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How do we end up choosing our profession? Why does someone become a teacher or an auto mechanic? Oftentimes it is because, from an early age, they were exposed to someone in a specific profession, such as a parent, family friend, or relative. 

Imagine at 9 years old being denied access to check out a library book because of your skin color. What would you do? Would you leave? 

When I was eight years old, I wanted to be a veterinarian. That interest pivoted toward a different dream of becoming a muralist with my own studio and the opportunity to work with my hands and create something beautiful on bare walls. That desire waned as I started to discern how my love of reading, writing, and communicating might translate to a career.

I have been an educator for over 22 years and have had the privilege to teach both children and adults. However, teaching Adult Education students at Waubonsee Community College for the past seven years has provided me a new and refreshing understanding and appreciation. It has opened my eyes to the vast realm of "nontraditional" learners, the challenges they face, and the inspiration they offer.  

In the fall of 2019, I stood before my Early Childhood class and began discussing creativity. I shared knowledge about convergent and divergent thinking and proceeded to ask my students challenging questions. "Does anyone here know what problems the world will face three, five, or 10 years down the road?" The room was silent.

Embarrassment pierces like a hundred pinpricks.

Without question, I felt them slice into me many years ago in the stale sunlight of a late afternoon. I was a Writing Specialist at a university. I dispensed my duties with relative comfort after several years of both teaching and studying writing. Not only that, but I was the product of an interdisciplinary curriculum. I liked to think I knew a little bit about everything.

In the early 1990s, the stigma of mental illness was continual, and I was not immune to its’ influence. Like many pre-licensure nursing students, I can remember dreading the start of my mental health nursing class, and my subsequent clinical experience only exacerbated those fears. 

Waubonsee Community College’s Office of Faculty Development and Engagement began investigating one of the most flexible delivery for classrooms; something that could put students in control of where, when, and how they attend class either fully online, entirely in-person, or both. We knew we wanted something to be as flexible as possible. And that is when the class modality, Flex, was born.

Students can prepare themselves to earn industry-standard IT certifications in cybersecurity with the Waubonsee Community College Cybersecurity Program.

When one thinks of a department made up entirely of adjunct faculty, one might imagine isolated ships passing in the night: each faculty member picking up their assigned class, teaching to their curricula, and getting on with their lives. Clock in; clock out. Move on.