Professor of Sociology Deborah Morgan is one of a select group of individuals recently honored with an Outstanding Full-Time Faculty of the Year Award in recognition of her exceptional contributions to and impact on the students, faculty and staff who make up the OCCC community.
As a graduate of OCCC, where her journey first began, Morgan couldn’t help but feel overwhelmed with emotion when she was announced as a recipient of the award.
“I was in a lot of shock and tears from just disbelief, like, ‘Whoa! This just happened,’” she reminisced. “I never thought that I would be capable of getting something like this because it ties back to how I got here.”
Morgan describes her journey as one that many people might assume would lead to an unfulfilled life, but this achievement proved to herself and others that there are many paths to success, regardless of what society assumes is the only approach.
“There was no direct path I took,” she said. “It was more like a roundabout way where I just ended up here, and it was the best decision I ever made.”
During her time as a student at OCCC, Morgan recalls taking her first anthropology and sociology classes and immediately realizing, “This is what I want to do.”
“Anthropology and sociology are so closely related, and it all just started clicking and making sense to me,” she said. “I went and met my major chair, and I remember sitting in her office and saying, ‘I want to be just like you. I want to be a teacher who understands why people act the way they do in a cultural sense.’”
For as long as Morgan can remember, OCCC has always supported students by providing them with financial assistance, resources and networking opportunities.
“I really love that the school is very student-centric,” she said. “There are so many people who care so much for the students and want to be here, want to work with them. They’re here for that reason. Even for me as a student years ago, it felt like that too. This place was always about us, and now it’s like I’m giving back to that.”
Now, after working at OCCC for two years, Morgan says that one of her favorite parts of teaching is guiding students and watching their creativity shine and their personal growth blossom.
“For one of our chapters, I like to assign a protest poster to give students the opportunity to present a poster on anything that they want to do, and it’s always interesting to see what students choose to work on,” she said. “It’s always fun. We have a good time, and just getting to see people’s creativity is something that I love.”
Morgan also said that whenever she sees a student struggling in her class, she sees a little of herself in them, which motivates her even further to help them the best that she can.
She explained that watching those students accomplish dreams that they never thought they could achieve is a beautiful transformation that she adores witnessing at the end of each semester.
Away from campus, Morgan enjoys spending her free time crocheting, reading and gardening. She also values self-care days, when she can step away from stress and simply relax.
