When Cheryl Brown was faced with the question 10 years ago of what she would be if she could be anything, her answer came easily: "A sociology professor at a small college." Already a trained sociologist with a degree from Agnes Scott College, Brown had spent several years as a Korean linguist in the U.S. Army and was working as a senior identification technician at the Dekalb County Police Department near Atlanta when the realization struck. Within a year, she went from booking murder suspects to toting graduate school textbooks around the campus of Georgia State University. In 1998, she completed her dissertation and earned the Ph.D. in sociology.

Brown taught at a small college in Colorado before making the move to North Carolina last fall.

"While the size and location of Greensboro College was important to me, it was meeting the people that really made the decision to come here easy," Brown said. "From the moment I met the students and faculty I knew this is where I wanted to be. I would call this a campus of good hearts.

"I think one of the things that makes Greensboro College unique is the place it occupies in the community," she added. "It's been here a long time and is respected by the locals. This sense of stability allows the faculty to explore a variety of issues in their professional lives as well as in the classroom. Students pick up on this feeling and allow themselves a chance to explore."

Which is exactly what Brown wants them to do - especially in ways that allow them to put classroom theories into practice. "In every class, my whole goal is to get my students to use the theories and concepts through activities such as community service and other hands-on projects," Brown said.

Her criminal justice students ride along with police officers and sit in on courtroom hearings. Cultural anthropology classes gather recipes from international faculty, staff and students and prepare ethnic feasts. This fall, her sociology students will conduct a survey of Guilford County high school students to study the effectiveness of the National Council for Community and Justice's diversity training program in Blowing Rock.

Outside of the classroom, Brown is coadvisor of the campus chapter of Alpha Kappa Delta; the Sociology Club; and Women of Action, Voice and Education (WAVE). She is working with the Women's Resource Center in Greensboro to develop a support group for battered women.

"Being a professor is a form of payback. Most people who become professors had somebody in their lives who helped the world make sense for them. We come back to do that for the next generation," Brown said. "Besides, I think the period from age 18 to 22 is the hardest and most exciting part of a person's life - what could be better than being a part of that?"

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