Nancy Byers Sprague

I genuinely care about students and I think that comes through the way I interact with students and the way I help some students not only professionally but personally. My spouse and I have a sailboat and we bring students on board all the time. We teach them a little bit about sailing and let them have that wonderful adventure in this beautiful part of the world. And they are always invited over for dinner or we take them out to eat. We have big group meals at Thanksgiving and Easter; we invite just about everybody and we have between 30 and 60 people. We make—mostly my partner makes—13 or 14 different dishes so people don’t have to bring anything unless they really want to; desserts are always welcome! We try to build community with students and other people in the area. My life really does revolve around students. I haven’t been working in the Graduate School my entire time at Michigan Tech, which has been 41 years, but in some ways, it’s been all 41 years that my life has revolved around students. Sailing and meals have been going on for a lot of that time. 

My dad was the head of the math department here for a while. Back that many years ago, 60 years or so, they didn’t have what you would call a robust menu for students who were in the residence halls who were vegetarian. So my dad invited some of the Indian students to our home and asked them to teach him how to cook like their mothers cooked. The students wrote home for recipes, my dad started to learn how to cook Indian food, and we’ve had friendships with Indian students in my parents’ home since I was one. 

Fun is a very good term to describe my life. My life is full of fun. I think—despite all of the philosophers and all of the really deep meanings in life that people propose or discover or realize—I think the meaning of life is to have fun. And my motto is anything worth doing is worth overdoing and my very decorated office is an example of my philosophy in action. It’s a wonderful life.

Michigan Technological University is a public research university founded in 1885 in Houghton, Michigan, and is home to more than 7,000 students from 55 countries around the world. Consistently ranked among the best universities in the country for return on investment, Michigan’s flagship technological university offers more than 120 undergraduate and graduate degree programs in science and technology, engineering, computing, forestry, business and economics, health professions, humanities, mathematics, social sciences, and the arts. The rural campus is situated just miles from Lake Superior in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, offering year-round opportunities for outdoor adventure.

Comments