The Dearborn Icebreaker

The Dearborn Icebreaker is a Reporter feature designed to help us get to know our UM-Dearborn colleagues. Nominate a colleague to be featured in The Dearborn Icebreaker.

Name: Judy Walker
Position: Disability Services Coordinator

What does a typical workday look like for you?
A typical workday for me would be: Getting to work in the mornings between 7:45 and 7:50 a.m. with a large coffee in hand. I review my notes from the previous day of the most important or urgent task that I need to complete. Next I review my notes for task that I would like to get accomplished. Briefly meet with Bernie and Maura to go over issues so that we are all on the same page, I guess you could call it water cooler moments.

Typically the students start to arrive around 8:30 a.m. and of course after that, usually my plans for the day are changed. (This is a good thing!) I usually have several meetings with students helping them with the appropriate accommodations based on their disability. My work is very much student orientated.

Always our director, Dr. David Schroat, will touch basis with me to see how things are progressing with disabilities. It seems that I always have very interesting stories to share with him about disability services.

On selected days I have campus committee meetings that I attend and I look forward to connecting with staff members.

Throughout the day there are always opportunities to touch basis with the other therapist in the office, Vivian, Lusine and the externs, as we all have some common interest in our interactions with students. A typical day will also involve a series of putting out fires. Although this is not planned, let’s just say I know it will happen. There is always more work to do than can be accomplished in one day, so I include the things that were not able to be accomplished on my urgent task list for the next day.

What do you enjoy most about your job?
EVERYTHING! I have the opportunity every day to help students reach their academic goals by encouraging, advocating, mentoring and sometimes just to listening. I am happy to have been able to take advantage of these things in the past and now I am able to pay these services forward to the students that I work with every day. It is also a pleasure to work with such a supportive staff.

What was your first job?
My very first job was working at McDonalds; I believe I was in the 11^th grade. I appreciated that job because it taught me to provide excellent customer service. Not to age myself but as an employee at McDonalds you were responsible for providing the customer the correct change without the computer telling you how much to give back and if your register was short it came out of your paycheck.

What do you do to relax?
My favorite thing to do to relax was to go home from work and walk with my little dog Max. I still enjoy walking, but because of life circumstances my best buddy had to move on to doggy heaven. (I miss him!)

If you could have any one skill or talent that you don’t already have, what would it be?
It may sound like a simple thing but I always wanted to be able to roller skate, I just never got the hang of that. Therefore I would love to be a famous skater.

What’s your definition of a life well lived?
A life well lived is finding your purpose. I believe that once you are able to find your purpose for being on this earth the pieces of the puzzle start to fit. My puzzle is still being completed but I have been able to fit many, many pieces such as, patience, kindness, enjoyment of laughter, handling life’s disappointments and helping others along this journey.

What’s the proudest moment of your life?
Of course I have been able to enjoy many milestones such as marriage, child birth, graduations and much more, but one of the proudest moments of my life is the memories of the look of happiness on my children’s face when they accomplished goals that were very difficult for them. These memories always make me smile.

If we were to create a UM – Dearborn playlist, what song would you want to include?
Excuse the broken English, but I would include Ain’t No Stopping Us Now by McFadden & Whitehead. The song states, “No stopping us now, we’re on the move.” The lyrics suggest looking ahead to a bright future. I think our future is very bright here at the University of Michigan-Dearborn.

What’s one thing people would be surprised to know about you?
This may not be politically correct, but I LOVE DETROIT and I am hopeful that Detroit will make a major comeback! Detroit is, after all, part of our metropolitan community and I am routing for the D in a big way.

What’s one thing you wish you had known when you were a teenager?
I wish I would have known that I would not be a teenager forever! I probably would have done some things differently.