Faculty Excellence at UMUC

Interviewer:

Please tell us about yourself—what made you decide to teach at UMUC? What kind of work do you do when you are not teaching at UMUC? Are there any life experiences that have influenced your teaching at UMUC? If so, please share one story.

Joseph Sepe

I have always been a person who loves challenges. As a young man, I left a cushy job in the lab at a hospital in New York and moved to the uncertainties of Naples, Italy. There I began to raise a family and teach at the University of Naples, founded in 1224. As an American abroad, I felt that its rich history and tradition were dazzling, but I nonetheless became disenchanted by its deeply rooted system of nepotism. When I joined UMUC in the fall of 1992, all of that faded. I quickly realized that you can get from UMUC as much as you give of yourself. That was a driving force. With time though, I became inspired by my students. They live full lives, juggling families and jobs for an education, and many of them fight our wars. They struggle for advancement, deserve good instruction, and appreciate what I do for them. Seeing the thrill of their accomplishment and discovery is the glue that binds me to this institution. As a professor there are demands placed upon you, but the rewards are great.

Working as a medical consultant at hospitals and clinics in southern Italy puts me in touch with much of the day-to-day life there. In Europe, I am board certified in endocrinology and work with patients suffering from diabetes mellitus. Because diabetes is a chronic disease, I follow patients for years and become acquainted with their disturbances as well as the problems unique to their families. I recently worked at a clinic in “a rough neighborhood” that served many ex-convicts. They described their history as “being in college”, and you could always discern their clan by the particular distribution of carefully hidden tattoos. Many things happened there that I never quite understood and it was better not to ever understand them. They considered me their physician. I helped some patients to walk again who had been bedridden for ages and forgotten, but they disregarded me as an American. Many people looked through me, without ever seeing me. I was beyond their grasp.

On a lighter note, I also conduct some research and instruct on a medical faculty at a local university where I teach many of the same classes and seminars that I teach at UMUC. It is curious that Italian students run up against many of the same obstacles in biology as American students. Some of these problems get solved in like fashion, with the same wording, but in Italian. Other issues are addressed in a completely different way. This offers me insight on problem solving. When someone visits me during office hours with a feeble excuse for late work, I point to a framed letter hanging on the wall that was sent to me by a former UMUC student deployed in Iraq. It takes their breath away and they usually leave without further excuses.

Doc,
  I unfortunately wasn't able to meet the deadlines like I had hoped. Our Internet was down almost all day yesterday. We also got hit with 3 rockets and an Iraqi LTC was able to get on base with a bomb sewn into his seat. He apparently changed his mind, couldn't go through with his plan and went back to the guards at the gate and turned himself in. It has really been overwhelming here lately. I really want to do well in your class but under the circumstances, I am not able to be an active participant.

Interviewer:

How would you describe your teaching style or philosophy? What experiences or person(s) have influenced your style or philosophy?

Joseph Sepe

I set goals for delivery and try to meet them. First of all, I bring to everyone’s awareness the natural world around them and that they share a common ancestry with all living things. I do this in different ways and at different times using many examples like the genetic code and the number of amino acids we use. This 64 (mRNA codon) to 21 (amino acids) ratio is so universal that the likelihood it could ever have occurred twice by chance has been calculated at a million, million, million, million, million to one. This suggests that we are probably related to other organisms. I also enjoy telling students about homeotic (hox-box) genes that are highly conserved throughout evolution. You take a gene that builds an eye in a fruit fly and amazingly find an analogous gene in man doing something different. Place this human gene in a fruit fly and it behaves as if it were at home. It builds a fruit fly’s eye. This suggests basic genetic mechanisms that govern structure and relatedness.

One of the hardest goals to meet in a biology class is getting someone to think on their own about a biological problem when they are ill-equipped and then persuading others with their answers. It is easy to let someone else do the thinking for you and accept that opinion as your own. People have been trained to do this by a generation of television watching.

I also encourage group work because scientists do not work alone. Groups are much more efficient at solving problems than individuals because group work seems to increase the collective intelligence. As an example: I divide students into three groups to study and debate modes of reproduction: group one represents mitosis in somatic cells, group two studies meiosis in animals and group three explores binary fission in bacteria. Each group has to develop the topic as the best reproductive strategy. To defend their position and advance their arguments, they also have to be familiar with the strengths and weaknesses of competing groups.

I try to be fair and I see my grades and course evaluations as a mark of my achievement. Building that relationship of trust is central. If you can’t do it then why should your students learn what you want to teach them? You have to inspire confidence when you teach. The only way to do this is to recognize accomplishment however minimal. So I get them to test and retest a lot. It helps them to focus, and prepares them for future endeavors.

Finally, it helps to have closure. As I walk around the room after a lab I might ask a given student what he or she got out of the exercise. It puts them on the spot. As they rack their brains I learn from their answers what I can reasonably expect from them.

Many people have influenced my style of teaching. My very first assignment during orientation week as an undergraduate student at Elmira College in New York was to find a piece of art on campus and describe it. This seemed overly simple to me. Everyone was massed around the usual sculptures and fountains, but I decided to be original. Having come from a family of stone masons, I described the beautiful stonework masonry. The quality of that work quickly became apparent to me. When all was said and done, I received an F for this paper on the grounds that stonework is a craft, not an art. I was distraught and would never let that happen again. In hindsight, the adage “When all you have is a hammer, everything becomes a nail” comes to mind. I was ill-equipped. I had no substance to work with. When I became a teacher, I vowed that I would never be a tormentor. It is impolite to expect something from a student without having taught it first. So I encourage students to hand their work in to me early in order to make suggestions before giving them a grade.

