ICC Professor Maps the Route to Success
This article is a student submission from Journalism 122 in the Fall of 2021
Bryce Bresnahan
Dec 6, 2021
Professor Eric Christian loves teaching, having taught geography classes (including Cultural Geography) at Illinois Central College (ICC) for almost 26 years; with a rich history of teaching and geography experience, it’s hard not to see why. He has had a lot of this experience to get where he is today, which he was recently able to discuss in detail as well as his interests and past that led to his job for ICC.
Professor Christian originally lived around the Kansas City area, and first got his interest in being a teacher by teaching physical geography labs during grad school. After this, he got his first teaching job. “I did one year teaching part-time for the Kansas City Metropolitan Community College system, I taught a world regional class. Unfortunately, that didn’t really pay the bills,” he said. Around this time, he also worked as a cartographer mapping out natural gas pipelines in order to make some extra money. Soon after finishing grad school, he decided to apply for a full-time position as a teacher due to this experience. “I had sent out applications to several different schools,” he said. These applications included ICC and several different colleges across the country, even as far as Las Vegas, while generally staying in the Midwest. While he did get accepted for the job at ICC, he put it on hold while waiting for a response from McHenry County Community College to make a decision between each of them.
What sets Professor Christian apart from other teachers is that he likes to have more discussions with students, most frequently those in his honors class, and hopes to do even more of them with his other classes in the future. He enjoys telling stories that tie back into the various lesson topics he is discussing in class, such as walking through the idea of how traditional cultures might be negatively impacted by the outside world.
“If I can take a concept and it’s poking at myself it’s fine, but if I get to know you guys better I’ll pick on you guys too. Maybe you can relate to something in your own life to that concept then.”
Professor Eric Christian
Aside from his Cultural Geography class, as the only geographer at ICC, he also teaches all other regional geography classes, though he has taught Earth Science and Field Geology in the past. The pandemic has also been a major challenge for him, with over half of his classes being moved online. “I prefer the in-person honestly because I enjoy interacting with you guys,” Prof. Christian said.
When not working, Professor Christian enjoys various physical activities outside of ICC. “I like to get outdoors when I can, I prefer the spring or the fall, I’ll do a lot of yard work and things like that,” he explained. “I enjoy hiking and I enjoy visiting national parks when I can.” However, he has had less free time over the last few years due to devoting more time to committee work for the college, as well as caring for his son and daughter who are now each preparing to go to different universities next fall. Teaching and geography have clearly had a lasting impact on Professor Christian; hopefully, he will continue to enjoy teaching for years to come.