A bit off the usual tack of this blog, but this is a good story. Both my parents are retired college professors and growing up I’d occasionally hear similar stories. While this blog focuses on eLearning and few direct classroom interactions, it’s anecdotes like this – caring for students and helping provide a way for people to better themselves – that makes me personally appreciate being involved in the learning community overall.

Just hours before class was scheduled to begin, a student from our Nashville campus lost her babysitter for the evening.  She contacted Peter Powell, Nashville campus director, indicating that she would either need to skip class or bring her two-year-old son to class with her.  While kids normally are not permitted during classroom instruction, Keller Professor Joel Bunkowske (pictured) and Peter decided to allow the student to bring her son to class so that she, in turn, could attend class that evening.  At one point, the boy wanted to be held by Professor Bunkowske, who proceeded to pick him up and continue with his lesson.

This story has been picked up by a variety of news outlets, and I thought it deserved a shout-out here as well. Note that DeVry and its sister institutions have recently made a pointed effort in their community outreach and commitment to quality, ‘DVU Care‘ – especially in light of all the negative news surrounding for-profit universities (some deserved, a lot of it not).

Per the DeVry University on its blog: “Although we don’t advise students to bring their children to class, we all know things happen. Way to go, Professor Bunkowske. Thank you for demonstrating true DVU Care in action!”

It’s heartwarming to see stories like this, and hopefully helps dispell at least some of the negative aura surrounding the university experience. Regardless of how you get there, higher education is an important step for many people, and the people that work for those institutions – whether in the classroom or more behind the scenes – are a huge part of that experience.

Videos below – a nice, serious one about Keller and a fun one about DeVry…