MTP 22: Linda Gurganus, The Influence of an Approachable Professor

Linda is a retired lecturer of Mathematics at the University of North Carolina Wilmington. She shares about growing up without her father, being approachable and vulnerable as a professor (and growing up with a pet skunk).

Takeaways:

Being approachable can impact students' lives.

Math skills can open up a wide range of career opportunities.

How parents can give their college students space to make mistakes and learn from them.

The insides of how teaching and grading can be stressful for professors.

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Transcript

(00:00)

Hello professor, my name is Zhuohang. I'm a senior. I have a question about the mathematics. Is it employable? That's

Shane & Spence (00:08)

Hey everybody and welcome back to Meet the Prof. My name is Shane Hartley and my friend Spence Hackney and I receive questions like you just heard and we ask them to Christian professors. And our goal is to

Christ -centered conversations on the college campus. And we're in for a treat for this interview. Spence and I interviewed Linda Gurganus. And Linda is a retired lecturer of mathematics from the University of North Carolina, Wilmington.

She's one of the first professors that I really got to know when we moved to Wilmington in the late 90s. And I think you'll be very encouraged by her approachability to her students, a story she has about going out with her students during a difficult study break. They needed a study break and the fun thing that they

she has had a commitment to really being approachable to her students.

She has personally always provided snacks for our Cru students at our local campus when we've had fall retreats or leadership retreats and all. So that's one thing personally I've appreciated about Linda. But I think you'll appreciate her thoughtfulness and these interviews always show different giftings. And one thing that comes out is her answer to the student's question you heard was,

how mathematics is critical in a lot of careers, a lot of job opportunities out there. So I think you'll appreciate mathematics even more after this interview. And before we jump in, would you please remember to subscribe or follow on whatever link, whatever app you're listening to now that helps us get this out to more college students. And if you're a college student and you would like to ask a question like this, please find us on Instagram.

and you can upload a question and hopefully we can put it on the show and have a professor answer it. So we're on Instagram with Meet the Prof with Shane and

And so without any further ado, here's our interview with Linda Gurganus.

Shane & Spence (02:09)

thank you so much for joining us. Welcome to Meet the Prof. How are you doing today?

Linda Smith Gurganus (02:14)

Okay, it's good to be with you guys.

Shane & Spence (02:17)

Good. We've been looking forward to being with you too. Would love to hear about this pet skunk that you had. We saw that on MeetTheProf.com and the obvious question that I have is, did it ever spray you? yeah, me too.

Linda Smith Gurganus (02:32)

it would have if it could have. It had a personality with a temper, just kind of like I do. But back in the 1970s, they were legal as pets in Ohio. And went into a pet shop and they had one. And I had grown up on a farm and had lots of experiences with skunks and thought, why not?

Shane & Spence (02:55)

Why not?

Linda Smith Gurganus (02:56)

And he became a member of the family and slept in bed.

did the usual things that a dog or a cat might do to get in trouble. And it was an interesting eight years. Most skunks out in the wild live about three years and he lived to be eight.

Shane & Spence (03:12)

here.

Impressive. So I'm assuming the skunk had been de -stinked or whatnot. that's not exciting.

Linda Smith Gurganus (03:19)

Yeah, yeah, he was descented and but that didn't mean he didn't try if he was if if he was angry or whatever and you never have to worry about being sprayed if a skunk is not looking at you because they don't spray without looking to make sure where they're aiming and so their body will be in the shape of a horseshoe where they both ends are looking straight at you and that's when you know you're going to get

Shane & Spence (03:33)

Really?

That makes sense now. So what I heard is never make eye contact with an angry skunk. That's all you have to do as long as he can't see your eyes.

Linda Smith Gurganus (03:54)

I can't practice flying as long as you're not also making tail feather contact at the same time.

Shane & Spence (04:01)

Well, I learned something new already. I didn't know you could de -stink a

and something new at every interview we have.

Well, I really appreciated how transparent you were in sharing your testimony on MeetTheProf.com and especially sharing about your dad passing away when you were younger. I was wondering if you could tell us some more about that, what it was like growing up without your father there.

