Backpacking builds relationship

Kirby Hayes (front) often takes students such as Laura Pillsbury, BS ’06 (left), hiking for learning experiences outside the classroom.

One way Hayes has proven this is by taking his students backpacking in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in Tennessee and the Hoosier National Forest in southern Indiana.

“Backpacking is something my wife and I like to do, so we invite them to go along,” Hayes says. “It gives them a chance to see me in a light that’s a little different, because when I’m in the office or the lab, I’m very much motivated by the work I have to get done. I believe they are more comfortable with me once they witness first-hand that I balance hard work with an active personal life.”

It was Hayes’ love of the outdoors and his passion for food science that brought Laura Pillsbury to study under him and work in his lab. Hayes even went out of his way to find equipment for Pillsbury so she could participate in a backpacking trip.

“At first I was hesitant, because most of my backpacking gear was back home, but he offered to let me borrow his wife’s old pack so that I could go,” she says.

On the trail, Pillsbury saw a part of Hayes’ personality that rarely comes out in the laboratory.

“The trips and the activities outside of the lab established the values I find necessary for a good relationship, whether with friends, mentors or an adviser,” Pillsbury says. “It definitely made me feel more comfortable around the lab, and I think relating to him in more ways than just our passion for food science empowered me to bring more of my whole self into the lab and to identify more fully with the research I was doing.

“Emphasizing relationships beyond research projects is absolutely essential because it makes the nature of the work feel more valuable, and it establishes the sense of trust and respect that so many students desire in an adviser. It can even help advisers gain an understanding of what motivates their students, so they can tailor their advising roles appropriately.”

Profs want to produce pros

Back on campus and in the lab, Hayes has an open-door policy and makes it a point to meet with his graduate students weekly. He works hard to emphasize professional development skills in addition to cultivating laboratory and research skills.

“The most important thing is that graduate students leave the program and take not only the specific research skills, but also the professional development skills they have learned here and begin to apply them in different ways toward their career goals,” Hayes says.

By enhancing these professional skills, Hayes and other graduate advisers are challenging their students and helping them navigate their way through their chosen careers.

“Our professors serve as mentors to their students and really help them learn to be professionals,” Whittaker says. “They help them develop a professional network and communicate with peers. They are the ones pushing and helping students and holding the bar up high, and they do so in a very familylike environment.”

Teacher knows both sides

University of Kentucky faculty member Bryan Hains (right) still relies on life lessons and advice from his friend, Purdue’s Mark Balschweid.

One person who has been on both sides of the bar, first as a high school agriculture teacher and then as a graduate student pursuing a career as a college professor, is Bryan Hains.

“To know the person rather than just the adviser is crucial,” says Hains, who graduated in 2007 with a doctorate in youth development and agricultural education.

“You spend so much time working together that it has to become more than just a professional relationship,” Hains says. “It has to become a friendship.”

That’s exactly what happened for Hains and his adviser, professor Mark Balschweid.

“He’s been a crucial component of my education, and to be honest, I don’t think I’d be the person I am today without his guidance,” Hains says. “He has shown me what it means to be an academic and what it means to come from an institution such as Purdue. He’s shown me the merit of research and its application to teaching, and he’s shown me how to balance my time between research, education and family life.”

Hains says that when times were tough, Balschweid offered him assistance and support.

“He’s really helped me to understand the differences between teaching at the high school level and teaching at the university,” Hains says. “He taught me to understand the validity and relevance of research and how to be a professional in doing so.”

‘Colleagues for a career’

When he graduated in August, Hains took what Balschweid taught him to the University of Kentucky, where he now holds an assistant professorship in agricultural education. He plans to maintain his friendship and contact with Balschweid for years to come.

“We will be colleagues for a career,” Hains says. “With Dr. Balschweid, I wasn’t always just a graduate student. I was a colleague in many facets, so our department really felt more like a family than a hierarchy.”

Lembi sums up the relationship this way: “You always want to see graduate students carry on in the profession because that is what you have trained them for. But I’m just glad to see that they are successful in life. To see them succeed in our chosen profession, well, that’s doubly rewarding.”

Contact Lembi at lembi@purdue.edu

Contact Hayes at hayesk@purdue.edu

Contact Hains at bhain2@email.uky.edu