Associate Director of Residence Life Joshua Drake says that being a part of an SLU student’s journey is the ultimate reward of his job. He is responsible for the Community Assistant program and supervision of the residential staff, and he also sits on the Wellness Initiative and Internship Fellowship committees. “I like my job because I have the opportunity to work with amazing students, faculty and staff,” he says. “There are very few jobs that allow you to make connections with folks from all over the U.S. and the world.  I am lucky enough to have one of them.”

Drake, a former teacher, says that in residential life he is “still teaching, but with a different age group.” He adds that college “is a unique time in people’s lives when they have an unparalleled opportunity to learn about themselves and others while studying a diverse array of academic fields that interest them.”

In his free time Drake enjoys birding, gardening, art, fly-fishing, snowshoeing, hiking, camping, canoeing and “basically anything where I can be outside in nature and observe the natural order of things. I find powerful lessons that can be learned from observing the way things work,” he says. “I literally draw from those experiences when I draw and paint and try to offer guidance to others.”

Drake adds that he has recently become interested in home brewing and growing pumpkins and sunflowers. He points out that last year he took his “first shot” at growing a giant pumpkin, which resulted in an 80-pound pumpkin he named Herbert.                             

--Kristen Bednar ’09