If you can, take a class with this man!

Hi, all! It’s Becca!

I have been a Biological Sciences major since I submitted my application to UConn that auspicious day two years ago. However, I have taken many classes that are outside of my major because of our general education (Gen Eds) requirements. I actually love that we need to take classes outside of our major or concentration. Without GenEds, I wouldn’t have taken my favorite class or have met my favorite professor.

While signing up for classes during summer Orientation, I thought that it would be a good idea to pick a GenEd that fulfilled multiple requirements so that I could “get them out of the way” quickly and move onto the classes that I actually wanted to take. My Orientation leader, Justin, told us that it was a good idea to take a 1000 level W (writing intensive) course. I took that into account and picked ANTH 1000W, an anthropology class called “Other People’s Worlds”. It was 8 am on Tuesday and Thursday, but I never skipped a class. Although I picked it randomly, I am so glad that I did.

My favorite professor--Jordan Kiper

The professor of my class was Dr. Jordan Kiper. He is such a fantastic person. My class was the first class that he had ever taught at a college level, but it totally didn’t show. I don’t know how he made anthropology so interesting but I became fascinated by the diversity within cultures and how they started and continue to change. I would love to take another anthropology class but I am hesitant because I won’t be guaranteed to have a professor as passionate as Jordan. I cared because he cared.

Since it was a writing intensive class, I was a little afraid of the first paper, my first college paper! However, Jordan was very available before and after class, for office hours and for appointments to just talk about material or really anything. That was so helpful! I remember one day after class, we were literally going over my essay in the hallway. He always responded promptly to emails and is just the nicest man. I thoroughly enjoyed his class and enjoyed getting to know him. We built a great relationship and I really enjoyed talking to him about anthropology and other random topics. Because of our strong relationship, I felt comfortable asking him to write me a recommendation letter for the UConn School of Pharmacy, when that was still my life plan (I’ll save that story for another blog post!). He gladly obliged and told me that he would love to write me a shining recommendation. He is now writing one for my summer internships. I strongly advise all of you to get to know your professors first semester and every semester after that because they are awesome people and you also will need recommendation letters at some point in your college or post college career.