Hintz committed to helping students accomplish goals
MINOT, N.D. – Minot State University’s Kathy Hintz admits she ended up in Minot totally by accident. That, however, doesn’t mean she hasn’t learned from her experience at MSU.
“I’ve actually learned a lot about schools in North Dakota because, up until we moved here, we wouldn’t have any sense of that,” the Chicago-area native said. “The school I grew up in was a big suburban school. (Seeing) these schools with five people graduating, 10 people graduating, I thought, Wow, that’s really different.”
Hintz, who teaches elementary and secondary social studies methods classes to future teachers, moved to Minot in 1995 with her husband. Before the move, she earned her undergraduate degree in political science in Minneapolis, was an intern at a private school in Connecticut, earned her master’s degree at Brown University, and taught English to ill French children for a year at the L'École à l'Hôpital in Paris, France.
Her resume is filled with various teaching positions, internships, research projects, and community service. Those experiences helped Hintz become the educator she is today, leading her to being named one of two Outstanding Advisor Award winners at Minot State in 2017-18.
She points out how students at Minot State are anything but identical to each other in age, experience, or lifestyles.
“This semester I had a 17-year-old and a grandma and everything in between in terms of age – people who had kids and were working a full-time job and only taking classes at night and traditional 18- to 22-year-olds,” Hintz said of her advisees.
Because of her experience on the east coast and her background in metropolitan areas like Chicago, Hintz points out that working in North Dakota has been a learning experience about how education can differ depending on the area.
Regardless of who she is working with, Hintz takes pride in guiding students to whatever path is best for them.
She works in the First Year Experience program where education students are able to start working in schools from the beginning so they can determine whether they want to continue pursuing work in education.
“You really don’t want people to get to the end of their student teaching and go, this is not what I thought it was. I don’t want to do this,” she said. “Some of them feel bad when they realize they really don’t want to be a teacher. And I tell them, that’s okay. That’s a good thing for a freshman to learn.”
Overall, Hintz does her best to understand where students are coming from and where they want to go in order to best support them in accomplishing what they need.
About Minot State University
Minot State University is a public university dedicated to excellence in education, scholarship, and community engagement achieved through
rigorous academic experiences, active learning environments, commitment to public service, and a vibrant campus life.
| Published: 06/29/18 |
