Meet. . .
Brandon Jablonski, who is an Associate Professor at Sinclair holding a Bachelor of Arts from Bowling Green State University and a Master’s Degree in Experimental Psychology from the University of Toledo; he describes himself as caring and relaxed.
Why he’s interesting. . .
Jablonski lives in La wood, Ohio, which lies just west of Cleveland. He lives with his wife, seven-year-old son and five-year-old daughter. He leaves for Dayton at 4:00 a.m. on Tuesday mornings, rents a room downtown and returns to his family before the weekend begins.
Jablonski has worked at Sinclair for 14 years and enjoys his job. He sacrifices time with his family in order to do his job, though he values both greatly.
“I really do love this job. I love working at Sinclair, I wouldn’t do it otherwise,” explained Jablonski. “The students are great and I like the diversity”. “I find it fascinating. It creates this extremely interesting classroom environment,” he added.
While in high school, Jablonski considered a math-related career. However, he changed majors more than three times before graduating with his bachelor’s degree. He described looking forward to his psychology courses and feeling enthusiastic to learn even when classes began at 8:00 a.m.
Jablonski’s first opportunity to teach presented itself during his graduate studies. In his psychology course, each student was required to teach one lecture. He remembers the experience well.
“I walked in and it was this huge lecture hall—I mean, we’re talking multiple hundreds of students—and this was the first time I had ever taught,” said Jablonski. “It was very nerve racking. I was very nervous going in, but once I was there and talking, it felt so exhilarating.”
“It was just this rush of being up there and talking in front of people, and sharing information.”
This moment solidified Jablonski’s career decision to become an educator of psychology. “It just made me think—wow, this is what I want to do,” said Jablonski.
Currently, Jablonski teaches Sinclair’s Child Development course; he also teaches General Psychology and Lifespan and Development. His favorite course to instruct is Child Development because he believes every student can relate to its content.
His Master’s Degree in Experimental Psychology includes an emphasis in Child Development. While earning his degree, he participated in infancy lab research and focused specifically on attention and memory in four-month-old children.
Jablonski said not only does he want students to learn psychology, but he also wants everyone to feel welcome and comfortable. When giving advice, Jablonski recommends critical and analytical thinking as opposed to making emotional decisions.
“A lot of woes can be avoided if we think about things a little more rationally,” Jablonski said.
Maggie Stacey
Staff Writer