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DUNWOODY, Ga. – It’s just before 7 a.m. and Dr. Jennifer Meeks is headed to class for a literal wakeup call, armed with snacks for her critical thinking students and props for day’s activities. There are baskets of junk food, along with some “healthier” options, and a set of game show buzzers to get students engaged and energized for the day.
“I’ve always opted to teach at times on the periphery of what’s considered normal,” said the 2024 recipient of the Outstanding Junior Faculty Award.
If it’s not an early morning class, you’ll often find the assistant professor of philosophy teaching on a Friday afternoon or even on a Saturday. “I know lot of people might not know that the college is open at these times,” she said. “But the Saturday course I taught last Fall was maxed out, which tells me that there is a desire for classes at these unusual times.”
Meeks also teaches Intro to Philosophy and Intro to Ethics, but her early risers are usually critical thinking students, which works out quite well (“I know better than to discuss the immortality of the soul that early in the morning,” she laughs). Meeks said she has both a practical reason and a personal family history behind her quirky schedule.
“Teaching my classes during these times allows me to create space for my family and to be there for my daughters before and after school. It’s important for me to model that for my students, since so many of them also have families, one or more jobs, and generally more commitments than most college students,” she said.
Meeks, who has been a member of the Perimeter faculty since 2018, says her students’ experiences resonate with her own family history. “I am the product of a community college education indirectly through my father, and I often share that with my students when I first meet them,” she said.
Her family emigrated from Zambia to California in the late 1970s, when she was just an infant. Her father’s foreign college degree was not accepted in the States, so he enrolled in the local community college, which served as an essential stepping-stone for him in his professional career.
“He was in his 40s and was working full-time, so he took mostly evening and weekend classes,” Meeks said. “I remember a lot of trips to/fro that campus at those odd times. So, it’s important to me to teach courses for students who are likewise nontraditional. Perhaps they need to take an early morning or a Saturday class because of their family situation or other work commitments. I like being able to offer something that meets them where they are in life—and I also just get a lot of joy from being among these nontraditional students.”
Leaning into her students’ family schedules is practical, but it also allows her to practice her preferred pedagogical approach—teaching through the lens of care ethics.
“Care ethics as pedagogy helps me to identify and implement those practices that demonstrate that I really care about my students. Further, it challenges me to make that caring effective in promoting their well-being as a whole person,” she said.
That well-being also extends to their cultural contexts, she said.
As an immigrant herself, Meeks said she understands the pressures that many of her students experience when choosing a major. She went through the same process before declaring to her family that she was majoring in French and Philosophy—and wanted to get a doctorate in the latter.
“When I started college, I was the typical immigrant young adult—I felt like I needed to pick a practical course of study. But then I was introduced to philosophy, and I knew it was a done deal—I loved it so much that I would never be happy studying anything else,” she said. “Even though my family wasn’t sure what I was going to do with that choice, they took a leap of faith and supported me the entire way through.”
She recognizes many of her students will stay the course with their family’s expectations and may not follow their dream major.
“I went through a period when I wanted all my students to become philosophy majors. But I’ve come to realize that what I really want is to be respectful of students’ unique personal, familial, and cultural circumstances when advising them on choosing the ‘right’ major and career. I do remind them that sometimes there is a circuitous way to achieving their life goals–and sometimes it’s a much better way than the linear path. Studying something like philosophy can only enrich the trajectory of their lives, and I am extremely grateful to be a small part of that big picture.”