Linda Smith Gurganus (04:30)

I grew up on a farm. Neither of my parents were allowed to go to college, but my dad took some night courses and ended up becoming a tool and die maker and was very intelligent. And as a child, I remember playing with his graph paper and some of his stuff and just wishing that I could do more with that stuff. And then here I do this stuff with Excel decades later. But he rode a motorcycle to work.

and somebody pulled out in front of him at the last minute, didn't see him because they didn't have their glasses on. And he survived for over two years, but finally succumbed to his  injuries. And as a result, we were left without his presence, without his income.

Shane & Spence (05:02)

Hmm.

Hmm.

Linda Smith Gurganus (05:28)

There was a period of time where I didn't really feel like there was much point to life. I mean, this is a kid, fifth grade, telling her brother, what's the point when it comes to doing homework? What's the point of having dreams? Because we won't be able to do it. We won't be able to go to college. We won't be able to go on vacations, blah, blah, blah. And so what's the point?

Shane & Spence (05:33)

Hmm.

Linda Smith Gurganus (05:56)

We went to a church that was a small church in a farming community that we had excellent preachers who most of the time were working on either a master's or a PhD. And they were sharing what they were learning with us during Wednesday night Bible study. And.

stress the importance of having a well -reasoned faith. They stress the importance

your life to Christ and not just going through the motions of church membership.

In our church, we don't have infant baptism. And at some point, my mom made sure that I understood that I was not a Christian just because she was and because we went to church. And that it was something that I was going to have to decide for myself. And I remember locking my, well not locking myself, but closing the bedroom door.

Shane & Spence (06:56)

Hmm.

Linda Smith Gurganus (07:09)

and not being happy because I knew

that I was not able to control my life even though I wanted to. And I was going to have

to God and not be the one to make all the decisions. And I didn't like that. I mean, the idea that I could not be my own little master and center of my universe was not something I was thrilled about.

Shane & Spence (07:34)

Hmm.

Linda Smith Gurganus (07:39)

And yet it was obvious that I also wasn't capable of

running my own life. And so it was a matter of, you know, surrendering the will to God. And Linda is still very strong -willed. And so it's a daily battle. And

Shane & Spence (07:54)

Mm -hmm.

Yeah.

Linda Smith Gurganus (08:04)

As I got older, there were the questions of, you know, what about college? And our minister told my mom, he said, you get her ready and she'll go.

And of course back then school was a lot cheaper than it is nowadays. But I was able to go

Shane & Spence (08:17)

Mm -hmm.

Linda Smith Gurganus (08:22)

had

I guess an Algebra II teacher who told me that I had a good analytical mind and I ought to think about math. And I thought about it, but I also wanted to be a missionary. And so I decided to go to a Christian college and work towards working as a missionary. And it was a small school, had only about 500 students, which was the size of my high school graduating class.

Shane & Spence (08:35)

Hmm.

Mm -hmm.

Hmm.

Linda Smith Gurganus (08:52)

the school didn't even have math courses. I mean, it was geared towards being a minister or a missionary or something like that. And there was no concept that math might be helpful. And so I didn't have any math for 10 years or more after high school. And I did well there, but

Shane & Spence (09:01)

Okay. Okay.

Good grief.

Linda Smith Gurganus (09:15)

was a guy who asked me out and I should have said no.

Because once he asked me out, there was no way to shake him. He was manipulative, but I didn't realize he was manipulative. And we ended up getting married just because I didn't realize that some people you have to tell them drop dead. And for close to 20 years, I was in a marriage that was not the greatest.

Shane & Spence (09:31)

Yeah.

Linda Smith Gurganus (09:46)

I was able to go back and get a bachelor's in math and then a master's in math. But the relationship wasn't good and it finally just fell apart in 1999.

You feel like your life has been wasted when something like that happens. And that doesn't mean your life has been wasted, but you feel like it has. And I had tried teaching in high school. I had tried teaching in both public and private schools.

Shane & Spence (10:08)

Hmm.

