 "Photo: Jordan Jessop")
Every single time Professor Stephen Trzaskoma walks into room 115 of Murkland Hall, he makes sure he's ready to put his all into teaching his Classical Mythology 401 classes. Because as Trzaskoma remembers, having an interesting and engaging professor can make any type of class your favorite class.
Trzaskoma is a classics professor here at UNH, and while he's taught all different courses within the realm of the classics major like Greek and Latin, one of the more well-known classes that he teaches is Classical Mythology 401, which counts for Gen. Ed #8. According to Trzaskoma, the class covers everything within ancient mythology from religion to art history to literature.
Originally from California, Trzaskoma has taught at UNH as a Classics professor since 1999, and before that he taught similar classes at the University of Illinois where he attended graduate school. When Trzaskoma first got into Stanford University in California as an undergraduate, he was like many other college freshman; he didn't really have a clue what he wanted to major in. But then he took a Greek history class for a general education requirement and ended up loving it. So he enrolled in several more courses within the subject recommended by his professor and ended up loving those classes as well. Eventually Trzaskoma ended up majoring in the field of "classics" and says he owes it all to his professors.
"I just got lucky. It was all about the teachers," he said. "[My teacher] is one of the reasons I became a professor."
Trzaskoma believes that having great professors in college is something him and his colleagues within the Classics major all have in common.
"I can't think of many professors or people interested in the subject who don't mention having a great teacher to show the value of this information," he said.
It's for that reason that Trzaskoma takes his great experiences as an undergraduate Classics major and tries his hardest to re-create them for students at UNH.
"We all get excited from a great teacher so when we teach it we want to bring it to the next generation. Sometimes I'm almost quoting professors I've had when I teach."
Years later, Trzaskoma can even remember some of the things his past professors taught him about the ancient Greek world that stayed with him. "I saw one of my very first Greek professors at a conference in January," he said. "We talked about things that stuck with me that he didn't even remember."
Trzaskoma believes it's especially important to be an engaging professor when teaching a large, lecture-style Gen. Ed. course. He compares teaching Classical Mythology and getting students to want to major in the subject to speed dating; "There's limited time to get someone interested," he said. "It's often the right person at the time approaching interesting material-- it just clicks with them. Most students don't even know before they take this class that there's a Classics major."
Students taking Trzaskoma's course definitely agree that he makes the class something to look forward to everyday.
Brielle Friedman, a sophomore, is taking Trzaskoma's Classical Mythology course this semester. "He's awesome," she said. "He makes the material interesting to learn because he teaches it in a funny way. He's able to get the information across to students in a way they understand."
Another student, sophomore Carolyn Rohdenburg, agrees that Trzaskoma makes everyone in the class laugh, but at the same time doesn't get off-topic and keeps the students interested.
"He's funny, but also incredibly informative and he knows his material, which I appreciate," she said. "He doesn't sacrifice content for comedy."
Trzaskoma says he can't take all the credit for providing an interesting course for students to take. "I deal with interesting stuff and we have all these different angles to look at information," he said. "I have a much easier time than, say, a calculus teacher; it relates to universal emotions. It's inheritably a lot more interesting than a lot of other subjects you can think of."
Trzascoma wants to be able to give students something to think about when it comes to picking a major, and something to enjoy when they come to his classes, which is part of the reason why he likes teaching so much; he can give students this opportunity.
"I love my job. This class can give [students] an option--something they can get excited about and get knowledge about," he said. "And the number one thing is the professor."
Rohdenburg agrees that a professor can often make or break a class, especially for a Gen. Ed. course. "Even if you like the subject, if the teacher is horrible, he or she can make you hate it," she said.
However, with a teacher like Trzascoma on campus, it seems doubtful that there will be many UNH students growing to hate mythology in the near future.
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