Tonight's picture was taken in January of 2004. Mattie absolutely loved boxes. The shape and size always intrigued him and then of course there was the numerous things he could do with a box. Mattie typically liked building and creating with boxes. But then got attached to his creations. We would have things around for a bit, until he and I agreed that taking a photo of some boxed creations would be a good solution. That way we always had documentation and memories of the transformed box.
Quote of the day: Teachers affect eternity; no one can tell where their influence stops. ~ Henry Brooks Adams
Dr. Styles came into my life during a time when I wasn't the best of students. I was a biology and psychology major at Union College. For the most part, I LOVED all my psychology courses and found my biology courses less than interesting. Back then, if something did not engage me and if I did not see merit in learning what was presented to me, I basically did not. That was until my senior year of college, when I took an elective in biology, immunology. I had many med student friends in college and they all warned me about Dr. Styles' class. They found him to be tough, challenging, and was known to give pop quizzes. In addition, Dr. Styles never called you by your first name. I was Ms. Sardi for example. In addition, Dr. Styles would lecture but within his lectures he'd always asked provocative questions. Not for the whole class to answer, but he would call on a student at random. Did I find Dr. Styles intimidating? Maybe at first, but I loved his class and as we got to know one another, he became my first mentor. Dr. Styles believed I was bright and had potential, and given his stature in the classroom and in the biology department, that made me pause and have academic confidence in myself.
I found Dr. Styles intriguing. I loved the text book he used in his class (which is saying volumes, because typically text books are dry and hard to sift through) and the content he presented made sense to me and I saw the importance of learning about the immune system and what can arise when it malfunctions. In fact, I still remember researching Lupus for one of his class assignments.
I met Peter in college, and Dr. Styles got to know him as well! He took an interest in the lives of his students and back then it never really dawned on me..... the beauty of being a teenager. But Dr. Styles and his wife (a pediatrician) were pioneers in the Black community and I am happy to see link I included from Skidmore College below. All I can say is a lot of time has passed since I was in college, and since I sat before Dr. Styles. Yet when people are special and they transform our lives, their presence remains forever with us. Dr. Styles is that kind of educator. God bless him at age 91!
Reflections: A Conversation with Drs. Constance Glasgow and Twitty Styles
https://www.skidmore.edu/diversity/init1/reflections.php
No comments:
Post a Comment