Virgil G. Fredenberg, Ed.D.

While in the Air Force, I took courses in the evenings. The professor at the small college I attended made math make so much sense. I took every course he taught. In a calculus class, some of my friends suggested we should have some study sessions. They told me that I was better at teaching the material than the professor. While I thought our professor was great, their comments planted the seed. After I completed my military service, I went to college to get a business degree. However, business courses were not interesting to me. Since I had taken as much math as I was able to because I enjoyed it and the professor made math make sense, that seed planted by my friends got me to thinking about becoming a math teacher. A math education professor, who became a friend and mentor, helped me plan out my degree path. And the moment I started taking math education courses I knew I wanted to teach.

I pride myself in being able to explain math to those who have not had success in math courses. While a teaching assistant working on my advanced degrees, I taught sections of courses that other TA’s and professors taught. None of the students in any of the sections I taught failed. And I taught everything from Finite Math to Calculus.

UAS is such a family environment for college courses. When you enroll at UAS, everyone here is watching out for you. The faculty, staff, and students are like a team. We all want you to be successful and we all work together to help you do that. That is what makes UAS special to me.