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Profs into People with John Valente

by Adam Stahl
Exchange Staff

AS: What is your title and how long have you taught at FPU?
JV: I am the Associate Professor of Math and I have been teaching for 19 years.

AS: Where did you go to school and what did you major in?
JV: Wesleyan University, I majored in Religious Studies and then went to University of Massachusetts Amherst for my MBA in Math.

AS: So, how did you decide to make the career move from religious studies to mathematics?
JV: Well I went back to school in my 30's to change my career. I had worked construction for years and lived on a farm. I was always good at math and there was a shortage of high school math teachers at the time so I decided I would go for that. My professors urged me to continue graduate work and so I did. I taught at Champlain College for a while before coming here.

AS: So, you have been teaching here for nearly two decades, what would you say have been the biggest changes at Franklin Pierce?
JV: The biggest changes? Probably the increase in size of the school and the students, which is not necessarily good or bad, just change. The focus on "university" and the satellite campuses. The Rindge campus, back in the day, was around 1,200 kids and everything was more centralized and focused on the Rindge campus.

AS: What are your hobbies professor?
JV: Skiing and hiking.

AS: What is your favorite ski spot in the world and around here?
JV: Alta, Utah by Salt Lake City. I don't have one specific favorite spot around the area. I live near Mt. Snow.

AS: Now, I know the first day of class you mentioned some of your hiking endeavors, such as being part of the 4,000…something…
JV: Yes, I am part of the Appalachian Mountain Club's 4,000 Footers Club, which means I have climbed all 48 four-thousand or more foot mountains in New Hampshire. I have also been on the high points of 35 states and have taken two hut treks in the Alps.

AS: Which state's high points are you missing?
JV: The more dangerous ones: Alaska, Montana, Wyoming, states more out west. Most of them are four to five day packs with electrical storms going most of the time.

AS: Have you hiked anywhere else in the world besides the Alps?
JV: Not yet. Now that my song is grown up, my wife and I are going to spend our summers taking those trips. She wants to go to Western Europe, Spain and France; I want to go to Nepal. I have a whole list of treks I want to do.

AS: When did you start hiking?
JV: I started hiking in my early 40's. My doctor said I needed to quit smoking and while I was all right physically at the time, it would deteriorate by the time I reached retirement. That talk really spoke to me and I changed my life. I quit smoking and, at the time, had already hiked a few mountains in Vermont. Then one thing led to another and I have been hiking since. As far as skiing goes, my son had a good skiing program through his school and I went with him once and joined along.

AS: What is your advice to skiers and hikers alike?
JV: That is interesting. The key is to ride the edge between challenging yourself, and as Clint Eastwood said, "a good man always knows his limitations." The reason I love skiing, and I have a bumper sticker on my door that says it, is because once you get off the ski lift, "gravity takes over and the B.S. stops."

AS: What do you think makes you standout as a professor?
JV: I'm a little old school. While many people criticize the "chalk & talk" method, I feel that, for math, it is the quickest and most flexible way to teach class. PowerPoints and things like that are too concrete and inflexible, if a student has a question I can do a quick example of the board and I feel that this approach also keeps the class more lively. I feel it works for my students and me.

AS: Being at FPU for nearly 20 years now, what is your advice to students?
JV: I think President Hagerty may have said it, but "go to class". Even if you think you know the stuff because it is very hard to catch up with material alone. Classes are more about the back and forth that takes place in class more so than the notes I feel. And keep in mind that "the party is more satisfying after the work is done."