Terry Randolph

At Florida Atlantic University
Major: History and Political Science
DEGREE: M.A. in History ’05 and Political Science from
Florida Atlantic University
CURRENT POSITION: Professor of Political Science and Department Chair of Political Science, History, and Education at Palm Beach State College.
FIRST JOB: Adjunct professor of political science and history courses at Palm Beach State College.
BIGGEST CHALLENGES: Learning to become an effective teacher at the college level with no teaching background, especially in the rapidly changing classroom environment of the last five years.
BEST FAU MEMORY: Serving as a Teaching Assistant in the Graduate History Program and working closely with several great professors and fellow TA’s, some of whom I am still in touch with today eight years after completing the program.
ROLE DEPT. OF HISTORY PLAYED IN YOUR CAREER: It provided me with a path to a career in higher education, beginning with teaching experience as a TA, which led to work as an adjunct professor after graduation, and then to a full-time faculty position at a state college and later to chair of the department. I received great advice and support from several professors/mentors in the History graduate program from beginning to end…and afterwards.
GOAL: To have as many students of mine as possible after they finish college to consider the class they took with me to have lasting value in their lives.
Favorite Book: Dreadnought: Britain, Germany, and the Coming of the Great War by Robert K. Massie.
PERSONAL: I love this quote by Thomas Jefferson: “I’m a great believer in luck, and I find the
harder I work, the more I have of it.”