Each week this series will feature a professor from the Advanced Technology Center at Gulf Coast State College. Their stories will cover their educational and professional experiences, passions and grievances, the classes they teach, their projects , and more. Each interview will be added to this article as they’re released.
By learning about these individuals students can find a new respect and understanding for their professors, gain insight into the other side of their college experience, and become inspired to utilize the amazing resource that professors can be.
Why you should get to know your professors
College professors are more than just their grading style, their homework load, the tone of their voice during lectures, and the number of chili peppers they’re worth. Yet for many students, these attributes are what their instructors are reduced to. eLearning can compound this issue when instructors are viewed as faceless entities adding numbers to a students work.
Your instructors in college should be more than a person who lectures you and hands out assignments. As a student, you pay for classes and books while investing substantial time and energy into those courses. A full course load is roughly 12 hours of class time per week. Outside work on those classes is generally 2 hours per hour of class. This means that students can expect to spend roughly 36 hours per week on school. An undergraduate degree from a public university costs an average of $25,620. With all of this time and money invested, students should be looking to add value to their education anywhere they can. This is where your professors come in.
They can teach more than just your courses
Professors often have worked in the industry they teach, or some sort of related field. This practical experience coupled with their academic knowledge means they can offer valuable guidance to students as they learn and prepare for their future. The more they know you the more personalized this insight will be. So students should feel free to share their goals and plans with their professors. A professors instruction shouldn’t stop at a textbook, it starts there.
Some of the most interesting people I’ve met have been my professors – the natural sciences professor who prospected for gold in his free time, my graphic design professor wrote a children’s book about medieval Irish monks, or my history professor that was a champion bodybuilder in the 70’s. But these individuals were more than “cool people to talk to”. They became people to come to with questions or problems that improved myself as a student and an emerging professional.
They can jump-start your career
These relationships also lead to job opportunities, internships, and personalized letters of recommendation. If you’re a student who also has a job, it would be ideal if that job actually served their future career instead of people on their lunch break. Professors often know of local opportunities in the industry that they teach. Their personal recommendation also carries weight in the job market.
The professors that will be featured teach management, digital media, web & software development, and other technology based classes. Many of these professors have had careers in these industries and have a unique perspective into the experience of working in these types of professions, and how formal education in these fields relates to the actual work.
These professors are also at the forefront of a new expansion for gulf coast state college into technology education. They are actively involved in the development of the program, and that work is generally behind the scenes and isn’t recognized by the students at a university. They not only deserve to share their work on building this experience, but students might not realize what actually goes into developing a degree program and how committed these individuals are to making their education as fulfilling as it can be.
About the Author
Samuel Lane Lourcey
Student - Spring 2018
