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The Zen of teaching philosophy - Adam Potthast
The world is her classroom - Jessica P'an

Adam Potthast enjoys providing a foundation for learning

If you can 'light that little spark' in students, they'll be eager to learn," says Adam Potthast '00 M.S. "And the most effective learner is a student who is genuinely interested in the subject matter."

Photo: Peter Morenus

Adam Potthast, '00 M.S. a doctoral candidate, teaches a philosophy course at the Avery Point Campus.

Potthast, a UConn doctoral candidate and teaching assistant in the philosophy department, received the 2003 Outstanding Teaching Assistant Award from the University. He says 'lighting a spark' is a challenge.

"In the past, philosophy teachers could often rely on pure fascination about philosophical questions to generate the kind of interest I'm describing," he says. "While this still appeals to many students, more and more come to a university valuing practical concerns over fascinating mysteries."

So how does he teach a subject that many students think will be too abstract to understand? "You have to make it practical," Potthast says. "So I teach [philosophy] mostly as a skills course — how to think in an ordered, clear way."

He says philosophy involves two basic skills: "Finding reasons for one's beliefs or opinions and learning to evaluate and weigh those reasons against others that are offered. If I can give my students a strong grounding in these two skills, they'll find that all of their academic pursuits will become easier and more enjoyable."

He tells his students that this ordered way of thinking is "basic to almost anything they'll ever study. So they can take practical lessons from philosophy and apply it everywhere. That's why I love to teach it."

Potthast has students use online message boards to draw them into discussions with their peers about the course material.

He also abides by a policy he calls "full disclosure." "The point of this policy is to assure my students that they do not have to guess about what they're required to know or how they're doing in the class," he says. All essay or short-answer questions that have a chance of being asked on any exam are given to them ahead of time.

Recalling something he learned from Keith Barker, director of UConn's Institute for Teaching and Learning, Potthast says, "You should always tell students what it is they need to know; otherwise it's not education. It's the lottery."

Jessica Kukielka '06 (CANR), a fourth-semester agricultural and resource economics major who was in Potthast's honors philosophy class last fall, says he has "tremendous skill in demonstrating the importance and relevance of philosophy in an academic or real-life situation."

Another student, Jonas TePaske '05 (SFA), says, "I was lucky enough to have him. His teaching style was one that brought about a stimulating reciprocal environment, in which the students felt that they could challenge him as much as he challenged us."

Potthast says he enjoys using humor in his classes. "I always liked the professors who told jokes, so I try to imitate them," he says.

Professor Joel Kupperman, Potthast's academic adviser, says he is not surprised that Potthast was recognized for his teaching. "He is patient and willing to take the time to make something clear," says Kupperman. "He is a thoroughly decent person, and students respond to that. He also has broad interests, rather than having a narrow ultra-professional attitude toward his subject. This enables him to appreciate the point of view of someone who is coming to philosophy for the first time."

Potthast says it is rewarding to teach philosophy because "I love the discipline. I love helping students learn to think through arguments and reasons."
— Sherry Fisher

Internships help Jessica P'an explore international business

Photo: Peter Morenus

Jessica P'an '05 (CLAS) speaks four languages and is headed toward a career in international business.

An economics major with an interest in international business, Jessica P'an '05 (CLAS) has made the most of her educational opportunities in both the School of Business and the department of economics in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. Although the honors program student is anchored by her courses at UConn, it is clear that she takes the world as her classroom.

She speaks Chinese, French and some Spanish. "Growing up I traveled a lot with my family, and I was exposed to international experiences," says P'an a Westport, Conn., native whose parents emigrated from China. "I think of the world as a global community rather than 'the world out there.'"

During the past several summers, P'an has sought to further her UConn education through business-related internships and international travel.

She participated in a language and culture program in Taiwan, worked in sales and marketing at the St. Regis Hotel in New York City, studied for six weeks at the Beijing Language and Culture University, and held an accounting/bookkeeping job in Greenwich. Most recently, she interned at Estee Lauder in New York, in the global marketing department for Donna Karan cosmetics.

During the semester, P'an takes pride in showing off the University. She is one of five student coordinators of the Husky Ambassador Program, which matches host students with prospective students who have the chance to go to a class or two, eat in the dining halls, and in general get a sense of what it's really like to be a UConn student. Promoting UConn comes easily to P'an, who values the variety of opportunities she has experienced as an undergraduate. She says, "UConn has helped me to grow as a person. It definitely gave me chances to stretch out as a leader."

One such opportunity came in her freshman year, when she and nine other honors students founded a theater group called Dramatic PAWS. (PAWS stands for Producing, Acting, Writing Students.) The group has successfully staged comedies, musicals, and even original, student-writ ten plays.

P'an has also been involved with the Asian American Cultural Center's mentoring project for local elementary and middle school students. Currently, she is devoting her energy to establishing an internship program that would be a UConn chapter of an international organization called AIESEC (the acronym is French).

The program would create opportunities for UConn students to participate in internships abroad and for international students to find internships with businesses in Connecticut.

This summer P'an will be fulfilling yet another internship related to her major, this time in the New York City office of HSBC, an international bank based in London. Like her other workplace experiences, this one will help her find her niche in the world of international finance, she says.

"I want to find what it is that I'm really passionate about and from that, make a career choice."
— Leslie Virostek