Cindy Bandish

Why do you enjoy teaching at Bluffton? What makes it unique?
I like that Bluffton is a residential campus. It is possible to see students in a variety of settings through activities and extracurriculars.

What excites me about teaching in the English department?
I love storytelling. I think that in teaching English, it provides the chance to look at someone's story over and over and figure out what people in the story do. I am amused by the creative nature of the writers.

I knew I was destined to teach English when...
I wasn't someone who thought I would teach while in undergrad. I knew I loved studying English. I think my professors probably recognized that I would be a teacher before I did.

Favorite class to teach...
The Gothic literature course. I was raised on mystery novels. I like the puzzle of the story. I'm intrigued by the author's fascination with the supernatural.

Favorite place/time/event on campus...
I like the library's Reading Room. I enjoy the Friday Colloquium series where the faculty discuss their research. I like to hear what my colleagues are working on.

When I'm not teaching, I enjoy...
Raising my daughter. I love to sew clothing.

My favorite elementary/middle/high school teacher was who and why...
Miss Mixner. She taught A.P. English in high school. She was really tough but she was a fascinating conversationalist. She wanted us to succeed and she pushed us.

My first job was...
I worked at a Dairy Queen for five years. I still love their ice cream! One of the more unusual jobs I had was at a news monitoring service. I would watch tapes of the previous day's news to get the general idea of the stories in case a business would want a copy of a story about them. The agency had bigger clients such as hospitals. The clients would want to know when they were in the news and how they were being portrayed.

As a college student I was involved in...
I played clarinet in concert band. I was involved in student government representing the humanities and I also worked on the set for some theater productions.

Favorite vacation destination/activity...
A beach. I've gone to Sanibel island on the gulf side of Florida.

Someday I would like to (what's on my bucket list)...
For a long time, it was to go to England but I was able to go three years ago. I'd love to go to Spain. I would also like to write a book of criticism and I'd like to do a lot of sailing in warm weather.