As told by Isaac Smith
It never really crossed my mind to be a teacher. But when I started grading and tutoring students with these classes, I realized I actually get this really good feeling after helping a student.
Photo by Kennedy Evans
After doing all my research, I really found myself drawn to UVU because I just wanted to go to a place where I can just get my education, get real-world experience, and connect with those around me. UVU really seems like that place to be.
During my first semester, I really didn’t know exactly what to do. Maybe I wanted to go into the medical field or programming, or maybe I wanted to go into English, philosophy, or science. The first programming class I took was taught by Professor Kodey Crandall, and he was able to explain the code in such a way that made sense to me and made me enjoy it, showing me what I really wanted to do. In addition, he was a person who really cared about the students here at UVU and about their success. Professor Crandall will always take time out of his day to help any student who needs help and will always be willing to slow down and carefully explain what he is teaching.
I was tutoring students privately on the side, helping students in a few of my classes to catch up or needed to clarify a topic because I was always taking notes to keep on top of everything. Eventually, Professor Crandall noticed me staying back and helping the students in their classes. That’s when he asked me if I wanted to be a grader for his class. I could help tutor students in information system classes while also being paid for it. Because before, I wasn’t really being paid to tutor all my classmates on the side; I was just doing it to help them out.
When the COVID pandemic hit, things got really messy. Everything got pushed online, and due dates for assignments were a mess. At the end of the semester, I started noticing that all my professors were having a hard time transferring everything from an in-person to an online format.
During that period, Professor Crandall reached out to me and told me that the Information Systems Department was looking for instructors to help them to even out the workload and asked me to teach one of the classes that they needed help with. So I told him that I was still a student. He said, “Oh, that’s right! I’m sorry, I forgot you’re a student.” I told him that I would be graduating this very semester. He told me that he would wait until the summer semester came, and then once I graduated, I could start teaching classes at UVU.
It never really crossed my mind to be a teacher. But when I started grading and tutoring students with these classes, I realized I actually get this really good feeling after helping a student understand the problem or troubleshoot their program or application. It really gives me a little bit of pride, and I feel happy knowing that I was able to help someone.
Just being able to see them move forward and succeed in that class really made me happy. It made me realize that I really do enjoy teaching, even though that wasn’t what I planned to do from the beginning. It just made me feel really good.
Initially, I was super nervous, but then I realized this opportunity doesn’t really come to everyone — this isn’t something that I can just ask for.
This is something that Professor Crandall took the time to think about. I realized that if he thinks this much about me, then that probably means he really wants my help and really wants to see how well I can do in this environment. And this will be a great chance for me to give back to UVU because they gave me so much back in return.
You'd be surprised at what you can do and what you're capable of. So always think about that whenever you're coming across hard times or if you're feeling stressed or unmotivated to do something.
Links:
Dr. Kodey Crandall
Noah Say
UVU Information Systems program
