FACES & FRIENDS AT TUSCULUM

BONNIE TAYLOR

STUDENT LIFE COORDINATOR & MULTICULTURAL AFFAIRS COORDINATOR

Bonnie Taylor, Tusculum College's Student Life Coordinator and Multicultural Affairs Coordinator, lives in a residence hall at Tusculum College, Katherine Hall. It's a building with a feminine name but a very masculine vibe, home to many Pioneer athletes during the academic year. Bonnie says she is pretty much isolated from that. She lives in an apartment in the building with its own access, and says she sees most other residents of Katherine out on the campus much more than she does at Katherine itself.

Pass Katherine Hall's open windows at the height of the school year and you'll almost always hear rock or hip-hop music blasting out from student rooms. Bonnie's apartment is a quieter place. She loves to cook and is a self-described "Food Network junky." Her main hobby, though, is reading. She devours literature passionately, and enjoys movies as well. Among her favorite films is the recent Tyler Perry offering, "Daddy's Little Girls." Her last-read book was "The Kite Runner," the first novel by Afghan-American author Khaled Hosseini. It was published in 2003, and is the first novel published in English by an author from Afghanistan. A film adaptation comes out this November.

It is perhaps no surprise that Bonnie finds interesting a story set in Afghani culture. Her work at Tusculum focuses on multicultural matters, so she finds people from many backgrounds, nations and cultures to be fascinating.

The Akron, Ohio, native has been at Tusculum for two years now and keeps her office in the Student Affairs area of the Niswonger Commons. There she enjoys meeting students in the course of her work. "Getting to know students" is what Bonnie describes as the most fulfilling part of her job. She has now been at Tusculum long enough to see some students she got to know early on now finishing their College careers.

Bonnie also keeps in contact with students by advising the Tusculum College Dance Team and working with Black United Students and the International and Multicultural Society.

FAST FACTS ABOUT BONNIE TAYLOR

FAVORITE QUOTE: Frederick Douglass: "Where there's no struggle, there's no progress."

TELEVISION: Bonnie loves not only the Food Network, but also the comedy "Reba." She attends Friendship Baptist Church in Greeneville.

LIFE MODEL: Bonnie's life model is her mother, LaVonne Taylor of Akron, who is a second-grade school teacher and a doctoral candidate at the University of Akron.