Linda Smith Gurganus (10:23)

I got mono and had to quit a job because I couldn't seem to get better. And so I was, you know, without a job. And I got on using one of those temp places.

got on at a factory working in a in the office and I had to learn Microsoft Office or maybe it was WordPerfect I don't know but one of those and I learned a little bit about spreadsheets

Shane & Spence (10:54)

Mm -hmm.

Linda Smith Gurganus (10:59)

so I'm starting to learn all these things. And then I get a job, a part -time job at the local state university. And they want me to teach the very stuff that I have just learned.

Shane & Spence (11:12)

Mm.

Linda Smith Gurganus (11:13)

And as I'm teaching it, I'm learning more and more skills on this stuff. And I'm thinking, this is really good for math. And then I got a job teaching at Berea College, which is a small private school in Kentucky, just down the road from the university. And they wanted me to teach math. And then they wanted me to teach spreadsheets. And then they wanted me to work

on their help desk and help the professors to learn this stuff. That was back when everybody started realizing it would be nice if every professor had their own computer. And so I'm doing that stuff. And I gained so many skills.

Shane & Spence (11:44)

Hmm.

Yeah.

Linda Smith Gurganus (11:54)

when I started teaching math, I was thinking, you know, there's so much good stuff in Excel. I can be showing this to my students. And so I've had a lot of students tell me that learning Excel was the most valuable skill they learned when they were in college. And, you know, more so than public speaking, more so you start thinking that's pretty amazing.

Shane & Spence (12:07)

In your math class. Really?

Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah.

Linda Smith Gurganus (12:17)

Anyhow, I have taught math and I taught computer applications and ended up teaching just math all the way up through Calc 2. And I have loved that. And one of the neat things is trying to make myself as accessible to my students as possible. And so before COVID, I started keeping several different kinds of

things like herbal teas and chai and mugs and two or three different kinds of sweetener and so on. So students, if they came by, I could say, you want a cup of something? And I ended up having students would come by just to get the cup and not because they wanted help with math at all. And we would talk about everything, not just help with their homework, but talk about life.

Shane & Spence (13:02)

Hmm.

I just wanted some chai.

Wow.

Linda Smith Gurganus (13:17)

You know, you'd have kids come in and talk about how, you know, the problems they were having with boyfriend or trying to cope with a family member at home that was needing their care and they didn't have time to study and they were going to have to drop out of school. I mean, all kinds of things that, you know, they need to talk to somebody. Well, I was somebody they knew that they could talk to.

Shane & Spence (13:25)

Hmm.

Hmm.

Hmm.

Linda Smith Gurganus (13:47)

And so we'd talk about life

sometimes it would get into things that you would know, there's nobody that they would normally feel like they could talk to. And if they didn't have you, who would they go to?

Shane & Spence (14:02)

Mm -hmm.

Linda Smith Gurganus (14:07)

And so that meant a lot. And I had stuff up in my office to where it was obvious that I was a Christian, but I wasn't preachy.

Shane & Spence (14:06)

.

Linda Smith Gurganus (14:17)

I had a picture of my mom that had a scripture verse on it and I can't remember exactly what it was. It may have been the thing about letting your light shine. And then in my bookcase, you know, I had my math books and then I had books

Shane & Spence (14:29)

Hmm.

Linda Smith Gurganus (14:41)

basically evidence for Christianity. And, you know, if a student wanted to borrow something, they could borrow something. And,

Shane & Spence (14:44)

Hmm.

Hmm.

Linda Smith Gurganus (14:57)

then once in a while we would have an opportunity to speak before students. I think, was it, Shane, was it you several years ago that had a panel of three or four of us speak one evening?

Shane & Spence (15:09)

I think think did that at Cru. What I don't say in the classroom, we called it.

Linda Smith Gurganus (15:13)

Yeah, yeah, and that was nice. And I always told my students after you get out of my class and are sure you're not going to be taking any more classes from me, we can become Facebook friends. And so I've got tons of former students that I keep up with on Facebook. And I had one student who came into my class and

Shane & Spence (15:29)

Hmm.

That's fun.

