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Open BookEnglish prof wins students' hearts and minds
By Meg Cullar
Outside Dr. Mona Choucair's office in the English department, there's
often a long line of students curving around the perimeter of the
semi-circular wing of the Carroll Science Hall. Inside her cozy office,
cut out of the circle and shaped like a slice of pie, students take
their turn in the one visitor chair. Decked out with her delicate Queen
Anne desk and Edwardian computer table, the space is one of the places
Choucair loves to be, because it's where she meets with her students.
The other place she loves, of course, is the classroom.
This year's winner of the Collins Outstanding Professor Award, Choucair combines her passions--literature and
 teaching--with an enthusiasm and warmth that have won the hearts of many students.
Blake Havran '08, a recent graduate in communications studies, took
Choucair's American literature class during his last semester at
Baylor. "It was the most challenging class I've ever been in and the
most work I've ever done," he said. "But I learned more in her English
class than I have in all my other English classes combined. She made it
fun."
Allie Wilson '08, a communication disorders graduate, found out from
her best friend that Choucair was the teacher to get for American
literature. "I don't really love English," Wilson admitted. "But I
loved her class. She really cares about us, and she's a really great
person."
Havran and Wilson are thrilled Choucair won the Collins Award,
especially since they played a role in her selection. The award is
given based on a vote of the senior class, which nominates professors
in January and then votes later in the spring. "I told everyone I saw
to vote for her," Havran said.
Choucair, a senior lecturer in both the English department and the
School of Education, graduated from Baylor in 1986 with a BA in
English, then stayed an extra year to earn her certification in
secondary education. She taught high school English in Waxahachie for
nine years--a time that was pivotal in the development of her literary
and educational interests, especially her interest in young adult
literature. "I think we need to hit kids with relevancy," she says.
"They ought to read things about their age group. I don't want to get
rid of the traditional literary canon, but I think it's time to add to
the curriculum." Choucair rattles off dozens of novels--Cut, The Outsiders, The Giver, The Battle of Jericho, The Secret Life of Bees--that can speak to young people.
Choucair feels a connection with education majors since she taught
every level of high school English. During her time in Waxahachie,
Choucair also earned a master's degree from the University of Dallas
and began moonlighting at the college level--first in junior colleges,
including Navarro College in Corsicana and Mountainview College in
Dallas. But Dallas Baptist University was her "big break," she said.
The night and weekend classes she taught there were her first at a
four-year institution.
Choucair came back to Baylor fulltime to earn her PhD, and she's been
here ever since. Beginning in the English department, she added School
of Education duties after she was assigned as the liaison for education
majors concentrating on English.
In addition to young adult literature, Choucair also studies minority
women writers. She says her students accuse her of being just a little
bit obsessed with Toni Morrison, and she admits it's partly true. But
Choucair's students rarely share her enthusiasm, she says, because
Morrison's Beloved
is such a difficult book. "They don't like reading about a slave being
whipped until there's a pattern like a tree on his back," she says.
"But I think they need to read it."
Choucair says that her goal in teaching American literature at Baylor
is to present students with a smorgasbord of literature in the hope
that they'll find something they like and come back for more on their
own. "My goal is to cultivate a desire to read and for them to gain a
general understanding of who these great authors are and where they fit
into the bigger picture," she says. "I don't care if they remember the
color of shoes someone was wearing on page ten--although they think I'm
that way!"
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