Talking Up My Department

‘Tis the season for college visits, the last stretch of admissions frenzy.

This morning I had a visit from a prospective student and his parents. They were interested in learning more about our department and the biochemistry major. In my role as a faculty member, while I do meet prospective students, I don’t often communicate directly with their parents. (I did field more questions from parents back when I was department chair.)

I very much enjoyed the 45 minutes I spent chatting with the student and his parents, showing them the wonderful spaces in our building, answering their questions, and basically talking up my department. It’s easy to talk up my department because it’s a great place to be – certainly as a faculty member, but I’m very sure that our students would say the same thing! While I know this, I don’t often articulate it to parents of prospective students. I very much enjoyed the experience because it reminded me how blessed I am to be part of an excellent department.

We have a very nice science building which is kept up well, good facilities overall, and our department is chock-full of equipment. There was also plenty of activity. We peeked in the door-windows of lab classes in session, but also looked at some research labs where our students were busily working. I ran into a number of students I know (and I know most of our majors) while giving the tour and spent a moment chatting with each of them, and they also said hello or waved to the visitors. It just underscored the good relationships between faculty and students I had just been talking up a moment ago. While our number of majors has grown significantly, we still manage to engender the feel of a cozy tight-knit atmosphere in the department.

I should talk up my department more often. The enthusiasm carried with me the rest of the day especially when I was meeting with students in my office much of the afternoon. I was enthusiastic helping my academic advisees plan their Fall class schedule. I was excited when meeting with one of my research students going over some of the figures she had made from her data analysis. I was animated in answering questions on the P-Chem problem set (yes, more students are coming in!) and G-Chem online homework. I was chairing our department faculty meeting today (since my department chair was at a conference) and we discussed end-of-the-year student awards – it’s always a great reminder of the fantastic students we have, and to think about how far they’ve come in their four years of college.

Some days, heck most days, I love this job!