Linda Smith Gurganus (15:42)

into my office and she said, I'm going to be baptized Sunday down at the beach, would you come?

know one year near the end of the semester, we had been doing a review session and everybody was exhausted. And I said, we need a break. And so we went to, I took them to Stanley Reeder Carnivorous Plant Garden

then afterwards they suggested to me that we all go to one of their favorite coffee and tea places.

And that was,

nice and so many times when I talk to one of them they'll say that was my favorite thing to do with a professor was to go do that and

Shane & Spence (16:25)

Love that.

You've shared several things that I would love to double click on. One of them is where you shared about your surrender to Christ finally. Your mom had challenged you to own it on your own. And what, what did you see God do in your life after that? How did you see him

Linda Smith Gurganus (16:31)

in.

Shane & Spence (16:50)

come through for you, what was your spiritual journey like after that?

Linda Smith Gurganus (16:55)

There have been times when I felt like God led me to help somebody who might not have had help otherwise. One time, one of our neighbors, the mother

Definitely a slow learner and the father was abusive and the little girl knew that she could come to my house across the alley and get away

know, sometimes when you think that you're a failure, like when I got...

mono and couldn't seem to shake it and finally had to quit my job. That enabled me to get these temporary jobs to learn skills that I would never have probably gotten otherwise and ended up teaching on the college level and very happily doing that.

Shane & Spence (17:34)

Mm -hmm.

Linda Smith Gurganus (17:47)

You just never

Shane & Spence (17:50)

As you tell your story, I think of you had a line on your Meet the Prof profile mentioned to you about most of us are rescued critters. And you had this, you had a pretty tough upbringing. Like you had a tough childhood, a tough first 20 years, but through it all, you keep talking about how you're there for people. And you seem to want to help people around you. And I think about how Jesus rescues us. And it seems like you're almost

trying to show that picture to people just by how you deal with them. It's like, I've been rescued. Let me point you to the rescuer. I mean, tell me how you use your own story when you share Christ with people, when you share about that rescue.

Linda Smith Gurganus (18:31)

Well, before I get to that, both of my parents were pretty much rescued. Both of them, the fathers were totally against education. And my mom was actually kidnapped by her father and didn't see her mom again for, I don't know, 10 years or something. And so they had it so rough that when I look at what happened to me, it was nothing in comparison with what happened to them. But if it hadn't been for somebody that cared about them.

With my dad, it was a Christian minister who was also a college professor who would ride his horse. This is back in the 1930s down these dirt roads and talk to teenage kids and encourage them to come to his church. And with my mom, it was during World War II and she was working in the factory and my dad was supposed to come.

fix her machine, they ended up talking throughout the break and forgetting to fix the machine and they ended up getting married within three years. And, you know, neither of them grew up in Christian families and yet somebody cared enough to share with them. And so, you know, when I talk to my students, it is not a thing of me trying to...

Shane & Spence (19:31)

Hmm higher priorities. wow

Linda Smith Gurganus (19:59)

get another notch on my belt or on

pistol or whatever. It's just a matter of a normal part of conversation. You can ask them what's your background and within them telling you about what their background is.

Shane & Spence (20:12)

Mm -hmm.

Linda Smith Gurganus (20:24)

You can ask them, well, do you have any church family?

have learned that it does not work well if I try to push something when it's not natural.

Because if it's not natural, they're not ready for it, and I'll just sound like the church lady, which nobody likes. And so if somebody is having a really difficult time with life in general,

Shane & Spence (20:46)

Mm -hmm.

Linda Smith Gurganus (20:57)

There's always the question that you can ask, you know, would you like to have God in your life? You know, who wants to say no to that? And,

I have found that working in God's timing, sometimes it doesn't even happen at all during the time you're teaching the class they're in. But the whole time they're at school, they know they can come to your office. And after school, they know they can find you on Facebook. And you end up in these conversations years later, maybe, sometimes. Or when they're coming back to say goodbye before.

Shane & Spence (21:19)

Mm -hmm.

Mm -hmm.

Hmm.

Linda Smith Gurganus (21:39)

they leave for graduation and you have to, you know, when in the New Testament, Paul talks about, you know, one person waters and some, I mean plants and somebody else waters and then God gives the, you know, the harvest in his own timing. And we have to trust that and not push things when the timing's not right.

