Mary Pedersen, Associate Dean
College of Food, Agriculture and Environmental Sciences,
Cal Poly-San Luis Obispo








[Sept. 26, 2010] —


How could they think I don’t care about them?

We have a lot of different components on our student evaluation forms and for years I ranked pretty highly on almost all of them. But there was one part of my evaluation that was low and it really frustrated me: “The student feels like I care about them.”

That really frustrated me because I really do care about my students. So I set about to figure out what I could do to show this.

It is now my practice on the first day of class to give the students an index card and tell them that I would appreciate the opportunity to get to know them. I ask them to include their hometown, major, hobbies, and their ideal job they would like to have some day.

About You
I also ask them, “Tell me something personal about yourself that helps me understand you. I will keep this absolutely confidential. Something that you want me to know about you.”

On the back side of the card, I ask them to write a question for me about anything they would like to ask— it can be personal, professional, whatever they want to know. In the course of the next few weeks, I explain, I will be answering those questions using a few minutes at the beginning of each class.

Then I share about myself: what my husband does, my children, and that the most important aspect of my life is my faith and personal relationship with Jesus. After I have collected their cards, I say, “If any of you are interested in coming to my office…if you’d like to talk about any of these things, my door is open—I’d love for you to come in and visit. Please come and see me.”

I get a lot of students sharing difficult personal experiences on their cards and some will come into my office to discuss them with me. Some will want me to pray for them. Now that I am in administration, I see many students with difficult and challenging situations (related to academic probation). With these students I need to discuss very difficult circumstances and life choices; big decisions are being made that impact their life dramatically. Many of these students are really seeking spiritual help.

A Difficult Situation
I also now work with a lot of faculty and department heads, and my role has really shifted into that of being a mentor for faculty and department heads. Sometimes their jobs will be affected by a difficult situation: they’ve just found out that their spouse has a serious illness, or they are dealing with a serious, perhaps even terminal, illness. They, too, appreciate prayer for their situation.

No matter who we are working with, students, staff or colleagues, everyone wants to know that you care about them and what is happening in their life. Take a few minutes to ask your students, staff member or colleagues how they are doing. Let them know you care.

“No one cares how much you know, until they know how much you care.” (Theodore Roosevelt)

© 2010 Mary Pedersen