Ashley Talley
“I am who I am because of God, my parents, and my college professors. You’re told in high school you have so much potential. Here, they allowed me to take that potential and turn it into skills.”
She says it so matter of fact that you just have to believe it: “SVSU will have a Black Studies program and I’m coming back as a Ph.D. to teach sociology and communication.”
That’s quite a prediction from a young woman who is still just an undergraduate junior majoring in communications, and minoring in sociology with an interdisciplinary minor in black studies (more on that). If it were from anyone but Ashley Talley, you’d probably dismiss it as flippant, or slightly arrogant, or most likely naïve; yet when the words spill out of this passionate young woman, mother, public speaker and involved student, you just know it’s going to happen.
Ashley’s SVSU education began as a business major, but it was a public speaking competition that changed her, not only in terms of her major, but in terms of how she would approach her life. In her freshman year, Ashley competed in the Sims Awards for Excellence in Public Speaking competition. Confident that she had delivered a powerful speech, the hands-down winner walked away from the competition — with no award. As she left the judging area, angry and disappointed, she heard someone call out “Ashley!” She turned to face assistant professor of communication Amy Pierce, who told her that she could not let this experience stop her from trying again, from giving it her all. What amazed Ashley then, as it does now, is that Dr. Pierce did not know her, yet she had taken the time and the interest to help a talented student work through the disappointment of the moment. Ashley returned to the competition the following year and walked away the victor.
As a commuter student, Ashley knows how difficult it is to get involved in the campus community. Yet as one would suspect, it has not stopped her from involvement in “Fresh Start” (a program for freshmen before classes begin), serving on the Program Board as its 2005-06 president, and being the public relations chair for Organization for Black Unity, which she wants to lead and change from an exclusive organization to one that is inclusive, and works more closely in outreach efforts with other student organizations.
Ashley says that during each semester she has been at SVSU, some professor has taught her not only textbook knowledge, but has turned her onto something new, something challenging, something that gives her the confidence to do things like predict her return to her alma mater. In a theatre class where she didn’t want to recite a white female monologue, Dr. Janet Rubin challenged her to find a passage that had personal meaning. From professor of communication Dr. David Schneider, she took away the powerful message that “you gotta give more than you thought you could give.” Ashley says that she was able to stretch and push herself to a higher level in the demanding classroom of Dr. Judith Kerman, profession of English. And sociology professor Dr. Scott Younstedt has influenced her future teaching style that she boasts will be based on mutual respect and the need to hear from all different sides, whether or not they agree.
Possibly the greatest gift of all came from assistant history professor Kenneth Jolly, whose passionate teaching of History 319 (African American History) ended with Ashley determining that there was no way she could graduate without an element of black studies in her degree. And so she met with John Flores, assistant director of minority student services, on how to create an interdisciplinary minor in black studies and, within three days, she researched pre-existing black programs, added courses from the academic catalogue, added two independent studies and received approval for the minor.