Susila Madhavan, Extended Care Administrator
NCCL's extended care director is Susi Madhavan. Actually, her full Indian name is Susila, which means "a girl with good habits". Although she is no longer a girl, but the charming mother of two daughters and the wife of a Delaware state forensic scientist, Susi surely has good habits.
Susi describes herself as "a people person". Her charitable work with needy families won 1994 nominations by the Hercules Co. for the Governor's Outstanding Volunteer and Days of Caring awards. Christina School District schools yearly feature Susi during their Multicultural Month when she displays her national dresses and attire from different countries, collected as a hobby. One of Susi's other hobbies is reading medical journals!
Susi comes to us from her work at Girls, Inc. where she directed the Before Care program, taught health and sexuality, computer word processing and typing, in addition to being on call even in the middle of the night. Her lighter work schedule at NCCL is a welcome change! Susi has also coordinated the Tutors Program of the University of Delaware's College of Education.
A native of Madras, India, Susi graduated from Queen Mary's College before her arranged marriage, a practice which continues in her extended family and community today, just as in India. She came to the US where her husband was employed in the New York City Police Department in 1971. Her native language is Tamil and she is Hindu, belonging to the Hindu Temple Association at Pike Creek. She has many fascinating stories to tell, so stop in and visit with her.
Meet Susila Madhavan (NCCL Newsletter, January 2001)
Susi was born in India and moved with her family to Singapore when she was three weeks old. Her father was an Indian who had settled in Singapore and her mother was a teacher from the Indian state of Kerala, known for its high literacy rate and its strongly matriarchal society. She moved with her family to Madras when she was seven so that they could take advantage of the schools there, which were superior to those in Singapore. Susi moved to the US in 1971 with her husband a week after they were married. Like many Indian marriages, it was arranged by a matchmaker and she had not met her husband or his family prior to the wedding. Susi notes that an important part of the culture of many Asian societies is that children respect trust and follow the judgment of their parents, so it didn't seem unusual for her to follow this pattern.
She and her husband moved to Delaware in 1975. He had worked as a forensic scientist in Manhattan and they lived in Queens. They had one daughter and another on the way, and they felt that it wasn't the environment they wanted to have for raising a family. When her husband was offered a job in Delaware with the State Medical Examiner's office, he accepted the position.
Both of Susi's daughters went to school here in Delaware, although not to NCCL — but that was simply "because I didn't know about it! They would have gone here if I had known about the school!" Her older daughter has finished her Master's degree in Human Resources at NYU and wants to continue her studies after a break; now she is working at the Sloane-Kettering Cancer Institute in New York. Her younger daughter is finishing a double degree, also at NYU, in Finance and Accounting; she will be taking a job at the firm Deloitte and Touche.
Susi's family has a long history of public service and charity work in the community. Many of them are doctors and her family owns a hospital in India. Before moving to New York, she had spent a great deal of time assisting in the poor ward of the hospital, assisting people in the slums, and working in a program to rehabilitate prostitutes. In New York, she felt that she didn't have the opportunity to be as involved because she didn't know the community. Once Susi's daughters were in school, she returned to volunteer work, helping in area neighborhoods where drug-related problems were causing difficulties. She says, "I always felt safe, because I felt respected, since I helped them". She also works in the Emmanuel Dining Hall, cooking and serving food, as well as at Sojourner's Place. In 1994, she was nominated for the Jefferson Award which recognizes outstanding volunteer work, and was invited by the governor to attend the related events. The News Journal asked to interview her, but she turned them down saying, "When the right hand gives, the left hand shouldn't know about it. You need to give openly, without thinking of what you will get back".
From 1987-1996 she worked at Girls, Inc. in programs to assist at-risk teens, teaching them living skills and assisting in programs dealing with sexuality issues. She realizes now that she was a workaholic, often putting in 70 hours per week as a result of becoming so attached to the young people she worked with and their families. As she puts it, "Children are my greatest happiness!" Eventually she realized that the workload was having a negative impact on her health, and she decided to leave Girls, Inc. in order to take the job at NCCL working with the extended care program. Although she missed the people she had been working with (and took a large pay cut!) she loves it at NCCL. She felt immediately accepted by the staff, students and families, and loves the NCCL kids! She points out the difference that it makes to have students who are used to respectful environments and involved families. "The NCCL kids are so polite! Each one has great manners. I have no hesitation in disciplining kids, but I hardly have to raise my voice here! Each child has a conscience here at NCCL. That really touches me!" She values the rapport she has with the parents and staff as well, saying "The teachers always cheer me up when I'm down!" She plans to stay at NCCL as long as she possibly can.
