Mark Ferguson, Mathematics

Education: B.A. in mathematics and B.A. in business from Western Oregon University, Monmouth, Ore., and M.A. in mathematics from Oregon State University, Corvallis, Ore.

Experience: 15 years of full-time and part-time teaching experience at Chemeketa Community College, Salem, Ore. and Oregon State University, Corvallis.

Most interesting thing about you that students wouldn’t suspect: “I took a job posing for a (college) charcoal drawing class a long, long time ago…” Impression of SRJC/Santa Rosa: “What a beautiful campus! The math faculty has made me feel welcome and has helped make the transition to my new home easy. Thank you!”

Favorite joke: “I’d rather have a bottle in front of me than a frontal lobotomy.” If you weren’t teaching at SRJC: “I’d be in Prineville, Oregon, coming home from another day at work, nursing a sore back and bloody cuts on my hands from making truck tires all day long at the Les Schwab Tire Manufacturing Plant… (Good thing I got that education!)”

Advice for students: “It’s easy to get caught up in panic and worry too much about grades… this is really detrimental to you and your chances for success. Instead, devote your time and energy to your coursework — give yourself a little wiggle room, though. Good grades will follow, along with a better understanding of mathematics, our world and yourself.”