Every year, John Carroll presents the Distinguished Faculty Award to a faculty member who has exceeded their role in and outside the classroom. This faculty member is known for their significant contribution to scholarship, service, and the spirit of Jesuit education. This year, the award was presented to Dr. Susan Long of the Sociology and Criminology department.
Dr. Long has been teaching at JCU since 1989 and her areas of expertise range from East Asian Studies to Anthropology. While Dr. Long knew that she was being nominated for the Distinguished Faculty Award, she was still shocked. During the interview, she joked that she never saw herself as distinguished but as frazzled. Though she didn’t think she had done enough community service for the school to receive the award, she has always pushed her students to achieve the Jesuit mission by serving others. Being a full time professor and mother took up much of her time until her children were grown but she has never stopped working at her dreams. A few years ago, she worked to receive grant money to fund Japanese programs in local high schools. She thought it was important to help gain interest in Japanese culture before college. Her passion for Japanese culture has led her to be John Carroll’s first coordinator of East Asian Studies.
Though Dr. Long has a passion for teaching, she did not always think she was going to be a professor in Sociology. Originally, she had thought about majoring in Political Science during her undergraduate education at the University of Michigan. However, the intro level course was filled. After consulting with her advisor, she decided on taking Anthropology and the rest was history. She ended up falling in love with the subject and decided to continue her education in Anthropology at the University of Illinois. She debated over the idea of applied Anthropology or going on for her PhD but decided on the PhD level because she liked the atmosphere of the academic world.
Her time at John Carroll has been anything but ordinary. Whether she is teaching, she always puts her students first. The classes she teaches come in a variety of subjects but she could not pick one favorite class. To her, the students are what make classes special. The small class sizes give her a chance to engage students in studies that are brand new to them. Getting to work with her students so closely is what continues her passion for teaching. She believes in getting to know her students and work along side them to achieve their goals in the classroom. Being in one of Dr. Long’s classes means that you always have a professor who not only cares but does everything she can to help you succeed. She is more than a professor, advisor, or member of the sociology department at John Carroll University. She is a woman who puts her time aside for others and has great compassion for her students. Though she may not see it herself, Dr. Long is more than qualified to receive the Distinguished Faculty Award this year. Going to John Carroll is amazing but having professors like Dr. Long make the experience ten times better.