Multi-faceted educator named MHC’s Instructor of the Year

By Jeremy Appel on June 18, 2019.

jappel@medicinehatnews.com
@MHNJeremyAppel

The winner of Medicine Hat College’s Instructor of the Year Award wears many hats. 

In addition to teaching anthropology and interdisciplinary studies at MHC, Shane Andrus is a certified professional counsellor, ordained minister and trustee for the rural Chinook School Division. 

He says his faith-based background gives him the foundations for treating his students with particular compassion, respect and dignity “by virtue of their humanity.” 

“Faith teaches us to be of service to people and so in all that we do in life, we’re to serve others,” said Andrus. “That overflows, hopefully, into all realms of life.” 

The interdisciplinary program allows Andrus to work with students from several programs on their communication abilities, whether they’re nurses, paramedics or therapists. 

By the same token, counselling gives him the ability to help people form all walks of life with whatever difficulties they’re struggling with. 

“Typically, I see individuals, couples and sometimes families for therapy, so essentially it’s seeing them through and supporting them through whatever issue they bring to my office,” said Andrus. 

He began his academic career at MHC in 1986, entering the teaching program for a year before moving on to Rocky Mountain College in Calgary to get his bachelor’s degree, earning his master’s at Trinity Western University in Langley, B.C., and then United Theological Seminary in Dayton, Ohio, where he received his doctorate. 

Sitting on the Chinook school board allows Andrus to have one foot on the policy side of rural K-12 education, while his work at the college places him in a more urban, post-secondary classroom setting, running the gamut of educational work. 

“I’m working with adults primarily in my instructor role at the college and as school board representative with children and youth, representing them and their families,” he said.

Andrus says working several jobs “is a balancing act, for sure.” 

He credits his “very supportive spouse,” as well as the flexibility afforded by his private counselling practice and the part-time nature of his work at the college, with helping him strike that balance. 

“While it sounds like a lot, really and truly, I’m not sure that I work any harder than … anyone else,” said Andrus. 

He said he enjoys teaching, particularly where he began his academic journey, because the students give him hope for the future. 

“There’s so much negativity in the world and often when we’re tempted to deal with curmudgeons, so to speak, we’re negative on the next generation. I see no evidence of that belief,” said Andrus. “I have every confidence with our students that they’re prepared to be the next generation of professionals. We’re in good hands.”

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