FACULTY INTERVIEW
Billy Canfield— On living the mission By Jill Perry-Balzano
B
illy Canfield has been working in schools since he was 23 years old—and yet, especially at first, it wasn’t the “school” that brought him in–it was the kids. It’s the second day of Burr and Burton’s 2023-24 student orientation, and despite a hectic day, Canfield is a few minutes early for our conversation, walking in with a big smile and an improbable bounce in his step.
JUST WORK. EVERYBODY LIVES THE MISSION AND WANTS TO DO BETTER, AND THAT JUST MAKES ME WANT TO DO BETTER.
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THIS IS A PLACE WHERE WE COME NOT TO
THE VIEW I FALL 2023
This energy–and the ability to make everyone in his orbit feel cared for and respected—is what Canfield is most known for on campus. It permeates his work as Associate Director of the Student Success Program and as a Student Life Leader—and on any given day, faculty and staff might receive a hand-penned note from Canfield acknowledging appreciation for some aspect of their work. Relaxed, in a pin-striped button-down, Canfield describes an adolescent self that didn’t love the academic part of school—rather he excelled and engaged most deeply in athletics. As his senior
year of high school approached, Canfield was pretty sure he was not headed directly to college. “My parents gave me enough structure and support to say, you don't have to go to college, but you have to have a plan. My father’s a Navy veteran. I decided, I’m going to make this easy, so at the beginning of my senior year, I did an early entry program to the Navy, and that was my plan.” In August 2001, just weeks after graduating high school, Canfield started boot camp. On September 11th, trainees were suddenly and without explanation eating three meals a day indoors, and their outdoor time was restricted. Rumors quietly swirled, but it wasn’t until a few days later that he and his peers found out about the attack on the World Trade Center. Canfield recalls, “Then it really clicked: I enlisted and it wasn’t a time of war, and now it’s a time of war, and my responsibilities just got so much more real.” Canfield spent the next four years in the Navy, working in Norfolk, Virginia on and off the USS George
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