I am a faculty member at a large community college. I primarily teach astronomy, but I also teach physics and am developing a physical science course. I really enjoy what I do.

However, this is not the career path that I had planned. My initial goal was to get a Ph.D. in astrophysics and then find a job as a researcher at a NASA center or a professorship at a large research-oriented university. I accomplished the Ph.D., but along the way, my priorities changed.

Don't get me wrong - I love astrophysical research. I keep current and still continue my research. But as a teaching assistant in graduate school, I discovered that I also loved to teach. My students even seem to think I do a good job. And interacting with such amazing raw minds everyday is every bit as satisfying, if not more so, than any research achievements. I became so interested in science education that, when it was time to enter the job market, I did not even pursue any research positions.

Nor did I pursue any positions at a large university. This disgruntled several people in my graduate department. A professor whom I very much admire, who once called me a "born teacher", asked me, "don't you think you are selling yourself short?" My answer to that is an emphatic "no". Let me spend some time now explaining why I enjoy the community college environment.

• I am actually in the classroom. This semester, I teach 2 lecture sections and 5 laboratory sections. I'm in the classroom about 20 hours per week and I get to know my students very well. It helps me to understand their needs and hopefully make the classroom experience as enjoyable as possible. Contrast this with your average research university where the professors are required to teach 1 class each semester. In fact, I am supervising the astronomy labs at a large university because no profs could be bothered to do so.
• I like the emphasis on excellence in teaching. The instructors around me truly strive to enhance the classroom experience, and we are supported in our efforts to do so by extra funding and workshops offered at the college and district levels. And the instructors are in the classroom BY CHOICE! There is no resentment - we've chosen to teach.
• I love the students. Some are fresh out of high school, taking their first steps into adult life. Others are mature adults who are taking classes out of sheer interest, which is very rare at the university level. And my favorite students tend to be those for whom school didn't go quite right the first time around. They've been in the real world and have figured out what their goals are and how school fits into those goals. They are serious students who are in school by choice. It's a great combo when BOTH the students and the teachers want to be in the classroom.
• Unlike the common misconception about community college instructors, the people around me are highly qualified in their fields. The minimum degree requirement to teach at the community college is a Masters degree, but many of us do have our doctorates. And many have left highly lucrative industry jobs to come back to education, where our hands are seldom tainted by money.
• Money is another reason why I like the community college environment. At a major research university, professors are very busy despite their lack of time in the classroom. On top of their own research, they must spend an incredible amount of time writing grant proposals to continue their research and fund their equipment needs. This is actually what soured me the most on university life - the constant concern over funding. The constant demands to bring in money. The fact that your performance in your profession is in large part determined by how much money you bring in. This obsession with money is abhorrent to me.

So, that's why I do what I do. I enjoy my job. At the end of the day I know that I have increased the knowledge of the public. Teaching isn't about prestige. It isn't about money. I do it for the love of it.