Professor seeks to better understand his students through ‘Napoleon Dynamite.’
Geography professor Cliff Craig said he is doing what he loves: getting paid to learn.
Craig, who started teaching at Utah State University in 1967, specializes in human geography, geographic education, rural/urban planning and development, geography of Utah and geographic information systems.
However, he was not always interested in geography. He originally went into the field of education but after two years of teaching geography, he said he realized there wasn’t a program out there designed for geography educators. He set out to change that.
About 10 years after he started working at, USU he said his work was legitimized after receiving a grant from the National Geographic Society.
Craig’s most memorable moment as an educator is the “year the National Geographic Society awarded the grant because from that, so many people have been impacted.”
The grant was to establish the Utah Geographic Alliance and Craig has been one of the co-directors since. He has helped to create five sets of compact discs with lesson plans. They are: “Gap Analysis Progam Education,” “Utah AGRC, Exploring Mexico,” “Exploring Australia” and “Where in the World.”
Craig said the “Exploring Mexico” CD has been used even by Spanish teachers because of the comprehensive information it contains.
“Not only does [Craig] have an extensive knowledge and mastery of the material he is teaching, but he loves what he does and it shows during his class lectures,” Jason Stowe, a graduate student in geography education, said.
Next year, he said he will be taking a sabbatical and turning his position as co-director of the UGA over to a professor at another college. After that, he said he plans on changing his focus further to geographic information systems/global positioning system and more of people and the environment.
“He has always been great to work with and he really cares about the students,” Tracy Jones, a staff assistant for the Environment and Society Department, said.
Craig said he has also tried to keep in touch with what college students are “into nowadays.”
“The most important thing is how you relate to students and get your information across to them,” Craig said.
For instance, he had to take a second look at “Napoleon Dynamite,” he said, to see if he could understand why it was so popular. He said he is still confused why students like it, but he’s trying hard to relate to students.
“I’ve been here a long time and there is a generation gap,” he said. “But that’s where the fun is – getting to know the students.”
Liz Ballif, a senior majoring in geography, said, “He knows what he talks about. He really cares about education, goes out of his way to work with other departments and he’s always there to listen and help you out.”
Another way Craig keeps in touch with not only students, but also his family, is boat racing. Hanging on his office wall is a picture of him and his son racing a cracker boat. A cracker boat is a boat that is about 16 feet long and has a corvette engine. He said at one point they were ranked seventh in the nation in terms of high points.
In addition to boat racing, Craig also said he likes to fish and that all these activities are a good way to keep up with his children and grandchildren.
“Craig is a very personable professor. But at the same time he also expects a lot from his students in terms of participation and hard work and study,” Stowe said.
-sarahjh@cc.usu.edu