{"id":441,"date":"2014-07-31T14:26:45","date_gmt":"2014-07-31T18:26:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/news.eckerd.edu\/?p=319"},"modified":"2022-11-03T12:10:35","modified_gmt":"2022-11-03T16:10:35","slug":"claire-stiles-looks-back-with-graditude-on-37-years-of-teaching-at-eckerd-college","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eckerd.edu\/news\/blog\/claire-stiles-looks-back-with-graditude-on-37-years-of-teaching-at-eckerd-college\/","title":{"rendered":"Claire Stiles looks back with gratitude on 37 years of teaching at Eckerd College"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jimmy Carter was president the year Claire Stiles joined Eckerd College. Gas cost 62 cents a gallon, and colleges were still grappling with the demands of Title IX.<\/p>\n

The federal law ending sex discrimination in higher education is a big reason why Stiles joined Eckerd. It was 1977 and Stiles was hired to be Eckerd\u2019s first coordinator of women\u2019s athletics and coach of the women\u2019s volleyball and basketball teams.<\/p>\n

She is retiring from Eckerd after 37 years. She hadn\u2019t planned to stay so long.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t believe it myself,\u2019\u2019 Stiles says. \u201cI\u2019ve had so many opportunities and experiences. It\u2019s been a blessing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dr. Stiles, a Professor Emerita of Human Development, plans to continue teaching a few classes during the coming academic year before settling into retirement full time.<\/p>\n

She joined Eckerd as an assistant professor of physical education. But her coaching duties \u00a0involved far more than you might expect. \u201cI was laundering the kids\u2019 uniforms, taping their ankles, driving the bus,\u2019\u2019 she recalls. \u201cI did everything.\u201d<\/p>\n

With few high schools offering girls sports, \u201cit was hard recruiting students,\u201d Stiles recalls. \u201cSome girls didn\u2019t know how to dribble the ball. Some had never played basketball.\u201d After a year, she switched to teaching in the new concentration of leisure and recreation.<\/p>\n

In 1982, Stiles began working on her Ph.D. in counseling and mental health at the University of Florida. She eventually shifted to counseling students and teaching in Eckerd\u2019s newly developed major of Human Development<\/a>, a branch of psychology focused on the changes humans go through from birth to death. The major was created by founding faculty member J. Thomas West, who invited her to join his team.<\/p>\n

She later served four years as chair of the Creative Arts Collegium and served in leadership positions on numerous faculty committees, including the Faculty Coordinating Committee.<\/p>\n

As coordinator of Quest for Meaning<\/a>, Stiles oversaw the revision of the entire curriculum for the capstone course that is a requirement for all Eckerd seniors.<\/p>\n

In the late 1990s, Stiles began teaching an ethics course in her major and has developed a special interest in moral development and professional and applied ethics. She has been a master trainer with the Institute for Global Ethics<\/a>.<\/p>\n

After 9\/11, Stiles decided it was time to learn more about the world and began traveling extensively and working with International Education, including a stint as coordinator of Eckerd\u2019s London Study Centre<\/a> in 2004 and as coordinator of the China Study Center in 2009. Her travels took her throughout Europe, China and Northern Africa.<\/p>\n

Like virtually all Eckerd professors, Stiles also taught Western Heritage (nowThe Human Experience<\/a>) \u00a0the interdisciplinary two-course sequence that is the cornerstone of the College\u2019s General Education<\/a> program and is a requirement for all first-year students. She found the courses challenging and rewarding because they prompt professors to learn things outside their usual area of expertise and to work closely with colleagues from other disciplines.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe nice thing about teaching at Eckerd is you\u2019re never static,\u201d Stiles says. \u201cThere are always chances to grow and become more than you are\u2014just like the students. I got my best liberal arts education at Eckerd College.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dr. Stiles doesn\u2019t plan to stop learning. \u201cI\u2019m an enthusiastic learner,\u201d she says. \u201cI love to learn new things. I love to grow. It takes a lot of energy to teach at Eckerd because you are constantly being asked to try new things.\u201d<\/p>\n

She looks forward to spending more time with her spouse, Ruth Pettis, a 1978 Eckerd graduate. They enjoy organic gardening at their St. Petersburg home, and Stiles wants to get involved in environmental issues.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have a million things I might do,\u201d she says. \u201cI want to try a few things out and see how it feels.\u201d<\/p>\n

While she looks forward to the new challenges, she admits to feeling a little nostalgic about her time at the college but mostly she feels grateful for her time at Eckerd. \u201cIf there\u2019s one word to say it\u2019s gratitude that I ended up here,\u201d Stiles says. \u201cI would not be the person I am today if I had not taught at Eckerd College. And I\u2019m grateful for all the remarkable students and colleagues whose lives I touched and who had such an impact on my development. \u00a0I can only hope that along the way I had a positive \u00a0influence on their lives as well.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jimmy Carter was president the year Claire Stiles joined Eckerd College. 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