By Ilhan Raage
Editor-in-Chief
Jeffery Boyd is the sixth president that Judy Kingsbury has worked with during her tenure at Rochester Community and Technical College. (Photo courtesy of Kelsey Beck)
One can only imagine finding a career that satisfies them and in which they excel at. Some people, however, are fortunate enough to find such a career. This is the case for Judy Kingsbury.
She is an alumna of RCTC and graduated from Rochester Area Vocational Technical Institute in the Legal Secretary program. She was then hired at the community college to work for the Dean of Continuing Education.
In 1996, during a merger of the Technical College and Community College, she was assigned to work for the Vice President of Student Affairs, Don Supalla. She has been in her current position for the past 21 years of her 37 years at RCTC.
“During my time at RCTC I’ve worked for 11 different people ó which includes six different presidents ó enjoying my time with each and every one and getting to know them all on a personal level as well as professional level,” said Kingsbury. “I also consider myself lucky to say I’ve been able to work at one organization for so many years, at a place I love, surrounded by great people.”
Speaking of the college presidents that she has worked with, Kingsbury said, “When I began to work for Don Supalla, we made a great team because Don worked for the technical college and I worked for the community college, so we had the knowledge from both systems to share with each other right after the merger. Working for Mary Davenport was similar to that because she worked so many years within Minnesota’s colleges that she and I knew the same people and knew the system/state policies and the history on why those policies exist.”
Kingsbury enjoys being able to meet community leaders and elected officials to see that they too are just regular people. Although many people might not know this about her, she also used to volunteer to work the college football games for over 20 years along with her husband and her son.
As Kingsbury reflected on her time here, she remarked, ìIf asked one thing that comes to mind about my years here, it would have to be working with and helping White House Staff prepare for the George W. Bush Presidential visit to our campus and watching all the behind the scenes activities that happen for such a visit.
For some people, it might take a while to discover a career that they love. For others, they travel a path that leads them to find a career that they remain passionate about for many years.