Dr. Glen Shinn grew up in a small rural school with positive academic role models that encouraged positive goals for later in life.  He discusses how rewarding it is to reach goals, enjoy work, and do your best.

Dr. Jimmy Lindner is very interested in how to improve teaching to maximize learning.  He grew up in an environment supporting “life-long learning” and desires to enhance student achievement and help equip teachers with technology and training.

Dr. Freddie Richards learned the importance of work and respect from the very beginning.  He is driven to help people who need leadership and actively encourages his colleagues to be active in the community.  Through the broadness of agriculture, he seeks improve the world around him.

Dr. Dennis Jones considers himself a facilitator in the classroom and enjoys watching people learn.  He discusses his projects with distance learning and the technological advantages to enhance teaching.

Dr. Sam Staffer has a broad range of interests and found that computer sciences allowed him to have a tool to understand many different things.  He encourages students to continue to be curious and to explore that curiosity.

After teaching in Budapest, Dr. Mary Beth Davis is committed to understanding and communicating the cultures of the world.  She discusses her passion for literature and the adventure she finds in her research. 

Dr. Claude Gibson was encouraged by his parents from an early age to be a professional.  He originally sought to be a medical doctor, but found his love for literature along the way.  He now seeks to enhance the quality of undergraduate studies.

Dr. Wendell Sadler was greatly influenced by early academic encouragement from parents and teachers. His experiences as an adolescent have become a passion for the process of learning. This interest translates into the study of how to teach and understanding the process of learning how to move.

Dr. Nick Sarantakes finds history to be a story of real life.  He talks about how it is rewarding to learn about people of the past and their lives that are potentially more interesting than any fiction on TV, in books, or in the movies.

Dr. Aliakbar Haghighi is originally from Iran where he was encouraged to pursue education from an early age.  He emphasizes learning and the usefulness of material.

Dr. Jim Rennier is an accomplished musician and long-time teacher.  After joining the band in eighth grade by accident, he found his gift to be music that led to his calling to teach.

Originally from India, Dr. A. Anil Kumar learned how important it is for a teacher to be committed to his/her students.  He discusses his projects with hearing devices he has developed for the army and for NASA as well as his projects with high school students.

Dr. James Kracht loves what he does.  He sees geography as more than coloring maps; it “opens up the whole world.”  As a first-generation collegiate scholar, he is passionate about passing on the information he has obtained.

Dr. Linda Matthei grew up on a ranch in Montana where she often found Indian artifacts in the pastures, leaving her with a longing to know more about other groups of people.  From that young age, she became fascinated with the idea of cultures around the world.  Now, she discusses her studies on migration and women.

Growing up with international parents, Dr. Philippe Seminet was exposed to multiple languages.  He talks about his personal studies on the literature of the 18^th century.  He also emphasizes how learning another language allows people to be on the same level, especially when taught from a young age.