You can't do it. It's simply not possible to spend more than two or three minutes with Dr. Katy Clark without getting swept up in her enthusiasm, her intelligence, her world perspective.

It's a wonderful state of mind, Dr. Clark's, where all things are connected, where everything is interesting and worth exploring.

She certainly has lived an interesting and diverse life. Consider:

• A Texan by birth, she teaches both English and French.
• She has taught in Paris and in Normandy.
• She also has taught at Elon University and at UNC-Chapel Hill.
• Before her graduate studies, Clark struck out on her own, with a backpack, and spent three months traveling across Europe to learn French firsthand.
• She studied French formally at the Sorbonne (in Paris). The only American in her class, she rented an apartment on the Left Bank and walked to class.
• She holds a black belt in taekwondo.

Not exactly a stodgy, pipe-smoking university professor.

She has chosen to teach at Averett because she likes the feel of a small, private school. "Being a graduate student at a large school was fine for me, but as a teacher [at UNC] I had students whom I connected with, but then never saw again once the class was done. At Averett, I have some students repeatedly — sometimes in English, sometimes in French — and the relationships we develop with our students are what allow us to be effective teachers."

Clark team teaches a class covering the literary landscapes of the 19th century with Dr. Gretchen Cohenour, assistant professor of English. In May 2011, they took eight students to study in France and England, spending a week in each country.

"When I was a student, I took an interdisciplinary course with two teachers who taught me how things connect," Clark says. "Those teachers were extraordinary. They expanded my world view."

This is what Dr. Clark now does for her students, daily, at Averett.

Credentials:

Doctor of Philosophy, Comparative Literature, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Master of Arts, Comparative Literature, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Bachelor of Arts, English and French, Salem College

Certificate, Cours universitaire d’été (CUE), Cours de Civilisation Française de la Sorbonne, Paris, France

Graduate studies, L'École Française, Middlebury College, Vermont