Name – Heidi Croatt (She/Her)
Departments – Communication Studies and First Year Experience
Years at ARCC – 12 years
Classes you teach – Interpersonal Communication, Intro to Communication, Small Group Communication, and First Year Experience
Why did you want to be a teacher or professor – When I was in college, I got the opportunity to be a teaching assistant for one of my professors. It was just a way to make some money and get some experience doing something in between my junior and senior year at college. But it was the coolest thing I had ever done! It was for a professor who was so fun and quirky, but she gave me a lot of autonomy over the class and I had so much fun building the class and working on things. Also interacting with students in a way that was different then being a peer and at that point I already knew I was debating on becoming a therapist. I was majoring in Communication and Psychology and I didn’t quite know what I was going to do after that but I knew I liked researching and talking about these things. That experience made me realize I want to teach these things, I want to be in this environment. I went to grad school, I got my Masters and ultimately my PhD in Communication Studies. A lot of people who get degrees at that level end up being researchers, but I knew that I wanted to teach, which is why I teach here. I didn’t want to be at a university where I would be sort of focusing on research and then minimal teaching. I wanted to teach, be with students, and learn from students too. I felt like I was learning just from them as much as they were from me and the dynamic of that.
Did you always want to be a teacher or professor – No, I thought in college I was going to be a psychologist. I thought I wanted to be a therapist, when I was little I wanted to be a dentist. I think I always knew I would do something that required a lot of school haha. I think I knew I wanted that route but it just took different ways, I knew I wanted to be with people and help people. It wasn’t until I had the opportunity to teach a class and have a more personal relationship with that professor. Part of that summer experience was learning so much from her about what it meant to be a professor. When you’re sitting in a class you don’t know what daily life looks like as a professor, you just see them teach and so it was learning more about what goes on behind the scenes, this is the work that they put in and this is the thinking they do about every assignment, activity, etc. That was what shifted it for me.
Favorite class you took in college – I took a class in college called “Love and Flirtation” and it was a psychology class. It was about the psychology of intimacy, initiating relationships, why people flirt the way they do and what that may look like, what does it come from, what is love, etc. That was the most fun class because it was so focused on a specific topic and in college, that was also a fun age to be taking a class like that.
What do you like best about ARCC – My favorite part about working here which is also the best part of it is how I think we’re really focused on people first. Whether it’s students or faculty, like my colleagues, we are always about people first. We see each other as people first, we see students as people first. I’ve taught at a few other schools and that’s not always the case, it sometimes feels like you’re a number. For example a student with a student ID, or you’re a faculty member and you better just show up to your job and do it. But it feels like everyone here at ARCC sees that we’re humans first, people first, we have personal lives, relational lives and professional lives, all of these different things are a part of who we are. It’s understood that we all have different things happening behind just being a student or a faculty member.
Fun facts or hobbies – I love reality TV, all things on Bravo so like real housewives, Vanderpump Rules, Southern Charm, all those shows and more. I also love true crime, all things like cults, murder, I love that. The other kind of fun fact or unique thing about me is I’m also very interested in Mount Everest. So I love mountain climbing movies, books, shows, or documentaries about rock climbing or mountain climbing. I’m very intrigued by it, I follow a lot of people on social media about it. It’s become a weird little obsession but that’s my fun fact!
