Dar’Keith Lofton is so much more than just an IT guy!

Most ARHS students know Dar’Keith Lofton, who works in IT at ARHS, from the occasional emails he sends about Chromebook repairs or his visits to their classes to help teachers with technology. Very few, including me (until recently!), knew much about his hobbies or personal life, or even what he specifically does for his job. I asked Dar’Keith some questions about these things and was amazed by the responses.

Maria: What is your name and how do you spell it? 

Dar’Keith: My name is Dar’Keith Lofton. My mother wanted to name me after one of her two brothers (Darryl and Keith), but couldn’t decide which brother to choose. Someone recommended that she combine both names, which is what she did.

Maria: Where did you grow up and go to school? How old are you, if you don’t mind sharing?

Dar’Keith: I grew up in Chicago and graduated from Foreman High School in 1999, then went straight into college from there. I’m 44 years old.

Maria: What did you study and where?

I originally attended Eastern Illinois University, where I majored in Journalism and minored in Spanish. I eventually withdrew with the goal to return, but that never happened. Several years later, I enrolled at Western Governors University online and completed a Bachelor’s in IT this past March.

Maria: What other jobs have you held before working at ARHS? 

Dar’Keith: I primarily worked with the adult special needs population as a case manager and direct care staff. I did this for 10 years in Illinois and five years in Massachusetts (15 total). We came to Massachusetts because my girlfriend got a job at UMass.

I’ve also worked as a bartender and bouncer, a retail associate at Target, and a personal trainer/group fitness instructor. I was a reporter for a daily student paper in college. In high school, there was a small, citywide newspaper run by high school students, and I was an editor there. 

Maria: What is your current job description? What is a typical day or week like for you at ARHS? What are some common tech issues you deal with?

Dar’Keith: My official position is as a help desk technician, though I’m rarely seated at my desk. I’m usually running around fixing computers, figuring out what’s going on with the internet, that kind of thing.

I can’t really say my days are typical because no two days are the same. Today, I might be repairing a lot of broken Chromebooks. Tomorrow, the second floor’s internet might stop working, and I’ll be troubleshooting that.

The busiest time here is the first four to six weeks of the school year. New teachers and students arrive, so I have to make sure they get the devices they need. I’m also answering questions and showing them how to use our printers and projectors, as well as access things like email and (for people with personal laptops) wifi.

Maria: What do you love about your job? What are some challenges?

Dar’Keith: Unlike other jobs, I’ve never found myself starting at the clock and anxiously waiting to go home. Not even on the most challenging days.

As for challenges, the same technical problem can appear on different days, with different causes and solutions. For example, let’s say the internet goes out on Monday, and I determine it was because a piece of equipment died. I replace the equipment, and the internet starts working again. On Thursday, the internet goes out again. This time, however, it’s caused by a power outage. The only thing I can do at this point is wait for the city or cable company to resolve the problem on their end.

Before I worked in IT, I assumed the same problem always had the same solution. But that’s not the case. This means that I’m always learning something new, but it also means that I can’t always predict how quickly a problem can be resolved for someone.

Maria: What are some of the biggest tech issues you have solved in your role?

Dar’Keith: About two years ago, students’ school-owned Chromebooks suddenly stopped connecting to the wifi, but the problem was isolated to half of the second floor. Personal devices and teacher laptops did not have this problem. 

Jerry Champagne, my department’s director, and I spent several days troubleshooting the problem. Jerry looked at all our switches (a networking device used to provide internet throughout the building) and noticed that the setting which provides wifi to the school Chromebooks was missing on just one of them. We don’t know how the setting got removed, but we added it back and resolved the problem. 

So I didn’t specifically solve this problem, but it taught me to slow down and search for the small details.

Maria: When not at work, I heard you are big into bodybuilding or working out at a gym? Can you tell me about this hobby? Why do you enjoy it?

Dar’Keith: I’m not a bodybuilder. Bodybuilders train for aesthetic reasons. Their goal is to get really large muscles and very low body fat. Bodybuilders follow VERY strict diets and practically live in the gym. I value my social life, and carbs are yummy, so I’m not built for that.

Once a week, at the Hampshire Athletic Club, I lead a strength class that focuses on strongman training. Hafthor Björnsson, the actor who played “ The Mountain” on Game of Thrones, is a well-known pro-Strongman. But we have local pros too, like Rob Kearny and Martins Licis.

