Editor,
While I have encountered many wonderful professors at UNM, three in particular have gone beyond the normal standards of teaching and have helped shape my life.
Shirley Heying, with whom I am taking the special topics course “Peace and Conflict: Children in Genocide,” is one of the best UNM professors I have ever had. She has ignited a passion in me I never knew I had. She intrigues and educates her students by utilizing several teaching methods that help students understand the subject, regardless of their learning style. She facilitates deep conversations and helps students answer their own questions.
Shirley has even gone out of her way to find individuals who have first-hand accounts of genocide and the terror they have faced. Listening to these individuals allows one to become immersed in another culture and time period, giving another perspective and understanding of another’s experience. Shirley is a leading example of a hardworking professor with her students’ education in mind.
Desi Brown, who teaches in the Peace Studies department, is one of the most active professors on campus. He is a leading voice for equality, who is ready and able to talk about any issue and provide a safe space for students to openly discuss matters of injustice.
He assists students in projects they have and helps bring to life dreams and goals they desire to accomplish. He is a remarkable professor because he is able to teach a classroom about how generations before us achieved peace, and how we can use lessons from the past to protect our future. I don’t know what I would have done without his guidance on my own peace activist pursuits.
Mate Pleic teaches my least favorite subject — statistics. Mate works hard to make sure students who do not have a focus in math master the material. My favorite part about his teaching style is his ability to add humor to lectures, which allows students to breathe between complex math problems.
He has an ability to get onto the students’ level and gives examples that relate to modern issues. Mate has no problem going over heavy material multiple times and allows students to ask as many questions as they need. As a student with a full-time job, I have a hard time meeting him during office hours, so he offered tutoring sessions that fit into my schedule.
My test scores increased two grade letters because Mate took the time to make sure I excelled in the curriculum. It is professors like Mate — who take the extra time to see that students attain their highest potential — that make UNM a success.
These professors have provided me with an education the UNM administration and community should be proud of. They show students how to take the material they teach into the real world, go above normal lectures, are proactive and serve as role models.
Words cannot describe how much I appreciate and value everything they have offered me as a student. These professors have undoubtedly changed my life.
Brittany Arneson
UNM student
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