Brian Blitz, Outside the Classroom
Professor Brian Blitz is a familiar face around campus, teaching math classes and serving as an academic advisor to students. Blitz has been teaching at UAS since 2000, has been program coordinator for the Math Department and was the Natural Sciences Department Chair for 3 years.
By: Hollis Kitchin
Blitz attended the University of Chicago for his undergraduate studies and when he started out he debated whether to major in math or physics. “Growing up in high school and grade school I always did pretty well in math, I think that’s why it was going to be either physics or math,” Blitz said.
After his freshman year and taking classes in both subjects, Blitz discovered that he enjoyed math more than Physics, “I just decided I like that [math] a little bit better. Nothing really significant happened I just said, ‘Well, why not do this?’”
While he was at the University of Chicago, Blitz played for the school’s football team, the Maroons, for all four years of his undergraduate studies.
“It was a Division III school so if you had lab or practice, you went to lab. It was very mellow so to speak,” Blitz stated. Blitz was captain his senior year. The team was an okay team, winning some games, losing others, according to Blitz.
Studying at Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff and working towards his masters in secondary education, Blitz got to know some of his professors and started thinking that maybe teaching at the collegiate level would be a bit more of a fun job than teaching at the high school level.
“When I first moved to Flagstaff, I was actually going there to get my high school teaching credentials to teach high school and coach,” Blitz explained, “Then, I started taking math classes there and said ‘Oh maybe teaching college will be fun.’”
“One thing that I really like about my job here is that I get to teach lower division classes, middle classes and upper division classes,” Blitz said. “I think having that mix [of classes] is good to keep you in check with where people are coming from and where people are going.” This variety in classes also allows students to experience the different teaching styles of the math professors at the UAS campus.
Although Blitz doesn’t get the opportunity to coach at UAS, he is currently the faculty advisor for the UAS disc golf club.
Blitz received his Ph. D. from Washington State University and traveled to Alaska because of a job opportunity. “I’d been up here [Alaska], in Anchorage, before for the campus interview. I really liked the faculty up here and a lot of the people, so I was happy to come up here,” Blitz said.
The feel of UAS faculty is another thing that Blitz appreciates. “The University of Chicago is really a place where they claim that teachers are really into teaching, but from some of them I really didn’t get that vibe. I definitely get the vibe that there are a lot more teachers here that really enjoy teaching.”
Once a year Blitz helps coordinate with Juneau Douglas High School calculus students for a one day help session in order to prepare them for their Advanced Placement exam which, if they pass, can give them credits without having to take the class in college.
“Basically four faculty members give one-hour problem solving sessions on four different topics from calculus to get those students a different teacher for a little while, and to get them ready for their AP calculus test,” Blitz explained.
“You really do get to know your students very well, just from them dropping by your office or coming to get help with homework,” Blitz said. “With the small class sizes there’s nowhere to run nowhere to hide,” meaning that it’s easy for the professors to see if someone is missing class and if that is influencing their grade.
