March 27, 2007 issue

I came here 10 years ago. I like the balance between teaching, scholarship and service. When I began graduate school, I decided I wanted to be an educator, not just a researcher. Eastern Michigan fit that bill.

Eastern provides me with ample opportunity to teach and mentor the students in class, through advising and extracurricular activities like Mock Trial, Honors College and the Undergraduate Symposium. I teach courses on constitutional law, the judicial process behavior, Mock Trial, and a Supreme Court simulation class, where students play the role of justices and litigants.

Generally, the University creates an environment in which instructors can interact with their students on a daily basis and provide ample opportunity for mentoring students outside of the classroom.

For the new General Education program, I've created a new course dealing with U.S. diversity. The course looks at the roles policies, courts and the law play in the interaction of groups in American society; and how courts have facilitated change and installed change over time. There are upper-level constitutional law courses that teach you these subjects, but this course is designed for mass appeal.

I think it (General Education program) provides ample opportunities to engage students in some of the most important questions of our time — not only issues in our country, but issues around the world.

I come to work excited about working with students. As a pre-law adviser, I deal with some of the best students in the country and other students who didn't get a chance at other universities. Because of that, I have relationships going back 10 years with students who are now in law and politics.

 

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