‘That is Me Giving Again’

Assistant Dean of College students Sabine Dupoux Shines Gentle on Her Journey as a First Era Faculty Scholar

By Isabelle Mascary | Editor-in-Chief

Within the midst of the pandemic two and a half years in the past, Sabine Dupoux turned the Assistant Dean of College students on the Leominster campus and has been part of the Mount household ever since. She is a primary technology Haitian-American graduate along with her Grasp’s diploma in Enterprise Administration. 

She oversees the meals pantry in Gardner and Leominster and in addition oversees the administration operations of the Leominster constructing to make sure security for college, employees and college students. “My position is to make sure that college students are profitable inside and out of doors of the classroom,” she mentioned. 

The Mount’s newly-renovated Leominster campus is a selected delight and pleasure for Dupoux. After some setbacks (partially resulting from COVID-19), there was a restricted variety of college students within the constructing after which throughout development, the constructing was utterly closed. However Dupoux was desirous to share, “We simply accomplished an eight-month renovation reconstruction mission for this campus.” 

Though she didn’t create the blueprint, she was nonetheless in a position so as to add parts (reminiscent of water refill stations) to the design primarily based on listening and realizing in regards to the wants of the group school scholar. “I don’t have a background in development or mission administration,” she mentioned. “To see one thing on paper come to life is unimaginable.” 

 The first focus for Dupoux has at all times been the scholars, nevertheless. “Each part that one sees alongside the best way, you will notice that we have been very considerate within the means of what it’s wish to be a scholar right here and what we need to supply our college students,” shared Dupoux.

Earlier than becoming a member of the Mount household, she was a recruitment counselor at Quinsigamond Group Faculty. “I used to be at all times in highschool speaking to the scholar inhabitants, primarily sophomore juniors and seniors.”  She recruited and labored intently with different departments throughout the group school to construct the rapport of scholar wants. That position ready her for the place she is in now. 

A group school graduate herself, Dupoux considers her work as coming “full circle,” explaining, “That is me giving again what I acquired once I was a scholar. I used to be a single dad or mum taking 5 courses per semester, working half time on the admissions workplace. I used to be a tour information on the time at Quinsigamond.”

Dupoux majored in enterprise administration and graduated with an associates diploma from Quinsigamond earlier than shifting onto Bay Path College and Fitchburg State, receiving her bachelor’s and grasp’s respectively. 

Coming from a household of educators, Dupoux believed that instructing wasn’t the profession path for her, regardless of her mother and father’ needs. Her father needed her to be a trainer and her mom needed her to be a nurse. “I’m a insurgent, and my mother and father discovered that once I was fairly younger,” she defined. “I needed to enter enterprise and work in a nook pocket workplace on the middle of State Road and do accounting.” However after working within the admissions workplace half time at Quinsigamond, she acquired the perception that she wanted to hone in on her function. 

“I at all times thought schooling meant simply instructing within the classroom. I didn’t know there have been completely different areas the place you possibly can simply assist individuals in larger ed,” she mentioned whereas including, “If you’re working as a crew for a similar objective for one scholar or for a thousand college students, that’s so fulfilling by itself and it’s so highly effective. That’s how I ended up proper right here.” 

Dupoux is the youngest of the three and has two older brothers. She was born in Boston however raised in a few locations. “I lived in New York, lived in Boston, lived in Florida and lived in Worcester for a few years and at the moment reside there.”

When requested what a few of the obstacles are surrounding her place, Dupoux shared, “For the reason that technology modifications each educational college 12 months, there’s a brand new problem {that a} scholar presents to you that you just suppose may by no means occur,” she mentioned. Being that she is “answer pushed,” she admitted, “If I can’t remedy it proper then and there, that’s a problem for me, and in addition understanding that it will not be one thing that must be solved,” including that “It’s the problem of rising in my place by serving to college students develop as properly.” 

Her hobbies embody studying, swimming, coloring, and music. “I’m a music junkie. I like music.” As busy as she is with individuals all day lengthy, Dupoux wants her time to decompress similar to anybody else. “I like my quiet time and my alone time. These are the issues I get pleasure from essentially the most,” she admitted.

For Dupoux, communication is vital, and she or he advises college students to at all times voice their considerations and issues. “An individual doesn’t know what you’re going via till you say one thing,” mentioned Dupoux. Typically speaking about it is perhaps all a scholar must do. 

Sincerity is one other worth of hers, and it’s a part of what she loves about being on the Mount. “We’re very real in what we are saying to our college students,” she mentioned, including, “If a employees particular person asks a scholar, ‘how are you doing as we speak?’ We’re asking as a result of we care, we’re asking as a result of we need to know.” 

Dupoux additionally emphasised two essential items of recommendation she has for college kids, “Have enjoyable by getting concerned in what’s occurring on campus. You don’t know what you want till you actually attempt it,” and lastly, “Outline your individual success; don’t let others decide what that success is.” 

Her tradition is one thing that has influenced her in some ways. She shared an outdated saying, “If a goat has a goat in a pigsty, what’s it? It’s nonetheless a goat.” With this in thoughts, Dupoux dad or mum’s stance was, “‘Although you have been born in America, you’re Haitian and we’re going to boost you as a Haitian.’” 

Throughout her highschool years, her mother and father realized she was going to do what she needed to do so long as it made her glad. “As an grownup I’m extra acutely aware of the choices I make, what I do and what course I’m going in, particularly having a 15 12 months outdated daughter,” mentioned Dupoux.

In a Haitian group, the sentiments and ideas of the youngsters don’t matter as a lot as a result of the mother and father pay the payments. That mindset has influenced Dupoux’s parenting type an amazing deal. “If we have been shifting to a different state,” she mentioned, “I might ask my daughter how she feels about it as a result of I must know the way it impacts my baby. Not like in my time: if we moved, we moved,” she mentioned. Reflecting on her path and her relationship along with her mother and father, she mentioned, “They’re pleased with the work that I’ve executed, they usually see the progress as a result of they know what I’ve been via and to have the ability to give again I feel that brings them a major quantity of pleasure, as properly. They ensure they remind me of that day-after-day.”

Resisting “Americanization” whereas coping with excessive expectations from her mother and father and tradition was a problem for her. “That Haitian mentality will get to you, and it might probably restrict you,” she mentioned, “It’s onerous. I’m within the tradition. However you must reside for you. It took me a very long time to get there.”