Catch the Magic: King’s College provost continues family legacy of teaching, making dreams come true

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For Joseph Evan, King’s College provost and vice president of academic affairs, teaching is in his blood.

His father’s 40-year career as an educator included teaching social studies as well as sports and his mother served for many years as a state prison librarian.

Given that legacy, it’s no wonder that even as a freshman studying mathematics at King’s College, Evan knew that a career in education would be a natural fit.

“I had a really great mentor here. He really opened my eyes to the world of mathematics and the possibilities that were there. In particular, what some of my own personal potential was in the field,” Evan explained in April during a phone interview with the Times Leader.

After earning his undergraduate degree in mathematics at King’s College, Evan went on to earn his master’s degree and PhD in mathematical sciences at Binghamton University in New York. Soon after, he returned to his alma mater and spent 11 years teaching before transitioning into his current role.

“I think when working with students at a small college like King’s, a big part of it is you’re helping students in some cases to find what their dreams are,” Evan said.

That intimate atmosphere has allowed educators to really get to know their students, which Evan said is a huge part of his approach to teaching.

“You’re helping students take important steps in moving towards their career goals and the kind of life that they wanna live. I think that requires knowing your students well to know what’s important to them,” Evan said.

Over the course of his 24 years in education, the King’s College administrator said one moment that stood out was when a first-year student came to him with an interest in going into education and asked Evan what his own experience was like.

After Evan told the student that he received an assistant-ship to fund his graduate studies and that opportunity would be open to them as well, the student was shocked.

“The part of it that makes it memorable to me was maybe a day or two later one of students’ parents called me and was basically asking me if it was really possible to earn financial support to earn a graduate degree. It was almost the question of, ‘Is this real?’” Evan recalled.

That student eventually went on to pursue that very path and Evan said they are now highly successful in their career.

Evan also remembered a time when one of his former students came to his office and told him that the little time they spent together during one semester had a huge impact on them.

Both experiences seemed to solidify for Evan that making a connection with students, no matter how small, adds a crucial building block to the foundation of their education.

“As a teacher, whatever course you’re teaching and whatever the student’s interests might, every class can really have an impact on them. You always want to remind yourself every day, every class, that you really need to try to be on top of your game,” Evan said.

That includes staying up to date on the latest technology and anticipating how it will effect student’s learning environment. Recently, the emergence of AI technology has certainly proven to be a challenge for educators.

“It’s not yet as pervasive as you sure you might think, but it’s definitely something that we’re looking at,” said Evan. “We need to make sure that in our curriculum and all our programs that we have strategies as to how we are going to work with students and develop them in this context toward the future.”

After over a decade working in administration, Evan still finds time to teach a math course or two.

The provost said that his own interest in mathematics was driven by an appreciation for the beauty of its logic and the structure that exists within it. Sharing that passion with students is important, Evan said, because learning how to be creative when problem solving is a crucial skill for all students to learn, even if math isn’t their primary focus.

“We live in a society that is more and more quantitative all the time,” he explained. “Understanding data and how to interpret it to reach conclusions is something that’s common now in almost any field.”

In addition to mathematics, Evan is also a sports coach, once again following in his father’s footsteps. For the last two years he’s served as the varsity boy’s basketball assistant coach at Wyoming Seminary.

Through coaching, Evan helps young athletics through their wins and losses and teaches them how to accept and learn from failure.

“The more experiences you have to build up that ability to be flexible, to be adaptable, to encounter some adversity and find a new path to where you want to go are things that are key to the development of students,” he said.

For over two decades, Evan has committed his professional life to paying his own education forward to future generations of students and he described being able to do that at his alma mater as “very personal.”

“It really is about supporting students in developing their abilities and ultimately recognizing and achieving some of their dreams. When you think of it that way what could be more rewarding and more fulfilling than that?”