k royal, PhD, JD
teaching, learning, doing,& dreaming
By K Royal @HeartofPrivacy | Published | No Comments
It’s been a dream of mine to teach college or more correctly, simply be involved with college students at some level. See, right out of law school, I worked at the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law at Arizona State University. It was not named after that glorious woman when I started, but I was there during the renaming.
I’ve had this dream and as I write this entry, I have to wonder how this sounds. Do I think I am so great that I should have the chance to influence others? Or is it that those cannot do, teach? Not so narcissistic as the former and not so incompetent as the latter. Or so I hope.
I feel in love with the relationships one builds with students – how they change and grow, how they learn, how one small thing can change their lives and they can go on to change the lives of others. Yeah yeah. I’m a dreamer. But I truly believe in the power of people and only people can change this world. And we need all the people in this world to be part of the change – if you’re not part of the solution, you’re part of the problem, right?
I mentored a fabulous young man, Juan, starting when he was in 5th grade until he finished 8th grade. We stayed in touch and he came to live with us later to go to college. We had a conversation about why going to college was important when he could get (and he had) a job he loved that paid him well. It’s not about the money, it’s about the ability to participate actively in the governance of your community. Civic engagement. Now, that can happen at all levels, but in this nation, we have a huge problem – most leadership positions are held by a rather homogenous group. We need minorities and women to be equally represented. Until the leadership of this nation resembles that of its people, we will continue to experience the consequences of non-representation.
I had left academia due to my husband’s job and have been trying to get back to it ever since. Few colleges want to hire in someone who has been in the corporate world (and the pay cut is hard to take in order to work one’s way up the ranks), so my options are to volunteer and/or be an adjunct professor. (Now, if there is anyone with a college or university reading this – trust me, I am so worth the seeming risk. It’s my calling.)
This past year, my dream started coming true. I am now teaching an online course in fundamental law to master’s students and an in-person course on privacy (big data and emerging technologies). And oh my goodness, the students are so worth it. I love the engagement, the discussions, the worries and questions. And I love having both populations of students: online grad students and in-person. Funny, I never considered that my in-person would include undergrad students, but it does! How cool is that?
I’ll never be a scholar (despite my PhD efforts) – I am not so eloquent or studious. I am a practitioner and a very practical one at that. I have the opportunity to combine my two loves – privacy and students. And for now, I am in hog heaven. good googli moo
Leave a Reply