Academic Experience ...
ac·a·dem·ic
adjective
1.
of or relating to education and scholarship.
"academic achievement"
2.
not of practical relevance; of only theoretical interest.
"the debate has been largely academic"

noun
noun: academic; plural noun: academics
1.
a teacher or scholar in a college or institute of higher education.

Prelude:
I casually mentioned in passing to my professor that should he ever need help in the lecturing any grad classes, I might help him ....

Epilogue:
Eight wonderful years later, 4 new university courses from scratch, 1 new graduate degree born, and 1 teaching award later ... teaching never really gets old. But I have learned to think before I open my mouth ...

1995 – 2007 DePaul University, Chicago, IL

  • Adjunct Professor of eBusiness – Successfully implemented an MBA level eBusiness academic program, which the University rallied behind and deployed into a full-fledged eBusiness Masters Degree program. Responsible for the development, implementation and support of four graduate level courses in eBusiness under the School of Accountancy and MIS umbrella.
  • This includes the procurement, architecting, and maintenance of all intellectual capital, academic materials and online representation for each course. Additionally recruited, trained and deployed three new adjunct faculty to support the growth of the program.
  • *** 2000 – 2001 Presented with the Daniel Seiden Outstanding Adjunct Faculty of the College of Commerce Teaching Award for efforts in building the MBA's eCommerce program at DePaul University.

Notes:
There are times when the universe conspires to put one in the right place at the right time to discover their best, and then apply it to do good for a large number of deserving people. This was my experience at DePaul University.

The opportunity just 'happened', and I took it. It was petrifying initially, until I discovered a passion for it, and I then found I could be financially profitable for the institution, and really 'reach' a lot of graduate students at the same time.

I was given far more free rein in developing and influencing a curriculum than most adjuncts, and ran with it. We had real success in the number of MBA students enrolling and following our courses.

There are really no words to describe how this experience has changed me positively. I'm truly a better person and professional because of my teaching tenure at DPU.