SPRING 2022
HUNT LEADERSHIP SCHOLARS PROGRAM ALUMNI NEWSLETTER
GREETINGS FROM THE HILLTOP!
Spring 2022 marked a return to the most normal semester we've had since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. In-person interview day returned, as did our annual Tate Lecture and Dinner, large group gatherings, and much more. In the photo above, the Hunt Scholars join the Hunt family for a Tate Lecture and dinner with Walter Isaacson, former President and CEO of the Aspen Institute, chair and CEO or CNN, and editor of Time. There were certainly many lessons in leadership to be learned on this celebratory evening! I hope you will enjoy reading more about our Spring 2022 semester, our newest cohort, and ways you can get involved as a Hunt Scholar alumnus. Pony Up! Dr. Lindsay Davis
MEET THE CLASS OF 2026
We cannot wait to welcome 19 amazing new Hunt Leadership Scholars to campus in August! RiverBlue Ansah (Southfield, MI), Natalie Bell (Plano, TX), Oscar Chen (Cordova, TN), Keaton Cheves (Dallas, TX), Michael Cohen (Atlanta, GA), Fisher Crews (Waycross, GA), Payton Deichler (Utopia, TX), Matthew Garcia (Midlothian, TX), Zoey Hess (Houston, TX), Savannah Hunsucker (Walton, KS), Melanie Jackson (Aldan, PA), Ashley Jones (Fort Worth, TX), Anekah Kelley (Coppell, TX), Will Leathers (Tupelo, MS), Cate Mossman (Oklahoma City, OK), Thayer Orr (Fort Collins, CO), Gabe Otero (Miami, FL), Javier Perez (Mesquite, TX), Grant Richter (Cypress, TX)
WHAT'S NEW?
The Class of 2022 was especially thrilled for the return to an in-person interview day experience. Each year, the senior Hunt Scholars serve on interview panels and share their words of advice at the closing dinner. The return of the annual Tate Lecture and dinner was truly a highlight for many of the Hunt Scholars. It was also a wonderful opportunity to reconnect with the Hunt family themselves!
A group of Hunt Scholars traveled with Dr. Jeff Engel (our faculty advisor) and SMU's Center for Presidential History to Germany Students enjoyed many opportunities to gather as a large group this semester.
and Prague to examine the impacts of the Cold War.
WHAT'S NEW?
A group of Hunt Scholars attended a leadership program summit at TCU, where they were able to network with leadership scholars from other universities.
We kicked off the Spring 2022 semester with an improv comedybased leadership workshop led by Comedy House.
Community events continued to be a favorite experience for the Hunt Scholars. We are so fortunate to be located in such a philanthropic community!
The Hunt Scholars volunteered their time and energy at Genesis Women's Shelter and Support to help the organization open their newest location in South Dallas.
INTERNATIONAL TRIP After many years of planning, May 2022 marked the first ever international trip for sophomore Hunt Scholars! Sophomore Hunt Scholars enroll in EPL 3302: Comparative Leadership during the Spring semester, where they look at leadership and organizational change theories through a comparative international lens. Then, at the conclusion of the semester, the students travel abroad to see those comparisons in action across a variety of fields. This year's trip included time in London, Oxford, Ghent, Brussels, and Bruges.
