I need right now, right?

So I’ve been through all of that, the segregation, the desegregation, the riots, the civil rights movement, all of that. Some I was younger, took me, but some I remember very clearly and the work that it took. The things that changed to make it better, that even to be able to go to a predominantly white college, right?

Was newish at the time. To have those options and and to be a vice president of a predominantly white institution.

Heather Shea: Yeah.

Blanche Hughes: I just, I remember when I finally agreed to take the position, ’cause I, it, they had to talk me into it, but I just remember looking in the mirror and saying, you said I could do this.

I’m getting older, I do curse more. What the hell? Like you this, I’m not supposed to be here. This the imposter syndrome kind of thing, right? Yeah. But I am. How did that happen? And so a lot of work went into it by a lot of people. And now I must say there were D times in the beginning of this year, right?

That I thought I don’t even wanna get outta bed. Like all the work and the sacrifice that people be before me, my parents, us by all this work that went into by a lot of people, to help change the society to where we are. And there’s still more to do. There was still more to do. We weren’t quite there, but at least we were at a point where I could be a vice president because there was a time that would never have happened.

Heather Shea: Yeah. Yeah.

Blanche Hughes: That wasn’t even a option.

How I got up was to say I thought about my past, which is why I talk about it even more now. And I thought, I know my mother, if my mother and father and my grandparents were able to get up every day.

Heather Shea: And

Blanche Hughes: go out and do what they needed to do so that I could be here today. I have no excuse. Yeah.

I have no excuse. So get your butt up. And get out there and do what you can do. I may not could do it all, but what can I do to try to say, this time shall pass and hopefully will be, it’ll be better. For my grandchildren, for your grandchildren, for, that’s my responsibility and that’s what’s helped me.

They figured it out. If they could figure it out in times. And I, and then I started thinking about conversations. I’d hear my parents and their friends having, talking about places where they were working and who was doing what and strategizing. And I didn’t really understand that. And I wasn’t even supposed to be listening.

’cause back then, they tried to protect kids and I get that, you find a way to listen. ’cause you know you had to use the telephone back then. You sneak down and not listen and try to understand what they were saying. I didn’t at the time. I do now more than I have before.

So that is what I still belong and I, no, too many people worked too hard. And not only black people, but there are people who lost their lives.

Helena Gardener: Yeah. Yes.

Blanche Hughes: So that we could have a democracy and a country that we could be and should be proud of.

Helena Gardener: Yes.

Blanche Hughes: And I, because I thought about leaving, I really did to say, maybe this isn’t for me anymore.

It’s done. And I’m like Uhuh, Nope. I, there’s a legacy that I have and a responsibility that I have. I’m gonna keep pushing on, no matter how hard it gets. We’re gonna figure out a way because we have to, if we believe in it enough. Yeah. Right now I’m like, yes, I belong. My folks help build this so that everybody can do what they’re doing right now, and I’m not going anywhere.

So let’s deal with that. Let’s deal with that. That’s really with more people supporting me, us now. Yeah. Larger community than what they

Heather Shea: that’s really powerful. I, I I think what I’m also hearing you say is that it’s hard to watch some of it fall apart.

Blanche Hughes: Yes, absolutely.

Heather Shea: And I feel this is a little bit of a theme, we build back better. We did that after COVID and the multiple pandemics that were happening during that time. I heard Jamie Washington talk a bit about the way that this time is challenging all of us, particularly those of us who do work, within those DEI spaces that are now not even called DEI anymore. And his piece is this is backlash to the progress that has been made over time. And the backlash. We will move through and then we will pick back up where we were. And it will probably be look different, right? Because we learned a lot. And Blanche. I just wanna say I, I don’t know that I would be where I am today had it not been for the community at Colorado State.

Yeah. And that place is really incredibly special. And while I was an undergrad, you were working in the Black Student Services office and I have vivid memories of coming to Colorado State from the, a different part of the state of Colorado and going. I am learning so much. And part of it had to do with just the community and the support and also just the folks who I met along the way.

I’m so grateful for you.

Blanche Hughes: Thank you. I’m grateful

for

Helena Gardener: you. I am I’m grateful for you to join me, Heather, and I’m grateful for you too. Land. I, have said to a lot of folks probably in maybe the last year or two, that there is something to say about working in an environment that understands the complexities

Heather Shea: Yes.

Helena Gardener: Of identity and of being and of people, and that being a way of leadership. For whole division and in the space where you can be, where you can authentically be, I felt like I was my fullest self as a leader. And was able to try things and do things and take my thoughts from the inside to outside.

Not because I didn’t have Days of Imposter, because I knew that it was an expectation for the people I worked with to embrace all of everyone. And I don’t know I’m not knocking my current place of employment because we are in this season.

Blanche Hughes: Sure, yeah.

