Professors are interesting and integral characters in our college experience. They're the ones who stand up at the front of your lecture and attempt to entertain you with knowledge for an hour and a half or so. Have you ever thought about what it takes to be a great professor? The lectures have to be engaging and the performance has to be perfect and well prepared. A professor can't just get up in the middle of lecture, go to the bathroom, and never come back; sometimes we take them for granted. At Rutgers, I am fortunate to have an A-list staff of professors and lecturers at my fingertips every semester.
My second semester freshman year, I decided that I wanted to walk out of college fluent in Italian and started my language classes. I had taken Italian in high school, but they were never intense courses and I had been out of practice for about six months. I took a placement test and scheduled my first class, Intermediate Italian Pt. 2. My teacher was a man named Jamison Standridge, but we all called him Giacomo. I walked in on my first day unknowing what to expect and immediately went into a panic when I realized that everybody could speak Italian very well and all had had previous classes together. Giacomo sped through a quick review session of topics I had never covered and I had to fight back terrified tears. I ran out and announced to my roommate that I was dropping my class and giving up my dream of becoming fluent in Italian to which she replied that I was overreacting and really just needed to talk to the professor. After my mom agreed, I talked to him and he reassured me that I could handle the course and should stick it out.
The next few weeks were tough and scary, but, slowly, I found myself looking forward to the class and having fun getting to know my classmates. The best part, though, was Giacomo. He took his small class as an opportunity to mold this group into a family while we joked and conversed in Italian. He teased his students and told us stories of his transition to the United States and made the experience genuinely enjoyable. With him at the front of the room being sassy yet patient, I felt like we were all friends, and the class reminded me of being home. At the end of the class, one student even felt comfortable enough to invite the rest of the class to his apartment one night for an end-of-the-semester celebration. Looking back, I'm still not sure how to conjugate the remote past verb tense, but I am sure that I am eternally grateful for an instructor who talked a terrified student off of a ledge and made her realize that with a deep breath and a little support, she could handle any hurdle that came her way. Quindi, Giacomo, se stai leggendo questo, grazie mille per tutto.
