The Call to Adventure
Becoming an academic was never part of the plan for Christina Baker ’06. A first-generation college student, she moved forward step by step, from BA to MA to Ph.D., guided by encouragement more than certainty. “I never really knew I wanted to be an academic, I just kept going because people believed in me,” Baker said. Faculty mentors like John Lear, the late Mark Harpring, and Oswaldo Estrada not only shaped her scholarly interests, but modeled what it meant to be both rigorous and generous. Now an associate professor of Latinx American performance and director of the Humanities Center at Temple University, Baker focuses on undergrad students, recreating the intimacy of a liberal arts education she experienced even within an R1 institution.
That sense of gradual discovery also resonates with Sara Pritchard ’94, who did not grow up imagining academia as an option. Her fascination with environmental history took shape at Puget Sound, where faculty such as Nancy Bristow, Drew Isenberg, and Michel Rocchi encouraged undergraduate research and treated students as emerging scholars. Today, as a professor in the Department of Science and Technology Studies at Cornell University, she carries forward that discussion-driven, student-centered ethos, even while navigating the increasing demands placed on faculty. “I enjoy discussing ideas with students and facilitating discussions, whether the entire class or in smaller groups,” she said. “I appreciate getting to know my students — their backgrounds, their interests, what drives them — and helping cultivate trust in the classroom as we learn together.”
For Rachel Gross ’08, the desire to teach was always present. “I always wanted to be a teacher. When I arrived at Puget Sound, I simply changed my goal for what level I wanted to teach at,” she said. As a history and Spanish major, she recalls a moment in Wyatt Hall when Katherine Smith affirmed her goal of becoming a professor, when, as Gross puts it, “I was buoyed by that confidence and reaffirmed in my path.” That encouragement was reinforced through research in Nancy Bristow’s History 200 course and a summer project supervised by Doug Sackman in the Yosemite National Park archives. Now an associate professor of history and director of graduate studies at the University of Colorado - Denver, Gross strives to recreate the seminar-based conversations and faculty investment that shaped her at Puget Sound.
Others felt the pull to academia early. Erik A. Anderson ’91 knew after his first semester that he wanted to recreate the intellectual community he found at Puget Sound. “I developed close relationships with my professors, gained confidence in my intellectual abilities, and experienced an intimate and supportive learning community,” Anderson recalled. Philosophy professors like Doug Cannon and Bill Beardsley treated students as thinkers, transformed his confidence, and shaped his teaching philosophy. Now the philosophy department chair at Furman University, Anderson sees his work as both a privilege and a responsibility, especially in a moment when learning the skills of critical thinking through a liberal arts education is more important than ever.
For John Harding ’94, the path to academia was nearly preordained. Immersed in Asian studies and religious studies, he found mentors who deepened his scholarly focus and offered life-changing advice about graduate study. Those professors still influence his work today as a professor of East Asian religions and coordinator of Religious Studies and Asian Studies at the University of Lethbridge in Canada. “I have Mott Greene’s class and journal assignment in mind when I create assignments for students to respond to readings,” Harding said. “When I supervised a student’s independent study and fieldwork in Japan, I thought about how Chris Ives had made that possible for me. Before I started an Asian Studies program at my university, I looked back to my undergrad experience as a model, and I also spoke with Suzanne Barnett, who was a founder of the Asian Studies program at Puget Sound. I continue to find her example and the example of other role models from Puget Sound invaluable.”
Meeting the Mentor
Nearly every alumnus points to a Puget Sound professor whose influence still reverberates. For Forrest Pierce ’94, now a composition professor at the University of Kansas, mentorship was foundational. “I had some wonderful mentors who were able to help me get the training I needed to be successful as a professor,” he said. Of Lawrence Ebert, Pierce recalls “eight or nine classes” that grounded his craft, while Denise Despres “taught me to write English prose in a way that has benefited me ever since.” Mott Greene’s journal assignment also made a lasting impression on Pierce. “The journal was transformative,” Pierce recalled. “I had never been given an assignment like that, in which my only task was to explore how the ideas, texts, and traditions I was encountering interfaced, resonated, and danced with my own background and worldview. In short, it was the most reality-based thought practice I could have imagined. The journal still sits on my shelf, and gets opened from time to time.”
Helen Hoenig ’77, now professor of medicine (geriatrics) at Duke University, traces her academic path to early experiences at Puget Sound, where her curiosity was encouraged rather than constrained. “My tendency to ask a lot of questions did not begin when I started work at the University Hospital,” she recalled. “It was there from the get-go in my occupational therapy (OT) classes.” That curiosity was met with patience and care by Margo Holm, who joined the faculty the same year Hoenig began OT school. Holm’s willingness to meet after class and engage deeply with questions showed Hoenig how careful inquiry could shape both practice and teaching. Reflecting on her own mentors, Hoenig says what stands out most is “their care and kindness towards me,” adding that the best way to honor those gifts is to pay it forward by supporting students with empathy, rigor, and respect.
That ethic of assumption, believing in students, and supporting their intellectual adventures also shaped Phyllis Jestice ’82, now professor and chair of history at the College of Charleston. At Puget Sound, mentorship from Esther Wagner, who worked with her one-on-one in Latin for two-and-a-half years, reframed how Jestice understood learning. “It was like a shifting of a kaleidoscope,” she said, seeing university education “not as a hoop to jump through, but as a great intellectual adventure.” She also credits honors thesis mentor Walter Lowrie with guiding her toward a passion for the Middle Ages, an approach she now strives to extend to her own students.
John S. Ott ’91 teaches history at Portland State University. He traces his academic path to early mentorship at Puget Sound by Bill Barry and David Smith, who modeled the importance of engaged teaching and historical inquiry. By his junior year, Ott began to see academia as a possible vocation. “I was pretty impressed by how my profs combined a life of the mind with a middle-class lifestyle that involved lots of travel, discovery, and exploration,” he recalled. “It looked like a pretty appealing package.” A turning point came with his senior honors thesis, supervised by Walter Lowrie, who treated Ott’s work with seriousness and respect. Through that experience, Ott came to see research not as rote accumulation but as an unfolding process of inquiry, an approach he still carries with him.
Now teaching at a public regional university, Ott views his role as extending the Puget Sound liberal arts tradition to students who may not yet see themselves as scholars. “I actually get to live and teach something I fundamentally believe in, every day,” he said. “Sharing that with first-generation and nontraditional students is pretty magical.”