Helena Gardener: Like everybody else and so the limitations are the unfortunate limitations today, but I know myself that.

By definition, when I can bring my full, authentic self, then it’s, I’m a gift in the space. Other people are gifts in the space, right? And some of my best learning, doing, thinking and producing was done under your leadership. And I continue to say despite the challenges, and you are fully aware of some that I had despite those challenges, we did good work and I attribute that.

To you. So I just, I thank you. There was a lot people there, but I really attribute that to your leadership because it was not a forced expectation. What I’m hearing today is that it was your life coming through and holding space.

Heather Shea: Yes.

Helena Gardener: Because you were supposed to be there.

Heather Shea: Yep. Supposed

Helena Gardener: to. And if you supposed to be there, I can be there.

Heather can be there. That’s right. And we could just, we could be there and the students could be there. And then, I will always take with me that was some of the best, working of my life. And friends, I was there at the tail end of the pandemic before I left, and those were some of the hardest times of life, but, so to still be able to reflect in that.

Yeah. But thank you so much, blanche.

Blanche Hughes: Thank

Helena Gardener: you. It’s definitely your first podcast, but I want you to know you nailed it.

Blanche Hughes: Thank you.

Helena Gardener: And I think that the viewers will be just as grateful to hear this story. I just, I don’t know how many people have the story. I know there are people still out here working and doing

Blanche Hughes: Yes.

Helena Gardener: Who have that in their life. But just thank you for sharing that part of your story.

Blanche Hughes: Oh, thank

Helena Gardener: you. With us today. ’cause it definitely, it’ll take you back. But it allows us to be on the journey and so I’m very grateful.

Blanche Hughes: I

Helena Gardener: appreciate you asking

Blanche Hughes: me. Yes,

Helena Gardener: thank you. Thank you. With that, I’m going to acknowledge our sponsors.

And then we’re gonna take it on now. Alright, I’m gonna do another this is the part where I always am in my head. I’m in my head ’cause I’m still feeling you Blanche and every story. I’m still feeling the story so hard. I just, it’s so hard wrap, transition my head. It’s hard to wrap it. And though, as I.

The sponsor Evolve. I’m gonna read here. I think it’s timely and I think it synergizes with the story. Yeah. So we’ll talk a little bit more about evolve. Higher education is facing unprecedented challenges. We need courage. Courageous leadership now more than ever, and poor leadership has never been more costly.

At Evolve Institute, we empower a new generation of leaders. Capacity to turn these challenges into possibilities and to lead with and through them. At Evolve, we help leaders develop the capacity to lead and clarify competence and courage. We offer leadership coaching journeys for leadership teams and individual leaders focused on executive leading, emerging executive, emerging leaders, and those leading for equity.

With that. This has been, here’s the story, a part of the Student Affairs family. We put this together to humanize those of us taking a walk, doing a talk in higher education and student affairs. If you have a story. Everybody does. Please consider leaving a pitch@studentaffairsnow.com slash Here’s the story.

If you know how to find me and you know how to find Heather, we can connect you to that pitch as well and get your story told. These stories help us commiserate, helps us reflect, help us find ourselves. We might cry sometimes. Sometimes we smile, sometimes we laugh, but every time we hear another story, we get.

We get the encouragement to try One more time. I wanna give a shout out to Nat Ambrosey. Nat does a fine job of making magic, helping us look good and helping us sound good. Thank you for everything you do. Again, I wanna give a great thank you to Heather Shea for coming on over to, here’s the story again.

You can find Heather’s story as well. Here’s the story.com in our archives. But Heather, thank you for joining us today. I think that there’s something magical when energies connect. Yeah. When folks have traversed similar land and have similar understanding. So I appreciate you giving your time today.

Heather Shea: Absolutely. Thank you for the invitation. I am truly grateful. And it is interesting how these connections and threads weave through so many parts of our our lives. And when I heard you say you were from Colorado State, I was like, oh my gosh. Helena I feel like that’s a connection between us two.

Yeah. And it’s so cool.

Helena Gardener: Yeah.

Heather Shea: Yeah.

Helena Gardener: And I’ll just tell a little bit, I know we’re wrapping up. Sorry. Na, I will say that last conversation I had with Blanche and included many things.

Heather Shea: Yeah.

Helena Gardener: But one of those things that Included was getting connected to Heather. She, so when I reached out to you, I wanna honor.

That blanche let me know that there was somebody here for me to connect with.

Blanche Hughes: Yeah.

Helena Gardener: And the world was small enough in many ways that we could be here today and do this together. So I’m just grateful of that. And Blanche, thank you for your time, for your service and for believing you’re supposed to be somewhere.

Because if you can believe it. You can get up and get out the bed. Yep. I darn sure. Better figure out how to do it. So thank you. Thank you. And with that, we’ll see you next time. Thank you friends.