By The Keystone Newspaper Shelley promotes love for learning new things ‘all the time’
By Linnea Devenney
Professor Gregory Shelley, Chair of the Psychology Department and Chair of the College of the Liberal Arts and Science Assessment Committee did not always have a solid understanding of where he wanted to be in life.
Photo Credit: Kutztown University
He found his way to KU through a friend. “This friend of mine in high school was coming here as a telecommunications major, and I didn’t have any idea what I wanted to do,” Shelley said.
It was through the KU’s general education courses that he took psychology and discovered his passion. After graduating from KU, he attended graduate school at the University of Delaware and landed a job in the pharmaceutical industry.
After ten years of working in the field and experiencing burnout, he was contacted by his former KU advisor, Anita Meehan, about a teaching position at KU that would lead to tenure. He elected to give up the job security of the pharmaceutical field, along with a pay cut, to come to KU.
Ever since he took that risk, Shelley has not stopped learning. Whether that means figuring out how to support students as an advisor and professor or allowing the KU to maintain its accreditation as a co-chair of the Middle States Commission on Higher Education for Accreditation.
As a teacher and advisor on campus, Shelley has had the opportunity to provide students with guidance and a sense of relatability coming from a former student at KU.
“I frequently talk to students in my office during advising sessions,” he said. “And I would say don’t be afraid to explore and take risks.”
As he has climbed the ladder at KU, Shelley still finds nostalgia in the times when he was a newbie.
“I can remember teaching classes in Old Main and thinking that it wasn’t that long ago I was a student,” he said. “It’s been neat to come back as an alumni at Kutztown University and do what I used to watch other people do and be envious of.”
In a full circle moment, Shelley was asked to deliver the commencement address to the graduating Class of 2018.
During the speech, he stressed the importance of staying humble when it came to flexing a college education.
“The more you learn, the more you realize what you don’t know,” Shelley explained.
This principle is one that Shelley applies to his own life, as well.
While his hobbies extend further away from psychology and into the world of maintaining natural habitats for beekeeping, he is constantly expanding his knowledge base.
The leader on campus has dabbled in botany and entomology to help his local environment, working to get a certificate from Penn State College of Agricultural Sciences and labeling his yard as a pollinator-friendly habitat.
“With all these hobbies, there’s a lot to learn,” Shelley said. “To understand even a little honey bee biology and ecology so you can be a proper beekeeper instead of a beehaver is really important.”
Even after acquiring his positions on campus and the intensive knowledge of his hobbies, Shelley realizes that his desire for knowledge is something insatiable.
“Life’s too short to just sit around and do nothing,” Shelley said. “I still have the hunger to learn stuff all the time. Sitting around and doing nothing and learning nothing is not good for me.”