Bretton Cole
Editor-in-Chief
Neosho is where Mr. Ron Cole, a professor who was born in Africa, calls his home. Cole has navigated his way from Africa all the way to Crowder College in a journey both memorable and meaningful. As a history instructor, Cole firmly believes that being well-informed is the key to being a successful member of society, and emphasizes that each student has the ability unlock potential even they might not understand. His goal, he says, is to use teaching as an avenue to do just that. Over his 29 years teaching at Crowder College, he has used the lessons he learned in his own life to help students achieve their own goals.
Cole was born in Ethiopia while his parents were living abroad as missionaries. The trajectory of his life is one more unique than many, and his time spent in Africa helped show him a lot about the interconnectivity of our world.
“I think the biggest thing [is] an awareness of how big the world is, and how diverse the world is,” Cole says of his childhood. “We tend to think the way we do things in the United States is the way they do them everywhere else.”
That’s not the case. Cole talked extensively about the differences in culture between Africa, which he emphasizes is a continent, not a country, and the United States. His love of history and the world abroad gives him a passion for students being knowledgeable about the world outside of their own scope of influence.
After graduating from a school in Kenya, Cole attended the Eastern Nazarene College in Boston and transferred to Moody Bible Institute in Chicago with a degree in Bible Theology. After recognizing that seminary wasn’t the path he wished to pursue, he transferred again to Trinity University to get his BA in history and secondary education.
Cole commented that his wife sometimes wonders if he’s spent more years in college than he did in primary education, and he admits she’s probably right. Cole’s long collegiate process helped give him the opportunities he eventually came to enjoy. He was an adjunct professor at two community colleges, which he says is typical, before accepting a full-time position at Crowder College in Neosho, a small town he’d never visited before.
“I liked the idea of continuing to learn myself, but also [to] encourage others to continue their academic journey as well and find the strengths they have intellectually and encouraging people to develop those skills and those abilities,” Cole noted.
His drive to become a teacher was one centered on a love for people that he shared with his missionary parents. Though in a different way, he carries on that tradition of caring for and supporting others at a community college.
“One thing that is neat about the community college environment,” Cole explains, “is that I think we are more likely to run across students who don’t realize what their academic potential might be but want to explore that.” Giving students this opportunity is priceless to Cole, and parallels one of the things he cherishes most, his faith.
“It’s always been important to me,” Cole says of his faith. “I think we as faith-members need to appreciate the diversity of the community we are a part of.”
One way Cole strives to do that is by recognizing that his passion for faith must be translated to everything he does in life. To be the best Christian he can, he explains, he must do his best at everything he does, and give 100%.
His son, Matthew Cole, notes that he admires his father. “He is very dedicated to his work and his students,” Matthew explained, while overseas on his family’s soil in Ireland. Matthew recently returned from studying abroad in Ireland, the place Ron Cole’s family is originally from. Matthew has called to mind his father’s teaching about the global community while on the trip.
“[My father] has always told me that ‘you have two ears and one mouth for a reason,’” Matthew recalled. Reconciled with Matthew’s interest in politics and the trip he made to a culture much different from the one he grew up in, the advice proves sound.
Cole’s story is written as an Irish by blood, an Ethiopian by birth and an American history professor by choice. Each of those characteristics serve as a reminder to Cole the importance of the diversity of our world. As the latter, a history professor, he stresses the concept of a world different than students might see from their initial perspective while helping students unlock their newly discovered academic potential at Crowder College.
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