Office Hours

Giselle Kowalski:
Hi everybody, my name is Giselle Kowalski and I'm the digital content producer here at Texas State University. You're listening to Office Hours, and I'm here with Kolby, who is a new voice you'll be hearing, and it was his first podcast today. Hey, Kolby.

Kolby:
Hey everybody.

Giselle Kowalski:
How are you?

Kolby:
I am doing great. That was an amazing interview.

Giselle Kowalski:
Yeah. You got to talk to Dr. Rachel Davenport, who is a professor in biology who I didn't realize until the conversation started, was my biology professor.

Kolby:
Yeah, it's super cool.

Giselle Kowalski:
Which is super random and super funny 'cause I didn't recognize the name and then I heard her voice and she is one of the friendliest people I think-

Kolby:
Oh, absolutely.

Giselle Kowalski:
... I've ever met. So how did that conversation go with you?

Kolby:
She is just so absolutely easy to talk to, and one of the quotes that she said that I think really just hit hard is, "If it's not right for you today, it might be right for you tomorrow." And I think that can be applicable to almost anything, whether it's if you're trying something new or anything. I just really enjoyed hearing what she had to say about all the topics that we talked about.

Giselle Kowalski:
So we hope you enjoyed this conversation with Kolby and Dr. Rachel Davenport.

Kolby:
All right, so we're going to go ahead and get started. So just introduce yourself, your name, what department you teach in.

Dr. Rachel Davenport:
I am Rachel Davenport. I am in the Department of Biology.

Kolby:
Awesome. OK. And then we normally start these podcasts with a icebreaker. So my icebreaker to you is if you could have any superpower, what would your superpower be?

Dr. Rachel Davenport:
OK. Well, the lazy part of me would like to be able to stop time so I could take a lot of naps.

Kolby:
A lot of naps?

Dr. Rachel Davenport:
Yeah, just so many naps. It probably shows that I work maybe too hard. There's a popular book out right now where one of the characters can wield shadows and that's cool.

Kolby:
That's interesting. I've never heard of that power before.

Dr. Rachel Davenport:
And it's not only can you hide in the shadows or hide things in the shadows, but the shadows have matter and can move and touch things. I don't know. That seems cool. I don't know, wield shadows.

Kolby:
That is really cool. That's a new one. I don't think I've heard of that before.

Dr. Rachel Davenport:
I know it was new for me too. Yeah, I'm sure I could think of five other things, but those are the first that came to mind.

Kolby:
Yeah, that's definitely a good one. OK, so let's talk a little bit about your backstory and how you ended up here. So where are you originally from?

Dr. Rachel Davenport:
My mom liked to move us around a lot. So we started in the DC area and I've lived in Maryland, Virginia, Pennsylvania.

Kolby:
Oh gosh, everywhere.

Dr. Rachel Davenport:
Yeah. Well, that was a lot of East Coast stuff, but for really 21 years now. So about half my life, I was in Florida and now Texas.

Kolby:
So I did see that you did go to Florida State University.

Dr. Rachel Davenport:
I did.

Kolby:
How was that?

Dr. Rachel Davenport:
I had some really incredible advisors and faculty, and I loved the students of course. Tallahassee is a tiny little town in the middle of a swamp, so that was my hesitation when you asked. I was like, "Oh, well, I didn't love Tallahassee." But I definitely learned a ton and met some really incredible people.

Kolby:
So you were all over the East Coast. How did you know that you were going to end up in Florida and how did you really know that college was right for you?

Dr. Rachel Davenport:
Oh, that's a great question. I did not. In fact, so when I decided to go to grad school, I applied all up and down the East Coast and Florida was the most south. And then I went on a few interviews for grad school and really fell in love with the culture of the department there and also the research that my advisor was doing.

Kolby:
Awesome. And then how did you know biology was going to be it for you?

Dr. Rachel Davenport:
So I had a journey that is very similar to probably most of my students. I definitely changed my major a lot. When I started undergrad, I was a philosophy major and I just thought, OK, I'm going to be an academic who just sits around and thinks deep thoughts and then writes about them. And then all of my classes, we're just going to sit around and we're going to just talk about deep thoughts.

Kolby:
Interesting.

Dr. Rachel Davenport:
And then I started, and it turned out I just kept getting Cs in philosophy. I wasn't actually all that good about it, and so I ended up finding my way to psychology. But then by the time I was graduating, I was especially interested in really the brain and behavior, and I started doing research in a lab that was looking at traumatic brain injury.
So I got really interested in that and that's when I realized that I was really interested in the brain. My Ph.D. is actually in neuroscience, and so I went to a program where it was a neuroscience Ph.D. program, but along the way, I stopped and paused to get a master's in biology and then the final Ph.D. in neuroscience. So it was a journey to get there.

Kolby:
Yeah, definitely.

Dr. Rachel Davenport:
Because at 18 who knows what you wanted do really?

