Making an Impact

I tell my students that one of the best things about being a professor is when my former students come back and tell me what they’re up to in life! While travel is much reduced because of Covid, I had a number of former students out-of-the-blue e-mail me this past week to say hello, give me an update, and thank me for the impact I made in their lives. It’s very heartening and I’ve felt encouraged, and (almost) ready for the new semester.

 

I get to know students in different ways, and a selection of students I heard from this week will illustrate these different relationships. One was an academic advisee letting me know of successful post-graduation plans. One was a student in two of my classes who is finishing up one successful post-doctoral research stint and moving on to the next opportunity. One was a research student (but had not taken a class with me as an undergraduate) who was going through a difficult time, but was reminiscing about the positive experience working in my lab. And one was all three – an academic advisee, a student in one of my classes, and a research student – who is on track to finish her PhD this year.

 

I spent a fair amount of time chatting with these students during their undergraduate days, be it in office hours, in lab, or in the hallway. While I try to get to know students in my classes, there’s little time to actually do so in class or the five minutes before class begins. So I tell students in my classes that one of my favorite times is office hours. Come visit, come get to know me, and give me the opportunity to get to know you. This happens as a matter of course for my academic advisees and my research students, but not necessarily for students in my classes who aren’t my advisees or working in my research lab. Not many take me up on the opportunity, although I was interviewed by a student a couple of years ago.

 

I am not like most of my students. I don’t look like them. I don’t talk like them. I grew up in a very different country, and have an accent strange to their ears. And my teaching style is a bit more “authoritative” (the dominant style where I grew up) so it might feel intimidating to the student. It doesn’t help that I teach P-Chem, the toughest and least-liked class of our majors. I try to be friendly and amiable, but my introverted slightly guarded personality might get in the way. So sometimes I’m not sure if I’m making an impact, although I keep trying. This week I got a precious reminder that I do make an impact, not on everyone and not all the time, but it does happen and it’s a great reason to keep at it.