I can’t.
Why?
I’m too old. I’m too busy. I can’t afford it. I’m not smart enough. I work full time. I have children, a wife, a family to support.
I can’t. I just can’t.
Charleston Southern University criminal justice professor Alan Fix smiles when he hears the phrase “I can’t.” An Indiana native and self-professed “small town farm boy,” he always wanted to teach. It would have been easier to say “I can’t,” but for Fix, he couldn’t say – “I can’t” – that is.
His will wouldn’t let him.
“I only went to school one year full time, that’s all I could afford,” said Fix. “I took classes on and off.” The start-stop, on-off pursuit of a higher education set Fix on a journey.
After he registered for his first college class at age 19 -- Fix married, raised three children, launched a full-time career and endured a variety of family medical setbacks. Twenty-six years and a healthy heaping of patience later, at age 45, Fix graduated from Indiana University (Northwest) with a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice.
“While these kids are talking about a five or six year plan, I look at them and say, ‘rookies!’ I was on the multiple decade plan,” Fix said with a smile. “But I knew through the whole thing that I wanted to teach at the college level.”
That would require, of all things, more college. Without hesitation, Fix enrolled at Boston University and pursued a master’s degree. It took seven more years. By then, Fix was eligible for retirement after 29 years as a conservation officer with the Indiana Department of Natural Resources. He could have packed it in, gone home and enjoyed his wife, three children, family and friends he built over 30 years.
Instead, on Aug. 15, 2008, the day of his 32nd wedding anniversary, Fix accepted an offer to teach criminal justice at Charleston Southern University. He looked at his wife and said, “32 years ago on August 15 you took a chance, and I said we were going to start a new life. Welcome to August 15th again; we’re going to start a new life.”
“I didn’t want to go teach at Indiana University where, when you walk into the introduction to criminal justice class, there are 200 students in an auditorium,” said Fix. “I want to know your name. Charleston Southern was a dream come true; the size, location, a Christian university.”
It only took 33 years – 26 years of undergraduate studies and seven years of master’s work -- for Fix to realize his dream, a passion he embraced since high school.
[From Hoosier to Buccaneer]
After a short stint working in a juvenile detention center at age 23, Fix decided to pursue law enforcement. “Everybody was hiring then,” he said. “I literally had my pick of jobs.” One particular opening caught his eye. It was with the Department of Natural Resources.
“I loved the fact that they had a lot of toys,” he said. “Boats, ATV’s, dirt bikes, four wheelers, wave runners, snow mobiles. I looked at the toys and thought, ‘I can do this!’”
After 16 weeks of training, Fix was assigned a county and away he went. He assumed oversight of the Indiana Dunes State Park which, for the record, is 2,182 acres, including 1,800 acres of wooded area, and more than three miles of Lake Michigan's south shore.
“I was eight miles from Gary (Indiana) and 25 miles from Chicago,” he explained. “It was more like being a cop. I wrote more drug and alcohol arrests than most small or mid-size cities.”
Fix began teaching, educating the community. He taught environmental courses to grade school students, hunting, boating and snow mobile safety to adults, in elementary schools, churches, high schools and colleges. He began drifting into neighboring counties, appearing in classrooms and educating.
In between each of those teaching experiences, Fix squeezed in an evening class here and there, always returning to his original plan to one day teach full time. “You learn to give up things,” he said. “You learn to do homework at two in the morning. That’s what I try and bring to my kids. Don’t quit. You may postpone some things, but don’t give up on yourself. If I can do it, anybody can.”
[Pay it Forward]
When Charleston Southern University professor Alan Fix speaks to his students he is sharing his real world experiences, but he is teaching under the influence of Dr. Edmund W. Grosskopf.
Grosskopf, now a retired professor at Indiana State University, inspired Fix. A Chicago detective on sabbatical, he was teaching at Indiana State criminal justice when Fix arrived on campus as a student.
“He just captivated me,” remembers Fix. “All my years, all my teachers and I can count on one hand the teachers who got me to this point. I hope someday I can say, ‘I made a difference.’ I hope I can impact someone like Dr. Grosskopf impacted me.”
It was Grosskopf’s hands-on approach and experience that enticed Fix. “He wouldn’t tell you what was in the book, he would tell you what was actually going on out in the street,” Fix explained. Grosskopf’s unique style educated Fix then, and inspires now, under Fix’s direction at Charleston Southern.
“I know I teach differently than some of the other professors,” said Fix. “I teach like a cop. My CSI course, I’m going to have you in the mud; I’m going to have you doing fingerprints; we make up crime scenes; we lift blood samples. I like teaching theory, but I also like getting dirty.”
“Now I’m just stupid enough to go for my doctorate,” he said. “My goal now is to have my doctorate by the time I’m eligible for social security.”
Earn a college degree? Maybe you can.
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