It was nearly a week before I noticed. My new ID card that should have sported the label, ‘Faculty’ still said ‘Student.’ I had to laugh. While I was preparing to return to my alma mater, Drake University in the role of Visiting Assistant Professor of Graphic Design, in many ways, I still felt very much like my 18-year-old self who has posed for that first ID photo more than eleven years ago.
As the woman at the Student Services desk noted when I dropped by to update my ID, ‘You look different!’. And sure, I thought, of course I look different. I just turned 30! My hair is longer (and curly!). Appearances aside, I’m also wiser, more knowledgeable version of the eager and artistic student that first set foot on campus as a freshman. But in many ways I’m still the same.
And perhaps that’s why I struggle at times to fully accept that now I’m the head of the class (or three classes, rather!). That the people who were once my instructors are now my colleagues. I hold the keys (literally, to the offices and storage spaces, and best of all, the Letterpress Studio in Carnegie Hall), yet I don’t have the key to being a successful teacher. I learned a lot in my past two years as an adjunct instructor at Grand View University, but as I’ve told my Drake students numerous times in the past three weeks, I’m also still learning.
“Now I get to flip the script to be the professor that my students can rely on for advice, professional knowledge, and the occasional campus inside joke.”
I may be more comfortable with students calling me ‘Professor’ than I did in my previous teaching role, but I don’t hold all the answers. On second thought though, I might have something better. My highest degree may be a Bachelors, but I have years worth of experience as a designer and illustrator as well as connections to other creative folk in the Des Moines art and design community. And I have the humility to tell my students ‘I don’t know… but I’ll do my best to get back to you with a better answer next class…’
Most importantly, I have a personal connection to Drake and to the experience of a Drake student. I see the latest issue of Drake Mag on the library shelf and I remember all the late nights I spent in Meredith until 2 am putting the finishing touches on layouts before final print. I smell the potent mix of rubber-based ink and mineral oil from the Letterpress Studio and recall the weekends I spent there piecing together wooden type like a jigsaw puzzle to print.
I chose Drake because I wanted a smaller school in which I was an individual, not a number. I formed bonds with my professors that budded into professional relationships from which I gained mentorship, freelance clients, and ultimately, this very job. Now I get to flip the script to be the professor that my students can rely on for advice, professional knowledge, and the occasional campus inside joke.
My ID may now bear the title ‘Faculty’, but a month into the semester as my confidence grows, I’m still proud to be a Drake student if not in name, then certainly in attitude. I’ve got a lot of knowledge to share, but also a lot yet to learn.