RALEIGH – When Jeff Joines was an undergraduate at NC State University, IBM kept making him job offers – offers that would seem a dream to many electrical engineers.
But Joines kept putting off Big Blue.
Then one of his professors encouraged Joines – son of a 7th-grade English teacher – to teach.
“You know how to take complicated subjects and help students understand them,” Professor Russell King told him.
Now an associate professor of textile engineering at NC State with four degrees from his alma mater, Joines keeps a quote from author John Podojil taped to his computer: “Teaching is not a profession; it’s a passion. Without passion for your subject and a desire for your students to learn and be the best in the world, then we have failed as a teacher and failure is not an option.”1
Joines has that passion – not just for the computer models his students use to make better decisions, but for real-world problems, right down to the desks students use.
He even designed a new classroom with reconfigurable, pie-shaped desks that allow for easier interaction both between students and with faculty.2
Finding solutions to real problems is never far from Joines’ mind. More than a decade ago, he realized textile engineers were required to take a computer science class in a language they seldom used.
So with colleague Steve Roberts, he designed a new course called Computer-Based Modeling for Engineers. A recent survey of textile engineering alumni found that 84% thought the class gave them an advantage and made a significant difference in their careers.
Jon Rust, former head of the Department of Textile Engineering, Chemistry and Science, says Joines is “exceptionally gifted in his ability to lead effective learning” and praises his “keen sense of interest in demonstrating through verifiable assessment practices what really works best for students’ long-term professional development.”3
It’s that dedication – that passion – that earned Joines a 2016 Faculty Teaching Award from the University of North Carolina Board of Governors.4
1 https://www.northcarolina.edu/content/Jeffrey-Joines-0
2Ibid.
3Ibid.
4 https://www.northcarolina.edu/2016_teaching_award_winners
Russell Flinchum says
I’ve never had the pleasure of having a class with Jeff, but he’s a remarkably engaging person one-on-one as well, as you might suspect. It is very encouraging to see attention being paid to our most gifted teachers. What we need is a more visible platform for them to tell the rest of us what worked, what didn’t, and what they hope to try next.
Of course, the most brilliant thing Jeff did was to marry Sharon M. Bennett, but that is another story 🙂
Allen Joines says
Very proud of Jeff. He has always had a passion for engineering and it clearly comes through in his application of that passion to teaching.