Bowie State Professor Celebrates 50 Years of Service

Faculty and Staff Recognized for Service and Achievement

 

MEDIA CONTACT: Jonathan Saxon, jsaxon@bowiestate.edu, 301-860-3607

(BOWIE, Md.) – How does one celebrate over 50 years at Bowie State University? For Dr. Sammye Miller, professor of history and government, the occasion could have come and gone without much fanfare, and he would have been perfectly content.

“I wasn’t even going to go,” Dr. Miller said when discussing the annual Employee Recognition Program that honored professors and staff for their years of service at Bowie State as well as Presidential Achievement Awards. “All of the administrative assistants in my building said, ‘You must go.’ I wasn’t even going to say anything until Dr. Breaux insisted that I make comments.”

Dr. Miller first started teaching at Bowie State in 1971, and he’s served in a multitude of roles during his five decades on campus. He’s served four terms as the chair of the Department of History and Government, has taught almost every course the department offers and has previously served as the dean of the School of Arts and Sciences and the special assistant to the provost.

While Dr. Miller has been happy to put on whatever hat is necessary, his first love is engaging with his students and nurturing their curiosity. While he prides himself on being able to teach and lecture on any history-related topic for hours without using notes, Dr. Miller doesn’t believe he’s meant to force what he knows into his students’ heads. Instead, he thinks it’s his role to instill the love of learning with his students, which allows them to soak up what he teaches to great effect.

“You learn your job is not to force them to learn,” said Dr. Miller. “But to teach them to love learning.”

Instilling the love for learning is Dr. Miller’s greatest joy, so much so that he doesn’t even look at his teaching as work. He instead feels that it is a calling that has been on his life for as long as he can remember, and it still fuels him to wake up every morning and look forward to another day in class during the semester.

“I always viewed teaching as my ministry,” said Dr. Miller. “There’s nothing like being a tenured professor on a college campus. It’s the best place in the world.”

But that joy for watching his students unlock their love for learning doesn’t mean he coddles his classes. Dr. Miller points to the standard of excellence being instilled in him by his parents and teachers at a young age, and it’s a standard he’s demanded from his classes since he first arrived at Bowie State. He’s proud of the fact that he’s considered one of the toughest professors on campus, and he won’t be changing that approach anytime soon.

“I must continue to submit my total, vibrant being for the existence of students to learn until I take my last breath,” he said.

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About Bowie State University
Bowie State University (BSU) is an important higher education access portal for qualified persons from diverse academic and socioeconomic backgrounds, seeking a high-quality and affordable public comprehensive university. The university places special emphasis on the science, technology, cybersecurity, teacher education, business and nursing disciplines within the context of a liberal arts education. For more information about BSU, visit bowiestate.edu.