Kaitlyn Hart
Life Editor
As a young pre-med student, Kandi Turley-Ames was doing all of the things that you’re supposed to do as a pre-med student here at Idaho State University. She was taking classes like organic chemistry, succeeding with high grades and going through the motions. But something was missing.
“What I found was that in my free time, what I was doing while my dorm roommate was studying or something, I was reading ahead in my psychology book,” says Turley-Ames, the Dean of the College of Arts and Letters, here at ISU.
“I kept thinking that if I’m going to do something for the rest of my life, it really should be something that I’m passionate about.”
Almost 10 years ago, ISU underwent a reorganization which caused the College of Arts and Sciences to split into multiple colleges, one becoming the College of Arts and Letters. This redistribution of academia caused the position of the Dean of the College of Arts and Letters to open up.
Turley-Ames, a Professor of Experimental Psychology and the Vice Provost of Advanced Opportunities, soon became the founding Dean of the College of Arts and Letters.
Now, 10 years later, Turley-Ames has been leading the College for a decade.
“It’s been a really nice shift I think because when we were Arts and Sciences, we had seven deans in ten years, and now I have been here for ten years, and so I think it provides some stability for faculty and departments,” Turley-Ames said. “I would argue that it trickles down and impacts students which is really what matters.”
To be dean for over a decade, the job requires you to have a real understanding of the Idaho State community and to connect with students and forge a bond with your department that can really impact students.
Turley-Ames is known around campus for being kind-hearted and caring about not only her job but the ISU community, in a way that many of the students and faculty think is rare.
“There’s a lot of students that I’ve been very blessed to work with,” said Turley-Ames. “One of the things I love about being at a state university is that this is the place where we can really equalize the playing field. This is where we change lives.”
Tessa Anderson was one of Turley-Ames’s students in the Psychology department a few years back. According to Turley-Ames, during classes, it was apparent that Anderson struggled with public speaking and was very shy. When she would get up to give a speech in class in front of her classmates she was visibly nervous.
Now, Tessa Anderson has completed her master’s degree and is a lecturer here at Idaho State.
“Everywhere I go, people tell me what an incredible teacher she is. And I keep thinking “Wow, I feel really blessed,” because Tessa was one of those people who was so shy when she’d get up and do a speech in a class, let alone teaching in the Lecture Center 10, with 300 Intro to Psychology students, and she’s doing it, and doing it beautifully,” said Turley-Ames.
“It’s one thing to say that a college education can change somebody’s life. It means a great deal more when you get to watch it change somebody’s life.”
A first-generation college student herself, Turley-Ames understands very well, the impact that a college education can have on a person. As she sits on the stage at graduation, an ISU event she has yet to miss as the Dean of the College of Arts and Letters, she gets to see the faces of students whose lives she touched and gotten to be a part of, move into the next phase of their lives and succeed at their passions.
“It’s one of the most rewarding days because I get to see tons of students that I have had a small role in, maybe it’s helping with a scholarship, maybe it’s signing a petition, whatever it might be, and even a lot of students I maybe have never even really met because they’re in other colleges or from communities that I haven’t had as much contact with, but all of those students have come together and somebody has touched their life, which is part of why they are walking across that stage.”
For Turley-Ames, she never aspired to be a Dean. But throughout her time here at Idaho State, she has learned that it isn’t about the job itself but about appreciating the ways in which she can have a positive impact on the university, and a positive impact on the students and community.
“That’s what it’s about. It’s really about finding ways to help our students accomplish what they want to accomplish, that’s what I love about this job,” said Turley-Ames.
“You have one life, so you should live your best life.”
