#i2amru (I, Too, Am Reinhardt) Volume 1 Number 1 | Page 74

While their experiences differed,
they both seemed to agree on an
important aspect of Dr. Brown’s
teaching style: she truly wants you
to realize your own potential as a
student.

Above: Brown patrolling the DMZ (de-militarized zone) in
Korea, the buffer zone between North and South Korea.
caught shoplifting, and the store
owner would not be dissuaded
from pressing charges against her
no matter how much the officers
tried to convince him not to. The
result was the officers doing everything within their power to make
sure this woman kept her children
and had some food to feed their
family.
Again, the fact that Brown is
choosing this story to tell provides
a peek into her character. Brown
is an individual who cares about
human beings on a genuine, altruistic level. She worked with both
the military and the police department, and within all those times
she never seemed to give up hope
on her fellow man. If anything, all
the career positions she’s held show
her to be a willing servant to the
betterment of humankind.
During her time at the police
department, and when looking for
promotion, she discovered she’d
need to attain a master’s degree
if she wanted to advance. So she
finally went back to the world of

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academia. Once she left the police department to fully pursue
her higher education, she ended
up never going back, because she
really “found what she truly wanted
to do.”
Brown earned her Doctorate degree in Sociology and subsequently
began teaching as a professor at
the collegiate level. In addition to
teaching Sociology, her position
has allowed her the flexibility to
run and operate a couple of different non-profit organizations, which
work hand in hand with her work
as a Sociologist.
To me, her teaching and becoming
a major force in multiple non-profit
organizations speak volumes about
her character. Dr. Cheryl Brown
is a humanist. She believes in the
greater good of humanity, and she
does everything in her power to
help her fellow citizens realize happiness in their own lives.
I also spoke with a couple of students who have studied with Dr.
Brown at Reinhardt University.

Lindsey White is a Sociology major
at Reinhardt University and the
advisee of Dr. Brown’s, and she has
also participated in study and service trips abroad with Dr. Brown’s
non-profit groups.

This story, again, just reaffirms that
Dr. Cheryl Brown is a professor and a
person who really does try and bring out
the best in everyone around her.
Another student, Hannah Buckner,
had a different experience with Brown.
Buckner described having a negative
experience in the class due to not taking
the class as seriously as she should have.
Buckner emphasized that Dr. Brown was
very clear about to earn the grade in her
class.

At first, White couldn’t say anything but good things about Brown.
She spoke about how Brown
inspired her to become a Sociology major and subsequently to be
the student leader for the trips to
Mexico to help with the non-profit
groups. When I tried to dig into
any less-than-stellar experiences
she might have had, White said that
there was one time that stuck out
to her.

However, Hannah said that she stopped
going to Dr. Brown’s class every day, and
described how Dr. Brown tried to reach
out and talk to her about the importance
of attending her lectures.

No, this wasn’t a time that Brown
might have snapped at her or
treated her or another student
unfairly, however. Rather, what
White remembered how, when she
had been failing in one of her early
classes, Dr. Brown took Lindsey
aside after class one day and “she
just spoke brutally honest to me.”

Dr. Brown is a woman who’s had a large number
of experiences in her lifetime. She’s a United States
Armed Forces veteran. She’s worked with the police
department. She’s a current professor of sociology,
and her hobbies include being intrinsically entwined in multiple non-profit organizations. This
just seems like a good laundry list on a resume, but
it really does tell something important about Dr.
Cheryl Brown. What it says is that the choices she
has made in her life all share one common thing.
She works every day to create a better world for everyone around her. She is an inspiration to not just
the students that she affects in the classroom, but
the lives she has touched throughout her career. I
can only hope that she is able to continue along her
trajectory of altruism, because if there is one thing
the world needs, it’s more Dr. Cheryl Browns.

Even though Hannah tried to appeal for
sympathy, Dr. Brown was regretful but
firm in her decision to give Hannah a
low grade. She passed the class, but just
barely. Brown reminded her that she had
tried to warn her about the attendance
policy.

White said it was the “wake-up”
call she needed to turn her grade
around in the class. No one in a
teaching position had ever spoken
to her like she was a real person
who mattered, instead of just another face in the crowd.

Hannah ended up with a lower grade in
Brown’s class than what she had hoped
for, though when belatedly reviewing
the syllabus, she realized that it clearly
laid out very sever e penalties for absences.

This exemplifies what I consider something significant about the character of
Dr. Cheryl Brown. It shows that while
she didn’t let Buckner fail her class, she
was willing to be firm and set boundaries to show Hannah there were consequences for her choices and actions.

Right: Dr. Cheryl Brown and her partner for life, Lynn Van Horn.
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