Teaching is at the heart of the Occidental experience. Our faculty offer students a rigorous, personalized experience that draws on their own academic passions. Hear a few of them reflect on what they love about their role as educators.
A high-touch, personalized classroom experience is the signature of an Occidental liberal arts education. Hear what our students say about why they love their professors so much.
“There is a lot of creativity in teaching. You can’t just understand something one way. You have to understand it three, four, or thirty ways as every student has their own perspective.â€
“It’s my job to create a space for [students] to find or continue to sharpen, clarify and strengthen their voice—their artistic voice, their spiritual voice, and their human voice.â€
“I love to share my knowledge of mathematics with others and feel especially elated when my students reach out to me after graduation telling me all the wonderful things that they are doing.â€
“Teaching is meaningful to me because it’s a microcosm of knowledge production as a collective endeavor. It requires both labor and pleasure, discipline and waywardness. Teaching literature, in particular, also assumes that the language of others can get inside of us and rearrange us; that remains endlessly fascinating to me.â€
“I really enjoy sharing my knowledge with students; what a reward when you see a smile on their face after understanding a concept. Learning how to scientifically communicate with different backgrounds is also really rewarding.â€
“I have fond memories of working closely with faculty and gathering data to develop insights into unique and interesting questions about psychology. I am incredibly excited to provide the same experiences to undergraduates at Occidental.â€
“Sharing my love of art and photography with students never gets old! It is one of my favorite things to do. I believe that an education in the arts builds compassion and empathy, and I am proud to do work that will help foster those qualities in the next generation of leaders.â€
“People are often very fixed in their contemporary moment. Most of my teaching works to give new perspectives on the present and to show that the present is as historical as the past is. I believe this helps students to understand both the limits and the possibilities of a moment.â€
“Teaching allows me to continue learning—I love the opportunity to embark into new areas of exploration with students.â€
“Teaching inspires me to aspire to a better self, as it challenges me to find effective ways of engaging with students with diverse backgrounds, identities and goals. Supporting students’ intellectual journeys and witnessing their personal transformations has been a rewarding experience for me.â€