The professor strolls in and sets a briefcase on the desk; after messing with the overhead projector, the Elmo and the microphone, a joke comes out. A few students laugh or perhaps the whole class, but the laughter fades just after a paper or a Blackboard assignment is announced. The mystery of the person at the front of the room is troubling and raises the question “What were they like when they were in college?”

Scott Beckman, assistant professor in materials science and engineering, received his ceramic engineering degree with a minor in mathematics from Iowa State in 1999.

Grappling through classes like Calculus II and General Chemistry, Beckman was never seen without a cup of coffee in his hands, his wife Sarah said, who he met in the Richardson Court dorms.

“I was undeclared engineering, and our first ‘date’ was when he offered to escort me to the ceramic and metallurgical engineering open house,” Sarah said. “I was leaning toward a ceramic engineering major anyway, but having Scott as a classmate may have sweetened the deal.”

Scott admits he was a “distracted” student, spending his time meeting people, playing video games, doing research, blowing glass and drinking his coffee.

“During freshman year we would study together at Café Beaudelaire,” Beckman said. “We spent more time visiting than studying, but in the long term it was a better investment to spend time with a wonderful woman than memorizing integrals.”

Sherry Berghefer, lecturer in journalism and communication, graduated from Iowa State in 1999 with a degree in journalism after she switched from zoology because of a “particularly brutal semester of calculus, organic chemistry and microbiology.”

She said she remembers many late nights of writing papers and making good relationships as an undergraduate student. Her students may be interested to know she acted quite differently than her talkative self when she was a student.

“As much as I encourage discussion in class now, I was actually pretty quiet as a student.” Berghefer said. “Those who know me may find that pretty hard to believe. I was always busy just absorbing everything. Personally, I think it’s easier for students now to share their opinions and experiences more openly because we’re in a time where communication of ideas is a daily activity.”

But the freelance designer has something in common with another faculty member: her non-traditional status. Berghefer was married with a family when she was an undergraduate, and Erica Beirman, lecturer in food science and human nutrition, married in her sophomore year of college at Iowa State and commuted from Des Moines to go to classes when she was not working two jobs.

Beirman graduated in 1996 with a dietetics degree and went on to receive her masters in institutional management by 1998.

Her favorite part of school was working as a graduate student for ISU Dining learning about the food services that were a part of the Iowa State community that she loved. There are differences that Beirman sees in the college adventure that her students experience today.

“I think students today have many challenges that I did not have to deal with which include distractions of technology and social media,” said the dietician who worked for McDonald’s and Mercy Hospital as a student.

“Although these can be very beneficial, I think they can also distract a student from the focus on academic tasks. When utilized to enhance learning technology, it can be a very beneficial way to learn,” she said.