Behavior, Culture, and Society
Education
Teacher Feature
Coastline College enjoys the ability to show off their great professors! This week's teacher feature is with English professor Oceana Callum! Professor Callum is an avid reader, surfer, and of course an English professor at Coastline College. Professor Callum gave us great insight into her courses, background, and her reasons for getting into teaching!
Professor Callum with her family
What inspired you to get into teaching and specifically teaching English?
Professor Callum: I learned to read at age three and have been an avid reader and writer since. I was the only one of my friends who had declared a major—English—on our first day of college. So it seemed like a no-brainer that I would stay as close to the written word as possible for my career. It wasn’t until I had been teaching for a few years, though, that I discovered how much I love working with college students.
What do you love about working at Coastline College?
Professor Callum: If you had told me five or six years ago that I would get tenure at a college that supports bold new ideas and busting the status quo, I wouldn’t have believed you. Coastline is a unique college in that there isn’t the usual fear of trying new things.
What do you want students to know about your courses?
Professor Callum: Get ready to have fun while you learn. And a sense of humor is required!
The Callum boys at the aquarium
Who is your favorite author and why?
It depends on which day you ask me! Today is Monday, so I’ll say the poet Walt Whitman because I was just reading “Song of Myself” today.
What are some of your favorite interests?
Writing and reading poetry, reading memoirs, surfing, going to the mountains or to Costa Rica with my family.
What was your birthplace?
San Jose, Costa Rica.
The Callum family at Legoland
English classes require students to read a novel and write an essay on the novel, what novels do you have students read?
Well, not all English classes do, but in my American Lit classes, students can choose from a wide range of novels—from Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women (1868) to Toni Morrison’s Beloved (1987).
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What kinds of career paths could students have as an English Major?
Lawyer. Technical Writer. Screenwriter. Copywriter. Teacher. Professor. Marketing/ Social Media Content Manager. And the list goes on!!
Do you prefer reading on a tablet (Ipad, kindle, etc.) or a hard copy?
Good old-fashioned hard copy for me, preferably with a few coffee stains, dog-eared pages, and some underlining.
One of the Callum boys with a Lego spider
At Coastline College we do our best to showcase the professors who work at Coastline with our weekly teacher feature series. If you are looking to enroll in English classes at Coastline College check them out here! Big shout out to Professor Callum who participated this week in our teacher feature! Check out our previous teacher features and stay tuned for our next teacher feature!
