When students come to Hillsdale as freshmen, the last thing they want is to feel like a kid. Many students, however, find themselves doing things like playing “horsey” and reading picture books—not while spending time in the dorm, but while babysitting professors’ kids.
Many Hillsdale students who babysit for their professors end up developing a more personal bond with the people they see up the hill.
“The summer that I lived here between freshman and sophomore year, I babysat for a lot of different families. I think they were all professors or staff of the college,” Kookogey said.
Kookogey said babysitting has been a great way to get to know professors.
“I love the opportunity to build different relationships with the professors that I have babysat for. I think all the professors I have babysat for I actually have not had as professors,” Kookogey said.
Kookogey said she enjoys getting to see professors in a different light.
“Babysitting gives you a nice perspective on the professors here in general because a lot of them have young families,” Kookogey said. “It is a totally different side of them, and so it’s cool to have the opportunity to have that more familial relationship,” Kookogey said.
According to Kookogey, it is not unusual for students to get to know not just their professors, but their families as well.
“That is what I like about Hillsdale, it is so familiar that people have the opportunity to do that because of the small community,” Kookogey said.
Sophomore Charlie Kacal, who babysits for the Yosts, said that the experience can be educational.
“Me, Ralphie, and William were building a racetrack with plastic magnetics, and Ralphie goes, ‘It’s like the hippodrome,’” Kacal said. “William chimed in and went, ‘Yeah, yeah, it’s like the hippodrome.’”
Unsure what the hippodrome was, Kacal had to look it up.
“Sure enough, they were right.”
Freshman Lucy Potter said her faith is what originally led her to babysitting for a professor.
“Mrs. Servold is my advisor. The first time that we met I was wearing a medal with Mary on it. She is Catholic, and she found out that I was Catholic, so she asked me if I wanted to babysit,” Potter said.
Potter said she babysat in high school and knew she wanted to continue once she arrived at Hillsdale. She also babysits for the Schleuter family.
Potter often plays many different games with Servold’s children.
Five-year-old Lizzie Servold said she enjoys playing ping pong with Potter, but said, “She is not very good at it.”
“Sometimes I like playing with my ‘horsey’ with her,” Lizzie added.
Potter said babysitting for multiple professors has made it easier to talk to them.
“It makes me feel like I can definitely go and talk to them as a real person,” Potter said.
She said her appreciation for her professors has grown since she has started babysitting because it has made her realize how difficult it is to be a professor as well as a parent.
“It is helpful to remember that they are so human,” Potter said. “They are someone else’s dad just like my dad is my father, and they have all the regular requirements of being a father to take care of in addition to being a professor.”