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- Dr. Ann Cranston-Gingras
College of Education Faculty Oral Histories
Dr. Ann Cranston-Gingras
LB: Is there anything else about the College of Education that struck you over the years that stands out in terms of its role in the university or as it affects the local school systems surrounding it? You had been in other school systems as a teacher.
AC: I have. Even though I was a student at the other universities I was for example at St. John’s where I was the managing editor of the student newspaper. So I got to see the workings behind the scenes and I have some experience with the culture of other universities that I can compare to USF. Without taking anything away from St. John’s because it’s a wonderful place also, but one of the things about the College of Education here is that has been inspiring has been the quality of the leadership and the individuals. People like Jim Paul and Bill Katzenmeyer that really had a vision and have been able to inspire other people to work toward that vision. That’s been something that I think has really been an important part of my time here at USF to have an opportunity to work with those individuals and others. LB: Are there any questions that I didn’t ask you that you thought maybe I would or should have asked? Are there some other bits of information that you want to share?
AC: I can’t think of anything. I’ve probably left out something or somebody that I wanted to mention, but I can’t right off the top of my head.
LB: Something struck me as you talked earlier about your desire to teach English and your study in that area. I’m sure you’ve realized many times how important those English writing skills became in grant writing and in other endeavors.
AC: Absolutely. And probably the most I think for me one of the most significant things was being able to work in the national demonstration project because of my brother who had a disability. They had a summer camp for kids with physical disabilities that was also a part of the national demonstration program. That was one of the most significant things in my development, having the opportunity to work in a program like that at a young age and to really see that I could find something meaningful that I could do with my life that was important.
Then the other most significant thing was working on the student newspaper in college and because we had to meet deadlines, you had to produce a lot of written material in a very short period of time. You had to be able to write critically, you had to be able to tell whether people were telling you things in an accurate way. That experience really has helped me throughout my career in writing and just in dealing with people. I would advise any student to try to get involved in opportunities outside of the classroom because really when I look back, those are the things that have helped me the most much more so than anything I’ve learned in classes I think.
LB: You mentioned your husband, Ron, earlier. If you don’t mind, since he is here on campus at the Shriners Hospital, and I’ve had the pleasure of working with him over the years as he helped us in our program, did you meet as a result of…?
AC: Well, we met when I graduated from St. John’s with a degree in high school English, teaching high school English. I ended up moving to Massachusetts to teach because at the time. It’s hard for us to imagine now, but in 1980 there was not a teacher shortage, and it was very difficult to get a teaching job. The only offers I had were in some schools that I really didn’t really want to be in at the time. They didn’t fit my vision of what I wanted to do with my life. I had an opportunity to work at a high school in Massachusetts. Someone at St. John’s knew someone at the school there and got me an interview and I was hired. When I moved there…before I moved there, someone who I had worked in summer camp for children with disabilities was going to work at Shriners Hospital in Massachusetts, coincidently around the same time. I was looking for a place to live and he introduced me to Ron as someone who had grown up in the town that I was moving to and knew about where to live. I talked to him over the phone many times before I actually met him, and I just got very interested because his voice is one of those very deep, interesting voices. That’s how I first got interested. He actually at the time was involved in a program at Northwestern University where he would go to Northwestern for a semester and then go back to Massachusetts to work a semester and then go back. So it took us a long time to get together because I was going to graduate school at the time.
LB: You’re both in the helping profession. That’s very interesting.
AC: That’s basically how we met. One thing we have in common, very much in common is that we’re both committed to children with disabilities and children who maybe are marginalized in some way so we kind of been able to do a lot of things together.
LB: I personally thank you for all you’ve done for USF and for the community. Did you foresee the growth of USF as you entered here as a graduate student? Could you have predicted it?
AC: I think it would be really difficult to have predicted the growth that we’ve seen. I mean it’s been phenomenal. I mean both the physical growth of the University and just the building that we’re in. I mean when I started here we were in the HMS building and you know where we are now is just very different. The facilities as well as the recognition that USF has received. I think the College of Education has always had a strong reputation, but I think the growth of the University has really enhanced the College and has enhanced the reputation of the College. It’s made it a lot easier when you mention USF now. When I go to New York and mention USF, people know what I’m talking about and I think football’s had something to do with that being in the Big East Conference. But you know for the first time this year, during the regular season, I went to a St. John’s game here at USF. I could never have predicted that I would be sitting at USF watching St. John’s play in a regular season basketball game.
LB: Well again thank you for all you’ve done and all you will continue to do here at USF and for coming in this morning and sharing your time and thoughts with us for this Fifty Year History Project. Thank you.
AC: Thank you.
End of Interview