By Gabrielle Fitzgerald
From a former dance student to the adviser of the college’s creative writing club, Sam Bell is anything but a stereotypical English professor.
Born in Fairport, New York, Bell was the child who could usually be found either writing or dancing. Although she wanted to study ballet, Bell explained she was too short to ever become a professional.
“I started out in ballet, and that sort of transferred into creative stuff, so then I started writing and reading poetry,” Bell said.
After receiving her undergraduate degree in journalism, Bell worked features section in her school newspaper and took a large number of creative writing classes.
“I just loved writing,” Bell said. “I was doing a lot of feature writing, which was more like essay writing. [..] so that’s basically how I got into creative writing and went into a master’s program. That’s where I started figuring out what I really wanted to do, particularly creative non-fiction.”
Three years ago, after receiving her doctorate degree in English, with an emphasis in creative writing from the University of Kansas, Bell became a full time faculty member at the college.
“I met Sam through our departmental meetings, and I really gravitated toward her because when she would speak or share things about her practice, I had a great deal of connection with what she taught and her thoughts about students,” said Amy Pace, adjunct professor of English.
Although Bell loved her students, she said she came to see them even more as people versus students after a tragedy in one of her classes this past fall.
“There was a sudden and unexpected death… [This] student and his friend were very funny together…to a point that it sort of helped unify the class,” Bell said. “To that end, the loss was pretty monumental because he was someone who always contributed to the class discussion.”
Because of this, Bell said she will write letters to each student at the end of the semester. The advice came from her husband and is a way she can tell students how important they are as a person, regardless of their grade in her class.
“It was really great that she took the initiative to just seek help and be able to kind of talk out what happened,” Pace said. “I think it really speaks a great deal about how much Sam cares about her students… I thought it was great that she spoke very candidly about what she was thinking and experiencing and the best way to kind of meet the needs of her students who were kind of feeling the same way.”
Danny Alexander, professor of English, described Bell as a “very emphatic leader.”
“She’s very sensitive to and aware of her students, gives a lot of thought to them and is always trying to discern how to make her class work better for everyone,” he said. “She’s a really powerful person.”
Bell also founded the college’s creative writing club, an idea brought to her by some of her students who wanted to keep writing after the semester ended but needed the pressure of classroom deadlines to accomplish it. The club meets for writing workshops as well as monthly readings of students’ work.
“Sam had the vision that [the creative writing club] could happen and started doing it, without any precedent and it’s really worked well,” Alexander said. “Sam brings all kinds of energy and new ideas to the department…The ability to bring people together in a way that actually feels very real to them and for everyone that attends is very meaningful. It’s a special kind of person that is sensitive to what people need in order to make that really work. She’s done it. As far as I’m concerned, she’s a star in the program and we’re really really lucky to have her: students, teachers, everybody.”
Contact Gabrielle Fitzgerald, features editor, at gfitzge1@jccc.edu.