Next post: West Point
Andrew Marsh, 2013 master of arts in English degree recipient
With a decade of military service and a freshly minted
graduate degree from James Madison University, Andrew Marsh is ready to join
the faculty ranks at the U.S. Military Academy.
Marsh, who will officially earn his M.A. in English during
Graduate Commencement on Friday, May 3, will report to West Point as his next
duty station to teach for three years. The 31-year-old Army major – he was
promoted April 1 – will first report to Redstone Arsenal in Alabama for the Intermediate-Level
Education program and then begin teaching literature and composition to plebes (members
of the freshman class) in spring 2014. The following academic year, he
anticipates teaching additional specialized courses.
A 2003 graduate of Virginia Military Institute, where he
double majored in English and writing and minored in education, and a 1999
graduate of Spotswood High School, Marsh has served his country in three tours
of duty in Iraq. First deployed in 2003 as an armor officer serving as a
reconnaissance platoon leader, Marsh advanced in his second and third tours. He
was a reconnaissance platoon leader and assistant operations officer and later
an infantry company commander.
As an active duty officer, Marsh applied “in a very
competitive process” for a West Point teaching position and was selected for
enrollment in a master’s program for two years to prepare for the role. Each academic
department at the service academy manages its own rotating cadre of instructors
and permanent professors, Marsh explained. “They like to draw experience from
the field, the Big Army. They’re putting an officer that can serve as an
example for future second lieutenants who can relate to them and tell them
combat and leadership stories that you wouldn’t find if you brought in a
civilian professor.”
Although he was accepted into JMU’s graduate program in
2010, Marsh had to wait until 2011 to begin classes so he could complete his
Company Command time. Virginia Tech and the University of Virginia also
accepted him for graduate study. “Dr. (Dabney) Bankert was really a big reason
I came to JMU,” he said, referring to the English department’s director of
graduate studies and professor of medieval literature. “She worked with me more
so than any of the graduate directors while I was deployed. She really drew me
into the program with her honesty and openness.”
Recalling the early weeks of his two-year master’s program
at JMU, Marsh said, “It was a little bit daunting at first because I had done
nothing close to academic work these past 10 years in the military. But coming
back, it was really refreshing. It’s a change of pace, it’s a different focus,
but there are still life skills that you learn in that gap period that you can
apply to your graduate studies. Time management, being able to focus on an
assignment and complete it to standard. It’s been a lot of fun coming back into
the academic world and I’ve definitely enjoyed the time that I’ve had in the
classroom.”
Bankert, his academic advisor, taught Marsh in two classes,
Research Methods, which she described as “research boot camp,” and one based on
Chaucer’s long poem, “House of Fame.” “He’s brought a richness to our program,”
Bankert said. Especially in the research class, his “experience with managing
people in high-stress situations was evident,” adding that Marsh combined
strengths of a diligent worker with keen intellectual curiosity.
As part of his studies, Marsh developed a syllabus for an
undergraduate course on research methods that Bankert believes he will find
useful in his composition course when he first starts as a faculty member at
West Point. “He has already identified the goals and challenges for developing
the course,” she said.
VMI and JMU are “two very different atmospheres, but they
each have their own merits,” Marsh said. “I can only speak to the
graduate-level of academics at JMU, but it’s been laid back but professional.
I’ve been nothing but impressed by the professors and the instructors. They are
able to maintain a cordial and friendly relationship while still maintaining
their leadership within the classroom. That’s something that’s not easy to do,
coming from a position in the military.”
In addition to studying with Bankert, Marsh was a teaching
assistant for Dr. Matthew Rebhorn and values the opportunity he had to see how
the JMU associate professor approached his undergraduate class. “I was able to
study the history of the book with Dr. (Mark) Rankin and to see his passion for
it and how fun that kind of study can be.”
“All of my professors have had a part of themselves invested
in every class they teach,” Marsh said. “They teach with a passion and vigor
that you don’t find in a lot of other places.”
As he and his family, wife Kara and young sons Caleb and
Rye, prepare to report to West Point, Marsh looks forward to blending his
military and academic preparation to benefit cadets. “It’s said that it is a
small Army and that’s true,” Marsh said. “After a visit in March we feel a real
sense of community there. While we’ve enjoyed our time as ‘civilians,’ we miss
the Army and we miss that community and fellowship and understanding that you
have with the other families that are there.”
“I’ve always wanted to teach,” Marsh said. “I’ve always
loved English and literature, and having the opportunity to teach at a location
as prestigious as West Point is wonderful. I’ll have the opportunity to return
as a permanent professor. This will give me the option to try it out for three
years and see if this is something for me or not for me.”
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April 29, 2013
