Two days ago a dear friend and mentor passed away, Dr. Bee Jai Repp. How to begin to describe Bee Jai. . . . Terms like "force of nature," "one of a kind," and "didn't take 'no' for an answer" spring to mind.
Bee Jai cared extravagantly about students. She recruited older, non-traditional students into PSU, often from community colleges. She specialized in convincing students who didn't think that they were university material that they could do it, and once they started that journey she threw everything she had into helping them cross the finish line. She'd do everything to help a student to succeed except the work itself.
These past few weeks, as Bee Jai's health has declined, I've noticed more and more of "her" students in my classes--not people who actually knew her, but people she would have loved to have known and to have advocated for: cancer survivors; veterans fighting disabilities; single parents from rough backgrounds who had to fight steep odds to even get to PSU, let alone to succeed here.
There are a lot of intellectual trappings around being a professor. People offer us a lot of deference that we don't deserve. Bee Jai reminded me that the heart of what makes PSU tick is not what we publish or how many letters we have after or before our names. Faculty exist to help students to make a better life for themselves, their families, and their communities.
Thank you, Bee Jai. You left us way too soon, but your legacy will echo and multiply many generations into the future.
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