Interim Provost's Calling - July 2024

"Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much." —Helen Keller

At the end of June, my Los Angeles-based daughter and 3-year-old grandson visited us for 10 days in Worthington. They didn’t want to travel much, so we stuck close to home and spent time with my other daughter, son-in-law, and 4-year-old grandson, who live in Hilliard.

The California daughter is an Ohio State history graduate who is a global distribution manager for Netflix. She and I both logged some remote work hours that week, which meant we had a detailed childcare schedule, including a stint for me that overlapped with Senior Vice Provost Kay Wolf’s retirement celebration.

I decided to take the 3-year-old to Kay’s party. He wore cute cargo shorts and a stylish, collared shirt, and we traveled to the Ohio Union together. He enjoyed the lovely snacks, especially the custom “Thank You Kay” sugar cookies. We congratulated Kay together, and he met lots of friendly administrators, including several deans. He shook hands with many and told them about having flown on two planes to get here from California.

We were gone two hours. When we got home, my daughters laughed, “Mom just took a 3-year-old to her work event he didn’t want to go to, just like she always did with us.” To the contrary, girls! He described the Union as being like a museum and loved running around in the atrium. He had healthy snacks like carrots and fruit skewers for lunch. And, he participated in active networking — a key to success — and embraced the important idea of being known to people. Pretty good effort at grandmothering, if you ask me!

Karla Zadnik

Interim Executive Vice President and Provost

Glenn A. Fry Professor in Optometry and Physiological Optics