FEATURED ALUMNA DR. LUCY SMITH Class of 2001 Hometown: Dallas, TX Current Location: Dallas, TX Undergraduate Major & Minors: Spanish major with minors in General Business and Psychology (but there's a story here! Read on...) What did you major in at SMU? Ultimately, I graduated as a Spanish major with General Business and Psychology minors, though I got there in a roundabout way. (Who really knows how they want to spent the rest of their life at age 18???) I started as a Computer Science and Spanish double major. My first summer I had a great internship with a software company. My boss was wonderful (I ended up babysitting his daughters, who were the flower girls in my wedding years later), but I hated the programming side of the job. So, I came back my sophomore year and shifted over to the business school as a Finance and Spanish double major. After my junior year, I had an internship with a consulting firm and came back my senior year with a full-time job offer in my back pocket. My plan was to be "successful" and then eventually change careers to something I really wanted to do, like teach or counsel others. The first day of classes my senior year entailed 4 finances classes in a row. Talk about a long day! I came home crying; it was ridiculous. So, much to my father’s chagrin, I dropped my Finance major, picked up a Psychology minor, and applied to graduate school having completed one Psychology class (Intro to Psychology!). Hence the Spanish major and the Psychology and Business minors. It was a very late pivot to a totally different career! Where did you live when you were living on campus? We were only required to live on campus one year, so my first semester I was in Morrison-McGinnis. It was right before it was being renovated, so it was very old. We all had to move into different dorms the second semester, and the newly renovated dorms across the quad only held about 3/4 of the people who were in the old ones. I had an unlucky lottery number, so I ended up in Smith for the second semester. It was older, far away from everyone and filled with upper classmen, but we did have a big corner room (and I had a great roommate!). What was your go-to study spot on campus?
FEATURED ALUMNA This was back in the day when laptops had just come out, but you had to be plugged in and email was through the pine system. The library had computers, but they were desktops that you would go sit at and search for what materials you needed. Then if you found an article, you literally had to go to the stacks, pull the article, get a copy card or coins to make copies of it… it was a totally different ballgame! What was one of your favorite campus activities or traditions? My senior year was when they brought football back to campus. My first three years, football was down at the Cotton Bowl, and the team was horrible. When they came back to campus and had the Boulevard, the experience shifted, creating a more cohesive community spirit. In addition, I was in a sorority and always enjoyed the recruitment process. Where did you love to eat off-campus, but nearby? La Madeleine! I also loved Eatzis. Thinking about your Hunt Leadership Scholar experience, what would you consider to be some of the highlights? Definitely studying abroad! I did the summer program in Oxford between my sophomore and junior years, and then that fall, I went to Madrid. What a blessing to be able to do both of those programs and to have that time away, especially since I didn’t originally want to stay in Dallas for college. I grew up here and wanted to spread my wings and go away, but the Hunt Scholarship was such a great opportunity that I couldn't turn down. So the study abroad programs enabled me to get away for a little bit. Both programs were great: the locations, the travel, the programming, the classes, the professors, and the other students. We formed great bonds, and it was nice to connect with people that weren't in my typical social circle on campus. It was just such a different time, too, with no cell phones. So no making reservations, researching dinner spots or hotels, navigating, or communicating with others at your fingertips. You had to go to Internet cafes to book flights or to communicate with others. You had to have your train pass beforehand, and you had so many guide books and paper maps of places… it was an adventure! And then when we studied in Madrid, it was truly SMU-in-Madrid (only SMU people in a small program in a cute little building). We took an art class where we went to the Prado every week and could see the art that we were studying. Both programs had a component where you felt a little bit like you were in maybe middle school or high school: field trips were planned, we all went as a group, the "grown ups" were responsible for accommodations, itinerary, etc. It was wonderful to be tended to in that way. Where has your journey led you since your time at SMU? I got a little extra time at SMU because I got a Master's degree right after undergrad. When I switched my major, I applied to graduate schools, SMU being one of them, and it was funny… when I got my decision letter that spring, it actually said I had not been admitted to SMU for the Master’s program. I talked to some of my professors who had written recommendation letters, and they realized it was a mistake! I got the wrong letter; I had been admitted and even had an assistantship. I was so glad I knew people to ask (because I never would have inquired had it been an unfamiliar school!)!