Kolby:
Exactly, yeah. I switched my major three times before I ended on this one. But that's really cool to hear that you didn't really start knowing that it was going to be biology. What was your first ever job?

Dr. Rachel Davenport:
So I was a cashier at Western Sizzlin, which is a budget buffet. I was in the DC area. I was the only person who worked there and one of the only people even out of all the patrons that didn't speak Spanish. So it was a challenging job.

Kolby:
So I definitely want to hear, I guess, a little bit more about your transition from high school into college. So how was that for you?

Dr. Rachel Davenport:
It was rocky. I didn't know if I was going to graduate high school. There were some rocky times where I didn't do that great. And I skipped a lot of school. When I finally decided to apply to a college, I applied to Virginia Commonwealth University. It was the only one that I could have gotten into with the grades and performance from high school.
And then my first year, I failed several courses and I was on academic probation. So it was rocky getting there, but then by the time I left college, things were going very well.

Kolby:
It was rocky when you weren't doing biology right, 'cause you started as philosophy?

Dr. Rachel Davenport:
It's true, yeah. I don't think it was actually the subject that I was studying, but you're right that I did start with philosophy and that was hard, even if I weren't having a hard time finding my feet. I think it was, I don't think that I knew what I wanted to do yet. I don't think that I had the drive, the interest, the motivation.
I have ADHD that I'm now medicated for, but at the time I was not diagnosed, I was really struggling to pay attention and to do well and to get class assignments done in time. And so there was just a lot going on that was difficult until I found my feet.

Kolby:
OK. Well, let's move into you as a professor. So you talked a lot about your advisors, especially at Florida.

Dr. Rachel Davenport:
Yeah.

Kolby:
What do you think were some of the things that shaped you into the professor that you are today?

Dr. Rachel Davenport:
Yeah, that's a good question. I think like anyone, I noticed a lot of good things, good traits in my professors along the way, especially starting in college and then a lot of the things that I didn't really like and I knew that I didn't want to emulate.
I think back to my very favorite professor at Virginia Commonwealth when I was an undergrad. And I think that really inspired me because one of the things he did was... He was actually a philosophy professor, and I got mostly Cs in his classes, but I always took every class he taught because he really talked to his students like they were people and on his same level.
And if you got something wrong, he was so gentle but corrective. He would say, "Oh, interesting. Well, what about this?" Instead of just saying, no, you're wrong. And then if you got something right, he would say like, "Oh, that's good thinking."
It was just this really... It made you want to learn and it made you want to engage. So I think that was really meaningful to me. And so things like that along the way, I've picked up.

Kolby:
I did do a lot of research on you.

Dr. Rachel Davenport:
OK.

Kolby:
I saw-

Dr. Rachel Davenport:
That makes me nervous for some reason.

Kolby:
No, no, no. It's all good. I don't care if you need to take naps. I know you're very professional. OK, so I do want to point out, we have found a lot of very positive reviews about you as a professor.

Dr. Rachel Davenport:
Oh, that's nice.

Kolby:
So your students, they've been very widely outspoken about how you are. Now, what have you found to be the best method for connecting with your students and even teaching? We talked a little bit about what you learned from your advisors, but how has that been actually implementing those into classes?

Dr. Rachel Davenport:
First, just thank you for the compliments. That's so nice. I think that part of why I might get some of that positive feedback is I truly, I love my students. I don't even know if I can put a logical reason for it. But on the very first day of classes, if you walk in the door into my classroom, it's like suddenly I have this affinity for you.
It's like I just feel this sense of... It's not even just protectiveness, but this sense of I want to invest in you. And I don't know why, because I don't think that makes logical sense, especially when I have 500 students in a semester. That's a lot of people that I've invested in all at once.
But I just feel this deep sense of wanting to give to my students and wanting to teach them and wanting to, I don't know, see their growth. And so I think maybe they can feel that. And so maybe that's part of the positive reviews. I think also, I know that in this day and age, Google is in our pocket.
You're not coming to class so that I just tell you some facts. That's a waste of my time, and that's a waste of their time. And so I really try to think about, how do I make this class time useful? How do I teach more of the critical thinking? How do I do something beyond just, here's some facts?
And I think that that is not only helpful for the subject that we're learning, but I think that has ripple effects into everything else that my students do in their lives. And so I hope that that's helpful. And maybe some of them that are leaving positive reviews are happy about that.

Kolby:
Again, after doing some research, so I saw that you have spoken at over 50 teaching developments.

Dr. Rachel Davenport:
Is it really over 50? Oh my gosh.

Kolby:
Over 50. I counted on your resume. But I do want to ask if you've learned anything, what the difference is speaking in front of teachers versus speaking in front of students, or how you might have developed your communication skills through all of these.

