A Shoutout

Howdy!

Well, I am back on campus after being gone for a couple of days. Scott and I went to Indianapolis to see my brother and sister and their families and also to go to a job fair. We had a blast hanging out and catching up with my family! My niece and nephew think Scott is their new best friend, which is really fun. I loved hanging out all day just relaxing with them. Then on Wednesday we had a job fair in downtown Indy. It was a total bust - there were only 12 companies there so we didn't have much luck, but it was an adventure nonetheless and we had a great time. We came back to Spiritual Life Week here on campus with great events happenning. The speaker is Tony Campolo, and he has been a very impactful and wonderful speaker, so it's been great to hear him speak a couple of times the past two days. I won't say too much about SLW, it's amazing, but I'm thinking someone else will write on that, so I don't want to repeat too much.

I am going to devote the rest of this blog to two of my favorite professors. This seems lame and a weird thing to write about, but hey, good professors deserve a good "pat on the back" of sorts. Dan Fultz, my academic advisor and my professor in several communication classes, has made a big impact on my life and certainly on my college career. Bluffton is an amazing place because your professors are not only your teachers, but they quickly become your mentor and friend. There have been a lot of situations in college where I was unsure about what to do next and Dan has been right there to listen and help me out. He's great at giving his opinion and helping to present a different perspective, while still letting me make my own decisions. I have appreciated him so much and expect to keep up with him when I graduate.

Another professor that I have appreciated in college is Bill Lyons. Bill is a business professor here and I have had him for two courses I have taken for my business minor. Bill is a little abrasive at first and I wasn't always sure how to handle his classes and expectations, but I quickly got to know him and learned more from him than many other professors. He teaches in a very practical way. The projects we do for him are often somewhat time-consuming, but they teach us skills we will hopefully use in our careers down the way. His practical application is motivating and he does not just teach right from the textbook - he teaches us stuff he knows is useful and we will find helpful in the coming years. Dan and Bill have both inspired me in my time here at Bluffton and I am just so thankful for the way Bluffton encourages those relationships and the classes are set up in a way that makes them small enough to where we can get to know our professors and they can get to know us and mentor us. I feel like this is one aspect of Bluffton that is pretty unique, and something I cannot imagine college without!

Here's to good professors,

Mary

pic: so, I don't really have any pics of my professors, so these are just some random ones of fun times