Kirchhefer

Dan Kirchhefer, professor of art, has been a teacher for 40 years.

“I have the greatest job in the world,” Kirchhefer said.

Kirchhefer is from a small town called Hastings, Neb. He graduated from the University of Nebraska with a degree in printmaking and the University of Kansas with a master’s degree in printmaking. Kirchhefer began teaching at Emporia State in 1980.

“ESU selected me,” he said.

Being a good teacher and looking at art, are always the goals of Kirchhefer.

“Professor Kirchhefer is a gifted teacher, with a tremendous knowledge about and passion for instruction of printmaking and drawing,” said Monica Kjellman-Chapin, professor of art.

Watercolor and gouache are Kirchhefer’s favorite types of paintings. Kirchhefer said teaching drawing and printmaking were hard at first. However, now he has his own way to do it perfectly.

“As a teacher, he is a model to which we might all aspire – his willingness to work with students so they might improve, his diligence and comprehensiveness in terms of preparation and critique of individual projects, and his somewhat irreverent sense of humor, coupled with a determination to help his students learn and grow as artists, render him an outstanding professor,” Kjellman-Chapin said.

Michelle Parkman is a non-degree seeking student who has taken all levels of life drawing and printmaking classes with Kirchhefer.

“(Kirchhefer) always pushes you further than you think you can go with a piece. His favorite line is ‘that’s a good start’ and he knows so much I don’t know how he fits it all into his head,” Parkman said. “You never get bored. He teaches more than just art to his students. he teaches life with his quirky spin on it.”

According to Kjellman-Chapin, Kirchhefer consistently gets tremendous work out of every student, regardless of previous experience and skill. They walk out of his class with improved technical ability, a keener observational eye, and a deeper commitment to composition, craftspersonship, concept and content.

During many of his classes, Kirchhefer comes up with a survey question which he asks every student for his/her opinion.

“(Kirchhefer) gives good advice.” said Marco Hernandez, junior painting and printmaking major. “He provides new techniques and a great knowledge about art to his students.”

As an art teacher and also an artist, Kirchhefer said sometimes it is hard to find time to work in his studio. Kirchhefer has more than 130 juried shows and more than 40 awards. His artworks includes drawings, paintings, prints and artist books. Most of them are showed in several public collections or galleries, such as the Charles M. Young in Portland, Ore., and the C.T. and Strecker-Nelson Gallary in Manhattan.

“Professor Kirchhefer’s images are often provocative, challenging and are historically rich, with an exquisite handling of line and color,” Kjellman-Chapin said.

“(Kirchhefer’s) art is so realistic without being too photo-like,” Parkman said. “He draws the human figure in a way that catches the viewer in the process and his use of graphite and color is like no other I have seen.”

Next October, five of Kirchhefer’s prints are going to be in a show in Chamalier, France. Kirchhefer will be one of only four American artists invited to exhibit artworks at the International Triennale

Kirchhefer made his first artist book in 2004 and now has made 10. The artist books are made on Japanese papers connected with string. Kirchhefer thinks Japanese paper is some of the most beautiful paper in the world and it has flower peddles in it.

“They are like books of hours or prayer books,” Kirchhefer said.

The books are about people, dogs, lust, Kirchhefer himself and the secrets he keeps.

Kirchhefer is a dog lover, and he had 2 dogs who just died. When talking about them, Kirchhefer said, “(They are) good dogs, good subjects and they both appear in same print I made titled ‘Jackdog and Bart Watch Jesus Build a Boat, While He Worked on His Tan Boat Say He was an Above Overage Carpenter.’”

Kirchhefer has different kinds of hobbies, such as baseball, gardening, travelling and reading.

“He often recites poetry, and can recall at will sections of dialogue from movies such as The Big Lebowski,” said Kjellman-Chapin.

Looking forward to the creation of future artwork, Kirchhefer wants to go travelling and do cows and water. He has been to France, Mexico and Italy, and his next stops may be Brazil, Alaska or the Grand Canyon.

Parkman thinks Kirchhefer can always keep you laughing.

“(Kirchhefer) can not only name all of the U.S. presidents in order, but can also tell you which ones had mutton chops or other configurations of facial hair,” Kjellman-Chapin said. “He is always ready with an anecdote, a bit of trivia, or a joke, and has an unparalleled affection for River Dance.”