Shane & Spence (22:08)

Sounds very wise.

Linda Smith Gurganus (22:10)

Well, you know, you learn the hard way by screwing up.

Shane & Spence (22:12)

Hmm.

Well, another thing that I wanted to double click on are some of the things you did to help students feel comfortable when they would come to you. So it sounds like one trick was having tea and chai in your office. What else did you do that would make you so approachable to them?

Linda Smith Gurganus (22:31)

And if we had a Saturday review session, quite often I'd bring food. And there were times that I would bring an entire meal. And if they were hungry, they could get a home -cooked meal or whatever. And we called them math parties.

It was nice to let them know that, you know, I am a human. You know, don't think of me as a great professor who knows everything. And I would joke. I said, I don't have a PhD, so don't call me doctor. I have a masters, so you can call me master if you want. But, you know, I.

Shane & Spence (22:54)

Yeah.

I like that. Sounds a little better even.

Linda Smith Gurganus (23:19)

I invited them to call me Linda if they felt comfortable with it. I also told them that because math is so important and so easy to misunderstand, I want you to not feel like you have to hold up your hand and wait for me to see you and call on you. In my class, if you've got a question and you feel like either you're not getting it,

Or maybe I said something wrong or maybe there's a better way of explaining it. I want you to interrupt me mid -sentence. And when you had a class that started feeling that comfortable with you that they could interrupt and they could say, is that five really supposed to be a two or you wrote a plus sign, is that really supposed to be an equal sign? Or I am totally lost. What in the world is this? You know, that kind of thing.

Shane & Spence (24:04)

Ahem.

Yeah, yeah.

Linda Smith Gurganus (24:12)

then they know you're approachable and they're not afraid to approach you about anything.

Shane & Spence (24:17)

I love it. I think that's such a big part of the Christian ministry is to make yourself approachable because that's really what God does in Jesus, right? He descended into flesh and walked with us so that we could approach him, you know. And I think professors, you guys have a really unique position because if you aren't careful, you are up on some ivory tower and you're a whole different species than everybody else. And so it seems like you've made a lot of effort to

Linda Smith Gurganus (24:26)

Exactly.

Mm -hmm. Mm -hmm.

in

Well, I'm more comfortable in t -shirts and jeans, but also if I wore that kind of thing, I was more accessible than if I had dressed up.

Shane & Spence (24:45)

to be relatable.

Yeah, yeah.

Linda Smith Gurganus (24:58)

I tried to do all I could to let them see that I considered myself... Well, I would tell them, you know, I'm not up here and you down there. It's just that I have learned this stuff and you need to learn it. And so I'm here to help you learn.

Shane & Spence (25:10)

Yeah, yeah,

Well, as we've been collecting questions from college students, some had been spiritual in nature and some are very practical. So this next question from a student is on the practical end. So take a listen to this question.

Linda Smith Gurganus (25:17)

Mm -hmm.

Shane Hartley (25:29)

Hello professor, my name is Zhuohang. I'm a senior. I have a question about the mathematics. Is it employable? That's

Linda Smith Gurganus (25:38)

That is a really good question and I can tell you for sure you can. The better you are at math, the more employable you will be because math is so useful in so many different things. You know, of course you can go on and become an engineer or something like that. It always helps to get additional courses in things like statistics. Probability in statistics is extremely important in

analyzing data. You can also go into what's the data science. But the more math you have, the more useful you will be. And you want to take some applied math courses in addition to just the pure math because in the applied math courses you will see what the usefulness of it

And, you know, anything with regard to the field of medicine, everything from x -rays to MRIs to nuclear medicine, there's math behind all of that. And,

One of my friends has a son who is, he was a music major and has his master's in music, but he also knows math really well and he's got a side business in 3D printing, which requires some serious math.

Shane & Spence (27:09)

Mm -hmm.

Linda Smith Gurganus (27:12)

you've got math and computer skills and some business skills, you are so employable. So the answer is yes, definitely.

Shane & Spence (27:18)

Hmm.

