By Matt Hall
This week, we get a look into the office of Kayla Paulk, an accompanist and instructor in the Department of Music.
Paulk serves as a vocal coach and accompanist to all Eastern New Mexico University choirs. She is the full-time accompanist to the Department of Music, playing at most student and faculty recitals.
She is also a Freshman Seminar teacher, specifically teaching students who are vocal majors.
Paulk is a very busy woman, but she has a big heart for her students.
Her heart for her students might explain the leg stands in Paulk’s windowsill.
“Hailey Vanderwiele, one of our seniors, did a project where she took her Spanish minor and her Music major, and she put together an hour-long program of dance and singing in which she talked about immigration issues,” Paulk said. “Because she worked so hard on it and she did a good job, I [bought] a donkey piñata. I never had one before, but I filled it up with candy, and I tied it on the limb outside on the tree.”
Vanderwiele took off the piñata’s head with her first swing.
“We were going to leave it up there, but someone took it down, and all that was left was the leg,” Paulk said, giggling. “I have it to remind me of that. It makes me smile. It makes me think of Hailey.”
To the left of the piñata leg, also on the windowsill, is a big sunflower.
“My good friend, Dr. [Kimberly] Gelbwasser, she teaches voice here. She gave that to me for my birthday,” Paulk said. “So, this summer, she brought that to me, and she said that she knew I liked the color yellow and that I liked sunflowers. I thought there was no better place for me to put it than right there since yellow is my favorite color.”
The big, beautiful sunflower was not the only color in Paulk’s office. She also has a bouquet of metal roses, a Valentine’s Day gift from her husband.
“[Dr. Jason Paulk] hammered them from a piece of straight steel,” she said, “and he made a dozen roses for me, and he spray painted them and everything and put them in the kitchen.”
Jason Paulk’s work was so convincing that Kayla Paulk thought the roses were real.
“I walked in, and I saw them I said, ‘Oh, they’re so beautiful,’” she said. “I went over to smell them, and they smelled like spray paint, and then he laughed. He said ‘I must have done a good job because they look so real that you smelled them.’”