Adam Sonstroem, assistant professor of communication, will be Taylor’s first fully online professor.
Julie Borkin, assistant professor of communication, said that as Taylor continues to grow, they want to protect the experiences of Taylor students in class, whether that be online or in person.
“A lot of his heart is here (at Taylor), but he realizes that for this season, this is where they belong, and that is an important boundary setting,” Borkin said. “And I think the Lord is blessing him and opening the door for him here online because of it.”
While his feet are in Arizona, Sonstroem’s attention will be on Taylor students.
He hopes to integrate faith and communication and go beyond the obvious forms. He wants to encourage students to be faithful communicators in conversations where God’s name may never be mentioned.
“He's very gifted in a number of realms, and he has a deep attentiveness to faith integration,” Borkin said. “It isn't just an add on. It isn't just praying at the beginning of class or asking for prayer requests. It's deeply embedded in how he's thinking about the discourse. He has a very pastoral heart, and so he's bringing his whole self to the classroom, and that's really what we want at Taylor — that whole person involvement — because we’re also inviting students into a whole person learning.”
Although he is teaching online classes, Sonstroem hopes to still encourage an active classroom. He said he uses discussion boards and found students to be active in the Integrative Communication class he taught last year.
Sonstroem has taken a few online classes in his own academic experience. In an in-person class, Sonstroem said it can be easy to blend into the crowd. It is easy to not raise his hand and to just listen to everyone else talk. In an online class, however, everyone has to type their answer, he said.
Sonstroem said that online classes can have more engagement than in-person classes.
He was inspired by his previous teachers to create a fun environment for students, whether that be online or in-person. He does like to come to classes whenever he can to connect with people face-to-face.
“I’m a person,” Sonstroem said. “I’m here, you’re here. You're doing the work for me, but I want you to see that I'm here.”
Sonstroem said Taylor students have gone above and beyond on discussion boards, and he is looking forward to creating a fun space to discuss and tell stories.
He said teaching is very relational, and stories build relationships and those relationships last.
“Stories connect us,” Sonstroem said. “And I think part of that idea of communication and building on relationships are these stories. And you don't get to know someone until you know about their story. And in sharing that little bit about you, (it) begins to bring a class together in some way.”
Sonstroem likes bringing himself to the class, whether that be his family or his own experiences in failures and successes.
When he first started teaching, no one knew who he was, and he realized he could be anyone he wanted, but in the end, he found that he enjoyed just being himself in the classroom.
“I'm just me,” Sonstroem said. “And I'm weird, I'm nerdy. I love history, I love movies, I love teaching, and once I kind of embraced that, and I was just myself, it just connected. It was really fun to connect with students, connect with faculty, and like anybody (because) I'm not pretending to be anything I'm not.”
He started teaching because he loved history. As he continued, he realized he loved it because he got to experience genuine moments with his students and celebrate with them.
He loves to see students in their element, whether that be in the classroom or outside the classroom.
“I love Jesus,” Sonstroem said. “I love students. Those two things combined, I think that's where I really feel called to teach.”
