This will be the last semester Bryan McCannon, associate professor of economics, will teach at St. Bonaventure University, since he has taken a position at West Virginia University in Morgantown.
McCannon has been at Bonaventure for four years teaching multiple areas of economics including intro to microeconomics and macroeconomics, econometrics and managerial economics.
McCannon received his doctorate in economics from Pennsylvania State University in 2003. He taught his first class there as a first-year graduate student.
McCannon said the decision was exceptionally hard to make, because he loves St. Bonaventure. However, West Virginia University made him an offer he found hard to refuse.
“I received an opportunity that I thought I would never receive in my career,” McCannon said. “I am going to an economics department with economists doing a lot of research. They have a PhD program, and I will have my own PhD students. I will get to teach law and economics, which is one of my favorite subjects to teach. Also the school I am going to just started a brand new center, and they asked me to be a fellow of that center.”
As a fellow is a professor who participates in advanced study and research.
McCannon said he believes that St. Bonaventure has left a great impact on his life and career. He said he loved interacting with the students here, seeing their strong work ethics. He believes that teaching, being able to change a student’s outlook or teach them something new is truly satisfying.
McCannon compliments St. Bonaventure’s tight-knit culture. After working at large schools such as Pennsylvania State University he said he notices the difference.
He said it is great that faculty can develop close relation with students, due to the size of the campus.
“What is nice about the size of St. Bonaventure is I would teach intro courses and then a few years later I will see them in my upper level courses,” McCannon said. “In larger schools, professors may only see a student once. By the time I taught my upper level courses I am searching for the few students I don’t know, because I know and I have a connection with the majority of my class.”
McCannon said some of his greatest memories from Bonaventure happened in the classroom. Specifically, he enjoyed the time he spent teaching his econometrics class. He said that in that class it is his students’ first time not being lectured at. They pick their own research topic and work on it from scratch, developing their idea making it their own. After developing their ideas, they present them as their final project in a real hot seat situation where they are asked questions. Students are forced to be on their feet as if in the ‘real world.’
McCannon finds it interesting to watch how students react in situations of spontaneity and fluidity. He likes to watch his students solve problems and get hands-on-experience. Watching his students be independent gives him a great sense of satisfaction.
McCannon said his parting advice to students is to “talk to your professors.” According to McCannon, student-professor relationships are important to succeed in the world. He believes that professors all have worked in the field they teach actively, so it is important to go to them for help in class and to build good academic connections.
“Of course I will miss the students, but in addition I will miss the amazing faculty,” McCannon said. “I [have] never worked in a place where just everyone was on the same page. I can walk in any of my colleagues’ offices and just strike a conversation without hesitation. It feels great when we can just come together to plan a dinner night or a day to go out for happy hour.”
