{"id":12517,"date":"2021-11-18T10:14:21","date_gmt":"2021-11-18T15:14:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/human-development\/?p=12517"},"modified":"2021-11-18T16:27:01","modified_gmt":"2021-11-18T21:27:01","slug":"why-did-you-become-a-professor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/human-development\/2021\/11\/18\/why-did-you-become-a-professor\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Why did you become a professor?\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Behind every professor is another great professor<\/strong><\/p>\n

Many professors at the University of Rhode Island did not expect to teach at a university when they were in college themselves.<\/p>\n

Julianna Golas, a lecturer and academic advisor for human development and family science, started her journey believing she wanted to be a journalist. <\/p>\n

\u201cMy road to teaching was not intentional,\u201d Golas said, \u201cbut a happy accident that brought me to this place.\u201d <\/p>\n

Since 2000, Golas has been teaching for the department of human development and family science. She said that she is interested in unique student populations and creating a curriculum that will engage her students.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was and still am a people watcher,\u201d Golas said. \u201cI wonder why people behave the way they do and have always looked for trends and patterns.\u201d<\/p>\n

Following her passion, she began her career at URI on a grant researching the efficacy of Early Head Start programs, which serve infants and children under the age of 3, according to Golas. <\/p>\n

\u201cMy people-watching skills are a big part of teaching and learning,\u201d Golas said. \u201cYou really need to read the room and know when students are engaged and understanding.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mary Cappello, a professor of English and creative writing at URI, began her education journey majoring in English at Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. Knowing she wanted to continue her own research and writing, she went to the State University of New York at Buffalo\u2019s center for graduate school. <\/p>\n

\u201cThere was an emphasis at Buffalo on the relationship between our critical and creative faculties, whereas in a lot of programs, those ways of thinking and writing are separated out,\u201d Cappello said. \u201cThe influence of Buffalo on my writing and teaching has been life-long.\u201d<\/p>\n

She recalled a \u201cspecial moment\u201d when she was in graduate school when she had the opportunity to be the opening act for African-American poet Etheridge Knight. Cappello\u2019s poem, which she read at the event, was chosen to be published in The American Poetry Review. <\/p>\n

\u201cKnight knew that I was in grad school and en route to a career in higher education,\u201d said Cappello. \u201cAt the end of the reading, he came up to me and said \u2018you\u2019re already professin\u2019 up there!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Cappello said that in teaching courses like creative writing seminars, ENG 347: Antebellum vs. Literature and Culture, ENG 385: Women Writers, ENG 305A: Creative Writing Poetry and more, she never stops learning new things. <\/p>\n

\u201cAs a professor, you never stop learning, and there is not a semester that goes by when I don\u2019t learn something from my students,\u201d said Cappello. \u201cTeaching is an ever-loving art that is impossible to master.\u201d<\/p>\n

Students who attend Cappello\u2019s courses are instructed to find and think about themselves in a new way that they have not thought about before. <\/p>\n

\u201cI especially love the experience of watching a student discover that they are truly a writer in one of my classes, when no one prior had ever encouraged them as such or no situation in their life had ever lent itself to discovering the artist that we, each of us, implicitly are,\u201d said Cappello. <\/p>\n

Kristina Moyet, the associate director of academic programming assessment for the Talent Development program at URI, believes that her way of teaching comes from effective learning. <\/p>\n

\u201cMy purpose is to do amazing things and to bring others along the journey with me,\u201d Moyet said.<\/p>\n

In her role as the associate director of the Talent Development program, Moyet believes that making connections with her students allows a safe space to learn. <\/p>\n

\u201cI believe that students are members of our community and that they are \u2018our\u2019 students not \u2018my\u2019 students,\u201d Moyet said. \u201cI expect students to be honest with me and themselves.\u201d <\/p>\n

Growing up in Providence, Rhode Island, Moyet received her master\u2019s degree in educational leadership and her graduate certificate in nonprofit studies from Rhode Island College. She has also earned her bachelor\u2019s degrees in gender and women\u2019s studies and psychology from URI. <\/p>\n

\u201cI remain true to a life of learning and setting the bar high for them [students] to reach,\u201d Moyet said. <\/p>\n

Meredith Boyajian, a mathematics lecturer at URI, teaches undergraduate courses with a specialty in numeracy for teachers. <\/p>\n

\u201cI became a professor because I love teaching,\u201d Boyajian said. \u201cFrom a young age, I enjoyed school and the art of learning.\u201d<\/p>\n

Boyajian first received her undergraduate degree from URI in 2013 for secondary mathematics education and began teaching math. While teaching, she continued her education at Worcester Polytechnic Institute where she said she earned her master\u2019s degree in mathematics for educators.<\/p>\n

\u201cI went to college to study mathematics education because I wanted to become a high school math teacher, but it wasn\u2019t until after I graduated that I realized I wanted something different,\u201d Boyajian said. \u201cThere is something special about working with university students and I love building relationships with them.\u201d <\/p>\n

She said her specialty in numeracy for teachers focuses on assisting students who are studying elementary education to learn methods of math. <\/p>\n

\u201cTeaching numeracy for teachers gives me the joy of being back in elementary school all while helping my students become better mathematicians and educators,\u201d Boyajian said. <\/p>\n

In her teaching, students get to learn special skills for researching and writing, as well as new ways to implement these skills more effectively. <\/p>\n

\u201cI feel quite lucky to have wandered down this path,\u201d Golas said. \u201cI get to share my love of human development, particularly child development and I get to apply what I know about development to help support my [students] in the classroom and in advising.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Behind every professor is another great professor Many professors at the University of Rhode Island did not expect to teach at a university when they were in college themselves. Julianna Golas, a lecturer and academic advisor for human development and family science, started her journey believing she wanted to be a journalist.  \u201cMy road to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":942,"featured_media":12500,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12517","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/human-development\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12517","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/human-development\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/human-development\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/human-development\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/942"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/human-development\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12517"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/human-development\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12517\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12521,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/human-development\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12517\/revisions\/12521"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/human-development\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12500"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/human-development\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12517"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/human-development\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12517"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/human-development\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12517"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}