I once had a professor who was so hard and so mean that we learned histology by heart, like actors learning their lines. It worked, for all of the wrong reasons, but it worked.

One amenable retired professor from Columbia University taught me to think critically. “When you hear hooves, think of horses not zebras.”

Interviewer:

What do you think it is about your teaching style that appeals to students?

Joseph Sepe

I tend to be enthusiastic and try to take my students on an adventure. I teach by example. I would not ask them to learn what I haven’t myself and I might repeat a complex mechanism, such as the structure and function of a nephron with them until they “get it.” They draw it on the board. They teach it back to me and to each other. It motivates them to study and they become respectful of each other’s achievements. Because so many of my students move on to healthcare fields they have to be able to do this. It forces awareness about a topic and wires the basal ganglia of the brain, required for fast, repetitive retrieval.

Interviewer:

Do you teach face-to-face, online, or both? Do you have a preference between teaching face-to-face and online? If so, please explain.

Joseph Sepe

I teach an even mixture of online and face-to-face classes. I find that introductory classes are more suited for face-to-face classes because facial expressions are so telling. You become immediately aware when they have had enough and it is time to redirect your efforts to another teaching modality, like problem solving. Upper level classes, on the other hand, lend themselves well to distance education because of the library resources available in the classroom and the time granted to reflect on the issues.

Interviewer:

Please tell us about your chosen discipline-i.e., what made you interested in the area initially? What do you do to stay current in your discipline? What do you like best about teaching in your discipline?

Joseph Sepe

I was drawn to the sciences and particularly biology and medicine by the challenge of discovery.

"Is there any point to which you would wish to draw my attention?" "To the curious incident of the dog in the night-time." "The dog did nothing in the night-time." "That was the curious incident," remarked Sherlock Holmes.

Like Sherlock Holmes, a scientist tries to be aware of the world in which we live.

To stay abreast with my discipline I attend scientific meetings and take continuing education classes. I am also an associate editor for the new medical journal Cardiogenetics.

I enjoy rattling the students with the wonder of biology. This is achieved continually and unceremoniously with almost every topic. When discussing cells for example, I explain how mitochondria are maternal infections that have hitched a ride on our cells, that won’t relinquish their DNA despite the fact that they infected eukaryotes over a billion years ago. They are just not fully at home yet and they have their bags packed. Finally, I mention that if mitochondria were to actually leave, a person would surly die and be unrecognizable because of the sheer volume of this organelle. “What does that do to your human identity?”

Interviewer:

What is the most challenging to you in teaching in this area? What teaching strategy do you use when you encounter the challenge? Are there any special challenges in teaching this subject matter online? If yes, please explain what could be done to meet the challenges.

Joseph Sepe

How do you motivate a student with low motivation or who just doesn’t seem to care for biology? I currently have a student majoring in English literature who is taking biology 101 because she needs it, not because she likes it. She rarely smiles and her early quiz average is about fifty. So I started introducing her to great literary works with biological themes: The Log by John Steinbeck and University Days by James Thurber. James Thurber could never pass biology. He managed to only see his eye in the microscope. Now she is beginning to smile more and her last quiz was a ninety.

In my opinion, the greatest challenge to teaching online is discussing biological issues with a Nobel Prize laureate. Students tend to find and post highly researched opinions as their own. This is something they could never get away with in a face-to-face environment. I tell them that I am interested in their opinions, not someone else’s opinion. I also tell them that by submitting plagiarized professional work they actually make my job easier, whereas they get nothing out of it. This is what I tell them: “Do what is in your interest, not what is in my interest.”

Interviewer:

What suggestion would you give to students who are interested in majoring or working in your discipline?

Joseph Sepe

The biological sciences are intriguing and will never cease to amaze you. Take classes in all the fields (cell or molecular biology, genetics, biochemistry, evolutionary biology, population biology, epidemiology, immunology, etc.) then pursue the one that fits your personality. Do not be afraid to switch fields as your mindset changes. Many physicists and chemists became biologists after experiencing the horrors of WWII.

Interviewer:

In your opinion, what makes UMUC the college of choice for students?

Joseph Sepe

UMUC should be the college of choice for students because it is part of a very distinguished university system. Today, credentials are everything. Regional accreditation and a sound reputation are hallmark indicators of quality.

Interviewer:

In your opinion, what makes UMUC the employer of choice for future faculty members?

Joseph Sepe

You can’t beat the tradition. The last helicopter that flew off of the U.S. embassy in Saigon had a UMUC instructor and textbooks aboard. You can’t beat the adventure. In July 2011, I leave for Afghanistan. Our troops are more than “fodder for the cannons.”

Interviewer:

What suggestion would you give to new faculty who are interested in teaching in your discipline at UMUC?

Joseph Sepe

Be punctual and professional; always ready give your best. If you are inclined to do research, it is easy to establish contacts and carry out collaborative projects with colleagues at local universities.