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Peterson

Every student from Emporia State that begins a student teaching assignment in a high school or middle school classroom has been placed there by Sue Peterson, director of Professional Education Services.

“Placing the student teachers is very time consuming,” Peterson said. “When I first came I placed all (of the students). Now I do not place the elementary education students but I do everything else for them like their student teaching certificate comes from (our office).”

Not only does Peterson do the job of several people, she trains a therapy dog in her spare time and is a cancer survivor.

“It comes easy for me to be interested in dog training,” Peterson said. “I’m an avid dog lover.”

She is currently training a lhasa Apso/Shih Tzu name Zoey. Previously, Peterson trained a service dog named Ravine.

“After I was diagnosed with Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma, I probably had that cancer a long time but they just didn’t catch it because they thought it was fibromyalgia, I had chemo therapy,” Peterson said. “I had a little dog named Darling and Darling was getting very old. I kept praying ‘dear God, don’t let Darling die before I finish my chemo. I just can’t take that.’ I finished my treatment and Darling died about six weeks after I finished my treatment.”

Knowing that she was grieving over the death of her dog, a neighbor offered to give Peterson one of her puppies.

“I said ‘oh no, I can’t do that,’” Peterson said. “I was just so fatigued.”

She decided to take Zoey and train her to be a therapy dog to visit nursing homes and hospice patients.

“Zoey means ‘life,’” Peterson said. “I named her Zoey Amor. And Amor means ‘love’ so backwards that means ‘love of life.”’

Peterson views hundreds of Emporia State student files every semester to determine where to place students and to decide if they are ready to move on to working with students.

“The parts of my job that are not done by the book are empowering teacher candidates to be successful,” Peterson said. “Once I place the student teachers out there I can’t just forget them. When I send those teachers out, I don’t really know them because I haven’t taught them. It’s almost like I’m selling a product that I don’t know.”

Peterson sits on two admissions committees where she consults with professors and advisors to determine if students are ready to be placed at work sites.

“They’ll say ‘this teacher candidate is having some problems. Attendance is terrible. They were not reliable,’” Peterson said. “I go through and I write down notes. I know that I don’t know that student and I have no way of getting to know that student before they are placed.

Peterson works with a very small staff in the office of Professional Education services.

“I enjoy working with her,” said Shannon Hall, licensing officer for the teacher’s college. “She offers good advice to me as a colleague.”

Although she no longer teaches, she enjoys the minimal interactions that she gets with the students whose files she handles constantly.

“I go to each of those (introductory) classes and I talk to the students,” Peterson said. “I give them my ‘3-Ds’ lecture.”

Peterson’s 3-Ds lecture consists of information about how they must disclose any potential harmful information that could prevent them from becoming teachers, that they have a right to due process and they should assess their disposition.

“(With due process) they have a right to be told what they need to do to fix inappropriate behavior,” Peterson said. “We remind them that they are different and they must think as professional from that day forward.”

While some of the work she does can be frustrating, the best part of her job is seeing students who have been struggling succeed.

“One of the most challenging aspects of my job is knowing when to call in the troops (to help struggling student teachers),” Peterson said. “We don’t want to rescue the student teacher. Our whole goal is always empowering. I tell my student teachers ‘don’t you dare fail because if you fail, I fail.’ I hate to fail. The best part of my job is when a student who has fallen down and skinned their knee says ‘I can do this.’ Then you will see some of the best teaching out them that you ever saw.”

Hall said that Peterson is professional in her work with students.

“I see how well she works with students in understanding their circumstances but she is still very professional in what we need for the requirements for the teacher’s college,” Hall said.

Peterson graduated from Florida State University with a degree in elementary education. She went on to get masters degrees in rehabilitation services and rehabilitation counseling from Auburn University in Alabama. She finished her education with a doctorate in higher education administration from Auburn University.

Peterson said that the reason that she has stayed at ESU all these years is because of the university’s emphasis on students.

“I just love my job so much,” Peterson said. “Working with the students, I just enjoy that, even the ones with the bad attitudes. After I’ve done this job for 12 years I wouldn’t think of going somewhere else and I wouldn’t think of doing another job. The students are such good investments. I thought I was going to save the world and save all the students but there are some students that are not meant to be teachers. There are some that simply did not have that gift.”

