Becca Student-Faculty Interaction

Professor-student relationships at Grinnell are immensely valuable to a student's overall experience of campus life. Many of the students here are away from home for the first time and having a good relationship with a professor on campus can help in adjusting to college life. Interacting with a professor outside of a classroom can be a lot like talking to a parent. One of the reasons I chose my majors, Russian and psychology, was because I love talking to everyone in both departments. Once I made these connections with my faculty, I found professors to be an excellent source of support and if I am having an off day or need to talk about life or academics I can always stop in and talk to my advisor or another professor. Usually I'll go to office hours for extra help on a particularly hard Russian language concept or to talk about a research proposal for psychology, and after a while the conversation will have more of a general social quality. If you are living away from home, it is extremely important to have strong connections outside of the student body that allow for alternative ways to deal with any stressors, academic or social. I feel like a lot of my friends also have good relationships with their professors and that this is a big part of the culture on Grinnell's campus.