My name is Roger Brown. Instructors and students are probably interested in different information.

Professional Story

For my instructor colleagues, I currently serve as an Associate Professor and the Director of Undergraduate Studies in the Department of Agricultural Economics at the University of Kentucky. My appointment is fairly unique. In 2015, the University decided that all undergraduate students should take as part of their major requirements one disciplinary-specific, writing-intensive course rather than taking a generic upper-division writing course taught by faculty in the English Department. The course had to include a major writing assignment with multiple rounds of writing, feedback, and rewriting. Since my undergraduate degree was in English, I agreed to create and teach our department's course.

Personal Story

Apparently no one told my forebears that there were career options other than college educator and missionary. My parents chose the “missionary” option and moved me and my brothers to Irvine, Kentucky, a rural Appalachian community in Estill County. My father served as the area’s only pediatrician, and my mother was a public school teacher. My experiences as a student in this small town were frustrating, particularly when I considered my cousins’ experiences whose parents chose the “college educator” option.

At Estill County High School, my brothers and I spent time at school learning how to play card games and how to read aloud from textbooks. In the end, training like this led ECHS to the dubious distinction of being the “Worst Performing High School” in the state according to the Kentucky Educational Reform Act analysis in the year following my graduation.

My early frustrations with my teachers and learning spawned many discussions with (i.e., "lectures by") my parents regarding teaching, the role of teachers, and my duty still to remain respectful. It turns out that all those hours I spent in the principal’s office “thinking about what I’d done” served to reinforce one clear goal. I wanted to find and learn from great teachers.

In college, it turned out that, even with supportive parents, I was unprepared. I worked hard my first year, but still nearly failed out. From all of those great teachers, I learned that I was not as gifted a students as I thought. High school was easy. I considered myself pretty smart. As a teenager, I had even told my father that I believed I could do anything if I put my mind to it. I guess he was trying to prepare me for the real world while still being supportive. He just said dryly, “I doubt you could ever be a professional opera singer no matter what you do.” After my freshman year, I wasn’t so confident. I was discouraged.

The summer after my freshman year I worked for a wilderness camp for kids with emotional and behavior problems. While my days were busy singing loud songs with kids, splashing in creeks, and preparing meals over rustic campfires, I had only the stars and bugs at night for distraction. And there, upon reflection, it was easier for me to see that I had actually learned a lot in my first year in college. I was still behind my peers, but I had learned a lot compared to where I started. So, I decided to keep trying. I also decided to find supportive teachers, people who would mentor me.

I sought out the best instructors I could find with little regard for the subject-matter area. I knocked on professors' office doors to find instructors who seemed most interested in teaching. I petitioned to take smaller upper-level courses in place of larger intro-level courses. I didn’t worry about a major. Some of the smallest courses--with the best discussions--were in the English department. Some of the best instructors I could find were in the economics department.

Before my senior year, I decided to delay my graduation from UK and work for one year as an AmeriCorps volunteer. I took the lessons I'd learned as a wilderness camp counselor and developed an experiential education program. The program I created targeted elementary school students at risk of truancy. My curriculum included three days of after-school training. In these trainings, I used group challenges to teach students about communication, cooperation, and trust. The reward for completing the training was a Saturday day-trip to explore a cave, canoe down a creek, hike in the forest, attend a UK basketball game, or work on a farm. I added the last two options just to fill out the schedule. The farm option required students to clear and gather brush, form and light a bonfire, and then I had arranged for a UK astronomy professor to set up a telescope for stargazing. Even with lower-arena tickets on offer to see the eventual national championship basketball team (“Go CATS!”), students’ overwhelming first choice was to go to the country and work on the farm. This observation--that students loved agriculture even though it required a lot of hard work--made a big impression on me.

All together, these experiences, including 100 college-level classes and 25 full-time semesters of study, help explain why, with an undergraduate degree in English and a doctorate in forestry, I now teach and work in an agricultural economics department.