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CAROLYN SHANK: ONE OF A KIND

By Anthonia Edgren (RPTA '12), Editor, The Report

Professor Emeritus Carolyn Shank is truly one of a kind. After retiring from her 32-year stay at Cal Poly as a student and then a professor, she has participated in little of the stereotypical “retired life.” Rather, she has taken on new hobbies, endeavors, and adventures, making the young at heart jealous of life after Cal Poly. How does she do it? “I never worry. I’ve had some health problems but it is what it is. I have a sense of humor about things. I got class clown in high school. I’m just lucky. I was born with decent genes. A slight risk taker, I put myself out there a bit.”

According to many, Carolyn Shank was the catalyst that turned the RPTA department into what it is today. As department head she hired Dr. Hendricks, Professor Root, and Professor Moyer, and by doing so, helped the program gain national accreditation and permanent department status at Cal Poly.

Currently, Shank teaches a 55+ exercise class consisting of stretch and flexibility training. An avid golfer, she hits the course every week; she is also the event chair for the Sea Pines Golf Resort, and the hospitality chair and Webmaster for the Morro Bay golf course. She has organized the Monarch Invitational, as well as Rally for the Cure, an event to raise money for breast cancer research. Shank says that planning events like these challenges her to “practice what she preached.” Dr. Shank has been experiencing the world within the past few years in traveling to North Carolina, New York, and Australia “to just run around.” Shank explained that she prefers traveling to large cities because she enjoys the challenge of mastering and finding her way around.

So, while Carolyn Shank is getting holes in one at Sea Pines Golf Course (Hole 7), traveling the world, rewriting a book, and being a devoted family member to her daughters, mother, and husband, she has some advice for today’s RPTA students, “There is only so much you can learn in classes. It’s what’s out there in the world and it's what you can do on your own with no teachers standing there. Can you pull it off? 1000 hours are the most important thing, getting the experience is what is important because nowadays, a Bachelor’s degree is just a foot in the door.”

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