{"id":4402,"date":"2010-03-08T00:00:00","date_gmt":"1970-01-01T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lesliedinaberg.com\/wordpress\/?p=4402"},"modified":"2014-02-17T22:10:46","modified_gmt":"2014-02-18T06:10:46","slug":"noozhawk-talks-leslie-dinaberg-sits-down-with-colette-hadley","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lesliedinaberg.com\/wordpress\/?p=4402","title":{"rendered":"Noozhawk Talks: Leslie Dinaberg Sits Down With Colette Hadley"},"content":{"rendered":"

Colette Hadley\u2019s Commitment to Education Is All About Opportunity<\/strong><\/p>\n

For Scholarship Foundation of Santa Barbara director, the future begins now for the students she aims to help<\/p>\n
\"Colette<\/a>

Colette Hadley, Noozhawk photo<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
The\u00a0Scholarship Foundation of Santa Barbara\u2019s<\/a>\u00a0services are needed now more than ever as the rising costs of college mean more and more families are looking for financial aid to help afford the expense.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Noozhawk\u2019s<\/a>\u00a0Leslie Dinaberg caught up with executive director Colette Hadley to talk about her life, work and what it\u2019s like to help students and their families pursue their educational dreams.<\/div>\n

Leslie Dinaberg:<\/strong> How long have you been at the Scholarship
\nFoundation of Santa Barbara?<\/p>\n

Colette Hadley:<\/strong> Seventeen years. I started here when I was 30
\nand I’m 47. The foundation and I, funnily enough, were born on the same day. May
\n29, 1962 was the first meeting of the scholarship foundation and that’s the same day
\nI was born.<\/p>\n

LD:<\/strong> Fate.<\/p>\n

CH:<\/strong> I like to think of that a little bit as the kinship between us.
\nI’ve been here a long time. I started out doing, interestingly enough, some event
\nmanagement and then within a year moved into program management. We were
\njust a tiny group, there were like four employees. We’re still small but we were
\nreally small.<\/p>\n

LD:<\/strong> Did you come to Santa Barbara to do that or were you
\nalready here?<\/p>\n

CH:<\/strong> I’m a pretty planned person in life. … I actually had worked
\nat the University\u00a0of California at the Irvine<\/a> campus and then a little bit at the UCLA<\/a> campus in\u00a0student affairs, and I was just kind of looking for a change. … I really liked higher
\neducation, working with students, but I really wanted to see more of the results of
\nwhat I was doing. I wanted to be a little more hands on. I loved my work there but …
\nI felt like I was like kind of a cog in a big university, which I was, so I wanted to do
\nsomething smaller. I specifically said I’m going to look for an educationally related
\njob, most likely a nonprofit.<\/p>\n

… I had a friend from college living in Santa Barbara and we had kept in close touch.
\nShe said, “why don’t you come check out Santa Barbara and stay with me for a
\ncouple of weeks.” This was in 1992 and I said “there are no jobs in Santa Barbara,
\neverybody knows there are no jobs in Santa Barbara, and so I’ll just come and sit on
\na beach.”<\/p>\n

LD:<\/strong> And you found the job through a tiny newspaper ad.<\/p>\n

CH:<\/strong> I sent them my resume and they called me. … I had this
\ninterview scheduled at the University\u00a0Club and they really hadn’t told me much about it. So I go into this little room at\u00a0the University Club and there are eight people in this room and I’m thinking I was\u00a0just going for a one-on-one interview. I go in, I just shook the sand out of my sandals\u00a0and pulled on a skirt and put on a jacket … and I walked in this room and it was full
\nof very warm, smiling people. … I’m looking at people who are just big circles of
\nwarmth. … So I sit down and they’re like we’re so glad to meet you and we’re so
\nexcited and tell us about this and tell us about that and we just sat and had a
\nconversation and I just instantly liked them.<\/p>\n

… I had been home five minutes and the phone rang and it’s Billie Mans (former
\nexecutive director) and she goes, “we loved you!” Nobody does that. They say, “Oh
\nwe’d like you to come back for a second interview.” She’s like “we loved you come
\nback again. We want you to meet some more board members.”<\/p>\n

So I go back again. I’m thinking geez these people really care. They have all these
\nboard members and the staff and they really care.<\/p>\n

LD:<\/strong> What a change from a huge university. Not that they don’t
\ncare, but there are just so many layers.<\/p>\n

CH:<\/strong> Basically I went back and they offered me a job. … I had to
\ndecide whether I wanted to take a pretty significant pay cut. But the gut was I would
\nenjoy working with these people. We had nothing written down or anything but
\nthey said I’m telling you within three years you’ll be back to what you were making
\nand beyond that. And we promise that if you decide you want to be here and you’re
\ncommitted and you do this job that we will be here for you and I just trusted them
\nand they did that.<\/p>\n

