Bill Muck didn’t set out to be a college professor. It was his love of learning that ended up dictating the career path that brought him to North Central College.
“Honestly, I loved being in school, both high school and college,” Muck said. “I got a master’s degree in political science because I really liked studying international politics and I was interested in learning more. I didn’t know it would be a career path at all.”
Muck, of Naperville, taught for three years at the University of Arkansas-Little Rock before coming to NCC in 2008. He currently teaches courses on international politics and American foreign policy, and is the coordinator for the college’s Global Studies and Model United Nations programs.
We recently sat down with Muck to learn more.
How long have you been teaching? 12 years, nine at North Central College.
What degrees do you have? Bachelor’s from Valparaiso University, master’s from Marquette University and a doctorate degree from University of Colorado at Boulder.
What is the best part of your job? I love that I am still solving problems. I feel like in the classroom, whatever course I am teaching, I am working with the students to try to figure things out. A lot of the courses I teach are big ideas, big theoretical and philosophical questions.
What is the biggest obstacle for you as a professor? It’s a challenge and an opportunity to make the material that we are covering exciting; it’s about taking something that if presented one way could be really dry and boring and showing students why they should get excited about it and why it impacts their life. If you can do that, that is good teaching. If you don’t do it, you lose them. It’s an art and a science to find ways of connecting with college students.
How do you stay current with what’s going on politically? A lot of what I do in my off-time involves reading the news. I am reading the New York Times and the Washington Post and I am on Twitter. My wife will say I am on Twitter too much, but part of what my job is is to keep track of what is going on and what is happening in the world so I can talk to my students about it. It’s a really exciting time.
Have students changed over the years? College is a stage in life where students are curious and that is what makes it so fun to teach at the collegiate level. It is about challenging their previous assumptions and getting them to think about a problem in a new way. I have been teaching for over a decade and that curiosity has been the constant. They are excited and interested in figuring things out and that for me is the reason I am teaching at this level.
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Do you have a teacher who inspired you? When I went to Marquette, Richard Friman and Lowell Barrington really helped me find my voice. Graduate school was the stage where I really started to think for myself. Many teachers helped me with the process of how to question, how to push, and it was a really enlightening and fun time for me.
What would someone be surprised to learn about you? I am not the same person in the classroom that I am at home. I am more outgoing, silly and dynamic in the classroom than I am in real life. I am actually probably really boring.
What is a great day off for you? A great day is when I am doing a lot of different things. I would get to read a little and follow the news, spend time with my two children (ages 8 and 11) and be able to be outside and play with them. Also I’d maybe work in our garden.
Three words that describe you: Curious, enthusiastic and regularly humbled.
Jane Donahue is a freelance reporter for the Naperville Sun.
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