Editor's Note: Where They Were Before is a Ball State Daily News series profiling various professors and their lives before teaching.
If Jill Coleman, professor of geography, could sum up her life in three words, she said she would use family, travel and geography.
Coleman was born in Chicago and lived there until her freshman year of high school. While she moved a lot, she considers the Midwest to be her home.
“When we lived in Chicago, all my family lived in Chicago, so we always had huge holiday gatherings at my grandparent’s house,” Coleman said. “I always liked that and being close to my parents. Whether or not we had enough money for this or that, it didn’t matter.”
After leaving Chicago, she met her future partner in all things: her husband. Coleman and her husband have been together since he asked her to his senior prom, but they decided to wait to get married until after she had earned her degree.
“My parents said, ‘Well, if you get married that means you’re independent and that means you can pay for your own college,’ so I said ‘yeah, we’re gonna wait.’” Coleman said.
At the University of Missouri, she planned on studying geology, but after being told she would have to attend a retreat where she would spend six weeks sleeping in a tent in the wilderness she realized she was not an “outdoorsy gal,” and changed her mind.
Coleman then decided to change her major to geography. She earned her master’s degree at Ohio State and also has a Ph.D. with a specialization in climatology.
While studying in college, she and her husband began exploring the world. They have visited several places in Europe, traveled to 49 states in the U.S. and make a yearly trip to Bermuda.
In 2016, Coleman and her husband made a special trip to an area in the mountains of Bulgaria, which was covered in about six feet of snow and only had one two-lane road, to adopt their daughter, Vivian.
While the adoption process took several years and was not cheap, Coleman said she is glad they made the decision to adopt.
“We had to do a lot of different things, but it was always worth it in the end,” Coleman said. “So she’s spoiled rotten because she is the only child.”
Along with traveling, Coleman also is passionate about teaching and the many hobbies she has.
In teaching, Coleman tries to employ a style that is different from other teachers and allows her to connect on a deeper level with students.
“Dr. Coleman is an excellent teacher,” said Kevin Turcotte, chairperson of the Department of Geography and professor of geography. “She is an expert in her area, her classes are rigorous, challenging, very well organized and she interacts with students throughout her lectures.”
Coleman wants her students to have fun, so she tells “goofy” side stories during class, but she also said she expects a lot from her students.
“I like to succeed in things for myself, but I like to see my students succeed,” Coleman said. “I think that because I expect a lot out of myself, I expect a lot of them.”
While working with students, however, she also reminds them to have fun and not be too serious, as she sometimes felt in college.
“I always say you have to have a work-life balance,” Coleman said. “I think some students get so bogged down with their studies and working because they have to support themselves, and then you get other students who have too much fun.”
Coleman said the biggest benefit of working at Ball State is having the opportunity to find her own “work-life balance.” When she is not teaching or doing research, she has many hobbies she enjoys, such as martial arts — which she has been doing for nine years, alongside her husband, and has a black belt in.
“I enjoy reading a lot of suspense novels, I love working crossword puzzles,” Coleman said. “I have a ginormous board game collection that’s like 250 games. It’s something again I do with my husband, but I’ve also made a lot of friends.”
While Coleman sees herself as an open book and is always “looking for the next thing to do,” she said she will never move on from teaching.
“I think the thing that drives me is that even when I’m having a bad day, I like when I see [students] in the classroom who have difficult material and are struggling but then all of a sudden, they get it,” she said. “Just seeing that transformation is amazing to watch.”
Contact Justice Amick with comments at jramick@bsu.edu.
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