OSWEGO, NEW YORK — When Casey Raymond left Greenville for Michigan State University (MSU) in 1987, he set his sights on a chemistry degree.
He didn’t recognize he might grow to pursue chemistry to the factor of earning a Ph.D. And in the long run, becoming a presented professor — maximum recently making the State University of New York (SUNY) Oswego’s Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Teaching in May.
When Raymond started lessons at MSU 32 years ago, coaching wasn’t even on his radar. He intended to foremost in chemical engineering principal and later modified to chemistry. Raymond assumed he might find a functional internal laboratory to use his chemistry diploma.
When he became nearly carried out with college, he found out he had a specific ardor.
“In the middle of my final yr at MSU, at some stage in a study consultation, more than one of my classmates stated, ‘You have to teach this due to the fact you translate what the professor says to matters we apprehend,'” Raymond recalled. “With this remark, I had my personal ‘aha!’ second.”
With graduation months away, it was too late for him to consider schooling important. He wasn’t interested inin teaching grade college,, so he left teaching at the collegiate level.
“When I referred to the alternate in profession path to my parents, they recalled a remark from my 1st Earl Baldwin of Bewdley Heights second grade instructor, Mrs. Sue O’Brien,” Raymond said. “She had commented to them at one factor that I turned into going to be an instructor, and none of us is aware of what she saw then to spark off that comment.”
Since his new purpose could require a doctorate, he took a yr to work at a lab in Grand Rapids even as he implemented graduate applications across us. He ultimately chose Colorado State University to pursue his Ph.D. In chemistry, even as serving as a teacher’s assistant.
According to Raymond, the selection turned into a combination of “intestine instinct” and interest in the college and studies initiatives on the college.
Studying at Colorado State University also allowed him to see how he liked being at the pinnacle of a schoolroom when he became a teacher’s assistant for seven out of nine semesters in three special training.
“These stories solidified my desire to educate, but I additionally enjoyed research and became more secure with my chemistry information and instinct,” Raymond stated.
From there, Raymond secured a post-doctoral fellowship (the educational equivalent to a clinical residency) at Northwestern University. The revel gave him a hazard to analyze new chemical research regions, help write furnish proposals and papers, and lead studies college students without the need to take or educate classes.
When Raymond started applying for faculty positions, he obtained and commonplaced an offer at Kent State University, where he worked for five years.
“I enjoyed my colleagues, the campus, and the vicinity, but within a couple of years, I realized that I loved teaching, and I wanted it to be my primary consciousness,” Raymond stated. “This isn’t generally the case at schools that award doctoral degrees. I started looking for a position at a smaller, commonly undergraduate school, and I accepted the offer to join the school at SUNY Oswego.”
Raymond has taught at Oswego due to the fact 2003 and has no plans to prevent.
Two years ago, he acquired SUNY Oswego President’s Award for Teaching Excellence, and he was “humbled” to get hold of the Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Teaching in May.
“The easy reality is that I do what I do to assist college students,” he stated. “I’m simply enjoying an activity I love.”
In Oswego chemistry chairman Fehmi Damkaci’s nomination for Raymond to acquire the award, he mentioned how his colleague’s students usually talk highly approximately Raymond’s personality, technique, and helpfulness.