LD:<\/strong> That’s great.<\/p>\n

CH: <\/strong> Good people. So I had good mentoring with Billie and we
\nkind of grew along together and good mentoring with the board and you know since
\nthat time we’ve been that way, 17 years later, and that’s why I’m still here.<\/p>\n

LD:<\/strong> When did you become the executive director?<\/p>\n

CH:<\/strong> Four years ago. I worked as the program director for quite a
\nlong time and then as the associate director. … I’m very fortunate. I still think I have
\nprobably the best job in town. Maybe me or Ron Gallo<\/a>
\n(executive director of the Santa Barbara Foundation<\/a>), I’m not sure. Maybe me.
\n(Laughs)<\/p>\n

LD:<\/strong> There are a lot of similarities actually.<\/p>\n

CH:<\/strong> Yeah. He’s got a great board and we actually share some
\npeople on the boards, so for me that’s the fun though. It’s great students and parents
\nand great board members and great staff but also really we have great donors. … It’s
\nsomething that keeps me very connected to my work.<\/p>\n

LD:<\/strong> That’s great. Are most of the big supporters people who were
\nscholarship students at one point?<\/p>\n

CH:<\/strong> Excellent question. I would say that at least half of them.
\nThey all have a personal story … Some people have also said the opposite: they grew
\nup with a supportive family environment and they had the resources to send me to
\ncollege and they went to a phenomenal university and have then gone on to achieve
\nquite a bit in their life and then said you know what, I am really aware that there are
\npeople out there that did not have that and it’s not an equal playing field. And so it’s
\nmy obligation to help, that’s an attitude we run into, besides the people that say oh
\nyes, I couldn’t have gone if I didn’t have a scholarship.<\/p>\n

… The stories are amazing and some of them you don’t know until years go by, and
\nyou don’t know. So yes, that’s part of it too. I think it doesn’t matter what nonprofit
\nyou work with or what you do. It’s about the stories. It’s about that. You probably
\nfind that in your work too.<\/p>\n

LD:<\/strong> Oh yes, it’s about the stories for sure.<\/p>\n

CH:<\/strong> It’s the same thing with the parents of students, it’s their
\nstories, that’s really what it’s about is that connection. That’s why introducing
\nstudents or having them speak at something or tell their story, we can all find some
\nconnection there.<\/p>\n

LD:<\/strong> So is it tougher to get into college now?<\/p>\n

CH:<\/strong> I will give you the stats I know. Basically the peak of the baby
\nboomlet, the kids of the baby boomers, was really this last year, so in sheer numbers
\ncompeting for seats, the peak was last year. It’s still high right now but it will start to
\ndiminish. … Santa Barbara County, especially in the south county, our population of
\nhigh school seniors will start to slowly go down and so that’s happening all over the
\ncountry a little bit. So they will actually have a little less competition for seats in the
\nnext couple of years.<\/p>\n

However, what has offset that because we have such a bad budget situation is that
\nlast year all of the UC’s and Cal States cut off spring transfers from community
\ncolleges and they are all ratcheting back. Not only have they raised the fees almost
\n35 percent in 12 months but they also are ratcheting back the sizes of their classes
\nslowly. In terms of their enrollment management techniques, they are going to start
\nusing wait lists this year at the UC’s, which is very tricky and very stressful. But yes
\nit’s actually for different reasons going to be just as challenging for the next couple
\nof years, but for different reasons.<\/p>\n

LD:<\/strong> When you say ratcheting back the size of their classes do you
\nmean the freshman class?<\/p>\n

CH:<\/strong> Yes, the number that will go through. That’s the UC’s and Cal
\nStates. Private and independent institutions are actually right now-not the
\nStanfords and the Ivies but the others-are actually a tiny bit more expansive right
\nnow because there are students in the past year and a half particularly that have
\nturned away from those institutions, not because they don’t love them, but because
\nof the high cost … Community colleges of course are being hit by a tsunami of
\nstudents and all of them are cutting their sections. … With our student scholarship
\nrecipients the program staff will tell you the number of students begging for
\nforbearance because they can’t get 12 units, they’re lucky if they get 11. They’re not
\ntrying to get in, people think oh they don’t want to get an 8 o’clock class, they’re
\ntrying to get anything. Any class.<\/p>\n

… Even a few years ago they had a little more flexibility but now with calculus and
\nall of these things boom, you don’t get into it in the fall, you’re going to have to wait
\na year. So that’s what’s affecting the students and it’s been dramatic. It has not been
\na gradual change. It’s been huge this year and it’s going to get worse next year.<\/p>\n

So getting in, still challenging. Staying in, getting what you need is probably the most
\nchallenging that it’s ever been.<\/p>\n