Sounds like you could take any field and then it's going to involve numbers and the ability to really think mathematically can create new opportunities of really excelling in that field.

Linda Smith Gurganus (27:36)

Yeah, and if you are, you know, if you've got a good logical mind, then it enhances your ability to problem solve.

Shane & Spence (27:45)

Well, so it's time for us to start asking you some lightning round questions. So this is where we'll ask you some short questions where you give really the first answers that come to mind for yourself.

Alright, first one is, what advice would you give your 18 year old self?

Linda Smith Gurganus (28:03)

Hold off on dating.

and not be afraid to go to a state university.

I had the idea that state universities were 100 % evil and that I had to go to a Christian school.

Shane & Spence (28:21)

That's good.

Makes me feel better because I sent my kids to the state universities. Thanks for saying that. All right, here's one. What advice can you give to graduating seniors?

Linda Smith Gurganus (28:34)

Not feel like you have to get your first job out of school in the area that your major is in. You can learn from anything and every job has the potential of teaching you usable skills. And if you have the job from hell with the employer from hell, you can learn from that too.

Shane & Spence (28:45)

Okay.

what advice would you give Christian professors?

Linda Smith Gurganus (29:07)

not be afraid to be yourself and be vulnerable in front of your students.

Shane & Spence (29:12)

Mm -hmm. All right.

Linda Smith Gurganus (29:14)

and do your best to make your office a welcoming place, almost a home away from home.

Shane & Spence (29:23)

What advice would you give to parents of college students?

Linda Smith Gurganus (29:28)

be a helicopter parent

and let your students make some mistakes.

and let them know you love them whether they do what you think they ought to be doing or

you know, give them the responsibility so that if they make a mistake, they have to figure out what they're going to do about it instead of you fixing everything.

and pray for them like crazy.

Shane & Spence (29:52)

Mm

What do you think students would be most surprised to know about the life of a professor?

Linda Smith Gurganus (30:00)

how little sleep we get. That teaching and writing tests and grading takes so much time and it takes so much out of

Shane & Spence (30:02)

Really?

I think for me as a college student, I don't think it ever crossed my mind that my exams would be stressful to my professors.

It's inspiring to me how you have chosen to retire in a way that keeps you engaged with students also. And if we have students who want to reach out to you or follow you, what's the best way they can do that?

Linda Smith Gurganus (30:43)

Well, you see my name up there, Linda Smith Gurganus. You can find me on Facebook. There is only one Linda Smith Gurganus in the universe as far as I know.

Shane & Spence (30:52)

Yeah, that's that

That's great. And we'll put a link in the description of the bio too. So, well, Linda, thank you so much for this time and thanks for all the years that you've invested in students and the university. And it's a real treat to get to meet you like this on Zoom and talk to you.

Linda Smith Gurganus (31:00)

Mm -hmm.

Kind of funny since we're just down the street from each other. Your house is what? Five houses from mine or something like that.

Shane & Spence (31:21)

Yep. We could have done this out in our yards with our phone. Wow. Well, thank you for this time. Nice to meet you too.

Linda Smith Gurganus (31:26)

Yep.

You're welcome. It was good talking with you both.

Shane & Spence (31:33)

Well, thanks everybody for listening. I hope you enjoyed that time with us interviewing Linda as much as we enjoyed interviewing her. And before you go, if you would please remember to subscribe or follow on whatever app you're listening to the podcast that helps us get this out to more college students. And if you're a professor and you might be interested in being interviewed on here, please look us up on meettheprof .com and you can start by submitting a profile.

And anyone else who is looking for Christian professors out there, there are over 500 professors who have put their Christian testimony on meettheprof .com. And so please check that out. You can search just by the campus specifically you're looking for. You can search by field, like field of study. You can look for your whole state or just look up someone by name. So we hope that's a really helpful resource.

And Spence and I, we're really hopeful that God will be using this to encourage Christ -centered conversations between students and professors. And if you know of a student or a professor who'd be encouraged by this, please send this over. You can copy the link to this interview and send it to them.

So thanks again for listening. And until next time, I hope you have encouraging conversations on your college campus.