Lynn,
I signed up for Humanities 227 in the first semester of my second year at SFU. I was still finding my way through everything, and more or less took your course on a whim. I had not known anyone else to take it, and in truth I had no idea what to expect. Looking back on my five years at SFU, I can not think of anything more surprising, interesting, confounding, liberating, energizing, or exciting than your course. It was the best decision I could have made.
Immediately, you presented yourself in an manner unlike any other professor. You weren't there to dictate, or to merely impart knowledge unto us, you were there to make us want to take in as much as we possibly could, and then when we thought that there was no more we could take, you made the next morsel just that much more enticing.
Looking back at my first week, I didn't know what to expect. Being a visual arts major, I knew no one in the class. But that didn't matter. I don't know if it was the subject matter or the influence you carried, but within weeks I can honestly say that the class bonded - to a degree of which you very rarely see in a university setting. I didn't know if this was a fluke, or just coincidental that so many different people would feed off each other's minds so well, but it became all the more clear when I took 327 the following spring and the exact same thing happened. It wasn't just the subject matter or the students, but you brought out something - a desire in all of us - that most professors could not dream of touching.
The second week of class in humanities 227 was September 12th, 2001. Things changed a bit that week, and I couldn't think of a better forum for dealing with and discussing those events than a course dedicated to the study of the future, something that is in constant jeopardy from our own ambitions. It wasn't just the subject matter though, it was also the assignments. Never before had I been assigned a creative writing project for a final paper, but sure enough at the end of 227 you gave us one. It was an absolutely brilliant idea and to this day remains one of the papers that I am more proud of.
Seeing as I was only a second year student when I took both courses, I didn't have the prerequisite credits for humanities 327, but you took it upon yourself to wave that for me, and I thank you for it as the follow up was even more gratifying than the precursor.
When all is said and done, I look to my degree on the wall. It reads Bachelor of Fine Arts. I took Humanities 227 and 327 not because I needed to, but because I truly wanted to. And to this day, both courses help me in everything I take on, especially since I am trying to make a living as a fiction writer. You helped me to come to terms with a lot of issues, concepts and realities that had always been on my mind, and in retrospect, I truly do not think I could have chosen anything better than The Study of the Future.
Lynn, you are a large part of what made my university career a joy, and I thank you from the bottom of my heart. Good luck in whatever you may choose to do with your life now. Be prosperous, be confident, and be happy.
Your friend and former student,
I signed up for Humanities 227 in the first semester of my second year at SFU. I was still finding my way through everything, and more or less took your course on a whim. I had not known anyone else to take it, and in truth I had no idea what to expect. Looking back on my five years at SFU, I can not think of anything more surprising, interesting, confounding, liberating, energizing, or exciting than your course. It was the best decision I could have made.
Immediately, you presented yourself in an manner unlike any other professor. You weren't there to dictate, or to merely impart knowledge unto us, you were there to make us want to take in as much as we possibly could, and then when we thought that there was no more we could take, you made the next morsel just that much more enticing.
Looking back at my first week, I didn't know what to expect. Being a visual arts major, I knew no one in the class. But that didn't matter. I don't know if it was the subject matter or the influence you carried, but within weeks I can honestly say that the class bonded - to a degree of which you very rarely see in a university setting. I didn't know if this was a fluke, or just coincidental that so many different people would feed off each other's minds so well, but it became all the more clear when I took 327 the following spring and the exact same thing happened. It wasn't just the subject matter or the students, but you brought out something - a desire in all of us - that most professors could not dream of touching.
The second week of class in humanities 227 was September 12th, 2001. Things changed a bit that week, and I couldn't think of a better forum for dealing with and discussing those events than a course dedicated to the study of the future, something that is in constant jeopardy from our own ambitions. It wasn't just the subject matter though, it was also the assignments. Never before had I been assigned a creative writing project for a final paper, but sure enough at the end of 227 you gave us one. It was an absolutely brilliant idea and to this day remains one of the papers that I am more proud of.
Seeing as I was only a second year student when I took both courses, I didn't have the prerequisite credits for humanities 327, but you took it upon yourself to wave that for me, and I thank you for it as the follow up was even more gratifying than the precursor.
When all is said and done, I look to my degree on the wall. It reads Bachelor of Fine Arts. I took Humanities 227 and 327 not because I needed to, but because I truly wanted to. And to this day, both courses help me in everything I take on, especially since I am trying to make a living as a fiction writer. You helped me to come to terms with a lot of issues, concepts and realities that had always been on my mind, and in retrospect, I truly do not think I could have chosen anything better than The Study of the Future.
Lynn, you are a large part of what made my university career a joy, and I thank you from the bottom of my heart. Good luck in whatever you may choose to do with your life now. Be prosperous, be confident, and be happy.Your friend and former student,
Andrew Wilmot
agawilmot@hotmail.com
The power of one becomes a 13:17
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home