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	<p>Brechbill enjoying a day on his boat with his family.</p>
Brechbill enjoying a day on his boat with his family.

Building of An Otterbein hero through personal challenge.

He’s not a “Super Hero,” and he didn’t just wake up one morning and decide to be who he is today just because.

Ryan Brechbill, Director of the Otterbein Center for Career and Professional Development, is who he is today and tells the story he tells, because of the challenges he has faced throughout his own career.

He started at Bowling Green State University, not quite knowing what it is he wanted to do with his life. “I wanted to design and deliver content to help employees learn new skills in their jobs, or help them improve upon any new processes that were going on. So I wanted to be like a teacher within the business world,” said Brechbill.

After finishing at BGSU, Brechbill took a job at Vanderbilt University, in Nashville, Tenn. Working again in the career services offices, he quickly moved on to Denison University located in a small town called Granville, OH.

“I worked at Denison for nine years,” said Brechbill. The director of career services left Denison in Dec. 2010. Upon her departure, Brechbill was appointed interim director.

“There was a national search, I went through that search, I was a finalist for the role,” says Brechbill. “I remember interviewing in late February and didn’t hear anything through late March.”

“Well, I didn’t get the job,” says Brechbill with an honest smile.

With some of Brechbill’s humor coming to the surface, he remembers what he was feeling that day by saying, “I just wanted to know, I mean if you aren’t going to hire me that’s fine, but just tell me, don’t leave me just hanging here, especially as an internal candidate.”

Brechbill remembers, “It was just really awkward being the interim director and having people across campus, being awkward toward me because they didn’t know what to say.”

Even today, Brechbill fights with that feeling of rejection. “I remember, It was April 1, it was a Friday morning,” he said. “I took that weekend to kind of, have my ‘break down,’ just letting go of emotions, and being like, OK, well whats next?”

Brechbill had two options: to deal with the incoming director at Denison University, whom he’d worked with before, or to move on to something new.

He interviewed for an institution near Nashville that wasn’t Vanderbilt. He pursued the opportunity, although realizing that moving his family wasn’t what he wanted to do; he’s married, with two boys he adores, Jacob, 8, and Shawn, 5. Family is the center of Brechbill’s world.

Brechbill saw that Otterbein University had a job opening posted, he hadn’t even considered Otterbein as an option, however he didn’t apply. He’d been offered a position with this other institution, however declining, after much contemplation and discussion with his wife Becca, they decided that staying here in Ohio was best for the family and for Brechbill.

He called about the position, and sure enough, he was invited to interview.

“I think that even when I interviewed here, it was May 2011, and classes where nearing their end,” says Brechbill. “It was getting towards Finals, but, one of the things that I saw…”

He moves to another thought, “Dean Gatti took me on my campus tour. When we were doing that, besides it being like 100 degrees, it was a very hot day and it was awesome being in a black suit…”

“People opened doors for each other, students made eye contact, they said,“Hi,” to each other, faculty members said, “Hello,” to students. That was something I was looking for. I was very intentional, during that tour; yeah, I wanted to see the buildings and the lay out of the campus, but, I wanted to see those subtle interactions that happen on a daily basis here at Otterbein. That was very, very, important to me.”

“I’ve been at institutions where that doesn’t happen where people are heads down, won’t make eye contact.” He still sees the positive interaction here Otterbein University everyday. Something as little as that is very important to me,” Brechbill says. “Just the general interactions that people in the community have with one another, really resonates with me.”

Brechbill said there’s a lot of opportunity here to help students achieve their potential. “I think that’s the biggest thing that I enjoy about my role, is helping students understand what they have to contribute, because they don’t give themselves enough credit”

At workshops and working one-on-one with students Brechbill says that a lot.

“Don’t sell yourself short,” Brechbill says. “You’ve got great experience. You’ve got a great GPA. You’re a part of these organizations. You’ve worked these part time jobs. You don’t know that that’s a big deal, because that’s just what you do. So it’s my job to help them understand, and ‘cheerlead’ on their behalf, and say… ‘Look at all these things you do, look at all these skills you have developed.’”

Cheerleading’s not something that Brechbill has had to do a lot of in the past. “It’s really refreshing to me to be able to do that, and to be able to give students the encouragement and confidence they so need.”

What’s most satisfying to Brechbill is when students succeed, when a student lands the internship or the job they have been working so hard to obtain.

Brechbill says, “Those are the best emails, and drop in conversations I have, that’s like, check. Success. They got the internship. They got the job.”


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