Have You Met… Cris Ryder?

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Have you met Cris, Student Programs Assistant and Special Projects Administrator at Elementary and Secondary Education? Spend the next two minutes getting to know him a little better.

Where is your favourite place on campus?

It’s almost the top floor of the old Arts Building. When I was a student, a classmate and I would go to this Oval room and go study in there. She is a singer and would sing in there. The acoustics were perfect; it was beautiful. We hardly got any studying done.

Tablet or paper?

Tablet.

Name one thing you’ve brought to work from home.

It would have to be plants. I just need the green. I know it’s annoying for people because I go away and they feel obligated to water them. I think plants are like cats, you either like them or you don’t.

What is the one thing you can’t live without?

Music. Everything reminds me of music. It’s an annoying trait — if someone says something and it sounds like a line from a lyric, then I will go into that song. So it’s definitely music.

If you won airfare to anywhere in the world, where would you go?

Australia.

You can invite anyone — alive or dead, real or fictional — to dinner. Who would it be?

“To dinner” — that changes the question. If I was stuck in an elevator, it would be Lucille Ball. I think she would be level headed and it would be fun. But to dinner it’s a different thing. Dead or alive to dinner — I would want Ellen DeGeneres. She’s a good cook, and she’s funny.

If you could switch jobs with someone else on campus for a week, what would you do?

It would be a Director in Drama. Absolutely.

What does “uplifting the whole people” mean to you?

This is a good subject. I hope you have an hour. What it means to me — let’s take a student. As a principal of a school, if you’re not there to encourage, uplift — have them engaged and be themselves — then you don’t teach. If that’s not your philosophy, then get out of the school… So the Faculty of Education is the best thing for those words [“uplifting the whole people”] to describe. I’m just passionate about that.

If you could solve any problem in the world, what would it be?

Hunger because I think solving hunger, solves everything. A professor of mine once said, all things happen on this earth out of love and fear. A lot of wars start because of fear of not having something. They also start for love of wanting something, for being greedy. If everybody was fed, I think it would solve a lot of problems.

What 3 words best describe your U of A experience?

I think at the top is diversity. Whatever you do, you make it what you want it to be for yourself. Especially in the Faculty of Education, maybe it’s the same everywhere, but the world comes here.

About Cris Ryder

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A survivor of colon cancer, Cris Ryder is the Student Programs Assistant and Special Projects Administrator at Elementary and Secondary Education. In his role, he is the first point of contact for students and faculty, supports office administrations and student Program Administrators, and assists with course and calendar change preparations.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.