FEATURED ALUMNA So, I was at SMU for two more years before going to the University of Colorado at Boulder, where I got my Doctorate. I was in Boulder for four years, which was an amazing experience. I love the Colorado mountains and totally would have settled there if my family was not in Dallas. After graduate school, I moved back to Dallas, did an internship at the VA, had my first child, and did some adjunct faculty teaching at SMU in the psychology department. I also did a postdoc at Children’s Medical Center in their inpatient and eating disorder unit before going into private practice, where I have been for 12 years. What have been some of the most rewarding parts of your career as a psychologist? A few things come to mind. First, I feel very fortunate to have found a career that feels meaningful and fulfilling. I've helped people during some of the roughest moments of their lives, and it's been an honor to walk alongside them...and what an amazing experience to witness the growth and the change. One of my most important roles is a "hope holder," as I get to hold the hope for people who aren't quite sure of themselves or their potential. Secondly, I've greatly enjoyed the flexibility of being a psychologist, both in terms of schedule and how I spend my days. The flexibility has been especially beneficial as a mom (I have two daughters -- an almost 14-year-old and an 11-year-old). What are some commonly held misconceptions about being a psychologist that you’d like to debunk? The biggest one you get, and this is outside the office, is once someone finds out you're a psychologist they're like, “Are you psychoanalyzing me?” No, I'm not psychoanalyzing you! That would be a lot of work and would totally make relationships weird! I think another thing, for people who are in the field, is this idea that you can only either be a therapist or a researcher as a psychologist. There are a lot of other paths and things that you're positioned to do. Another one that I hear a lot is, why would you study psychology? Like it's a worthless major. Yes, to have a career as a psychologist you do have to have graduate training to get licensed in any state. But even for people who don’t want to go to graduate school, the study of human behavior seems very applicable to a wide range of things people might do. Tell me about your newest venture! How did it originate and what excites you most? I've been in private practice almost 12 years now, so a long time. It's been great- you work with clients and you see them all day, but it's also been lonely. It took me a while to realize that I miss collaborating with people. I specialize in eating disorders, so I have a good number of clients where I talk with other members of their team like the dietitian or the physician or the family therapist, but it feels very different than doing a combined project with other people. I also started feeling ready to mix up what I was doing and ready to exercise a different part of my brain. Fall of 2020, I had brunch with two colleagues who are good friends of mine. We have all kids around the same age, we're all moms, and we’re all psychologists private practice. It was our first time out in a restaurant since the pandemic started, and we just thought, what if we started a podcast? What could we talk about? What would that be like? In May of 2021 we launched a podcast called Inspiration from the Couch. It’s been such a fun endeavor, and then this past winter, we started thinking, well, what else could we do with this? Could we turn this into more of a business? How could we grow this?
FEATURED ALUMNA We’ve tweaked and brainstormed and thought through different things, but where we've landed for now is this idea of helping women stop putting themselves Dead Ass Last and start reclaiming their Inner Badass. To be honest, this is stuff we wish we'd all known five to seven to ten years ago based on both our own experiences and the clinical wisdom we've accrued with our clients. We wanted something we could extend beyond therapy. We wanted to reach a wider range of people in a different way than traditional 1-1 talk therapy. We’re calling it the Badass Method, and we've just launched our first workshop Badass Boundaries: The 3-Step System to Harness the Power of No. We'll also be launching a more extensive group program this fall. What advice do you have for someone who is considering taking a new career step or starting a new project? First, I love the idea of, “do it afraid.” I think sometimes we feel like if it's the right thing, we should feel totally confident, and it should be easy and fall into place. But when we're doing anything new, it can be scary and hard and there's uncertainty. How do we not let that hold us back? How do we step into it? How do we let ourselves have this beginner's mindset and recognize that is a totally new skill set, so there's going be a lot of learning? Which brings me to the second point: allowing yourself to get help and support. For example, we've hired a business coach, which has been the best investment I've made in my career. So this would be help and support both in terms of growing your skills/learning and in terms of emotional support. The last big piece of advice is to block out "deep work" time. Anything that requires creativity and innovation requires space and breathing room. If we're so frantic and going, going, going, and busy, busy, busy, and we've got our phones pinging, and kids crying, it's going to be really hard to connect with the stuff that's most powerful and transformative. There are two great books called Deep Work and Essentialism, and they’re all about how we can create time and space to let things percolate and let ourselves sit with some of these bigger ideas. When you’re not busy with work, what do you like to do for fun? I have to laugh at this question because I totally suck at fun, so this is something I've really had to work on. I tend to lean more towards productivity mode because I have a very busy mind and like to be working on things. I’ve been practicing intentionally prioritizing fun, play, and joy, because I think if you don't cultivate those intentionally, they'll just fall by the wayside. For me, I got an Oculus VR headset for Christmas. (I do share with my kids, but ultimately, this is mom’s.) I also love to read, have game nights, travel, go on walks or bike rides, and watch movies with my family. How has your definition of leadership evolved over time? How have you continued to grow as a leader? I was thinking about this, and there's been a bit of an evolution in my journey. In the psychology field, you’re trained to almost lose yourself, if that makes sense. To be a therapist, you want to be neutral; you’re taught not to make it about you. You have very firm boundaries. Thinking about it in terms of leadership, yes, I'm doing good in the world, but the role of a therapist, traditionally, is more so to reflect someone else. It's felt less about being a leader myself, and I think I spent a decade or so feeling so exhausted that there wasn't much space for leadership. Four years ago, I had a sense that something was off balance. I’ve spent the last few years trying to turn this ship around to once again find myself. To ask, “is there a different way to be a therapist that allows for a little more of me to be present?” I did a training called Humanity First, which was focused on embodied leadership. It's run by a woman who's a yoga teacher and a licensed clinical social worker, and very, very powerful. That training was a jolt in terms of revisiting this idea of leadership for me.
