Dr. Courtney Smith and her passion for history

By Kevin McLaughlin
October 30, 2019

Dr. Courtney Smith, a professor from the history department, began teaching at Cabrini in the fall of 1998. Smith loves teaching at the university and takes into consideration the size of the classes. “Being in a smaller institution has incredibly special values,” Smith said.

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 Dr. Courtney Smith Photo by Cabrini University

Smith considers history to be her expertise and uses it in her everyday life.

“Being a baseball fan, I love the history of what the game was originally and how it evolves,” Smith said. Smith is able to teach multiple courses here where she feels she can express her views the way she is comfortable with. She also gives her students the opportunities to express how they feel about certain topics that are critical to history.

Smith enjoys engaging and communicating with students here. She is appreciative of the different personalities she comes across in every course she has taught and still teaches. Smith teaches the Colonial American era and Political History.

Smith believes student life here have always been respectful and dedicated. “I think our students are very good and everyone who comes to Cabrini comes here for their own reason,” Smith said. “Cabrini allows them to really shape their own experiences in many different ways.

The most difficult aspect of Smith’s job goes beyond teaching History courses.

“Working with students, who bring with them baggage and struggling issues and we are all bringing our own invisible back packs everyday,” Smith said. “I can see that in students and the hardest part is helping them in the right direction but someone else who is more trained would help more than I possibly could.

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Dr. Smith and Cabrini University Alumni Association Photo by Steve Highsmith 

Troy Skipper, sophomore and former student of Smith’s enjoyed every minute of his U.S. history course.

“I really enjoyed the course and I actually learned way more than I thought I would,” Skipper said. Skipper was appreciative of the lesson plans that were used to begin class and the way Smith explained the details of what was going to be addressed each class period.

For Skipper, history has always come easy from an academic standpoint and was always his favorite subject. “History was definitely my favorite subject in high school and Dr. Smith made it even more enjoyable for me,” Skipper said.

Jafet Velez, sophomore and a student of Dr. Smith is enrolled in U.S. history. Velez is appreciative of how engaged Smith is with her students.

“Overall she is a great teacher and she knows exactly what she’s talking about,” Velez said. “Smith explains topics in a way that everyone can understand it.”

Velez has not always been interested in history but has become much more invested with Smith as his professor.

“I was never that interested in history, but the way she teaches it has made me think differently from high school,” Velez said. “We don’t just focus on what historians did but how they were viewed by their peers and by the public.”

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Kevin McLaughlin

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