Employee Profile

Name: Kathleen Affholter

Title: Instructor, Geology

Major responsibilities: Teaching Physical Geology and Historical Geology for students wanting to go to a four-year college and Concepts of Earth Science for pre-service teachers.

Length of service at the College: I am in my third year here.

Place of birth: Wyandotte, Michigan, but I grew up in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Family members: I have a son and a daughter. My own brothers and sisters live in Washington state, New Mexico and Texas.

Something no one knows about you: My favorite gemstone is tourmaline, and my birthday is this week—if you are wondering what to get me!

Greatest achievement or proudest moment: Three years ago I performed in my first tap dance recital in front of over 200 people. I had written the first three steps of my dance on my arm, which I looked at just before I went on stage. I knew if I could get my feet started, I could complete the dance, which I did.

Favorite things outside work: Spending time with my children, tap dancing and rowing (which I don’t have time to do, but it would be a favorite).

Most rewarding part of your job: Having past students write a wonderful letter thanking me for my service; having current students share something they have learned about earth science on their own.

Most influential person in your life and why: I have a good friend of many years who challenges the way I think, makes me discover prejudices I didn’t know I harbored, supports me and makes me laugh. He hangs off of rock walls and fights fires, so he has a different perspective on life than I do. In Ralph Waldo Emerson’s words, “Before him, I may think aloud.”

Favorite quote: I don’t have just one. Some favorites include …

“Non illigitamus carborundum.” (“Don’t let the bastards get you down.”)—Unknown

“People take different roads seeking fulfillment and happiness. Just because they’re not on your road doesn’t mean they’ve gotten lost.”—Dalai Lama

“The surest way to corrupt a youth is to instruct him to hold in higher regard those who think alike than those who think differently.”—Friedrich Nietzsche

“You can never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.”—Buckminster Fuller, inventor of the geodesic dome