Jay Brown looks forward to each new semester and welcomes the chance to engage a new group of students. He makes a point to learn their names right away and to make sure the students know that he sees them as individuals. He said knowing the students and knowing what’s important to them helps him determine the best way to teach them.

An assistant professor of psychology, Brown teaches his students to learn about subjects from different angles and to interpret what they learn.

“I’m trying to create critical thinkers who hear things and understand what they mean,” he said.

Why do I have to take science?

For psychology majors, taking science classes – like Biological Psychology – is part of the curriculum. But that doesn’t mean they always like it, Brown said.

“Students often say, ‘I just want to help people. Why do I have to learn all of this science?” But they need to understand the science to know how to help, he said.

“The science of human nature is a necessary component for anybody to do a good job helping others.”

Brown said knowing how things work is the key to being able to fix them. Without that knowledge, it’s difficult to determine what’s wrong.

“Imagine taking your car to the auto mechanic and he says, ‘I don’t know how an internal combustion engine works, but I’m going to try to fix it.’