ON CAMPUS
Dr. Robert Shive
Dr. Claudine Chadeyras
Community Celebration offers professors an opportunity to reflect on student-centered accomplishments.
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illsaps College professor Dr. Robert Shive majored in both mathematics and French at Southern Methodist University, but math is the subject responsible for his 43-year mission. Shive, who went on to spend his entire career at Millsaps after teaching an initial class in 1967, retired in December. His love of mathematics—and the pride he took in his students—led him from the classroom to administration, then back to the classroom again. “In a sense, it was predictable, but it was unpredictable because so many things had not been discovered,” Shive, a professor of mathematics and computer science, said of his early interest in mathematics. “I like math because it’s so useful and applicable in so many ways and because of its structure.” He is joined in retirement by Dr. Robert Kahn, associate professor of romance languages, who completed 37 years at Millsaps in May, and Dr. Claudine Chadeyras, assistant professor of French, who completed 25 years at Millsaps. Chadeyras said her years at Millsaps allowed her to continue learning. “I am a generalist at heart who
Dr. Robert Kahn
welcomed the challenge of exploring new topics,” she said. Her accomplishments include the 1999 creation of the French Summer Program in Paris and Nice, and her involvement with the Alliance Francaise de Jackson, an organization that brought French luminaries to campus, and cultural incursions into unfamiliar territory such as French medieval literature, French film, the European Union, and Francophone literatures. Chadeyras has taught undergraduate courses in the French language at all levels, elementary and intermediate Spanish, and an English class about French film. She has also team-taught in Dr. Steven Smith’s course introduction to Film Studies. “I taught French and Spanish in the Adult Degree Program, the Millsaps French Summer Program in Paris and in Nice, and the Millsaps Spanish Summer Program in Costa Rica,” she said. Kahn has taught Spanish at all levels as well as basic and intermediate French, but he is most proud of his success as director of the College’s program in Costa Rica. “It’s rewarding to see how much the students learn and grow while abroad. Since they live with local families, they become Costa Ricans for the time they are there. Consequently, they do not observe the culture from the outside, but they become part of it.” Kahn credits his ability to speak French and his degrees in Spanish with ensuring his hire at Millsaps in 1976. “I got the job because I was qualified in
Millsaps Magazine | Summer 2013
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