Dr. Rachel Davenport:
Oh, that's actually a really good question. So there is a difference. And I think it's even a difference... My fellow colleagues will tell you, it feels different when you go to teach a freshman course versus even a senior course. And so I do think that when I facilitate professional development type things, I do approach it, most of the time when I can, much more with a collaborative mindset.
I'm more of a facilitator and I know that this room is filled with people who are way smarter than I am and who have done way deeper thinking about this than I have. I just happened to be one of the people they invited for some reason, and so let me facilitate. And so I think it's more that.
Sometimes it's, I have actually info that maybe other people don't have or it's just a curiosity. I'm going to share my very best tips. But I think it's a much more collaborative space than a classroom might be. Although I say that with, I have a senior class now, which is a very collaborative, dynamic space, although I don't quite have that as much say with the freshmen.

Kolby:
I want to touch back onto you were saying some of those developments, you're in a room full of people who you say are smarter than you. When did you find that turning point in your college career where it's like, I don't really know anything, I kind of know some things and it's like, OK, I know I'm going to go teach this and I'm qualified to do so? When did you feel that shift?

Dr. Rachel Davenport:
This is not the answer you want, because it's a little bit embarrassing for me. I actually think now in my forties, I believe now I know less than when I was in my twenties. I was overconfident in my twenties. And I think in my twenties if I learned something, I immediately thought, I can teach this. I'm fine. I got this.
Or maybe I would read a few things and be like, "Oh, I know all the answers. I got this. I can teach it." And now in my forties, I learn some things and I'm like, "Hmm, that's interesting. But I bet it's not the whole story. I wonder what the whole story really is."
I do still think that I approach these things with confidence. It's just such a different place of, even when I go to class, especially in my senior level classes, I do a lot of, here's what we know so far, but it's not the whole story.

Kolby:
So before we started the podcast, we talked a little bit about you doing choir and all these different things. I am just curious to hear your thoughts on, obviously it's important to try different things, but what do you think? Is there a limit? When is too many things to do?

Dr. Rachel Davenport:
So for those who might be listening to this and they know me, they would say I'm a hypocrite if I tell you that there is a limit, because I'm notorious for doing way too many things and absolutely overcommitting myself. So let me just say I acknowledge my hypocrisy, I'm going to say, don't do too much. Don't over commit. Make time for rest and play and watch TV, play video games, balance.
So I would say play as hard as you work. I don't know what that limit really looks like 'cause I haven't found it. I keep crossing it. So I'm constantly trying to wrestle with that work-life balance. But I would say if you're feeling bored and you're stuck, try something new or different.
And when you get to that point where your wish, your superpower was to stop time so you could take a nap, maybe it's time to back off a little and try adding in some rest and some play.

Kolby:
So if you could choose any other career path, do you think you'd go back to philosophy? Or what would you choose?

Dr. Rachel Davenport:
No. I'm such a bad philosopher. No. I know for sure I would've been a doctor. I work a lot with our pre-med students. Part of what I teach is physiology and history of medicine. And so if I could go back in time... I don't know. I love being a teacher, so this is that if I had to switch careers, I absolutely would've gone into medicine.

Kolby:
Last question here. This could be a big one. So if you could go back to 18-year-old self, just got through high school, you're looking at colleges, what would you tell yourself knowing what you know now?

Dr. Rachel Davenport:
I think I would say a couple things. One would be don't stop growing. There's no point at which you're fully cooked. There's always more to learn. There's always more to try. There's always more to do. Don't be so rigid. What you think your interests are right now might absolutely change. As an example, I think my 18-year-old self thought motorcycles were really cool.

Kolby:
They are really cool.

Dr. Rachel Davenport:
Dungeons and Dragons was super nerdy. Rock climbing was super dumb. But now in my forties, having gone through my riding motorcycles phase, and that's long behind me, now, I'm like, "No, thank you. I'm good. I got that out of my system." But I love playing Dungeons and Dragons, and I love rock climbing. So I think I would tell myself, don't be so rigid in your thinking. Be open to trying new things. And if it's not for you today, maybe it will be for you tomorrow.

Kolby:
Right.

Dr. Rachel Davenport:
So I think I would try to get myself to soften a little.

Kolby:
That's all the questions that I have for you. Thanks for coming on today.

Dr. Rachel Davenport:
Thank you for having me. I feel very honored to have been invited.

Kolby:
Well, it's been a pleasure. So I hope you have a great rest of your day.

Dr. Rachel Davenport:
Thanks, Kolby. You too. And thanks for being here and asking great questions.

Kolby:
Yeah, of course.
Thank you for listening to this episode of Office Hours. We hope you enjoyed this conversation, and make sure to tune in next time to learn more about the experiences of our amazing Texas State faculty. Also, remember to follow us on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube @TXST.
This podcast is a production of the Division of Marketing and Communications at Texas State University. Podcasts appearing on the Texas State University Network represent the views of the host and the guest, not of Texas State University. Once again, I'm Kolby and I'll see you next time.