Meet the Faculty
Everything Is Related
North Park University (NPU) Biology Professor Timothy Lin tells the same story to each new class he teaches. After welcoming his students, he brings out a photo that looks like it could be decades old. It shows a group of Chinese students taking a test inside of a warehouse just days after the 2008 Sichuan earthquake.
“This is the culture; this is what they do after losing everything. The first thing they do to recover is study,” Lin said. “So, I ask my students, ‘In a country where you can have anything, are you willing to pour your heart and your effort into your education?’”
Lin, a Taiwan native, came to North Park in 2008 from the University of Iowa. Under then-Dean of Diversity and Intercultural Programs Terry Lindsay, Lin helped advocate for more programming geared toward Asian Americans and their experiences at NPU.
As a result of that advocacy, Lin runs a biannual program that takes students to Taiwan for “The Culture and Ecology of Asia,” a biology course. The class focuses on biodiversity in Asia but goes deeper into the manmade differences that impact Taiwanese plant and animal life. Lin said the overarching goal is to show students their choices don’t exist in a vacuum.
“Everything is related. That’s something I bring into this course. From a cultural and an ecological perspective, everything affects something else.”
In the coming years, Lin wants to increase interest in and accessibility to studying abroad. He said there’s still work to be done for students who can’t experience other countries during their college years and encourages professors to bring the world to those students through classroom discussions.
Lin especially hopes other science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) professors feel comfortable leading with their identities. While the subject matter may not lend itself to multiculturalism, Lin said professors can’t separate their identities from their passions and should look for opportunities to bring both into the classroom.
“It’s not part of the intentional curriculum at North Park,” Lin said, “But it is who I am.”
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