Darryl Hill didn’t know Carver from Curtiss Hall. He’d not walked by Marston Water Tower, or listened to the Campanile chime.
“I had never heard of Ames, Iowa,” Hill (’85) says. “I just wanted to be different from my high school colleagues who were going to the University of Michigan or Michigan State.”
Taking the Leap
It was the fall of 1980. The son of a military family from Detroit, Hill had passed through Cass Technical High School with high marks and an ROTC scholarship. School counselors knew their student would have an aptitude for Iowa State’s rigorous engineering program. On top of that, Hill had just earned a spot in a Visiting Scholars Program. It was a big leap of faith.
“As I was looking at my parents driving off in the distance, it dawned on me, ‘I know no one on campus, you know?” Hill remembers. “I thought, ‘What did I get myself into?’”
Hill launched himself into studies and campus activities, including as Towers Residence Hall intramural chair and in Omega Psi Phi Fraternity. Critically, he changed his major from industrial engineering to occupational safety on the advice of a trusted professor. Surpassed only by the acceptance of Christ into his life and his proposal to his wife, changing his major would be –– in Hill’s description –– the best decision he would ever make.
Following a Call
From that moment to now, Hill has used his Iowa State degree daily. He works as senior vice president of safety and security at First Student, Inc., the leading school transportation solutions provider in North America.
“First Student transports more passengers daily than all U.S. airlines combined,” he says. But the responsibility goes beyond just transportation –– technological advances allow parents to keep track of their child’s trip and, drivers are trained on interacting with students with special needs, to name a couple.
“I probably don’t sleep much, because I have to always think about the challenges, the heavy burden,” Hill says. “It is a huge commitment, when you transport passengers.”
Hill has earned a list of degrees, from educational leadership to biblical studies. He is involved in countless safety organizations and teaches at Oakland University. In addition to guest lecturing at ISU, Hill serves on the alumni association board of directors. For Hill, it’s a calling. He recently visited campus for only the second time since graduating. Many things have changed. The call, however, is strong as ever.
“If it wasn’t for Iowa State, I wouldn’t be in the position that I am now,” Hill says. “I’m very grateful for that, so I want to help the university that has helped me.”