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Worrell

For Vicki Worrell, associate professor of health and physical education, a love of helping people makes teaching an obvious choice.

“I like teaching because I love people,” Worrell said. “I love to help people and help them to get better at what they are doing.”

Worrell said she knew she wanted to be a teacher since she was in elementary school and that she loves “to help people learn.”

Worrell grew up in a small farming community in Nebraska and then moved to Kansas to go to college.

“I went to Wichita State University for undergraduate degree, University of Kansas for my master’s degree and Oklahoma State University for my doctorate degree,” Worrell said.

After graduating from school, Worrell taught in elementary school for 19 years, and then taught at Wichita State University for six years. She is now in her sixth year teaching at Emporia State.

Teaching elementary school was fun for Worrell because of the energetic kids, but she also loves to instruct teachers how to teach better.

“(New teachers) show more respect and are more willing to learn how to be a teacher,” Worrell said.

Another reason that Worrell likes teaching at ESU is because she can teach online. ESU is the very first graduate program to teach physical education online. The entire master’s program is online and is very hard to get into.

Worrell believes it is a great way to learn about assessment and how to use it in student’s own classroom. In the class, Worrell gives students ways to assess and grade, but students have to partake in the activities, so they know how to use them.

“It was a great tool so we know how to use the assignments in the future,” said April Huddleston, graduate student assistant in health, physical education and recreation.

Huddleston got her bachelor’s degree at ESU in December 2008, and she thinks what she learns from Worrell’s classes are in a “real-life” setting.

“Dr. Worrell is always doing whatever it takes for her students to become great teachers one day,” said Alison Norlen, junior physical education major.

Norlen said that the classes she took with Worrell were really interesting and full of tips that she could be able to use in her future career.

Worrell strives to help her students understand the importance of her profession, so that they may share the same passion. She said she does not only care about students in the class, but also always involved in what the students are doing.

“She is a problem solver and always tries to find the best way to go about the solution to a problem,” Huddleston said. “She has been a leader in numerous state and professional organizations and is very passionate about what she does.”

Worrell took over as President for the American Alliance for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance. It is a nationally recognized organization in all 50 states. The goal of this organization is to teach people to be healthy and physically active, and tell all the people in the profession how to be better at what they are doing and supporting First Lady Michelle Obama’s “Let’s Move Initiative.”

“The organization encourages the nation to eat healthier and be more physically active so they don’t have to go to the doctor as much and use health insurance,” Worrell said. “It also deals with women and sports, recreation and leisure, people with disabilities and health educators.”

This summer, Worrell will direct a leadership development conference, in charge of having all the presidents and executive directors from all over the states, to lobby on Capitol Hill about healthcare issues and talk to representatives and senators.

Out of classes and work, Worrell loves to travel, pets, cooking, exercise and watching sports. She has been to 47 states in the U.S., Australia and Europe.

Worrell said that she would love to go to the summer or winter Olympics and she tries to keep a healthy life style by drinking a lot of water instead of soda, eating balanced meals with protein and vegetables and getting enough sleep.

“She is what I think of when I imagine where I want to be in 10 years,” Huddleston said. “Dr. Worrell is someone that when you meet her, you will never forget. Once you come in contact with her, you are a better person because of it.”

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Camara

A fan of traveling, Evandro Camara, associate professor of sociology, has been to Europe, France, Paris and Mexico. He is originally from Brazil and perfected his English while studying abroad in America and has since learned French and some Italian. Camara said his interest in culture and social studies made it easier to learn languages and is an asset to his teaching.

“I learned a lot of culture things from (my travels) that I can use in my teaching,” Camara said.

Even though Camara now lives in the United States and has taught sociology, ethnicity and other courses in the Sociology, Anthropology, and Crime & Delinquency Studies department for 16 years, travel is still a huge part of his life.

Since Camara’s family is still in Brazil, he goes back to Brazil once every two or three years. This summer, Camara plans to go back in May and will stay for two weeks with his mom. In addition, he frequently takes trips to Chicago to visit his wife who is a professor there.

Outside of teaching and traveling, Camara has great interest in movies and Brazilian music.

As a Brazilian, Camara conveys “the tradition of soccer.” Not only does he watch it, but according to one of his students, he also plays.

“When he was younger, Camara played soccer and was a body builder,” said David Hamman, sociology student who has taken six classes with Camara. “He really enjoys athletic activities, and he still works out certain times a week to build good health.”

