Gradute student teaches English with a different spin
With any professor at Utah State University, certain characteristics are possessed that make them the person they are. Most of the time, they have the basic bread-and-butter teaching qualities such as being knowledgeable, hard-working.
Robb Kunz, an English graduate student teaching English 1010, possesses the usual qualities, but applies them with a new spin.
Many professors have textbook lectures and seemingly uniform methods of teaching. However, Kunz teaches in a way that is far from the ordinary, textbook-style students may be used to.
Kunz initially had no idea what he wanted to do while in the early years of his college career, he said. He had experimented with several majors before comfortably choosing English.
“The English major was a lot more than just books and papers,” he said. “[It] forced me to look outside myself, into other cultures and ways of thinking.”
The way he learns is also the way he teaches. With every class period, he manages to come up with a lesson plan that cannot only be applied to writing skills, but can also be applied to his students’ everyday life.
“I am so impressed with students who take an active approach to learning and see themselves as people who are part of a very diverse and interesting world,” Kunz said.
Growing up, Kunz lived in Driggs, Idaho, in a small farming community. He was raised moving irrigation pipes, fixing fences, riding horses, and doing many other activities usually only done on farmland, he said. His family also had milk cows until he was 12 years old, then his family switched over to raising beef cattle.
Kunz said that at an early age he had no idea what he wanted to be when he grew up. His mother was an LPN, and his father was a principal at a neighboring school district. He always carried the idea of wanting to blaze his own trail, and not having the same career as his parents.
Though he had never thought he’d follow in his father’s footsteps, it turned out to be inevitable, to a certain extent. Kunz hadn’t ever thought too much about what he wanted to become in the upcoming years, but had counted out teaching quickly.
Little did he know, he didn’t actually count it out.
As he was ending his undergraduate work, he was faced with the challenge nobody enjoys tackling: Finding a job. As rough as it sounded, he was aided by many other professors and was quickly accepted into the graduate program, which would allow him to continue as a graduate student and also teach the basic courses of English.
Outside of teaching, Kunz enjoys reading and writing. Outside of English, Kunz also likes to ski, camp and hike. He also likes film and hanging out with his friends, when not working or on vacation.
-bgibson@cc.usu.edu