If you earned your undergraduate degree from Baruch in the last 28 years, your education was influenced by this professor of English, no matter your major.
Paula Berggren, who retires from the College in July after 42 years, created and coordinated the Great Works Program, which exposes undergrads to timeless works of world literature. Over 70 sections of the required communication-intensive courses are offered each semester, each section limited to about 25 students. “What I love about teaching is the interaction with students,” Berggren says, “and Great Works courses let professors have a conversation with their students.”
Berggren’s legacy also extends to honors programming and to the Chase and Feit Interdisciplinary Seminars. Longtime Feit Seminar director, Berggren calls that program “the greatest gift that Baruch ever received that isn’t a building.” The interdisciplinary seminars bring together two or more instructors from different departments and a small, select group
of students. “The seminars are forums for creativity and intellectual courage. They intensify the value of the liberal arts,”
she explains.
Connecting with students is a passion for Berggren, who estimates she’s taught some 4,000 Baruchians. “There’s something very special about our students—an artlessness, an honesty. Conversations with them can be very profound,” notes the former winner of the College’s Presidential Excellence Awards for Distinguished Teaching, Scholarship, and Service.
—Diane Harrigan
Alumni: Who was your favorite Baruch professor? E-mail us at [email protected].