Inspiration by Josh

Inspiration by Josh - January 2015 Scholarship Essay

Having completed almost four years of college, I have seen an eclectic grouping of professors. I have seen old professors, young professors, female professors, male professors, professors with interesting material and those that taught the driest and boring material that could be imagined. When I saw the prompt for this essay, one of my professors stood above the rest as the professor that all professors should strive to exemplify. So why did he stand above the rest? Could it have been because he was teaching a class that easily kept the attention of the students? Maybe it was because it was an easy A? Perhaps it was due to the fact that he was such an experienced professor that he knew the material like the back of his hand, making learning easy and natural? Or maybe it wasn't him at all and it was just that I was in class with my friends who made him appear to be a better professor than he was?

At the time, I was in my third year working on my degree in biomedical engineering. The class that I was taking was medical device design I which was a class designed around learning how to document all the processes associated with developing a successful medical device in the device industry. Our professor, David Parrot, had not only never taught this course before, but was not a professor at all. Therefore, this was his first teaching job. Ever. Coming into the class, I only knew one or two other student prior to entering on the first day. Throughout the course I worked on developing a diagnostic walker that would assist physicians in diagnosing the recovery of stroke victims. Looking back on the aforementioned questions that could have potentially made him the iconic professor, you will note that he did not meet any of these criterions. So what could have made him the best professor that I have ever had? The reason that he was my favorite professor and is the poster child for the advice that I would give to teachers and professors is simple: be interested and excited about the material that you are presenting to your students.

This may seem to be a no brainer to most people, however, it surprised me how few professors and teachers appear interested in the material that he or she is presenting. If you as a professor/teacher are interested and excited about your material, your students will absorb this and will be inspired to enjoy the material as well. Even the most monotonous and dry material can be interesting if it is presented in a proper manner. At the heart of learning lies the students desire to learn and if he or she is not interested, effective learning is much more difficult to achieve. Therefore, my advice is simple: be interested an excited in your material. Your attitude will drive the inspiration of your pupils.