In continuing with our theme of acknowledging the accomplishments of Kean University's Leading Ladies, the Student Life Media Team’s (SLMT) last installment of our Women in Action series highlights our First Lady, Darlene Repollet.
Ch’nya Howard, the SLMT Senior Staff Writer, had the honor of speaking with First Lady Repollet about what it means to be in a leading role at the University.
Q: How has your Corporate Human Resources Executive background contributed to the initiatives under your role of being Kean University's First Lady?
A: I think the first thing is to talk about the First Lady position and what that means. So, in my role which is really a voluntary role here at Kean University, I do a lot of different things on campus, or I travel with the President. However, other spouse partners at other universities or colleges may not do the same things that I do and that’s what makes a First Lady or First Spouse role unique. You have some situations where spouse partners are full-time employees, maybe on campus or off campus, or like myself maybe they don’t work full time maybe they’re entrepreneurs which is what I’m doing. I like to level set that initially in terms of what does being a First Spouse, or First Partner means.
My background for 25 plus years was Corporate Human Resources. There are definitely synergies in terms of what I do as a First Lady to my Human Resources role in corporate and specifically around strategic partnerships. Human Resources really should operate as a strategic partner, meaning the support that you give to the customer group you're in support of or managers, employees, you’re always that strategic partner with them and they utilize you for information resources support. And I look at that and say the First Lady position is similar in that way. I believe that I am a strategic partner for the University. In multiple ways, I help moderate the President’s Distinguished Lecture Series, I am often asked to be a guest speaker for different events, and then I travel with the President when we’re meeting with donors. That’s how I view my role as First Lady and bring that correlation and experience from my HR background.
Q: What do you believe is your strongest and most important quality (or qualities) as the First Lady? Was this quality learned as you engaged in the role, or do you believe it’s innate?
A: My qualities are around serving in a sort of support or service-type arena. I think those are the qualities that lend themselves well to what we’re doing here at Kean University. Whether it’s supporting students, serving as a mentor, or whether its supporting needs that the University has. Sometimes President Repollet is always everywhere all the time, but he has yet to be able to figure out how to clone himself. Sometimes, I need to fill in for him in terms of maybe a presentation or making remarks at an event for him. I view my role as being support to the University in whatever ways I can.
Q: When you reflect over your years in this position, what has been the most challenging obstacle to overcome?
A: The challenge came in the very beginning around time management. There are a lot of different activities that we’re always involved in, and I think back now in terms of if I was still working full time, I wouldn’t be able to do as much as I do in support of Kean University. Early on, I ultimately for totally different reasons, left that Corporate HR career, but it worked out for the benefit of myself, the President, my family, and ultimately the University because of the busyness that’s involved with being in this role and the heavy schedule. The time management aspect and coordination of where we need to be is always a challenge, but it made it easier because I moved into having my own business and that's much more flexible.
Q: As you are also a mother, what educational values have you instilled into your daughters?
A: Education is the ultimate in terms of values for our family. Both of my parents were teachers. My mom taught at the elementary school level, and my dad taught at the high school level at vocational school. Growing up clearly education was important. I remember summers when my mom would sit down, and she would teach me how to write over the summer in cursive. It was instilled in me early. The President’s paternal grandmother was also an educator. We both know the value of education and the importance of it and what it can mean to a person and then their family. That’s what we talk to our girls about, understanding the importance and value of education, that everyone should have access to education, and that they need to take advantage of the opportunities that are in front of them in terms of schooling, exposure, and experiences, and really capitalize off that. Without education, where do you go? That’s what it’s all about, constant learning. And that's one of the fundamental values we have as a family.
Q: As we all face adversities, what advice would you give to Kean students who are facing challenges?
A: We all have adversities, challenges, and issues from time to time. I think the most important aspect any time there’s a challenge or a struggle is to number one acknowledge that that exists as an issue. Sometimes we might try to ignore it or push it off and not really be truthful about whatever that is. The first thing is acknowledging it and accepting that this is the situation and then finding the resources and talking about it. I think a lot of times as well we may not want to talk to someone else or seek help. We might think that we can address this by ourselves. There are so many resources for students here right on campus and students should take advantage of them not only when all is going well but especially when things aren't going well and there’s a challenge. That goes beyond just when you are here at Kean. That's in life to seek the resources that are available to us to navigate life.
Q: What influenced your family to begin the Repollet Education Philanthropy (REP) Foundation? In what ways has the foundation changed or impacted the lives of students?
A: The Repollet Education Philanthropy Foundation is our family nonprofit. We talked about education and how important it is to our family. The other thing that we absolutely love as a family is travel. So, we put the two together in terms of this REP Foundation, we merged those two concepts. Our foundation wants to be able to provide funding to students to support their education. But not necessarily in a traditional scholarship sense. We're probably going to be more focused on gap funding or emergency funding for students. We really believe that travel is an extension of the classroom. To whom much is given much is required. From that perspective, what our foundation would also like to do is to be able to support Travel Learns and study abroad for students. The REP Foundation would like to be able to help support funding for travel like that because of the value travel has in helping students to have a broader perspective and different experiences.
Q: What legacy do you hope to leave at Kean University as the First Lady?
A: I would hope my legacy as First Lady at Kean is about that I supported the University, supported the students and the community at large in any way that I could, and that the support that I gave helped impact someone, that people took something away from a Distinguished Lecture Series I moderate or from a conversation, they had with me, or I was able to encourage a donor to donate some more funding that led to a scholarship for someone. I’m a behind-the-scenes type of person. I just hope that my legacy is in terms of support for Kean. That I was able to benefit and impact individuals in some way.
Q: As students prepare to graduate and enter into their next chapter of life, what life lessons and career advice would you share give to them?
A: There are two things I would say. The first is just because you’re graduating doesn’t mean you're learning should stop. I really do believe in continuous learning. As an example, we talked about how I transitioned from being in Corporate HR to being an entrepreneur. I had never done anything business-like, so that’s been a brand-new learning for me. I would encourage students to not stop learning, being inquisitive, and asking questions. There’s so many ways of continuous learning. The second thing is a book by Harvey Coleman and there’s a concept called P.I.E. P is for performance, the I is for image, and the E is for exposure. I encourage people to research it. It was meaningful to me when I first started out in my career to understand and learn that just me putting my head down, doing my job every day, wasn't the only thing that was going to help me to have success in my career. I really needed to be conscious about my image and most importantly the exposure, the networking and relationship building that would be so key to my success.
We would like to sincerely thank First Lady Darlene Repollet for taking the time to partake in our Women in Action series. It was a great honor to acknowledge her leading role and all she does to support the University and encourage students towards continuous learning.
Please be sure to tune into the interviews of our other Women in Action, Dr. Genique Stanislaus, Executive Director of the Kean Wellness Center, and Katherine Gallagher, Senior Vice President for Student Success.
Watch Part 3 of the Women in Action series here: https://youtu.be/VVpsig6vKxQ?si=BFcHcFK-cUVX7Um2
