Blakely Dishman
Features Editor
Can you introduce yourself?
I am David Newberry-Yokely. I work in the Admissions Office as the Director of Recruitment and Diversity Outreach. I am a Wooster grad; class of 2000.I grew up in Maple Heights, Ohio and have lived in Wooster off and on since I graduated.
Can you describe your job?
Generally speaking it is recruiting the next class. Central Ohio and the state of Tennessee are my recruitment territories. I work with Jess Nickerson on virtual events. I work with April in our office. She works with Senior Interns and I kind of oversee that with her. I also work multicultural recruitment with Alex, who is new in the office. Those are the special things I do in the office. It is a lot, but I always try to shout out the people I work with because they do great work.
What is something you want to improve upon? Whether it be at work or at home?
Professionally, I am always working on time management. At some points in my life it was a huge challenge for me, now it is not such a huge challenge for me. But, the better I continue to get about managing my time, the more I can get done within a short amount of time and the more time I can have with my friends and family. I am always just conscious of picking up new time management skills. Personally, I am always working on consistency. It is the one thing we can do, right? Can I be who I am no matter where I am? And not changing or being different in certain situations because it is not comfortable to be who I am. So representing the best David Yokely possible and being consistent about that.
Do you have a personal motto?
At home, my kids hate it, as it is “if you’re gonna be dumb, you gotta be tough.” If you’re gonna make bad choices you gotta deal with the consequences. They don’t love hearing that. In general I do not love the saying “work smart not hard.” I don’t love it as a whole, because [for me] it is not about not working hard, but it is about working smart. We [in admissions] were used to in-person work, that was pretty much all we did and we were super busy with it. Then you introduce about a year and a half of virtual work that kept us busy as well. Now, we are back doing virtual and in-person work. So, it is not about not working so we can be productive because we are doing more than we’ve ever done. That is something that I’ve been trying to keep in mind as of late.
What do you like to do in your free time?
I think of late it just feels like relaxing because it has been long days, and late nights as well. In general, hanging out with family is always number one. I love to cook. I like to be creative in general. During the pandemic there was a time where I was doing a lot of sewing—I was doing wallets and masks at one point. So being creative in general, most of that comes out through cooking. Learn to cook!
Do you have a favorite object or possession?
It is a cast iron skillet. I feel like I can do anything with it. If I had to grab a bunch of stuff (other than my family) when I was leaving the house that would be really helpful, I would grab my cast iron skillet. I have three cast iron skillets. My daughter yesterday was like “which cast iron skillet would you take?” I think I would take the cast iron skillet that was Laura’s (David’s wife) grandmother’s. It is mine now because she threw it in the trash. She didn’t realize the worth of a cast iron skillet, they last forever, people have cast iron skillets that have been passed down for generations.
Do you have any pets?
Technically. I have two dogs, Vincent and Emma. I say technically because when I graduated from college I got a dog named Jules. Even though Jules is no longer with us, I consider Jules to be my dog and so the other dogs are just…around. But yes, I have two dogs, Vincent is around 13 years old and Emma was actually a pandemic dog. A person that worked with my wife passed away and he had this dog. We had been talking about getting a dog so Emma came into our lives. She is super cute, she is a beagle and a bulldog. So from the neck up she looks like a beagle and the neck down she looks like a bulldog. We are growing to love each other.
What is your favorite part of your job?
I like meeting cool people., just generally speaking. Like w When I sit down and interview a person and I leave the conversation like “wow that is a great young person.” I like helping people find the best place for them, even if sometimes it is not Wooster. I like working with 17-18 year-olds, it keeps all of us in admissions young. Admissions is a strange sort of sale. For me it is being able to sell something that you really believe in and a place that you really believe in. When you’re at a place where you believe in it yourself and what it can do for students, it’s fun to be able to try to find those right fits, because there are also people who are just not great fits. I think the difference between admissions and sales is [in sales] you’re always about selling and sometimes I’m like “yeah but this is not the right environment for that person” and I don’t think we feel compelled to say “no, you really do want this.” It is just finding those students that will be the best fit for the College of Wooster or who are looking for places like the College of Wooster and then highlighting what the College can provide for students.
Is there anything you want to plug? Any wisdom you want to give to the people?
I would plug working with the Admissions Office. Only because it works best when people can talk to students, staff and faculty about their experiences on campus. So when you’re a tour guide—and we are hiring new tour guides soon and will be looking for new senior interns as well too—we are always looking for people to be on programs. We are starting to overnight host again and we could desperately use overnight hosts. We are always trying to keep this place thriving with great students and it is easier to do that when we have the support of students. I think prospective students really appreciate those conversations. They would much rather talk to you than to me.