FEATURED ALUMNA I think when we're younger and in school, we equate leadership with positions and items on your resume. It tends to come in very defined roles. Then you grow up and you have a job where you do the same thing, but in a company of one there's no promotion, there's no one under you. It becomes very blurred. For me, it’s been a process of redefining what leadership means. When I think of leadership, it’s how you show up in the world, authentically, being fully yourself. We’re all uniquely positioned to do something different, and the best way you can lead is to step fully into your greatness to be who you were meant to be so that it spills out into the world. If you had a single sentence for Nancy Ann and Ray Hunt, what would it be? Thank you for being the epitome of leadership and generosity, serving as an inspiration and role model for how to live a life that positively impacts others and makes a difference. I would be thrilled to have even a fraction of the impact you've had in the world.
Some of Lucy’s photos from her study abroad experience (with a few other Hunt Scholars!) in Spain.
Thank you, Lucy, for allowing us to feature you, and an extra-special thank you for your service as an Alumni Mentor for junior Hunt Scholars over the years. (Yes, if you're reading this, you, too, should volunteer to be an alumni mentor.) Additional details are on the next page! If you'd like more information about Lucy's latest endeavor, please visit https://badassmethod.com.
ALUMNI UPDATES THANK YOU, ALUMNI MENTORS! We have just concluded the third year of the Hunt Scholars Alumni mentor program. A huge thank you to the alumni who made this year a great success: Vafa Behzadpour, Emily Bendorf, Lisa Brooks, Rachel Brown, Michael Carlisi, Zane Cavender, Angela Dunnahoe, Taylor Eager, Morgan Gaskin Thomas, Jessica Giraudon, Hayley Goldberg, Lauren Gurley, Meredith Hampton, Elizabeth Herman, Elizabeth Hill, Erika Howard, Preston Hutcherson, David Jeffery, Mary Anna O'Neil, Seth Ramey, Taylor Shead Johnson, Lucy Smith, and Astrud Villareal.
NOW, WE NEED MORE HELP!
Now, the 15 students in the Class of 2024 are eager to receive your guidance and wisdom. Mentors and mentees meet once every six weeks (in person or virtually, so you can be anywhere in the world!), and we will have a mentor kick-off meeting (hybrid format) in early September. All you need to serve as a mentor is a passion for helping the junior Hunt Scholars grow as young professionals. If you're interested in helping out, please complete this Alumni Mentor Commitment Form by August 1. Please reach out to Dr. Lindsay Davis with any questions at all! (lrdavis@smu.edu)
STAY CONNECTED Big move? New job? Working on a cool project you'd like to share? Please reach out! We are always looking for alumni to feature and stories to share. Additionally, please join the Hunt Leadership Scholars Program group on LinkedIn and follow the Hunt Leadership Scholars Program on Instagram.
SUPPORT THE PROGRAM @SMUHUNTSCHOLARS HUNT LEADERSHIP SCHOLARS PROGRAM