Humans of Chaffey: Professor Michelle Dowd
By Eve Scolari
The course of one's life and the way one sees the world is influenced by the experiences they have during their youth. For Michelle Dowd, this was more particularly true. Born into the Field, a strict religious cult led by her grandfather, she spent the majority of her childhood growing up in the Angeles National Forest.
Today, Michelle Dowd is a professor at Chaffey College, mainly teaching classes centered around writing. At seventeen, she ran away from the cult and went to Pitzer College, located in Claremont, California. She majored in English and World Literature and graduated in less than four years. Growing up, her only traditional education was from kindergarten to second grade, when she attended a public school. Subsequently, her next level of education was when she entered college.
This love for English stems from her childhood. Professor Dowd mentioned that, at eight years old, she “fell in love with early seventeenth-century poetry through the language of the King James Bible.” Her love for poetic language followed her into college and she stood out amongst her peers to one specific professor.
Professor Dowd explained that she was able to put a personal twist on her interpretation of Wallace Steven’s “Sunday Morning” for a group assignment. She explained that she felt as though the narrator was comparing “rituals and symbols of Christianity with the richness and vitality of the natural world.” Furthermore, she said the speaker was questioning “the nature of paradise and the role of art and beauty in human life in a way that felt familiar to [her].”
As it was only a few months after she escaped from the cult, she was still struggling to understand her life and views on religious topics that were ingrained in her. This interpretation stood out to her professor, resulting in her asking Professor Dowd what she planned to do with her life. She explained that she wasn’t sure - she simply needed to secure a place to live.
In turn, her professor encouraged Professor Dowd to stay in school to “[teach] people how to understand the world more deeply through literature.” Michelle Dowd received a stipend at the age of twenty-one to teach, and she has continued with it since, as it “made sense” to her. She is passionate about what she teaches and fully understands the topics and lessons being taught.
One of the characteristics that makes her unique amongst other professors is her teaching style. Professor Dowd seeks to improve the skills a person already has. She believes there is no “right or wrong” way of writing. This idea stems from her time at Pitzer and on the mountain, as they both taught her that “you can learn anything you love.” This idea is very strongly encouraged to her students, and they no doubt feel as though they have a professor who is willing to work with them no matter their level of expertise.
Not only is she a professor, but Michelle Dowd is an author, most known for her memoir, Forager: Field Notes on Surviving a Family Cult. She is a contributor to numerous publications and the faculty advisor for Chaffey College’s student-led newspaper, The Breeze. Her role as the faculty advisor is to coach the team. Professor Dowd explained that she knows the "plays and the players," and she "encourages students to love the game." Professor Dowd believes that every person "[belongs] doing what [they] love."
As a professor, she encounters many different kinds of students in her classes, as no two people write with the same voice and style. She added that she does not worry about people who do not give her exactly what she is looking for in an assignment. Instead, she “[worries] about students who don’t know what they want or how to do what they want.” Not only is Professor Dowd a teacher, but she is also her students’ biggest supporter.
Without a doubt, Professor Dowd’s unorthodox childhood shaped her to be the woman she is today. Her time isolated for seventeen years taught her survival skills in the wild, and she had time to think and figure out what she loved the most. She spent the majority of her time outdoors, metaphorically bonding with nature around her. She was taught how to forage for herself in the wild, and ultimately, Dowd learned to draw on what she understood the most to pull herself through the most challenging parts of her life: nature.
Professor Michelle Dowd is an inspiration to every one of her students, and even to those who are not. She teaches in a way that is encouraging to those who are unsure of themselves and their work. Not only this, but she is passionate and loves her role in students’ lives.
Unquestionably, her untraditional childhood assisted in this quality. If she had not experienced what she did, she likely would not be teaching at Chaffey College and bringing a unique and encouraging standpoint to the classroom as a professor.
Photo by Noel Besuzzi