I’m grateful to have had a lot of great teachers. I would even go as far as to say I’ve had a lot of influential teachers. But, they all can’t be the most influential, right? My MOST influential teacher/professor was my pre calc professor. If I were to take this a step further, I would even say she was my favorite professor.
I remember the first day of her class. I was 15 in a dual enrollment math class at the local state college. I was in a different pre calc class than my friends, and we all had different professors. I wasn’t impressed from the get go. My professor came in. She was young. She was enthusiastic to be there. We went over the syllabus and then hit the ground running. We had homework that was due at the beginning of each class, none of that online homework so many teachers were going with. She would do something similar to an “I do”, “We do”, “You do”, teaching style which was fine with me until the you do. She would walk around the class to make sure we were actually doing the you do.
From day 1 until the day our first tests were returned, I was not my professor’s biggest fan. Her teaching style was something I had never experienced before. Being homeschooled, I struggled adapting to new teaching styles. If I had been a better student, I would have gone to her office hours outside of class time to get help. But, asking for help? That was way too hard for me then with people I knew. Going to some new professor and asking for help? Never going to happen.
I got a solid D on my first test. Somewhere around the 66-68 range. I knew my parents would be greatly displeased with that grade, so I thought I could soften the blow and the punishment if I stayed after my last class to speak with my professor directly in her office hours. All of the teachers and professors I had experienced up to that point showed some sort of disappointment in you as a student when you received a failing grade. Not this professor though. We walked through my test that day. She explained, I think, every problem on that test. Not because I missed every problem, but because I got lucky and didn’t really understand how to do it. On that day, everything changed for me.
Shortly thereafter, I decided I wanted to major in math. Was I great at it? No. Did I get straight A’s? No. But I saw the beauty in math for the first time. I saw how it could become fun. More importantly though, I learned not all professors give up on students after one failed test. My professor was one of the first people who truly believed that I could do it when I said I wanted to major in math. My friends laughed and said there was no way I’d ever do that. I was struggling in pre calc, what made me think I could handle the harder classes? But, not my professor. From that first trip to her office to get help, until I left the community college, I knew she was always rooting for me and ready to help.
I had the crazy idea to take calc 3 over the summer because my favorite professor was teaching it. It was hard. I spent a lot of time outside of class studying and getting help. It was so hard that after the second test, I had, if you will, a midlife crisis. I thought I had failed beyond coming back to a passing grade in the class. I let all of the negative comments I had always heard get to me. So I skipped the next class. The next week, I went to talk to my professor and tell her I was dropping the class and changing my life plan. I felt that after all she had done and been for me, that I owed her that. Once in her office, she gave me my test back. It was like another 68. I had a breakdown right then in her office. She closed her door, listened to me, and then gave me some of the most unbiased advice I had ever gotten to that point. She told me it was okay to not know and to take a break from college and classes if that’s what I needed. I ended up sticking it out and passing the class. She said out of all my calc classes, I had the highest grade in her calc 3 class. My theory is because she was the best.
When it came time to transfer to the university, I had 3 math classes, 1 programming class, and no friends. I struggled. My set theory professor was something else. I had no idea what happened in class- I don’t think anyone in my class actually knew. I needed help. Do you know who took time out of her schedule to help a former student? My favorite professor. She took time out of her spring break to try and help proofs make sense to me so I could pass my set theory class.
When graduation time came for both my bachelors and masters, I heard from that professor. She told me she was proud of me. Words of encouragement are my love language. Her telling me she was proud of me, meant the world to me. When my brother died, the professor found out and sent me a message with her condolences. When the next year started, I got another message from her. She was drinking from a coffee mug I gave her as a gift before I transferred to the university. She was letting me know again how proud she was of me, acknowledged how hard my year had been, and wished me nothing but the best for the new year.
Very early on, I knew I wanted to teach math one day. I wanted to set the example for my students that my professor set for me. I wanted them to know I genuinely cared for them as a person. Did I want them to love math and think it’s cute like I do? Absolutely. But not everyone does. So my goal as a teacher was to make class as enjoyable as I could, and make math as easy to learn as possible- just like my professor demonstrated for me all of those years ago. I had the opportunity to teach a class of 90 students precalculus with trig. I used all sorts of examples of things I learned to do and not do from my favorite professor. Did my students understand why you can’t take the log of a negative number? Probably not, but they knew if they did, they would make me cry. When I would come to a solution of a logarithmic equation, and had both a positive and negative solution, I would ask my students what our answer was and why. They would all shout the positive number because if we take the log of a negative number you will cry. I’m not sure that I’ve had an influence in anyone’s life like she had in mine or if I ever will, but I know I at least made math class fun for a few people.
To my favorite and most influential professor, if you ever come across this on the world wide web. Thank you for everything. Thank you for believing in me when my friends told me my dreams were unachievable. Thank you for your encouragement, support, and countless hours helping me understand math- my friends started referring to your office as my second home because of how much time I spent there. Thank you for setting an example for me and for so many others on what it looks like to be a professor who loves her subject, but also cared for her students. Academia needs more influential teachers and professors like you.
Grief. Going. Healing. 
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