Winter 2012 - Austin College Magazine

A C E N T U R Y
telling
How did you choose your career path?
I think my career chose me. When I started my undergraduate education,
I was the only female taking calculus. There was not a real support system,
no women mentors or female role models, but I like to learn and really
flourished in college. Biology was something I really connected with. After
a couple years, I began to talk to the biology faculty about a career in
college teaching. I enrolled in a graduate program that required a broad
set of courses as well as bench research.
Who inspired you?
The biology faculty at Quincy University in Quincy, Illinois, Fr. John
Ostdiek, Mr. George Schneider, and Dr. Al Pogge, who believed in a firstgeneration
female college student who wanted to go to graduate school in
genetics and microbiology. Dr. Herman Brockman, my Ph.D. advisor at
Illinois State University in Normal, Illinois, understood my desire to teach
at a small undergraduate liberal arts institution.
How did you begin your career at Austin College?
Professor of biology Peggy
Redshaw came to Austin
College in 1979 with a specialty
in genetics, particularly the
genetics of Streptomyces.
Now in the second year of a
four-year phased retirement
plan, she shares answers to a
handful of questions about her
students, her profession, and
her experiences.
I was teaching in a tenure-track position at a small women’s college, Wilson College, in
Pennsylvania. The president closed the college in spring 1979; a one-year position was advertised
here. By August, I had moved to Sherman and Wilson had reopened following a lawsuit (and
remains open today). So, I had two teaching jobs. I made the decision to stay here. Over the years,
I’ve worked with extremely supportive colleagues; I was able to teach the courses here I wanted to
teach. Initially, I was the only woman on the biology faculty. I’ve been able to move in the last decade
from biology major courses to more interdisciplinary classes, which I’ve really enjoyed. Now that
I’m phasing down to retirement, I still enjoy the day-to-day work with my students.
What has changed about science education during your career?
I was taught science in college and graduate school through lecture and it was assumed that
everyone learned that way. We now realize that students learn in different ways. Today, science
education has moved away from “the sage on the stage.” I do very little lecturing now, but serve as
a guide to the course material.
In my non-majors classes, I want to make the courses very current, addressing topics in the
news right now. In the fall we discussed the global eradication of polio, and we spent part of each
week discussing the latest news items from Africa and Asia. I want the students to open the science
section of the New York Times or pick up a copy of Scientific American and understand what they read,
to know where to find additional information and to evaluate the truthfulness of material. I hope
I have instilled in them an appreciation for lifelong learning.
What is your favorite interaction with your students?
My last group of mentees graduated in 2011, and my aim was to help them work their way through
the curriculum for a solid academic foundation and to make sure they had the appropriate
30 | Austin College Magazine Winter 2012