Feb. 8, 2005 issue

Eastern is a down-to earth, hands-on university for down-to-earth, hands-on students. Eastern draws that kind of student; good hard-working students who aren't impressed with themselves. It's just not a "stuck-up" university.

I really enjoy young people. I remember vividly being that age and how much I had to learn about writing. I really remember the instructors who encouraged and supported me, and that's what I want to do. Seeing students succeed is what I really want to see happen.

I try to pass on everything that I've learned in nearly 25 years in journalism. I try to make my classroom as much of a real-life features department as possible. I make students go out into the community, develop story ideas and report stories. I just try to replicate a real-life journalism job.

Teaching journalism and being a journalist are the two halves of the same organism. I am teaching what I've learned by exercising the craft. Experience is crucial.

Teaching is a very dynamic exercise. I don't think I've ever taught the same thing twice. It's not unlike writing; you are always wondering how you can do it better.

EMU has grown tremendously since I attended it in the early '70s. It didn't even have a journalism department and now it has a full journalism curriculum. I see that continuing as a sort of natural evolution and there is good leadership here in the journalism department. Eastern has a strong English department and it's fun to be at least a small part of it.

 

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