The Best

Although this observation was made centuries ago, it applies very well today to the career of Dr. Kenneth Buckman, an accomplished educator on the ideas of not only Aristotle but many other noted philosophers over the past 16 years at The University of Texas-Pan American.

This year Buckman’s passionate expertise in teaching philosophy and honors humanities courses led the associate professor to earn the state’s most prestigious award in postsecondary teaching – being named a 2009 Piper Professor by the Minnie Stevens Piper Foundation. This honor is awarded to only 15 professors statewide annually for their dedication to the teaching profession and for their outstanding academic, scientific and scholarly achievement.

Since 2007, Buckman has also filled the role as director of the Rafael A. “Felo” and Carmen Guerra Honors Program – the University’s most challenging program for academically talented undergraduate students from all majors who are committed to excellence and achievement.

Teaching philosophy “best job in the world”

“I have the best job in the world,” said Buckman, whose evaluations by students as good or excellent as a teacher have never dipped below 98 percent. “In philosophy we ask the big questions – Why are we here? What is the nature of truth and how do we know? Is there a God or isn’t there? Is there meaning to life or isn’t there? The students learn to think on their own two feet and not just rely on what they have been told or what they have been brought up to believe. It is very powerful and challenging to students.”

Also, recent statistics show that the study of philosophy teaches skills valued by today’s employers including critical thinking, logic and analytical writing, which are readily transferable to careers in law, teaching, medicine, business and management.

Guerra Honors Program graduate Crystal Rodriguez, who earned a bachelor’s degree in psychology with double minors in leadership and philosophy in May 2009, said Buckman is very passionate about what he teaches and tries to transmit that kind of energy and passion to his students as well.

“He encourages you to not just look at the face value but to really look at the deeper meaning of everything. When you look at your education in a deeper way, you get to really internalize everything and to take it all in and learn that you can also contribute to the wealth of knowledge that has already been created,” said Rodriguez, who completed her honors thesis on improvement of suicide intervention skills and plans to pursue a master’s degree in psychology.

Mentors play role for first-generation college graduate

Like many of UTPA’s students, Buckman is a first-generation college graduate who grew up in the impoverished and tough community of East Saint Louis, Ill., where a hard family life and a lack of educational mentors led him to drop out of high school and join the Navy. Under the guidance of a chief petty officer, he earned his GED and then took advantage of the GI Bill to start taking classes at Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville, where he became enthralled with philosophy and earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in philosophy. He earned his Ph.D. in philosophy from Southern Illinois University-Carbondale in 1990.

“I didn’t realize what it means to be educated. I came from a family like a lot of these kids did who didn’t have college in their background, so I didn’t have a vision, I didn’t know what was possible. But a lot is possible, you just have to pursue it,” he said. “This possibility of morphing into something greater than one might have otherwise motivates my purpose for teaching.”

Buckman, whose research and publishing focuses on 19th and 20th century continental philosophy, credits the mentoring he received by the few people who saw the promise in him and transformed his life into one of passion to inquire.

“I asked one of my teachers, Sang-Ki Kim -- a wizened Korean professor I admired in Illinois, how I could repay such a debt. He said that I would not pay him back but give to my students and enjoin them to give to theirs. This advice has been the soul of my commitment. I carry this gem in my heart and hand and offer it to my students as the greatest value I can impart,” Buckman said.

Service to students, university, community

His commitment to helping students strive to excellence and rise to their fullest potential is evidenced by his presence in many venues. Besides his role as faculty adviser to Eta Omicron Nu, the Guerra Honors Program’s honor society, he has for the past eight years served as mentor and coach for the UTPA Ethics Bowl team, which has twice placed first in competitions at Saint Mary’s University. In addition, since 1995, Buckman has served as a weekly judge for KRGV-TV’s “Masterminds” program, which features academic competition between students of area high schools.

“I love to see these young students making a commitment. We have tons and tons of talent here in the Valley and all we have to do is develop it. The University has been helping to transform the Valley. I tell my students when they complain about the Valley that ancient Athens was a backward place when it became the Athens as we know it. So I tell them let’s make the Valley Athens,” he said.

Buckman also represents the interests of faculty throughout the state as current president of the Texas Faculty Association.

Passion for study abroad, Honors Program excellence

As a Guerra Honors Program faculty member since 2003, Buckman helped create the program’s study abroad participation, in which nearly 300 honors students have traveled to historic cities in Turkey, Greece, Hungary, Czech Republic, Italy, France, Germany, and other countries. While abroad, students take courses and make presentations related to their location, which each time still thrills Buckman.

“I think it is such a transformative experience unlike any other, where the world becomes the classroom, a world of immediate and experiential learning. It’s kind of a crowning jewel of education. Every year that we go, I am just blown away with the students giving those presentations on site,” said Buckman. “Imagine the students in Turkey who gave their talk at the Haghia Sophia, the greatest church in Christendom for 1,000 years.”

Last year Buckman, with the support of the International Women’s Board of the UTPA Foundation, helped put together a student-produced documentary (see www.theheartofexperience.org) to illustrate the transformative character of study abroad and in the future hopes to expand study abroad scholarship opportunities to include travel for all Guerra Honors Program participants.

This aspect of the Guerra Honors Program, along with the opportunity for research and greater interaction with faculty and similar goal-oriented students in smaller classes conducted by selected Honors Program faculty, has made a big difference in the college-going experience for Marco Setien, a biology major who plans to become a physician. He has been taught by Buckman the past three summers while abroad. The research for his thesis will look at the development of an environmentally friendly insecticide using bacteria rather than chemicals.

“There are several ways to achieve success and excellence; the Guerra Honors Program has provided me the opportunity to experience both,” Setien said.

With steps already taken with the University Honors Council to increase the requirements and standards of the program, to add new courses at the upper-division level, and to improve the library borrowing privileges and designated study areas for the students, Buckman hopes the future will include the transformation of the program into an Honors College on campus.

“There are concrete benefits to students who participate in an honors program, like getting into graduate school or law or medical school, that are easily identifiable, but I think the greatest is that it really changes their lives. It opens up possibilities for them they didn’t really recognize as being there,” he said. “Now with the honorific naming (of the program this year) to the Rafael A. “Felo” and Carmen Guerra Honors Program, we hope to broaden our scope to look very widely at the potential that people can become so that we are not merely tools within society but that we are leaders, like the Guerra family, within society directing future generations.”

For more information on Buckman and the Rafael A. “Felo” and Carmen Guerra Honors Program at UTPA, call 956/381-3461 or go to www.utpa.edu/honors.