Over the past couple of months, I have been asked a few times to look back on my experience in the Preparing Future Faculty (PFF) Program as a graduate student at SUNY-Binghamton and comment on how it has influenced me in my first two years as an Assistant Professor of Mathematics at King's College. Truthfully, I have nothing but positive things to say about PFF. It was definitely worth the time and energy that I spent on it.
King's College is a small liberal arts college with a heavy emphasis on teaching. Yet there are some research expectations, and there are certainly expectations for college service. My goal is to make positive contributions in all of these areas, not only because this is important in the quest for tenure, but also because I sincerely believe that all of these faculty roles complement each other. In the following few paragraphs, I will cite some ways in which PFF has aided me in my journey.
First of all, the visits to partner institutions were invaluable. Our partner institutions were quite different from SUNY-Binghamton, which is what made this so interesting. Each semester a group of graduate students and SUNY-Binghamton faculty would travel to these schools on an afternoon. One graduate student would give an hour talk designed for undergraduates, but there was also time to meet students and faculty from the partner school. The visit would conclude at dinner, where our group from Binghamton would have another chance to engage in conversation with the partner faculty.
As a new faculty member, I think that these visits helped shape my perspective of how I should approach my job. First, I learned about the differences in students. You could see that students at different institutions were interested in different parts of mathematics, or that some talks went better when audience participation was involved.
Secondly, in discussions with partner faculty, you could learn from the experience of others. Several told of their experiences with doing research while having heavy teaching loads. One comment that was echoed is the realization that it is tough to keep up with a field because sometimes you are forced to take long breaks from it. You could find yourself battling to stay on the frontier of a subject, often relearning things that you had forgot. Wanting to stay active in research, I have heeded this warning, and attempted to study problems that are very accessible and familiar to me. Further discussions with the partner faculty provided advice on how to deal with the pitfalls of committee service and other topics that an unsuspecting graduate student might not consider.
Another important aspect of PFF was the opportunity to attend professional seminars at Binghamton and professional meetings on both the regional and national levels. These events provided exposure to creative teaching methods, new ideas for research, and a general understanding of the direction in which the profession is going. This is essential for someone starting a new job at a new type of institution, and I for one can say that today I am applying some of the things that I learned. For example, I have incorporated things like technology, group projects and activities, and writing, into my courses. I learned many of the details of how to take advantage of these via professional seminars and conferences.
Additionally, PFF participants like myself gave presentations at the conferences. These presentations were important not only because we were able to share our ideas, but also because our presentation skills and scholarship could be discussed and critiqued by experienced professionals from outside of SUNY-Binghamton.
Finally, I will cite the positive experience that I had in working with my PFF mentor, Professor Luise-Charlotte Kappe. Professor Kappe visited my class several times to evaluate my teaching and provide suggestions for improvement, but I also learned a great deal from our frank discussions of teaching and faculty life. From observing her tireless efforts, I think I learned something about the hard work that is required if one truly wishes to become an accomplished professor.
In closing, I want to reiterate my enthusiasm for the PFF program that we had in the math department at SUNY-Binghamton. I feel strongly that it has made my transition to Assistant Professor status a much easier one, and although I am a bit uncomfortable in saying so, I know from first year reviews that my supervisors at King's agree. I would recommend PFF to any graduate student hoping to enter the academic profession.