One of our bus drivers, Russell Johnson, also does Strongman training. Anyway, I started taking the class in 2017. I told my girlfriend, Jeanne, about it, and she asked if there were any women in the class. I told her it was about 50/50, and she didn’t believe me. But a few weeks later, she started taking the class also. She has a lot of nieces and nephews, and they enjoy seeing videos of her training. It also shows her nieces that strength training isn’t just a boys’ club.

I’m not athletic at all. In middle school, I hated gym class because I couldn’t dribble a basketball or throw a football (a very isolating position to be in as a Black kid in the ’90s). I got into strength training during my early thirties. I was living in a new city, Champaign, Illinois, and didn’t know a lot of people. I got a gym membership and went there a lot because I had nothing else to do, and the rest is history. 

What I enjoy most about strength training is that my only competition is myself. I’m not worried about fumbling a ball or missing a goal and disappointing my teammates. As long as I’m getting better (whether this means lifting more weight or improving my technique), even if it’s a small improvement, I know I’m doing well.

Maria: What goals have you met in this area? 

Dar’Keith: One goal was simply to compete, not to win, but just to say I’ve done it. I’ve competed in three Strongman competitions, one deadlifting competition, and one powerlifting competition. As far as personal goals, it was really just to slowly get stronger over time. I knew I wasn’t trying to bench 400 pounds or anything like that. One goal was to eventually do a 500-pound deadlift. I got up to 550 a couple of years ago. And then it’s one of those things. You’re like, okay, if I could do 550, maybe I should try for 600. I just want something I can measure objectively

Maria: How does this hobby affect your daily life? How much time do you spend on it each week?  

Dar’Keith: When I first got into it, I was at the gym almost every day, probably five days a week. I’ve been there maybe three days a week lately. I live in Holyoke now, so it’s a bit of a drive, and I’ve been busy with work. It’s a fun hobby, but I never did it to the point where it interrupted my social life or anything like that.

Maria: Do you see any connections/similarities between bodybuilding and your work in IT? 

Dar’Keith: When it comes to I.T. and fitness in general, one of the first things you’ll learn is that you can see the same exact problem happen two or three times, but the cause and solution are different each time. The good thing about it is that since it’s a different solution, you’re always training your brain to look for little details.

Maria: What other hobbies do you have in your free time?

Dar’Keith: When I was in Illinois, I did a lot of like Community Theater and improv. I haven’t had much time to do it since moving to Massachusetts. I looked at auditions, but they seem to focus mostly on musicals, and I can’t sing for anything. 

I also do volunteer voice acting for a website called LibriVox. They’ll take books that enter the public domain, and if there’s no audiobook for them, they’ll ask people to volunteer their voices and record on a microphone on their computer. I’ve been doing that for about two years off and on. I did get a chance to do a whole book. I found out Langston Hughes had a book that entered the public domain a few years ago that no one had recorded. It was a collection of poetry that I hadn’t heard of, so I got to do that, and that was cool.

We bought a new home a few years ago in Holyoke. I wouldn’t really call it a hobby, but our house is really old, so we’re very slowly updating it. We’re learning some DIY stuff along the way, like using a saw and power tools. 

We’ve got a dog named Bosco. He’s about to be six in February, so I guess another hobby is just doting on him. 

Maria: Describe your family, friends, partner, or roommates, if any. 

Dar’Keith: I have a son who lives back in the Midwest. He’s a first-year college student now, studying sports management at McKendree University. My girlfriend teaches early childhood development in the education department at UMASS.

Most of my family is still in the Chicago area. My mother passed away a few years ago, but I’ve got great aunts and cousins who live back there. We communicate on Facebook, and we do family Zooms for Thanksgiving and Christmas. My girlfriend has a much larger family. She has nine siblings and 14 or 15 nieces and nephews. 

We have a small friend group here [in Amherst]. Most of them are people we met by way of the gym. We’re also friends with a couple of my girlfriend’s colleagues.

Maria: What are some other things you’d like students or staff to know about you?

Dar’Keith: I know a lot of people get apprehensive when it comes to technology. When something breaks down or isn’t working, they may get kind of flustered. I try to tell them, let me know as soon as possible if you need help with something. That’s what I’m here for. I try to be as approachable as possible, especially with the student population.