Teacher Feature: Alex Dawson

Coming from New Zealand is both a unique and difficult foundation for an English teacher, but Dr. Alex Dawson has defied those ideals. As a child, his goal was to be a baseball player, “I knew it was unrealistic,” he told me, “especially coming from New Zealand…where I could count on one hand the number of clubs that played.”

Middle and high school were tough for Dr. Dawson, as he struggled through his math classes and couldn’t really decide what he was “good” at. By the time he reached his high school years, Dr. Dawson realized the English was his forte. He said that he “fell in love with reading and writing and…started to perform better on exams.” Since he was quite busy studying for end of the year tests and playing a lot of baseball, Dr. Dawson didn’t have much time for a social life.

Dr. Dawson’s parents lived in Papua New Guinea, and when he was on a trip to visit them, his brother convinced him to go to Doane University. He had originally planned to go to a New Zealand university that had accepted him. Dr. Dawson recalled, “I remember going to bed after having this conversation with my brother and picking up this book and reading from it and something in my mind just switching.”

He ended up double majoring in English and Journalism & Media and quit baseball after two years. Dr. Dawson felt like “it ended up being the right choice” when he was accepted into the University of Connecticut for his Ph.D. Also in his second year of college, Dr. Dawson admitted to thinking that being an English professor “sounded incredible.”

After living in Washington D.C., Dr. Dawson and his family wanted to settle down in the Midwest. He reflected that he kept hearing of the motivation and grit students here at BT have. “That culture really attracted me,” he said, “plus…relationships were so valued by the community as a whole.” Dr. Dawson felt compelled to inspire students just like his teachers and professors did to him.

As far as future plans go, Dr. Dawson is excited to read more and spend time with his family. His young son Dante will be enrolling in BT next year as well. He hopes to see his family outside of the U.S. eventually too.

I’m super grateful to have interviewed Dr. Dawson because his answers were very insightful and informative. My favorite part of the interview was his advice for current students… “As a student, it took a while for me to realize how much learning happened in the work I did outside of class…To the students who already know this and put in that extra effort outside of class, keep doing what you’re doing because it does make a difference and people do notice. To the students who haven’t quite realized it yet, it’s never too late to start.”