Darla Andersen

Darla Andersen is the program director of arts, letters and sciences for Brooks Institute. Her job is to oversee the general education classes, makes sure all of the classes are filled and that the teachers are competent in their teaching skills. Darla’s job also includes administrative aspects, which include accreditations and evaluations of the school as well as making sure students’ schedules get taken care of. Darla has been teaching at the college and graduate level for 17 years and has been doing that full-time for 5 years after she decided to quit her day job all together.

While Darla was a part-time teacher, she was a full-time lawyer, which was her first passion. After realizing that problem solving was her forte, she felt she could incorporate that aspect into her teaching job. The opportunity to make a difference in people’s lives, especially college students was the deal breaker for her to pursue teaching and also become a program director full-time. Darla loves every aspect of her job, even the parts where there may be disagreements with other people. The fact that she works with people that she feels are amazing makes her job exciting.

Darla feels that everyday she learns something new and each day is a different day. That is what keeps her motivated to continue what her career. One misconception that Darla believes teaching gets is that a lot of people think they can decide to teach just for fun after they retire. When she hears that, to her it’s like saying, “After I retire, I’m going to become a brain surgeon.” Teaching is not a career that someone can just jump into for the fun of it. Having explored different options before settling on teaching full-time has given Darla the opportunity to rediscover herself and has gained so much personal growth that, which in and of itself is the greatest reward.

James Ford

James Ford is an instructor at Brooks Institute where he teaches English and Business. He also has a full-time position in information technology at the University of California Santa Barbara where he is in charge of interface design of a course management system. James has taught over 45 college level courses for about ten years and has done interface design for about a year and a half.

Originally, James thought he was going to be a baseball coach for a High School when he finished his undergraduate degree. After realizing how High Schools were run, he decided not to go in that direction anymore. As he was in search for a different career path, a former professor of his recommended he look into a certain graduate program. James found that he actually liked the program a lot and that is what pushed him to gear towards technology and communications.

Motivation is an important factor in anything that one does. For James, it’s being successful in his career and being recognized in his field. Like most people, he feels he can’t work doing the same thing for too long which pushes him to work harder and move up in his field. It’s that type of accomplishment that keeps his ambitions high and of course, the money doesn’t hurt either. Some of the misconceptions that James’ teaching career has is that people think it is not a real job, is easy and does not take up a lot of time. Although his classes meet only six hours a week, that certainly doesn’t mean he gets the rest of the time off. He takes a lot of time grading papers and talking to students, something people don’t realize because he doesn’t do that in a cubicle all day. One piece of advice that James would give to people who want to get in the same career path is to be aware of the compensation and to talk to a lot of people who are in the same field you choose to be in.

Scott Edward Hayes

Scott Edward Hayes is a first year student at Brooks Institute. He is studying full-time in the professional photography program. As of right now, his main focus is on school but has recently started working with Amelia Jane shooting for her kids’ clothing line in Summerland, California. As a kid, Scott has been artistic but his passion for photography grew his sophomore year of High School.

Fashion photography is Scott’s specialty because he loves working with people and he’s just fascinated with the way the clothing falls on people, which can make for an interesting look. Scott loves what he does and he is glad that he found a school that has the ability to teach him everything he needs to know to make a career out of it. Being a student at Brooks Institute, Scott has learned that one needs to be self-motivated in order to get ahead in school and in life. Simply put, “If you want to pass, you’ll do the work”.

One misconception that Scott believes fashion photography has is that a lot of people think it’s irrelevant to both photography and life. The fact that someone designed a piece of clothing and that piece of clothing starts trends and leads to bigger things is what fascinates him. No matter what others may think, fashion is relevant and important to Scott and a lot of other people. One piece of advice that Scott would give to those who want to do photography as a profession is to do your research. Looking for the right photography school is important and when you accomplish that, put all your effort into excelling in your work.

Greg Cooper

Greg Cooper is a faculty member of Brooks Institute and teaches visual journalism full-time. He teaches still photography which includes everything from introduction to photography to introduction to photojournalism and also portfolio and ethics. Greg started his career as a visual journalist over twenty years ago as a daily shooter for newspapers then moved on as a picture editor. His career soon veered towards teaching about seven years ago he came to Brooks Institute to become a faculty member.

Greg’s passion for photography and visual journalism began almost by accident. He traveled a lot as a child but one moment in particular that he remembers was when he and his family were visiting Yosemite Park when he was eleven years old. Greg was amazed at the beautiful landscape and nature that he felt he needed to record it somehow. He had seen a few kids his age taking pictures and at that moment he thought, “Well, if they can do it, so can I”. Soon after that experience, Greg bought his own camera and one month after that; he knew that he wanted to be a photographer when he grew up.

After all these years, Greg still feels passionate about photography. His main motivation to wake up every morning is knowing that he has the opportunity to make a difference in his students’ lives and to teach them what they need to know to make a difference themselves. He also feels grateful when his students understand the concepts he teaches and have success in what they do. One misconception that Greg faces about what he does is that many people think Brooks Institute is only a commercial photography school. What many people don’t know is that in 2000, Jim McNay created the Visual Journalism program to focus on non-fiction photography and stories.

Greg feels his career is very rewarding because he teaches his students something that will help them change the world. One piece of advice that Greg would give for those who want to go on the same career path is to have, “Passion, passion, passion”. Being a photojournalist is about making a difference and it doesn’t matter what path one takes to get there, it just takes that drive to want to tell stories and tell them to the world.