SU staff member shares life story, offers advice to students

By Jacquelyn Letizia Staff writer On Nov. 30, the Chaplain’s Office sponsored a “What Matters to Me and Why?” lunch with Lakeisha Meyer, a staff member at Susquehanna. Meyer,...

By Jacquelyn Letizia Staff writer

On Nov. 30, the Chaplain’s Office sponsored a “What Matters to Me and Why?” lunch with Lakeisha Meyer, a staff member at Susquehanna.

Meyer, the assistant dean for academic service and the director of disability services, started at Susquehanna in July of 2016.

The talk started with Meyer discussing her childhood in Kentucky and how her educational and social experiences formed the basis of her values.

Since the fourth grade, Meyer was enrolled in different classes than her peers. She was placed into gifted and talented classes, and in high school she took advanced placement classes.

Educationally, she had great experiences. Socially, there were issues.

She never had any black teachers or professors until she was in graduate school, and she was one of a few black students in her school. However, it did not deter her progress.

“I had this sense from when I was younger that I would be a trailblazer,” Meyer said.

“I felt like I was on the edge of something, that I could make a difference,” she added.

Meyer described how she would see the lack of black teachers and professors and felt inspired to be that for someone else. She said she would think to herself, “What’s missing from my life now, and how can I fill that void for someone else?” Meyer attributed this sense of confidence in her abilities to her family and their support in her academics.

Meyer went on to explain the role that her church had in her life. While she was growing up, she was extremely involved in her church community and used it as a social outlet. She described how she actually read the words of the Bible, and how they took her away from Christianity and down a different path of spirituality.

In her first few years studying at Centre College, Meyer realized she had an interest in tarot cards and moved away from Christianity. However, at the end of her undergraduate career, she started to move towards a strict, fundamentalist religious following again.

Meyer also explained that her time in her graduate program at Indiana University, she began to think about who she really was.

“Whatever I thought people expected me to be, I was,” she said. Being in school challenged her ideas of who she was on her own terms, not how others expected her to be. She began to understand herself on a deeper level in several different ways.

Graduate school also challenged her views of what it means to be black. Meyer explained she had people around her tell her she was not really black based on certain factors of her life.

After graduate school, she finished her doctoral work in three years but then took about six to complete her dissertation. Meyer explained that she wanted to take a step back from academia and get out in the world and experience life.

In 2002, Meyer got married, and then several years later had her daughter during a year-long stay at a yoga ashram in northeastern Pennsylvania. The time her family spent at the ashram inspired her to finish her dissertation in four months.

After finishing her dissertation, Meyer explained that she felt like she could accomplish anything. She got a job in the school psychology department at Western Kentucky University, then moved around between a few universities before coming to Susquehanna this July.

One of the main ideas that Meyer emphasized throughout her talk was that authenticity is key. By being authentic about who you are, what you do and what you aspire to be, you can achieve happiness she said.

“You don’t have to do something just because someone tells you to or expects you to,” Meyer added.

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