LD:<\/strong> That’s too bad.<\/p>\n

CH:<\/strong> Yes, it is. When I hear the governor say and I believe this, he
\nactually came in touting education as his number one issue. I have mixed feelings
\nabout him, as a lot of people do, but I actually believe personally it is a priority of his
\nbut I just think that it’s just not the way our state is working right now. It’s just not
\nthe way it is. We have a legislature that can’t agree on anything and he doesn’t really
\nhave a lot of power with that. They are not putting education first.<\/p>\n

LD:<\/strong> It’s so frustrating.<\/p>\n

CH:<\/strong> It is. I think everybody is tired of that with our U.S. Congress
\nas well. … When I talk to colleagues who are running programs in Ohio and Virginia
\nand other places, everybody’s got something going on that’s affecting them.<\/p>\n

LD:<\/strong> It’s nice to have those people to bounce ideas around with.<\/p>\n

CH:<\/strong> … The beauty of being in an educational nonprofit is
\nwhatever your politics are, and we have a large board, 40 people on our board, so I
\nspend a lot of time working with our board. But it doesn’t matter someone’s political
\nbackground. You can have people on your board that are on different ends of the
\npolitical spectrum, completely different ends, but providing educational
\nopportunities is a place where a lot of people come together. It’s a very cohesive
\nthing. Something that people rally around is helping students. Which is very much,
\nagain, a positive feature of being here. I enjoy talking to those people of all different
\nopinions and backgrounds. I think that as tough as it is sometimes-and the last
\nyear was tough, really tough-it’s pretty much relentlessly positive work.<\/p>\n

LD:<\/strong> That’s really nice and probably why you’ve been able to be
\nhere for the length of time that you have been.<\/p>\n

CH:<\/strong> I totally agree. It’s must more challenging to be someplace
\nlike our colleagues next door, we sublease part of our building to the Arthritis
\nFoundation. A great cause and yet it’s a longer-term goal. A scholarship, here’s a kid
\nyou give them a scholarship they tell you what happened and they got their degree.<\/p>\n

LD:<\/strong> That’s nice. So what else do you do when you’re not
\nworking?<\/p>\n

CH:<\/strong> I’m big with books, so books, films; current events are big,
\nbig, big for me. I read a lot of newspapers; … my family and my friends are a big part
\nof my life.<\/p>\n

… I love talking. I don’t love arguing about current events but I like just talking about
\nwhat’s happening with people and I like to be around people that are engaged and if
\nthey say “I don’t read a newspaper” they might be a really great person, but they’re
\nprobably not going to be in my close, everyday network. I love the beach and I really
\nlove California. I just like the different parts of the state. I like the mountains, I love
\nthe beach … When you take a walk down at Ledbetter beach, there is no place you
\ncan turn, 360 degrees, that you don’t see something of great beauty.<\/p>\n

LD:<\/strong> That’s okay. If you could be invisible anywhere, where would
\nyou go and what would you do?<\/p>\n

CH:<\/strong> Oval office probably in the White House … I just think of that
\nprocess of what goes on in that office and how decisions are made. … I can’t imagine
\nthe weight that person feels on their shoulders. There are days I feel it here and I’m
\nresponsible for just this agency and the employees and students we’re responsible
\nto and the donors we’re responsible and then I think oh my God, can you imagine
\nbeing the president of the United States or somebody who really has
\nresponsibilities, not just somebody running a little agency.<\/p>\n

… Or maybe the International Space Station, I would pick that one too. Of course I
\nwouldn’t have to be invisible just to see what’s happening.<\/p>\n

Vital Stats: Colette Hadley<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Born:<\/strong> May 29, 1962, in Spokane Washington<\/p>\n

Family:<\/strong> “I have six brothers and sisters and then a stepbrother
\nand a stepsister, so 9 kids in my family. They’re my favorite people. My mom died in
\n1980 and my dad is 83 and he is remarried to my step mom, she’s great.”<\/p>\n

Civic Involvement:<\/strong> Planned Parenthood, CASA, Big Brothers, Big
\nSisters and Cal Soap.<\/p>\n

Professional Accomplishments:<\/strong> “As executive director of the
\nScholarship Foundation of Santa Barbara I’m just doing my best to run the agency as
\nbest I can and to do it with integrity and efficiency. And to try and take good care of
\nour clients and our donors and our staff and our board and try and juggle all of those
\nat the same time.”<\/p>\n

Best Book You’ve Read Recently:<\/strong> “Island: The Complete Stories”<\/a> by Alistair
\nMacLeod.<\/p>\n

Favorite Local Spot:<\/strong> Ledbetter Beach, Arigato, Arnoldi’s or
\nShalhoob’s.<\/p>\n

Little-Known Fact:<\/strong> “I would secretly like to have a radio show.”<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Originally published in Noozhawk<\/a>\u00a0on March 8, 2010. Read the article on that site here<\/a>.<\/h6>\n

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