Dr.
Carol Drowota
1989
Excellence in Teaching Award Recipient
Dr.
Carol Jean Drowota, Professor of English and Chairperson
of the department, feels right at home at Charleston
Southern, since she is originally from Charleston and received
her Bachelor of Arts from The College of Charleston. She
earned her master’s from Duke University, with a major
in Twentieth-century English Literature and a minor in
Comparative Literature. While at Duke, she did a research
study on two versions of William Butler Yeats’ A
Vision. She earned her doctorate from the University
of South Carolina with a major in Post-1660 English Literature,
and a minor in Pre-1660 English Literature. Her dissertation
was Dryden’s Plays on the Eighteenth-Century Stage.
Before
coming to Charleston Southern in 1976, Dr. Drowota taught
at R.B. Stall High School, the High School of Charleston,
Longwood College in Farmville, Virginia, Columbia College,
and the University of South Carolina. She wanted to come
to Charleston Southern because a position in English was
available and someone with her qualifications was needed.
After her father died, she wanted to come home to be with
her mother, who was aging and needed assistance.
In
literature classes, Dr. Drowota has found the most successful
techniques to be daily quizzes on reading assignments,
and allowing students to set discussion at the beginning
of classes with passages that concern or puzzle them, and
then working toward a knowledge she feels they should have.
She also supplements works with videos, audio tapes, pictures,
and articles from the newspaper or magazines and journals.
In composition and literature classes, she brings to class
objects found in essays or works of literature that are
unfamiliar to students, such as different foods (buttermilk
pie, horehound candy, macaroons) or a Grecian urn.
Dr.
Drowota believes her teaching excellence results from a
combination of factors. When I am excited by and enthusiastic
about new or old material or when students are excited
and enthusiastic, my teaching is excellent. When ‘the
light goes on’ in the classroom or later in life,
my teaching is excellent. When weak or good students achieve
success or accomplish their goals, my teaching is excellent,
she says. She delights in seeing students use their knowledge
overseas or take some knowledge from her classes into their
personal or professional lives. This inspires her, as well
as sessions or conversations with colleagues from CSU or
with professors from other colleges about successful teaching.
I
love cats, but most of my students already know that, she
says. She also loves sports and sometimes gets addicted
to watching basketball and football games during tournaments.
She enjoys watching baseball, soccer, and softball games,
track events, tennis matches, swimming meets, and Olympic
games. Dr. Drowota likes to walk and get outdoors, and
she regularly participates in the Cooper River Bridge Walk
and charity walks. She collects small, interesting decorative
cats and owls, and she plays the piano. She also used to
play the organ and, in concert and marching band, the oboe
and glockenspiel, respectively. As another interest, Dr.
Drowota enjoys attending plays and concerts.
