In this installment of “Why I Teach,” faculty members from English, Mathematics, Philosophy, Psychology, and Women’s and Ethnic Studies share their reasons and motivations for teaching.
I teach because there’s nothing better than sharing knowledge with other people. One of my all-time favorite things is seeing a student’s face light up after grasping a puzzling idea, an interesting empirical finding, or a novel way of thinking about the world.
Let me start by acknowledging Dr. Kevin Landis, Associate Professor in the Department of Visual and Performing Arts, for initiating this research direction by requesting that I participate in the lecture series Prologues in January 2014. I co-presented with Michael Myers, Managing Member of Distillery 291, by speaking of the chemical analysis of the flavor profile of Michael’s whiskeys. By the end of this collaboration for Prologues, Michael asked if I would become a certified distilled spirits chemist through the TTB. To this request, I very eloquently replied with: “Huh?”
The function of our college depends on hundreds of employees including faculty, staff, and administrators. In this installment of “Who Does What?” we feature Program Assistants (PAs). Program assistants provide vital administrative support to programs and departments. Just as every department and program in LAS is unique, so too are our PAs. We’d like to introduce you to a couple of them here…
Kristina Woods, Physics and Energy Sciences
Kristina Woods is a program assistant for the department of Physics and Energy Sciences (PES). A military brat, Kristina originally moved to Colorado Springs when she was in 4th grade. After stints in Georgia and Germany Kristina returned to Colorado Springs for the quality of life and to be near family. She has worked at UCCS since 2007. Outside of work Kristina is a sky diving enthusiast. She is also a “dog mom” to Skylar, whose name reflects her interest in sky diving. Asked about travel, Kristina told me she enjoyed seeing the Grand Canyon for the first time recently, as well as Sedona, Arizona. She is especially looking forward to exploring Austin, Texas someday as well. Kristina is also a huge fan of the CSU Rams and the Denver Broncos.
What began as a series of simple questions about the death of a man 140 years ago, led to a cross-country journey and a book project in the making. In 2016, History Department senior instructor Barbara Headle and lecturer Amy Haines conserved the gravesite of William T. Magee in Fountain Fairview Cemetery, his obituary started them on the path to a historically relevant and massive research project requiring significant resources.
This is a word cloud created from the text of the Executive Summary of the 2017 LAS Faculty and Staff Retreats. The size of each word represents the relative frequency of that word’s appearance in the summary document.
Dear LAS Community,
Welcome to the LAS news feed, a source for news and information about our College of Letters, Arts & Sciences community. The goals of this feed are to inform us, connect us, and help build our community. Here you’ll find news and information from all corners of the college including but not limited to Departments, Programs, Centers, and the Dean’s office. We’ll also feature faculty, staff, students, and members of the local community with whom we work.
