{"id":8167,"date":"2012-10-30T10:45:16","date_gmt":"2012-10-30T15:45:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/?p=8167"},"modified":"2012-10-31T09:44:30","modified_gmt":"2012-10-31T14:44:30","slug":"tartan-spotlight-dr-marc-smith","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/tartan-news\/2012\/10\/30\/tartan-spotlight-dr-marc-smith\/","title":{"rendered":"Tartan spotlight: Dr. Marc Smith"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Dr. Marc Smith, professor of Biology at Sinclair Community College, describes himself as \u201can exacting teacher,\u201d who wants his students to not only learn, but to also make learning itself a priority.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want [students] to understand the value of the middle class values that we espouse here, so that education can change their lives \u2013 because education changed mine,\u201d said Smith.<\/p>\n

Smith dropped out of high school and joined the United States Air Force, but his educational journey was far from over.<\/p>\n

Smith earned his GED, and during his career in the Air Force he earned an Associate of Applied Science from The Community College of the Air Force, a Bachelor of Science from Park College, completed his pre-med studies at Wright State University, and earned a Master\u2019s of Science in Organizational Administration at Central Michigan University.<\/p>\n

He retired from the Air Force as a Technical Sergeant (E-6) and came to Sinclair in 1992 through the Grow Our Own Program, and began teaching full-time while still furthering his education, earning a Master of Science in Biology from Wright State University and a Ph.D. in Higher Educational Leadership from the University of Dayton in 2006.<\/p>\n

Smith said that he wants to stimulate and push students to be excellent in their education and wants to get the message out: \u201cIf he did it, I can do it.\u201d<\/p>\n

He received the Student Advocacy Award from Sinclair in 1995 and continues to be student-centered in and out of the classroom with support, confidence and accessibility.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy favorite thing is encouraging students to go beyond their comfort zones,\u201d said Smith. \u201cAnd to realize, ‘I can do this.’\u201d<\/p>\n

Smith referred to a long-time acquaintance and former chair of the Sinclair Biology Department, Dr. Paul Rab, as being a role model and instrumental force in his development as a faculty member.<\/p>\n

Smith said that Rab wanted him to become an excellent biologist and encouraged him to take a myriad of science-related courses as he pursued his master\u2019s degree at Wright State University.<\/p>\n

During this time, Smith was also earning a minor in Geology and traveled to study many national parks across the United States and recently he traveled to Costa Rica for the National Science Foundation to study rainforest ecology.<\/p>\n

He incorporates these experiences into his biology class lectures and tries to illustrate the integration of these scientific disciplines to his students.<\/p>\n

\u201cAn education should change the way you think,\u201d said Smith.<\/p>\n

Smith said he has seen extreme poverty during some of his international travels, such as when he went to Sierra Leone in Africa. Smith also said American students have all the opportunities in the world \u2014 and have no excuse but take advantage of those opportunities.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want [students] to center their world around education, instead of having their world centered around their jobs,\u201d said Smith. \u201cEducation is what\u2019s going to change their lives.\u201d<\/p>\n

Smith said the biggest obstacle to overcome when learning and striving to do good work is time management, and that devotion and the desire to put in the time is required to be successful.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is not a sprint, it\u2019s a marathon,\u201d said Smith, referring to the practice of continual learning. \u201cBut it\u2019s a great way of life.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Smith in Egypt in 2009.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"<\/a>
Smith in Guatemala in 2009.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dr. Marc Smith, professor of Biology at Sinclair Community College, describes himself as \u201can exacting teacher,\u201d who wants his students to not only learn, but to also make learning itself a priority. \u201cI want [students] to understand the value of the middle class values that we espouse here, so that education can change their lives […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3031,"featured_media":8228,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","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":[],"class_list":["post-8167","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tartan-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"cc_featured_image_caption":{"caption_text":false,"source_text":false,"source_url":false},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5s3vR-27J","jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/Costa-Rica-25-Dec-2010-2-Jan-2011-258.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8167","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\/3031"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8167"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8167\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8233,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8167\/revisions\/8233"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8228"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8167"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8167"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8167"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}