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| David R. Arendale (1) |
I’M DR. DAVID R. ARENDALE.1 I came to Minnesota in 2002; It was kind of a culture shock coming here for someone who grew up in good ol’ Kansas. I was not exposed to this much diversity in my childhood. I would say I had a fairly normal upbringing by the standards of those days.2 A big deal in our family was going to church. My parents were my biggest role models by far. Dad had shift work so I remember him being gone often, but he still made time for all of us. He is the person who really turned me onto reading. Which is ironic because both my mother and him did not even complete high school: stopped going to school when they were 16. As much as I loved to read, I really enjoyed playing with the neighborhood kids in the summer. Sometimes we would run around in our yard and pretend that we were on fire trucks. Must have been a sight to see for our neighbors. We’d would leave our parents at 7:30 in the morning and not come back till supper. We would play games and go to the Spring Gates pond.These were some of the best times that I can remember; it was all good. It was a real safe time, kinda like the Andy Griffith Show , and I was able to get to know a lot of people. I was fortunate enough to be blessed with a great childhood. Can’t think of a bad memory, or bad time. I know that sounds silly, but it’s true!
Career
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| Plumb Hall at Emporia State University (2) |
I obtained my undergraduate degree with a master’s degree program at Emporia State University in Kansas. Then I worked at a couple smaller community colleges, about 500 hundred students each. I was looking for more, so I completed my PhD at the University of Missouri Kansas City. I came to the U5 in 2002, and lo and behold I got the greatest job in the world, since my childhood dreams of being a fireman never evolved into anything. I had visited Minnesota a few times before I decided to make the move, and I was impressed. Gotta love the friendly people here, Minnesota nice is an actual thing! I’m a big fan of the scenery and river too. Ever since I became a history professor here people have been asking me “why history?” and I can just simply say I “click with it.” Maybe it’s because of the history classes I took in high school, but history is a passion of mine, and it is a pleasure to teach it to young kids of the future generations. Professors at my University told me not to become a teacher because I would never get a job, but I just promptly ignored their advice and persisted. I’ve been doing this for thirty-five years, so it’s hard to imagine doing anything else.
K-E-O-N
To this day I’m still very active in my church. I used to host a weekly bible study for single older adults at my church. I was also the small group discussion leader for sunday school, and boy was that interesting! I got to work with first grade boys, and I discover that they actually are humans. They are very thoughtful and insightful kids. I did this for about two years. I would go to the church and spend about 20 minutes every week with them after we did a lesson during sunday school. Since I’ve never had kids of my own, it really taught me a lot about younger people. This experience made me want to go out and help other kids in my community. I was fortunate enough to get involved with a program, similar to big brothers/big sisters, where I mentor a young man. His name is Keon, its spelled as K-E-O-N. He is 15 years old now, but I started mentoring him when he was 11 years old. We have met every weekend for the past four years. The two of us come from complete opposite sides of the spectrum. Keon and I both have similar tastes in movies and we both enjoy doing similar activities, so we get along just fine. We see all the pixar movies3 and all of the sci fi movies4, but I refuse to go to the ghost movies with him. Those are just too gruesome for me. It’s funny to me, how two people who come from two completely different backgrounds can communicate and connect so well. My biggest goal from working with Keon is to be a better influence for him; I want to be a positive image for him to look on to. I told him that I want to be at his Thanksgiving dinner ten years from now after he has accomplished all of his hopes and dreams. I just hope that this actually happens, and I will do everything I can to try to make it work out.
Legacy
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| Arendale (3) |
I don’t have any regrets, it’s just live has been… an very unusual journey. I got close to being married three or four times, and I turn out to be the last guy the girl dates until she marries someone else. Really an odd experience if you ask me. I’m okay with all that though. I just created my own different family, just like in Mrs. Doubtfire . I’ve had my fair share of challenges in life as well. My greatest accomplishment must be my struggle with type two diabetes and other health issues. One time I was sitting in the waiting room of the clinic and rolls up a little child in a bed, too sick even to be in a wheelchair, completely hairless, couldn’t even tell if it was male or female. You would look at her and you knew that they weren’t gonna be alive in Christmas time. I don’t have real problems. Not compared to others. It was kind of a change of perspective for me. I don’t want to think of myself as having a legacy, but rather what do I hope that I’ve contributed to this world. I hope that I contributed in some way, that teachers can change their classrooms to make them better for students so that they can learn. I would be happy with that. I’d also be happy knowing that I left behind some information to help organize student study groups. Those are the things that I hope to have contributed to this world.
- David R. Arendale was born in 1956 in Olathe, Kansas, a suburb of Kansas City.
- David was born into a family of six. Two brothers and one sister.
- Pixar is a company that produces movies.
- “Sci fi” is an abbreviation for Science Fiction which is a genre of movies.
- University of Minnesota-Twin Cities is a public research university.
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