Distance Education : News : Faculty Spotlight : Bert Clevenger

DE Faculty Spotlight:  Bert Clevenger

You've probably seen Bert Clevenger around campus.  He's the networking instructor who is always pleasant and smiling no matter what kind of day he is having.  He's more than willing to help you; all you have to do is ask.  He is also one of the pioneering distance education instructors at BRTC.

Background
Bert Clevenger is originally from Searcy, Arkansas.  He graduated from Harding Academy then went on to college at Harding University, both located in Searcy.  He did not graduate with a degree in networking like you might think.  Instead, Bert earned a Bachelor in Human Resource Management in Industrial Psychology.  

Bert began working for the Department of Workforce Education until 1999.  He was a training broker, working with mangers of companies, putting together employee training programs.  One of his clients was Waterloo, Industries, here in Pocahontas.  Bert traveled often, going as far as Milwaukee, WI; Louisville, KY; and different areas in Oklahoma.  

While he did not work for BRTC, he was housed here and stationed in Pocahontas.  Mr. Gaines kindly offered to provide an office for Bert on the BRTC campus, and Bert gladly accepted.  Over the next six years as Bert continued working for the Department of Workforce Education, he began to tire of traveling, though he loved his job.  

As fate would have it, Bert happened to become friends with Carolyn Collins who was then the Division Chair of Business and Technical Education.  She recruited him to teach management classes in the evenings.  One day, Carolyn informed Bert that BRTC had a full-time position available in the business department.  Even though Bert develops a sense of loyalty which makes leaving a job very difficult, he jumped at the chance to work full-time at the college with the people who had considered him co-worker for the past six years.  He also appreciated the fact that at BRTC he could pursue further education.  During his five years here, he has earned 4 network certificates and is completing his masters in Vocational Administration at ASU this summer. 

Bert loves teaching.  He feels like he has "good support from administration" and can do his work as he sees fit.  To him, "schooling is business"; thus, he wears a "customer service mentality" to class.  As an instructor, he sees his students as a classroom full of customers, customers who have the option to go somewhere else.  He takes his customers seriously, appreciating that they have chosen to be in his class, realizing that "we [faculty] are there for students' convenience."  

Bert and Distance Education
Bert is a tinkerer and computers have always been one of his projects.  He's always had a interest in computers, mainly Macs.  His technology skills are "self-taught" because he likes to take computers apart and see how they work. Today he even runs a small computer repair service for a few select clients.  This playing, he feels, keeps him current in the industry.  

The courses Bert teaches are very easily transferred into the distance education environment.  He realizes that he'd look a little "dinosaurous" if he brought a stack of handouts to his technology classes.  Putting documents on the internet makes him more "productive" and "efficient," giving him more time to do his job and help his students.  His courses are often supplemented with texts that provide electronic course content, and since his students must one day take certificate and level exams via the computer, practicing just that skill in class will help accustom them to the electronic testing environment.

Guitars
Bert is a guitar-buff.  When he was about seven, Bert's best friend bought a guitar.  The instrument amazed Bert so much he bought one himself.  Unfortunately, the one Bert bought was broken.  So he fixed it. He's been fixing them ever since.

Like his computer tinkering, Bert likes to tinker with guitars.  He normally buys broken guitars and fixes them at home.  He has even created one from scratch, molding the body out of wood.  

Furthering his intereset in technology, Bert buys guitar parts on eBay, uses the parts on his broken guitars, then sells the guitars back on eBay.  Bert calls his guitars his "stress-relief."

Dr. Eric Hoffer
Bert's perception of distance education is immortalized in the words of Dr. Eric Hoffer:  "In a time of drastic change, it is the learners who inherit the future.  The learned find themselves in a world that no longer exists."  Bert thinks that "if we want to be productive, we must always be evolving."  

To Bert, networking and distance education is the way through which he evolves. 

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