Survival of the fittest

Former scoutmaster’s journey to becoming a professor

Belen Hernandez

Reporter @b3l3nh3rnand3z

For many in the academic field, becoming a professor usually starts in grade school, but for others it can start with a passion for both education and survival.

For English Professor Larry Krikorian, this was just the case.

Before becoming a professor, Krikorian joined the Eagle Scouts in 1967 where he went from cub scout to Scoutmaster. Krikorian’s father, Kirk Krikorian, believed that he should know how to survive if they everywhere to be stranded or lost.

“He thought education is good, but he wanted me to go in the boy scouts so I would learn to do outdoor things that are practical,” Krikorian said.

Before then, Krikorian’s father was a sergeant during World War II.

“He was the top enlisted man. He was a five stripes sergeant and the enlisted men answered to him,” Krikorian said.

Krikorian has many memories of his father’s war stories and the people he met along the way.

“My favorite memory of him was when he would talk about these young guys. He would tell me things when I was a little boy like ‘I used to go to town with those guys’,” Krikorian said. “‘We had a lot of fun and they would write me letters after the war.’ What I think they wanted was to come to California and work for him. He was never a big shot and he couldn’t give them a job”

Later on in life, Krikorian was able to buy an exact replica of his father’s bomber jacket and even got his father’s patch sewed onto

-Larry

the jacket.

Before teaching at Pierce, Krikorian was a double major in both math and English. He originally was going to do both but a particular math class made him rethink his future.

“I was a math and English major and I went with both until I was a junior. Then one day I was in this really hard calculus class called real analysis,” Krikorian said. “ It’s senior level math and I just thought I can do this. I’m getting As in it, but I don’t like it. I chose reading. I tried to go with what I thought I would be better at.”

After heading over to a roommates house and not getting the job at East Los Angeles College,

Krikorian was surprised to find out he had gotten an invitation to interview at Pierce College.

“I stopped off at this guy’s house in San Dimas. I had rented a room from him and I wasn’t living there anymore. He goes ‘It’s funny you stopped because you got a letter.’ I open it and it’s an invitation to a job interview,” Krikorian said. “I had a summer job. I just begged my boss, ‘Can I just go to this interview? I may get a real job,’ and he said alright. I interviewed on Monday and got the job.”

Now at Pierce, Krikorian loves to teach his students skills they will be able to use out in the real world.

“I think my favorite thing about my students is helping them down the road to get better jobs. Because if you can’t write very well and you don’t know how to read as an adult level you might be held back from promotions,” Krikorian said.

Donna Accardo, a fellow English professor, said that Krikorian has such a strong love and passion for reading.

“Whenever you speak with Larry, it is obvious he has passion for literature. He thinks reading literature is the best way to teach students how to write well and I agree,” Accardo said.

Aside from that, Accardo also says that he has positively impacted the department.

“I think he has always been very generous with his time with newer faculty, he is also opened to helping his colleagues to have the best environment possible,” Accardo said.

English Professor Darren Borg believes that Kirkorian having open availability is what makes him a good professor

“He is not considered an ‘easy A,’ but if students are willing to seek extra help, he is available to them,” Borg said. “His office hours are regularly filled with students who want to become better writers.” bhernandez.roundupnews@gmail.com

Borg said Krikorian possesses qualities that make him stand out within the department.

“Larry’s best qualities are his sincerity, his love of literature and his courage to speak his mind, even when he may not be the popular opinion,” Borg said.

2012 to have a child, but still wants to compete in future races.

“I reproduced in 2013 and 2015 so I stopped for that, but now im training again,” Gillis said. “I’m training for the race across America in 2020. I did it in 2012 as a two person team but now I’m doing it solo which is going to be a lot of work.”

Gillis describes how she became an instructor at Pierce.

“I was doing my Ph.D. and my funding was running out because I was racing bikes a lot,” Gillis said. “I saw that there was a job opening here and I applied and got it. I had my interview and as soon as I finished my interview I had to drive to a bike race.”

Evan Weissman who is currently taking his second class with Ghillis, describes how she keeps her students engaged.

“She does encourage people to participate,” Weissman said. “If they don’t, she’ll do an exercise where she doesn’t pay attention basically forces people to participate so she can’t see who’s raising their hand or who’s not, so it kind of just encourages people to get their voice out there one way or another.”

Philosophy Club President Harut

Tatulyan describes has Gillis takes notice of what students tell her, and wants them to foster deeper thoughts by getting them to ask themselves questions.

“You could always look forward to whatever you talk about,” Tatulyan said. “It’s not going to be one of those things where, you know a lot of professors sometimes you discuss things with them and they’ll just nod and just agree with what you’re saying but Cara wants to try to make you think ‘is this really how you should be thinking about something? Is there more to this topic than your side of the story?’ So she is almost like this philosopher like Socrates who’s asking you, ‘Well what about this?’ She really fulfills that philosopher ideal.” Tatulyan spoke about their future aspirations for transferring, and how professor Gillis was very active in advising them. Tatulyan even went so far as to characterize Gillis as more of a life coach, always ready to discuss a wide range of topics beyond academic success.

“Yeah I don’t always talk with her about academics,” Tatulyan said. “We talk about how to be successful in life, [and] I think as a philosophy major and a philosophy professor there’s a lot to discuss to that end.”

Professor Gillis is also the chairperson of the Ethics Committee on campus, and goes into detail about what it entails.

“Our function is to provide guidance to faculty about situations that might be tricky,” Gillis said. “We have this thing called the faculty code of ethics that basically gives a lot of guidelines on how to navigate those trickier situations, and then when issues come up or there’s a question about what they should do we try and offer some clarification from the perspective of that code of ethics.”