Do you really know Professor Roberts?

Even if you haven’t had the beloved Professor Roberts in class, you’ve likely run into him between classes. Despite rumors circulating that he spends his days roaming the halls, Roberts just doesn’t like to sit still. 

“I teach four classes a semester. However, I am kind of hyper and I do like to take a walk sometimes. Sometimes I do tend to run into students and that's great,” Roberts said. 

When asked what courses he enjoys teaching most, Roberts began to list things he loved about all of them. 

“Ethics is always fun, and I have a really good Media Relations class this semester,” Roberts contemplated. “You can see progress students make in WRAP so that’s cool. I would say Law is my favorite. I think a lot of students don’t know a lot about the law so they can learn a lot.”

If you’ve ever had a class with Roberts, you know they can be quite interesting. He takes an alternative approach to keep students engaged. 

“Teaching is a performance art sometimes,” Roberts said. “I know students have so much on their plate. You've got classes. You've got work. Some of you have internships. A lot of you do extracurriculars. That's a lot. So if class time can be a little bit light-hearted, that helps. That way  you don't dread coming to class. Come, have a laugh or two and hopefully take away something.” 

Outside of class, Roberts enjoys watching Dolores Catania on The Real Housewives of New Jersey and Jim Donovan on the Cleveland Browns Red Zone. If he ever got the chance to meet Donovan, Roberts said he’d like to discuss football over steak and potatoes.

Roberts likes to dream big and we talked a lot about his plans to travel in the future. 

“I’d like to go to Italy and Spain one day,” Roberts said. “I would definitely see Rome and Barcelona because those are the two cities I've heard the most about. My family on my mother's side is from southern Italy so I'd like to explore there a little bit. Everybody I've talked to who's been to Spain falls in love with it.”

He also dreams of being a recreational runner. Roberts explained although he never really enjoyed it, he ran track in high school and is now considering starting the hobby again. 

“I enjoyed the camaraderie and being on a team. I never really experienced any kind of runner's high. I couldn't do sprints because I wasn't fast enough. I couldn’t do long distances because I didn't have the stamina. I just could run middle distances pretty well,” Roberts recalled. “But I saw somebody yesterday jogging and said ‘You know what, I'd love to take that up again.’ We have a bike trail by my house and that would be kind of nice.”

On the topic of dreams, I decided to ask Roberts what his alter ego would look like. I assumed he would have his answer all planned out, but he could only think of one trait…hair. 

“Whoever he was, he would have a lot of hair. I mean, nice, wavy hair,” Roberts said. “And not overly styled…just good hair.” 

As our interview came to a close, I asked Roberts to leave the senior class with some advice.
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“You want to be the best employee you can be, the best practitioner you can be, but you also want to be the best partner you can be, the best parent you can be, the best friend that you can be and the best neighbor that you can be,” Roberts said with a knowing smile. “In the end, when you get old and wrinkled like me, that stuff really counts. That's important. You just don't want to be defined by what you do for a living. Be defined by who you are as a person and how you are with your family and your friends. That's gonna give you a lot more support than a job."

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