Today’s Project 100 memory comes from Aaron Crispin.  He was born in Glassboro.  His father was a minister and worked for various churches.  As a result, they lived in a few places in southern New Jersey, but returned to Glassboro when Aaron was nine years old.  His mother was a nurse who worked at Children’s Hospital in Philadelphia.  Aaron is the oldest of five children.  His mother stopped nursing to home school Aaron and his siblings, but she returned to nursing about a year ago.  Aaron attended Glassboro High School, graduating in 2013.  He was an honors student who played basketball for four years at Glassboro and played football in his senior year.  After graduating from Rowan in 2017, he became a teacher of social studies at Kingsway High School.  He also began coaching basketball that first year.  Today, he mostly teaches 11^th grade social studies, primarily modern United States history.  He has a diverse range of students.  He is just finishing his fourth year as the head basketball coach.

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I have always been goal-oriented.  From my sophomore year in high school, I knew that I wanted to be a teacher.  Not only did many members of my family teach, I got along well with my own teachers and saw myself being able to do good things in the classroom just like they did.  Frankly, I also enjoyed the annual cycle of teaching, with the break in the summer.  In terms of deciding what I wanted to teach, I always loved history, so that was an easy choice.  I also knew early on that it would be possible to pair coaching with teaching history, so that fit nicely as well.  Rowan University had several advantages for me. It had a great reputation for training teachers.  It was affordable, and I did not want to have any debt.  Finally, it was literally down the street from my house, and that was something that I liked quite a bit.  I had no desire to go far away for college.

Academically, I really enjoyed my history courses at Rowan.  Your course, right from my first semester, impressed me and challenged me to become a better writer. I took four courses with Dr. Scott Morschauser, and I loved listening to him lecture.  I also found Dr. James Heinzen’s courses fascinating.  On the education side, I enjoyed all of the practical experiences, especially getting to visit several schools and observe and work with experienced teachers.

The Student Recreation Center was a very important part of my experience at Rowan.  I was lucky to get hired as a first-year student, and I ended up working there in many capacities, especially as a referee.  I made life-long friendships there.  I remember good times playing basketball with you and other faculty members.  My experiences at the Rec Center were some of the best ones in my life so far.  I enjoyed it so much that I even considered switching careers briefly to work in campus recreation.  I am glad that I continued on with teaching, but the fact that I considered changing my long-held plans gives you some idea of how much my time there meant to me.

Overall, I had a fantastic time at Rowan.  I tell my students every year that I had a great experience there even though it was so close to my home.  I am thankful for everything that happened at Rowan but especially for the relationships that I made with faculty, friends, and co-workers.

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This is part of the Department of History’s “Project 100,” the collection and sharing of one hundred memories by Glassboro State College and Rowan University alumni and staff in celebration of the 100^th anniversary of the founding of Glassboro Normal School, later Glassboro State College, and now Rowan University.  Thanks to Laurie Lahey for helping proofread and edit the final versions.  Email carrigan@rowan.edu with questions or corrections.  You can find the Link to all of the Project 100 entries on the Web:  https://chss.rowan.edu/departments/history/alumni_highlights/project_100/