Real People Profiles: Laura Hussey

Tue, 26 Apr 2011 09:00:00 -0400
real-people-profiles

I’m asking some of the people you might encounter on the UMBC campus, including students, faculty, staff and alumni, to answer a few questions about themselves and their experiences. These are their responses.

Name: Laura Hussey

Hometown: Baltimore, MD

Q: How long have you been at UMBC?

A: 3 years

Q: What is your current title (job or student organization position)?

A: I'm a full-time faculty member in the Department of Political Science. Among other things, I also direct the department's Policy, Politics, and Public Administration Internship Program and advise UMBC's Maryland Student Legislature delegation.

Q: In 12 words or less, what role(s) do you play on campus?

A: I teach students about public policy and how it gets made.

Q: What aspect of your UMBC role(s) do you enjoy most?

A: Working with students who are committed to improving themselves, and who will accept my guidance in doing so.

Q: What is the most important or memorable thing you learned in college/have learned at UMBC?

A: In college: Don’t miss out on opportunities to better yourself, make a good friend, or do what is right, because something seems at the time to be hard, uninteresting, unpopular, or otherwise outside your comfort zone. At UMBC: I see reminders all the time that I’m blessed to work here (and not just because the economy is bad).

Q: Complete this sentence: "I am a big fan of __________"

A: My family, my church, the Ravens, Notre Dame, running, statistics, generous people, and students who come to class prepared!

Q: Do you have any UMBC stories, little-known facts about UMBC, favorite spots on campus, or anything else you’d like to share?

A: My faculty colleagues in the Political Science Department are really special people. They have made our department, in my view, unusually student-friendly. Further, besides being just plain nice, my colleagues work their students hard and set their standards high (something I try to do too). At least until the semester’s stress subsides, I’m not sure most students realize just how much time, creativity, and care most of my colleagues put into their teaching and how sincerely they want their students to succeed. But success does not mean an A along the path of least resistance; it means acquiring the knowledge as well as the subtler skills, demeanors and habits that mark an educated person and predict long-run success in one’s studies and career.