Cory's blog

Your first teaching job starts you off on top of a decommissioned British double decker bus in Hong Kong.  Your instructed to teach the English language to some Vietnamese boat people at a refugee camp.  You also have no background in teaching but somehow you end up with the job.  Most people would simply laugh this one off and walk away thinking that they could be doing better things.  Not Dr. Greg Guelcher though, he took it upon himself as a sort of challenge he had never encountered before.

“I’d never taught before, but I really enjoyed it and it kind of solidified my interest in pursuing teaching as a career,” Dr. Guelcher admits.

Who would have guessed that teaching English to Vietnamese refugees  on top of a double decker bus in Hong Kong would lead to a teaching career at Morningside College?  Then again, it seemed like the job was written just for him Dr. Guelcher says,

“They [Morningside] had a job description online that really sounded as if it had been written just for me.  They wanted an Asianist who was interested in the Middle East, and willing to teach World History courses.”

The rest, as they say, is history.  Not many professors have a story quite like that, and none that still puts people in complete shock.  Taylor Rasmussen, a sophomore at Morningside, isn’t surprised by the discovery however,

“That’s just Dr. Guelcher’s go get em’ personality.  If he had the same passion for teaching English to those Vietnamese refugees as he does for his current history courses, then those people got a good education, I can guarantee that.”

Dr. Guelcher has earned high praise for his history courses and for his teaching ability throughout his career.  Johan Frafjord, a sophomore at Morningside, says that he has never had a teacher quite like Dr. Guelcher,

“He makes the Ming Dynasty sound like it was Apollo 11 landing on the moon; he’s so excited and enthralled every single day, I don’t know how he does it.”

Dr. Guelcher isn’t just a history fanatic, he’s also heavily involved in the Morningside student organizations and many Sioux City organizations,

“I’ve been a faculty/academic adviser for the Delta Sigma Phi fraternity at Morningside since 1998. I have been a faculty adviser for the college Republicans and Democrats.  I’ve worked with ODK and several other student groups.  I’m a member and chair of the Historic Preservation Commission of Sioux City and a current member of the Public Museum board. ”

He does this on top of teaching at a college?  Dr. Guelcher says by doing all these extra curricular activities, it helps him with his teaching.

“I love teaching and I like working with young adults, its a great thing.  I love my job, love my colleagues and love being in the classroom so often.”

In many ways you can almost consider Dr. Guelcher as one of us, just like a college kid.  He’s involved in so many things around campus and in the community.  He shares the same kind of energy and passion that we share in our studies or what interests us.  Above all though, he shares the same passion and love for learning and that’s something that people can learn by taking a history course with Dr. Greg Guelcher.