During my six years working at Santa Clara University, I’ve learned about the lasting influence that teachers have on their students. From professors who treat their students as research partners and co-authors, to instructors who travel with students to South America or Africa or Europe to help them learn about other cultures, the student-teacher model at SCU is effective and inspiring.
I’ve talked to alumni who credit their professors with setting them on the path to success. I’ve interviewed professors who thank students for keeping them energized about their discipline. This fall, I will take my turn at the podium, hoping to be one of those instructors who inspires young minds and sets students on a path to success.
I am leaving a job I love to take on a great challenge—I am becoming a high school journalism teacher in my hometown of Hollister, Calif. Will I bear the brunt of students’ restlessness and become the target of spitballs when my back is turned? Maybe. Will I be one of those teachers who shows students how learning can be fun and writing can be an expression of the soul? I hope so.
When I arrived on campus to work in the Office of Communications and Marketing in 1999, I was a small-town newspaper reporter and editor who aspired to hone my craft at the place my dad and uncles and grandfather earned their degrees. I am leaving campus this summer thankful for the opportunities this place gave me.
I matured as a writer and editor at SCU, but more than that I became part of the fabric of the Santa Clara community, part of the collective consciousness of a group of alumni and donors and parents and students and faculty and staff and athletes who take pride in the fact that they are Santa Clarans.
I am leaving Santa Clara, but I, too, will always consider myself a Santa Claran.
Go Broncos!
Sincerely,
Adam Breen, Editor