This Letter to the Editors was submitted by Grant Strom, a freshman at Concordia College
I have not been at Concordia for very long; I am only an itty-bitty freshman. The reason I came to Concordia, however, is because of the outstanding faculty that teach here. This has certainly held true. I have loved each and every class I’ve taken so far, and I’ve especially loved the music faculty. This family of knowledge, wit, and most importantly, passion, pervades the entire building of Hvidsten. In my humble opinion, Dr. Jean Hellner is the quintessential representation of these three characteristics.
Sure, I have only had a week or so in her History of Western Music class, but WOW; I cannot express how excited I am to learn about this. Being a music major, I should be excited about this topic from the get-go, which I am. What a wonderful breath of fresh air, though, that I get to enjoy such a wonderful subject with such a wonderful professor. Dr. Hellner’s knowledge in this topic is mind-blowing. Organums this, melismatic chant that. The amount I’m learning in such a short period is simply astounding. I’d like to think that my learning is my own doing. But alas, I owe a great many odes to Dr. Hellner. I think it is the way she combines such complicated ideas and information with a dash of sarcasm, a hint of horrible, HORRIBLE puns (which I cannot get enough of), and a ton of passion. She makes me so excited to learn, learn, learn.
Before I headed off to college, I had an idea of what a college professor at Concordia should be: full of wisdom, overly excitable whenever his or her topic of teaching is mentioned, and perfectly quirky. How snugly Dr. Hellner fits into all of these ideas. I truly hope I am able to take future classes from this amazing woman at this amazing college. It is truly an honor.