There are tons of pictures of his favorite soccer teams hanging on the walls in his office at Butcher Education Center.

“There will be World Cup this year, and it is once every four years,” Camara said. “We have the best soccer team in Brazil.”

According to Jenna Schmidt, senior sociology major and student assistant in the sociology department, professor Camara is friendly and easy to get along with.

“I have taken three or four classes with Camara over four years, and his classes have many topics which interest students and that we all get involved in,” said Schmidt.

In addition to a fun class atmosphere, Hamman said Camara is always willing to assist students and is friendly outside of class.

“I no longer have his class,” said Hamman. “But even seeing him in public, we normally say hi and stop to talk to each other about how my classes are going and things.”

Deja Jackson, junior rehabilitation education major said she is enjoying her two classes with Camara this semester.

“Professor Camara is a pretty good teacher, who knows how to include humor into his teachings,” said Jackson.

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Summey

Terri Summey, head of Access and Children Services in the William Allen White Library and associate professor of library services, has been worked at Emporia State for more than 22 years. And she is still passionate about her time with libraries and archives.

“Helping people use the library and helping people do research is sometimes like doing detective work,” Summey said.

Summey grew up in Nebraska and received her bachelor’s degree from Dana College, a master’s degree in library science from North Texas State University and a master’s degree in history from ESU.

“I really enjoy what I am doing, I never have change my mind of devote my career,” Summey said. “The nicest thing of my job is that I work a lot with students, that is why I become a librarian and an professor ,and I really enjoy the peace of working with people.”

Currently, she is working on her doctorate in library information management at ESU. In 1987, she took her first career-related position in the White Library.

“I wanted to be a librarian since I was in the high school,” Summey said. “I am interested in exploring history. It showed the different perspectives of the world.”

During college, Summey came across knowledgeable professors and the interaction with the professors and the vigorous atmosphere made her determined to become a librarian.

“Throughout our lives, a lot of people have influenced us” she said, “you pick up a little bit here and there, that all those experiences are what makes people who they are”

Terri emphasized that her job was not teaching students how to use the library but teaching students how to find the useful information they need.

“For the library, my job includes managing the department of Access Reserves which is circulation in the Reserves Inter-library loan, monitoring the operation of the coffee shop, check the supply or shortage of books,” she said. “As a manager, I help make day to day decisions to make the department run fluently. As a faculty member, I do research in my field. I try to do presentations and publish articles in journals on the research that I am doing.”

Summey also teaches on a part-time basis on the National Faculty for the School of Library and Information Management. She has taught one class for the library school for 13 years called on print and electronic resources and services.

“To be a good role model and a good mentor to people who want to be in this field, sharing my knowledge and my enthusiasts for what I do,” Summey said. “Things are always changing, there is a lot of things going on. The ability to influence my teaching profession seems to be passed on in my knowledge and my experience to new people who want to become librarians.”

Students that work with Summey said they benefit a lot from her teaching style which takes them out of the classroom and into the libraries to put theories into practice.

“She is a great boss to have,” said Dana Carter, SLIM graduate teaching assistant. “She is very dedicated with students, always being in contact with her students and always available to inspire you with professionalism.”

Summey also does story time to the primary school student four times a month.

“Reading to them, getting them excited about books is something new we are trying to do. They grow up and they will know how to use the library,” Summey said. “It is probably like teaching which allows me to mentor those kids, let them know that the library is a fun place.

“Some people are scared by libraries. If we can take some fears away and have people want to be in the library, it is good. We can make the library a comfortable place for people to come, with children, we can open a world of reading, a good place to escape. Open up a book you can go to a different world and you could learn something”

Colleagues of Summey’s remarked about her focuses on the job.

“She is very helpful to the students, she does good job with kids and the kids really like her,” said Candy Johnson, interlibrary loan supervisor. “She is always in good mood and full of energy. She is very knowledgeable, usually up to date on what is going on in the access world.”

Summey also had some advice for students about how to choose a career to pour their heart into.

“Find out what you really like with your passion, sometimes you need to not listen to the outside influences,” Summey said. “I am not getting richer being a teacher. But I am rich in another way – teaching in the classroom, being able to help people and teaching students is a good reward. Looking good and positive things in our lives, then you will be happy in doing that career.”

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