Dr. Joyce Hardy’s spark at CSC

By Grace Payton

Over 30 years ago, in the sandhills of Nebraska, Joyce Hardy, Ph.D. carefully brushed away soil to reveal a life-changing plant. A plant that scientists hadn’t recovered in over 100 years. A discovery that should’ve been the greatest moment in her career lit the fire that still drives her today.

After finishing her bachelor’s degree in biology, Hardy wasn’t ready to stop her journey at CSC. For six years, she dedicated herself to her master’s research, cataloging over 500 species in Banner County. While on her hands and knees in the sandhills, she discovered an extinct plant, that led to her greatest disappointment. She expressed great passion to continue the research; she was not hired. “I was a woman, and it was not appropriate for me to be out there for 12 to 14 hours without male company,” Hardy shared. This became the fuel she needed to finish her master’s program that summer.  “And I don’t know if I would’ve done that if I hadn’t been so angry with that gender discrimination.”  But Hardy’s fire didn’t stop there.

As the chilly air of fall 1991 approached Chadron, Hardy was standing in her very own classroom where she felt her fire for knowledge growing. Hardy then stepped out of her comfort zone to be Interim dean for one year and eight years as the senior vice president for academic and student affairs. In 2005, her passion for biology and botany drew her back to the classroom that brought her to CSC in the first place. “You should be passionate about what you are going into. It should excite you through whatever,” she shared excitedly.

Joyce loves the students almost as much as the plants. She is there to celebrate a test, create mock interviews, and assist with lab questions. Although at graduation Hardy can be seen wiping away tears with a tissue, she is proud of the role she plays in student success. With a reminiscent look she shared: “watching them grow, developed, get where they want to go and succeed when they get there. That’s the real payback for this job”. Her fire is caught in action by the students who hunch over microscopes and simulations with her in Bio 101, a far world from her field notes and handwritten experiments.

From sharing her spark with her first class of students who were filled with financial anxiety in from the 1980’s recession, to her technology-based students of 2025, Hardy’s spark is contagious. She never lets a shut door stop a student from success and she fosters the new molding of students in the technical age through computer simulations. “I’m not sure if there is a reason we are on this earth. But I do believe that we can always help other people reach their dreams and always help make their life better by”. With that, Hardy turned back to her graded papers and emails from students, keeping her spark alive with the distant memory of her disappointment in the sandhills.