For Professor Casey, the road to becoming an educator was an unlikely one. Growing up in a small town in rural West Texas, about 35 miles south of Abilene, Jeffry Casey didn’t feel at home in his hometown, family, or even his own body as an adolescent.
“I was a weird kid. I don’t think I felt at home anywhere really until I got to college at the University of Texas at Austin. That felt like home,” Casey shared.
What made his journey even more remarkable was that he had to overcome dyslexia from a young age. “I used to go home from kindergarten crying because I couldn’t read or write like the other kids,” he recalled. His mother witnessed his struggles firsthand.
However, through hard work and support from those around him, Casey defied the odds. He not only learned to read and write but went on to earn a BA in English and Philosophy from UT Austin, an MA in Creative Writing from the same university, and a PhD in Interdisciplinary Theatre Studies from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Now in his 7th year at Norwich, Professor Casey has found his calling as a professor. “Teaching is wonderful (most of the time). Seeing students’ eyes light up when we are discussing important and interesting topics is the best,” he said.
One of his proudest accomplishments has been the work he does with Pegasus Players, Norwich’s theatre troupe, which he finds both rewarding and challenging.
When asked about his life motto, Professor Casey reflected on the wisdom of Buddhist nun Pema Chödrön: “By lightening up and taking that more gentle and appreciative attitude toward oneself and others, the sense of burden that all of us carry around begins to decrease.”
