Video by Columbia College Video Production Strategist Dustin Hawkins
Before teaching at Columbia College, Dr. Shari Lawson accumulated a wealth of experiences during her more than three decades working as an elementary school teacher and principal.
Now she is directly passing the baton to the next generation of teachers and school leaders.
“Every single thing we talk about in class, I’ve got 15 stories I could tell related to that topic,” Lawson said. “The challenge for me is finding the story that best fits the situation we’re talking about. The students like that I have that knowledge and that I can bring a lot of those real-life experiences.”
Lawson serves as an assistant professor of Education for the Day Program at Columbia College. She also is the coordinator of the College’s Online M.Ed./Ed.S. School Leader Program, where she works with professionals who aspire to advance in educational leadership.
“We rarely have more than 20 students in a class, so by the second day of class, I know all of my students by name, I know what they’re interested in, I know what they hope to do. As a student at Columbia College, you have a really close relationship with the instructors and professors.”
Assistant Professor of Education Dr. Shari Lawson
She earned her doctorate in Educational Leadership from Saint Louis University and worked extensively within Columbia Public Schools before joining the Columbia College faculty in 2023.
“We rarely have more than 20 students in a class, so by the second day of class, I know all of my students by name, I know what they’re interested in, I know what they hope to do,” Lawson said. “As a student at Columbia College, you have a really close relationship with the instructors and professors.”
Lawson finds fulfillment in working with students from a wide range of ages and backgrounds.
“When students come to Columbia College, they come with a whole variety of background experiences,” she said. “Some of them are coming right out of high school. However, I have students every semester who come from a working life. Maybe they are changing careers, maybe they are a veteran who is coming back to enhance their skills.
“I tell students, ‘These are your colleagues when you go out into the workplace.’ You don’t go into the workplace and have a whole bunch of people who are the same age as you. You have people who are 20 years older than you, 30 years older than you, 40 years older than you – just like in our classrooms.”
