by NIKKI ROBERTI
Lifestyles Reporter

“It’s ice cream time! Here’s a spoon for your dessert, honey.”

It’s a simple phrase commonly heard from Welborn Cafeteria cashier and student Barbara E. Windle-Connell in the Food Court on the bottom floor of the cafeteria.

She started saying her catch phrase to students buying ice cream when a band camp came the first summer she worked for Appalachian Food Services four years ago.

Windle-Connell has a face students know and love, and she loves the students just the same.

“The class that just graduated in May, they were freshman when I first started [and they come back and visit],” she said. “They don’t forget, I don’t think.

Somehow we make a difference.”

Windle-Connell still takes classes in between work because she loves to learn, she said. Because she already has degrees in English and history, she isn’t

studying for a particular major; although, she said she would like to work on her master’s eventually.

“I remember when I was [college-aged] and went to school for the first time. It wasn’t anything like it is now,” she said. “I love learning and that’s what it basically is to me. I don’t come in here to get a grade. I take classes to learn more and to get other people’s perspectives on things I do and don’t know about.”

Her favorite classes pertain to history and anthropology, which she studies in hopes of doing research so she may eventually write a book.

However, Windle-Connell said she did not always have the zeal she has towards school and was rather apathetic when she went to college the first time after high school.

Born in Holland and raised in Saudia Arabia, she attended a Catholic girl boarding school where she learned seven languages before moving to the United States when she was 16-years-old.

She hoped to be an interpreter for the United Nations, but after the Vietnam War she was told it would be another seven or eight years before the hiring freeze would be lifte

The freeze added to her impatience in college.

“I felt like life was passing me by and that I just wasn’t living. I wanted to be out in the world, get my own place and get a job. Actually live life and not be stuck in school,” she said. “I was a good student in high school and went to college on a scholarship, blew that, but you live and learn.”

Windle-Connell said she thinks a lot of students may have her former attitude, although she can tell some are very serious students who do want to be here.

She said after going out and living life, she decided to come back to school.

“I realized there is more to life than just living life,” she said.

Before coming to Appalachian State, she, her son and her eldest daughter attended Lees-McRae College together and the three graduated on the same day.

While her son studies for his graduate degree at Appalachian, her daughter also works in Food Services in the Marketplace at Trivette Cafeteria.

Her other daughter Sarah, a senior at Watagua High School, also hopes to attend Appalachian next year to study either business management or entrepreneurship.

To Windle-Connell, Appalachian is what she likes to call “a family affair.”

“Between the kids and the staff and the teachers, it’s like a small community,” she said. “Everyone knows everybody.”

Daughter Sarah D. Windle-Connell said she is very proud of her mother and finds her to be a great role model.

“I’m just really proud of her for going back to college and graduating with my brother and sister on the same day,” she said. “She is very determined and goes after what she wants. She puts her mind to do something she’ll do it.”

For students who may have the attitude she had when she first attended college, Windle-Connell said she suggests seeking advice from someone who has been there.

“Talk to someone older or more experienced... to know whether or not college life is for you or whether or not you should go out and get a job and maybe come back later,” she said. “You can’t live life without experiencing it.”

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