STEWART HO
Staff Writer
Despite being the new guy in the Communications Division, he cheerfully waves and greets passing professors and students from his office.
“Hey Gary!” says Professor Johny Garner without missing a beat as his colleague passes by his door.
Garner, upon being hired last year by Pepperdine University, moved with his wife and black lab puppy “Snickers” in July to take up the position as assistant professor of Communication.
“The location is unbelievable, of course,” said Garner explaining why he chose to work at Pepperdine. “But it was really was the people. I felt like the students here were really excited about learning and also about being challenged. They were engaged and ready to get things going.”
Garner clearly has passion for learning himself. His education credentials include an undergraduate degree in theater and youth ministry from Abilene Christian University, a master’s degree in Communication from ACU, and doctorate in communication from Texas A&M University.
“I wanted a master’s degree I could use in anything,” said Garner, explaining why he chose to go into communication. “Everyone needs communication so I thought it would be a good degree no matter what I did.”
While a graduate student and still earning his master’s, Garner helped professors teach, which in turn convinced him to teach communications.
“I really liked teaching,” said Garner. “I felt like I was good at it and I felt it was something I was called to be doing.”
Before discovering his calling to teach, though, Garner contemplated different majors as well as professions.
“When I started college my major was computer science,” said Garner. “I just kind of bounced around for a long time.”
Garner also worked as a youth minister in Abilene for two years.
“I really enjoyed that, really enjoyed the kids in the youth group, the whole congregation,” Garner fondly recalled. “But I just felt like that wasn’t the road I was called to take.”
Since moving to California he admits there was an initial period where it took Garner and his wife, Lindsay, some time getting use to.
“In the beginning there were challenges,” Garner said. “The cost of living here was different than Texas, the pace of life, even the size. Everyone talks about how everything’s bigger in Texas, which is true, but in Texas you could drive to anywhere in town in 20 minutes. Here you have to drive 20 minutes to get anywhere.
It was a challenge at first but not anymore,” he continued. “We still haven’t done all the touristy things yet but in our free time [my wife and I] like to explore.”
On the other hand, Garner has come to accept other differences, such as what he’s seen while teaching at Pepperdine, with open arms.
“I love the interaction I have with my students,” said Garner. “Sometimes the thing that’s most challenging is staying ahead of the really sharp students here. In the last semester even, students have brought up things to me in class that have really challenged even what I think and had me pushing the ball more.”
His students have similar things to say about him.
“Professor Garner loves to push his students, whether it’s just to stir up casual conversation or checking to see if we really understand all the com ethics theories,” said Sandra Smith, junior, who has Garner for Communication Ethics this semester. “One of the things I personally struggle the most in his class on “bad-jokes Fridays” – cause I really can’t tell a bad joke,” Smith said laughing.
Garner’s impression and change in dynamics he has brought to his division has also been noticed by his colleagues.
“Dr. Johny Garner is a talented dynamic young scholar-teacher who plays a central role in our enactment of the Christian Mission and has added a special dimension to the Communication Division since joining our faculty this year,” said Dr. Robert Chandler, chair of the Communication
Besides his devotion to his students Garner is currently working on research that he hopes will be published eventually.
“Right now I’m working on a survey,” Garner explained. “The survey looks at when people complain in a workplace, what they say, what are the motivations for saying that and how effective do they feel they are. I’m still pretty early in the stages for this research, though. I just sent the surveys out in my classes.”
Garner has high hopes for what’ll result from his research.
“I hope that it gets published,” said Garner. “I think that for almost [all the professors here] though, the hope is that it’ll get published in a journal.
Wow, that puts it on the record,” continued Garner with a laugh. “I said that’s where I’m shooting for and it’s on paper now so this is a little daunting.”
Outside of his dream to have his research eventually published, Garner possesses both a unique name, with only one “N” in his first name “Johny,” and a story as to its origins.
“Well, I’m named after my granddad who spelled it that way too,” explained Garner. “But the saying goes that when I was born my great-grandparents were going to name me Wheeless Arless. My aunt was afraid I’d be made of forever so she told the nurse to put down “Johnny” on the birth certificate. The nurse knew she wasn’t supposed to be doing it but because my aunt was so strong-willed, the nurse wrote down “Johny” really quickly and accidentally put in one “N.” My parents liked it so much that they kept it.”
But regardless of the spelling, it’s a name that Garner is proud of.
“With my grand-dad, he’s someone I really look up to and he was a “Johny” until the day he passed away at 86 years old,” Garner said. “It’s almost [to me] an honor to have his name.”
Proudly keeping his name, Garner does his best to make the best of each day.
“The time that we have with the people that are special to us, are limited in number and we have to make the most of those,” explained Garner. “This may seem sort of cliché but I really like the scene in the movie Dead Poet’s Society where they talk about carpe diem- seizing the day. And if there’s one thing in life I try to live by, it’s to make the most out of every opportunity- including the classroom.”
03-19-2007