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Dr. Bowman Brings Unique Experience to Teaching Teachers
by Deidre Abouahmed
Janet Bowman (right) - counselor without parallel
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Janet Bowman, associate professor of education and the only full-time black faculty member at Mars Hill College, is used to being "the first" or "the only."
She was the first black woman to be a vice president at Compton College in Southern California.
She was the first black woman dean at Diablo Valley College in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Janet Bowman was born in West Virginia and went to all-black schools, which in those days were segregated by law. She moved to Alabama at age fifteen. There she went to college at the University of Tuskegee, her first integrated school, with blacks, Asians and Cubans, and received her bachelor's degree in education and chemistry and a master's degree in nutrition and biochemistry.
After college she moved to California where she made a new life for herself and received her Ph.D in education administration from the University of California - Berkeley. She was the only black student in most of her classes.
She was a dean at Diablo Valley College for twelve years and vice president at Compton College for eight years before coming to Mars Hill College, where she works in the education department. She teaches Introduction to Education; History and Philosophy of Education, and Multi-Cultural Experience.
She first started working with Professor of Education Roland Doepner, now retired, in a program "working with students who didn't quite meet the criteria (of going to college). It was very rewarding," says Bowman.
One of her most rewarding experiences was "starting as a chemistry teacher with a class that had two women and eighteen men, and moving to administration with my final class of ten women and ten men. Also, having one of my students share with me that she was getting her Ph.D. in chemistry because of my class."
In her free time Bowman enjoys spending time with her husband, reading, working with young children to get grounded in education, and working in the yard. She also belongs to several women's groups. One group is called The Keys and includes black and white women who get together to discuss life and politics. The other group is "The Birthday Girls." This is an all-black women's group who talk about life and children.
She is happily married, and she and her husband together have five grown children. Three live in California, another lives in Connecticut, and one is in New York.
Bowman has had to deal with racial issues in the past but none at the college. When asked how she has dealt with low points in her life she responded, "I have lived a charmed life because of my parents. My siblings and I were given two pieces of information. There is NO ONE better than YOU! You can do anything and be anything that YOU want to be; it is up to you. They [my parents] led by example. They worked hard, were dedicated, and supportive.
"As a black student, you learn early that there is and probably always will be opposition that you will face - this you learn to deal with by being connected."
"There are always some things you have to deal with, and over the years I have developed the skills and talents so that does not become a problem."
She thinks it is a problem that there are no other minorities on the full-time faculty at Mars Hill College. She would like to see faculty exchanges with an emphasis on recruiting minorities; she would like to see the college help minorities to get a Ph.D., and seek out retired minorities who look more for the experience of helping students than for money.
"It appears to me that the diversity exists in athletics, and if the athletic department can bring in minorities, why not other areas on campus? Talk to the athletic department because they are successful."
Another way to recruit students is "highlighting the things that make Mars Hill special; showcasing Mars Hill College."
"Bring students to events that are not sold out to see the wonderful things we can offer. Have college students go and talk to students in high school and not just in North Carolina."
She is "for Affirmative Action, because the playing field is not level, and it gives the opportunity for people to hire or select people that are not like them." She observes that people have a tendency to hire or be more willing to communicate or work with people who are similar to themselves. People think of themselves as being 'normal,' and when they see another like themselves, they think, 'well, if I'm normal, then they are normal too." For example, a black woman is hiring someone to help her in new business. She interviews two women. One is a half-black, half-white girl; the other is a blonde haired, blue eyed girl. Both have the same job experience. It is more likely that the woman is going to hire the half-black, half-white girl because of the closer resemblance.
Interesting jobs Bowman has held include being a seismologist at the University of California at Berkeley. A seismologist is a person who studies earthquakes. Another job she had while being a student at Berkeley was doing chemical analysis on wine.
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