IARYD student Chevy Cook – a man of many hats
Second year Eliot-Pearson Child Studies and Human Development (EP CSHD) doctoral student Chevy Cook is a man of many hats. He is a father of two (London – 10, and Lola – 8 months), a husband to his high school sweetheart (Ashley – married 13 years and together for 21), an Army officer with 16 years of active-duty service, a former and future teacher at the United States Military Academy at West Point, and a nonprofit co-founder and executive director (MilitaryMentors.org). When you juggle that many roles and responsibilities successfully there’s surely some luck involved, but Chevy believes in the adage that luck is simply a combination of timing and preparation.
Chevy’s life lessons throughout these multiple roles have allowed him to draw upon a multitude of interests, development experiences, and educational pursuits for preparation when the timing has been right, and lately that preparation has paid off not once, not twice, and not even three fold. He has been afforded four outstanding opportunities as of late that speak to the quality of direction by his advisor Dr. Rich Lerner, the caliber of his Institute for Applied Research in Youth Development (IARYD) teammates, and the CSHD staff, faculty and curriculum, all the while living up to the pursuit of excellence and civic-mindedness of Tufts Jumbos campus-wide.
Chevy has been selected for three different keynote addresses at a variety of conferences this fall. At each conference, he will be leveraging his studies of human development and character development, as well as his experiences as an Army officer, West Point instructor, and nonprofit leader to discuss a framework he has crafted for developing high-stakes/high-stress leaders. On September 11th he will present at the Human Capital Institute’s “Learning and Leadership Development Conference” (https://lldconference.com/speakers/). On October 5th Indiana University has asked him to present at two sessions for their “National Mentoring Symposium” (https://symposium.iupui.edu/index.html#presentations). The organization will also highlight his session during marketing for the conference to showcase what will be available to attendees. Third, at the University of New Mexico’s Mentoring Institute Chevy will make a presentation during the week of October 21st, during their 12th Annual Mentoring Conference. His talk will be entitled “Toward the Science of Mentoring” (https://mentor.unm.edu/conference/). These presentations are all great opportunities for Chevy to engage leaders and educators across a wide variety of sectors in the art and science of developing others to their highest potential.
Finally, Chevy was also just selected into the Institute for Nonprofit Practice’s Community Fellows Program (http://www.nonprofitpractice.org/community-fellows-program). Sponsored by Tisch College, this prestigious, fully-funded, one-year fellowship invests in the next generation of nonprofit and community leaders dedicated to social change by advancing their leadership skills, increasing their social capital, and embedding students in a robust professional network to propel their careers. Only 24 individuals are selected from the greater Boston area once a year, and Fellows are granted a certificate in Community Leadership and Social Change at the culmination of their tenure.
Chevy hopes to inspire others through both message and deed and is both humbled and elated by these opportunities.
A message from IARYD Director Professor Richard M. Lerner
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