Nancy Varian Leaves Behind Legacy of Development and Service
For Nancy Varian, Ph.D., director of the Center for Professional Development and assistant professor of education, being a teacher has always been her calling.
“My whole career has been in education; I was a classroom teacher, curriculum director, and principal. I really wanted to go into higher education, and I decided to pursue my doctorate to do so,” said Varian. “What I enjoy most about working with teachers is professional development; preparing teachers to be the best they can be in the classroom.”
This passion for professional development is what brought Varian to Malone.
“I came to Malone in 2005, and at that time the education department was establishing the Center for Professional Development. My years in Stark County, teaching in other districts, and being active in other grants and programs, prepared me for this opportunity and I thought bringing my knowledge to this position would be very helpful.”
But Varian found more than just a new opportunity for her professional passion.
“Another thing I’ve always enjoyed is international travel, and learning about others and their cultures. When I first came to Malone, I was really impressed with the many service learning opportunities for our students,” she said. “Over the years I had wonderful opportunities to lead groups to Panama, Peru, Brazil, Ecuador, Zimbabwe, New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, Hope Hill in rural Kentucky, and China to teach at a Christian school. I’ve just loved all of those experiences.”
But while not traveling the world, Varian’s focus remained on providing stellar professional development to teachers in Malone’s Center for Professional Development.
“The Center was established when I was hired and I was able to be pretty innovative in how it was run. A lot of local universities did not offer a resource like ours for a variety of reasons, but Malone believed it was a niche we could fill while helping teachers maintain their licensure,” said Varian. “We really wanted to meet the needs of the teachers, and we’ve accomplished that. For example, in conjunction with Canton City Schools, we offered “Games That Work.” This is a professional development opportunity geared towards Physical Education teachers, and it has been a really popular and beneficial program. Everyone would leave with new knowledge and ideas shared between teachers, and it was a real win-win for everyone.”
Varian’s experience and skills as an educator have allowed her to extend her passion for professional development in ways that benefit both Malone and teachers - sometimes in non-traditional ways.
“Through this work in the Center we’ve marketed what Malone does in professional development while meeting a specific need. Even beyond that, my family has a farm, and we just love to have kids out to enjoy nature. For a number of years, through a grant from the Dominion Energy Charitable Foundation, we were able to assist our students at Malone in methods classes by taking them to the farm and giving them a variety of assignments. For example, they would make a lesson plan for water study and they would come up with assignments for their students.”
Through the hard work of grant acquisition and professional development implementation, the Center for Professional Development has been an incredible resource to both teachers in the surrounding community as well as Malone students.
But the Center for Professional Development wasn’t the only place Varian left her mark. Her work in leadership with the honor society Kappa Delta Phi touched lives on and off campus.
“I was a faculty sponsor of KDP for four years, and it’s a great organization because it gives students a chance to organize events and gain leadership experience,” she said. “For example, we put on a concert called Jammin’ in Your Jammies to raise money to buy pajamas for children in need in Stark county.”
Consistently available to help in every way she can, Varian has also served as a mentor to teachers under a statewide Ohio program; just one more way she leaves a legacy of service from her time at Malone.
“The Ohio legislature created a requirement for new teachers called the Resident Educator Program a while ago because statistics were showing 50% of teachers left in the first five years. Now, all new teachers must be assigned to a trained mentor teacher to support them in their first years in the classroom. I became a state trainer in the program to support that critical step in a new teacher’s career, and I’ve been so thankful to be involved in that. I think mentorship is so important.”