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All through all 12 years of his major and secondary schooling, Grant Hayes solely ever missed someday of faculty.
The oldest of 4 boys rising up in rural South Carolina, Hayes says it was his mom who instilled in him the significance of a very good schooling. That dedication has resonated with Hayes since he was a toddler, and he’s carried it with him by a number of levels as a first-generation scholar, in addition to numerous schooling management roles.
Most not too long ago, it’s what introduced Hayes again to UCF — this time as dean of the College of Community Innovation and Education.
A professor of counselor schooling, he holds a grasp’s diploma in secondary college steering, in addition to each doctoral and academic specialist levels in counselor schooling, from the College of South Carolina. He earned his bachelor’s diploma from Limestone College in South Carolina.
![](https://www.ucf.edu/news/files/2022/08/UCF_Grant-Hayes-2.jpg)
His return to UCF is a homecoming of types. Hayes spent greater than 17 years as college and in numerous management roles right here, together with interim dean, government affiliate dean, assistant dean, and division chair within the former School of Training and Human Efficiency.
Hayes left to grow to be dean of the School of Training at East Carolina College in 2015, and in 2019, he went on to function the college’s interim provost and senior vice chancellor for Tutorial Affairs for 3 years.
Having saved up with what’s occurring round UCF since he left, his curiosity was piqued when he was contacted in regards to the School of Group Innovation and Training’s seek for a brand new dean.
“The factor that basically sparked my curiosity was the individuality of the school and the way the packages had been positioned, in addition to the mission of constructing stronger communities and neighborhood engagement,” he says. “I additionally see the potential of our mission, and it’s one thing that I instantly linked with. I did quite a lot of work concerning neighborhood engagement in Greenville at ECU as a result of that was a giant a part of the college’s mission, too. I believed it will be a beautiful alternative to proceed to work with a diversified program portfolio.”
The school’s mission of teaching and empowering leaders to serve by revolutionary instruction, sturdy partnerships and transformative scholarship particularly resonates with Hayes, who sees it as the important thing to neighborhood influence.
“It’s a possibility to harness the mental capital that we’ve got right here on the college to resolve complicated or difficult issues of society.”
“It’s a possibility to harness the mental capital that we’ve got right here on the college to resolve complicated or difficult issues of society,” he says. “Simply take a look at the influence that we will make when everybody comes collectively to focus on community-motivated analysis.”
New to Hayes since his final tenure on the college, UCF Downtown is one other key element he views as a vital useful resource within the mission of empowering college students to serve a various society.
“I see a lot nice potential right here,” he says. “It’s an exquisite facility. It’s unbelievable when taking a look at scholar affairs and the best way issues are located to the place college students can simply journey down the elevator from their dorm rooms and get tutoring or advising proper there with out leaving the constructing. Once you additionally take into consideration the potential for partnerships and networking, it’s great to have the ability to create a majority of these accessible alternatives for college students.”
A part of Hayes’ preliminary focus for the School of Group Innovation and Training is making a relationship-rich tradition throughout the faculty during which everybody feels extra unified. A method to try this, he says, is offering alternatives for packages to study one another, the kind of analysis during which they’re engaged, and the way they interact and influence college students.
“I believe folks will understand that they’ve extra in widespread than not,” he says. “After I take a look at three areas of focus, I believe it’s in all probability centered on college students, analysis excellence and partnerships, and constructing a relationship-rich neighborhood and tradition.”
“After I take a look at three areas of focus, I believe it’s in all probability centered on college students, analysis excellence and partnerships, and constructing a relationship-rich neighborhood and tradition.”
Being again in a metropolis like Orlando additionally presents loads of inventive shops and alternatives — one thing Hayes by no means strayed removed from — outdoors the office. A classically skilled singer, music additionally has been a giant a part of his life. Actually, when he isn’t attending to school issues, you would possibly catch him again on stage performing with the Bach Pageant Choir of Winter Park or perhaps a native theater. After a 30-year hiatus, he took up performing once more with a neighborhood theater in Greenville, South Carolina. Most not too long ago, he performed the roles of Purlie within the musical Purlie, Hoke in Driving Miss Daisy, and Reverend Dr. Harper in Arsenic and Previous Lace.
In the intervening time, the chance to return residence and be a part of formulating the trajectory during which the School of Group Innovation and Training is headed is without doubt one of the issues Hayes is most trying ahead to.
“I believe the good issues which might be going to return out of this school will probably be wonderful not just for the school and the college, however for all of the communities that we serve,” he says. “Once you go away an establishment for an additional alternative, you actually don’t assume you’re going to return again. In some ways, I really feel like I’m coming residence. There’s such a powerful sense of consolation, and it simply feels proper.”
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