When John Parcell arrived at Sinclair Community College in 2004, the music professor said he felt an instant connection.<\/p>\n
On Nov. 19, Parcell was awarded the Ohio Professor of the Year award at a luncheon in Washington D.C sponsored by The Carnagie Foundation for the Achievement of Teaching and the Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE). Parcell, 40, was one of 38 professors nationwide honored at the ceremony.<\/p>\n
Parcell said he knows how many outstanding teachers there are at Sinclair, which made the honor that much more special.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was humbled by the award,\u201d Parcell said. \u201cOne never expects to win something like that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Different path<\/strong><\/p>\n Growing up in Miami, Parcell said he wasn\u2019t a very strong student during his high school days.<\/p>\n \u201cI graduated high school with not the best GPA in the world,\u201d he said. \u201cI wasn\u2019t exactly the most motivated student.\u201d<\/p>\n At the time, Parcell spent a lot of his time behind a drum set with a rock band he and a few childhood friends had formed.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen I was in high school, it was all about being in the band,\u201d he said. \u201cIt was all about making music and going on tour and recording.\u201d<\/p>\n After graduating high school, Parcell enrolled at Miami Dade Community College in Florida in 1987.<\/p>\n \u201cI went to college as sort of a default,\u201d he said. \u201cI really wasn\u2019t into it.\u201d<\/p>\n During his days at Miami Dade, Parcell worked part-time in a factory fabricating aluminum frames for his father\u2019s company, while continuing to play music on the side.<\/p>\n When Parcell stopped taking classes, he began to work in the factory full-time.<\/p>\n \u201cI enjoyed it,\u201d he said of the work, \u201cbut I didn\u2019t see myself being a factory worker for the rest of my life. It just wasn\u2019t for me.\u201d<\/p>\n Parcell re-enrolled at Miami Dade and arrived with a changed attitude. He received his associate\u2019s degree in 1992, and then transferred to Florida International University where he received his bachelor\u2019s degree in music composition in 1996.<\/p>\n \u201cI went back into music and I realized that\u2019s what I really wanted to do,\u201d Parcell said.<\/p>\n \u201cI had some really great teachers at Miami Dade and they showed me what it meant to be a good college student.\u201d<\/p>\n Parcell eventually received his master\u2019s degree and doctorate from Stoneybrook University in New York. Parcell then spent time teaching at Suffolk County Community College in Long Island and Haverford College in Philadelphia.<\/p>\n Teaching at Sinclair<\/strong><\/p>\n Parcell said his experience at Miami Dade pushed him toward Sinclair.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen I interviewed here, I felt an instant connection to this school because of my time at Miami Dade,\u201d Parcell said. \u201cI have an emotional connection to this place.\u201d<\/p>\n Parcell explained how easy it has been to teach his music students.<\/p>\n \u201cI think they really appreciate our department and all the things that we do,\u201d Parcell said. \u201cThe students are really grateful for Sinclair. They\u2019ve been great to work with because they are hungry to move on and get their degree.\u201d<\/p>\n Parcell has a full plate in front of him over the coming months. One of his projects is playing the role of music director for the winter production of \u201cAntigone.\u201d He said the position is challenging.<\/p>\n \u201cYou have to be flexible because you\u2019re going to make changes,\u201d Parcell said. \u201cMy creative process is a series of revisions. Any time I compose music, there are dozens of drafts.\u201d<\/p>\n Parcell said he is also doing a composition for the Miami Valley Symphony Orchestra that is scheduled to premiere in May.<\/p>\n Staying positive<\/strong><\/p>\n Since Parcell went through a difficult start when he first began his college career, he has some advice for struggling students.<\/p>\n \u201cDon\u2019t give up,\u201d he said. \u201cWhether it starts with an associate\u2019s or it starts with a bachelor\u2019s, complete the degree. It will open up doors in ways you can\u2019t imagine.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" When John Parcell arrived at Sinclair Community College in 2004, the music professor said he felt an instant connection. On Nov. 19, Parcell was awarded the Ohio Professor of the Year award at a luncheon in Washington D.C sponsored by The Carnagie Foundation for the Achievement of Teaching and the Council for Advancement and Support […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[3],"tags":[1272],"class_list":["post-3648","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-tartan-news","tag-joseph-stueve"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"cc_featured_image_caption":{"caption_text":false,"source_text":false,"source_url":false},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5s3vR-WQ","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3648","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3648"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3648\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3679,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3648\/revisions\/3679"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3648"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3648"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3648"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}