Mohammed AL-Abdulla

4/2/13

                                                            Amy Milakovic

            Interviewing Amy Milakovic, the assistant professor of English at Avila University, was interesting. First, I asked her about her background.

            According to Amy Milakovic, she was born and raised in Fort Worth, Texas.  Amy lived in Texas until she moved to Kansas four years ago.   According to Amy, she had a number of degrees, but she did not start out in English, she started out with a business degree. Amy said that she was fortunate to go to a small, Liberal Arts college like Avila University. She took a number of humanity classes, and in doing so she discovered   how much more she liked beyond business. According to Amy Milakovic, she said that even though she worked a lot in the corporate world for over twenty years, after her daughter was born she quit her corporate job and went back to school. She completed her Master’s degree and got her Ph.D., and then came to Avila University.

            Next I asked her about how she ended up as an English teacher.  According to Amy Milakovic, after she got her master degree, she started teaching in the Humanities program at Texas Wesleyan. During her teaching, she realized that she loved the academics, but there was absolutely no money with what she was doing. She realized that if she wanted to earn money working in that field she needed to get her Ph.D. degree. She thought about teaching history, but what she loved the most was teaching English. According to Amy Milakovic, TCU had a really good English program. Her degree was not in Literature. It was in Rhetoric and Composition, which had a writing emphasis.

            Third I asked her about what techniques she used in teaching her students. According to Amy Milakovic, she said that she tried to use a variety of techniques because different people have different learning styles. She does little lecturing, and only when she needs to get a lot of information out quickly. She uses lots of reading responses on Angel (soon to be Canvas), were the students can work on it in their own time and really reflect on what they have done. Also, she lets them do a lot of introspection so that their education means something to them, and they are not just giving facts back to her. According to Amy Milakovic, she gives her students small-group work. She also likes to give her students projects and let them out of the classroom whenever she can, So that the projects could have meaning for them in life and not just for academics.

            Fourth I asked her what the best technique she had seen work on her students.  According to Amy Milakovic, it depends on whether it is in a literature class or a writing class. One of the projects she did in General Humanities a few years ago, was studying architecture and the rhetoric of architecture in how it shows values. According to Amy Milakovic, during that project she let her students out across the city and she gave them places to go to. For example, a particular business park or a particular museum and other places. She did that so that the students could walk around and practice what they had learned in class.  She said that this was a very popular assignment. In literature, she made her students memorize and recite poetry in front of the class because she found out that today’s students do not have to memorize like the way people did in her time. Once they had done it, the students felt happy. Also, Amy Milakovic told her students that the beauty and the power of what led her to English in the first place that once they memorize it, they can take those words with them forever. In good times or in bad times, they could pull out those words which, they put in their heart to either strengthen or comfort them, and bring joy knowing that those words are part of them forever.

            Fifth, I asked her about her future plan. According to Amy Milakovic, she hopes to continue at Avila. She will have tenure, and as many know, she is the department Chair. Also, there were a lot of ways that she wants to expand the English program. She is also excited about beginning more writing opportunities.

            Finally, I asked her about her future plan for her family. According to Amy Milakovic, her daughter would be graduating from high school in two years. Her husband will continue with his job until retirement, which will probably be four to five years. Also, she said that they like traveling, and so they do not know where they would end up.