{"id":1396,"date":"2025-05-22T06:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-05-22T11:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/avpacad\/?p=1396"},"modified":"2025-05-21T16:57:15","modified_gmt":"2025-05-21T21:57:15","slug":"be-joyful","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/avpacad\/be-joyful\/","title":{"rendered":"Be Joyful"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>\u201cBe joyful, though you have considered all the facts.\u201d Wendell Berry<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>We live in challenging times.&nbsp; We look around us and we see change (expected and unexpected), unpredictability, trauma, distress, malaise, tribalism, nativism, jingoism, confusion.&nbsp; How do we respond?&nbsp; How should we respond?&nbsp; How <em>could<\/em> we respond?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Here at ACC we have four values to guide our work:&nbsp; Courage, Compassion, Joy, and Yes.&nbsp; These values are our accountability markers.&nbsp; Are we courageous in our decision-making and actions, doing what\u2019s best for students?&nbsp; Do we act with compassion towards our students, faculty, and staff as we go through our days?&nbsp; Do we collaborate with our colleagues across \u201csilos\u201d to best serve our students, even when we have to say no?&nbsp; In other words, do we try to find a different \u201cyes\u201d or a \u201cno, but we could do this instead\u201d?&nbsp; And most importantly, do we find joy in our work?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Joy can be hard to find when the world around us is one of disputation and discord.&nbsp; That\u2019s why I love the quote above.&nbsp; We can still be joyful, despite all evidence to the contrary.&nbsp; We can consider the facts and still choose joy.&nbsp; For me, going through life joyfully means finding things that delight me and celebrating those things.&nbsp; Delight at work, for me, is found every day in collaboration, in collegiality, in a professional community, and in commitment to a common cause.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Our joy at work sparks joy for our students, their families and our community.\u00a0 These two pictures from our Spring 2025 graduation say it all.\u00a0 This is why I come to work every day, and this is why I find joy in my work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-28f84493 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"400\" height=\"267\" src=\"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/avpacad\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/213\/2025\/05\/Graduate.jpg\" alt=\"Image of a graduate student. The student is at the ceremony.\" class=\"wp-image-1398\" srcset=\"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/avpacad\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/213\/2025\/05\/Graduate.jpg 400w, https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/avpacad\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/213\/2025\/05\/Graduate-300x200.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"400\" height=\"267\" src=\"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/avpacad\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/213\/2025\/05\/celebration.jpg\" alt=\"People are clapping because they are at the graduation ceremony.\" class=\"wp-image-1399\" srcset=\"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/avpacad\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/213\/2025\/05\/celebration.jpg 400w, https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/avpacad\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/213\/2025\/05\/celebration-300x200.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>I invite you to join me in finding joy &#8211; in your work, in your friendships, in your family, and in your community.\u00a0 Consider all the facts, and yet &#8211; find joy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cBe joyful, though you have considered all the facts.\u201d Wendell Berry We live in challenging times.&nbsp; We look around us and we see change (expected and unexpected), unpredictability, trauma, distress, malaise, tribalism, nativism, jingoism, confusion.&nbsp; How do we respond?&nbsp; How should we respond?&nbsp; How could we respond? Here at ACC we have four values to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":375,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1396","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-updates"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/avpacad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1396","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/avpacad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/avpacad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/avpacad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/375"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/avpacad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1396"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/avpacad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1396\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/avpacad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1396"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/avpacad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1396"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/avpacad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1396"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}