{"id":4808,"date":"2019-10-08T15:58:35","date_gmt":"2019-10-08T20:58:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.acu.edu\/coba\/?p=4808"},"modified":"2019-10-08T15:58:35","modified_gmt":"2019-10-08T20:58:35","slug":"why-i-teach-with-david-perkins","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.acu.edu\/coba\/2019\/10\/08\/why-i-teach-with-david-perkins\/","title":{"rendered":"“Why I Teach” with David Perkins"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Dr. David Perkins<\/p><\/div>\n

A common theme among our faculty members is how many of them did not plan to become a professor after graduating college. This, too, was the case for Dr. David Perkins. In fact, teaching wasn\u2019t even a thought for him until a position opened up at Harding University, his alma mater. When the dean called and asked him to teach principles of accounting, Perkins was almost through his MBA program, so he accepted the temporary position for a year. \u201cThat phone call was a life-changing event for me. I look at it as God giving me a nudge to consider teaching as a career\u201d. <\/span><\/p>\n

Perkins taught at Harding for 15 years after that, then joined the COBA family during its initial work to become AACSB accredited. His friend and college classmate, Dr. Monty Lynn, was a good contact for him at ACU while Perkins was making the arrangements to join the COBA faculty. Dr. Perkins was ready for a change, and has never regretted getting on board with COBA’s vision for excellence. He currently teaches Financial Accounting to undergraduates as well as graduate classes in the Master of Accountancy (MAcc) program and has led students on numerous study abroad programs with COBA.<\/span><\/p>\n

When Perkins began to think about the impact of faith in his journey, he shared that it was humbling experience. \u201cGod opens doors of opportunity and sometimes he shuts others. That certainly helps with the decision-making process.\u201d It is difficult for him to imagine what life would be like without faith, as it has played such a core part of his journey. He stressed that his faith doesn\u2019t guarantee that he won\u2019t ever doubt; still, in the midst of doubt, growth can be found. \u201cGod is my anchor\u201d Perkins said. \u201cEven when I stumble or stray, I know where to find Him\u2026 right there where He\u2019s always been.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Dr. Perkins explained that he enjoys teaching accounting not only to help students prepare for their future <\/span>careers, but also in giving them more tools to make a better life<\/span>. While initially Perkins wasn\u2019t sure how different his teaching method was from other accounting classes at public schools, he\u2019s been able to be more intentional about planting seeds in students\u2019 minds that can grow into faith. He explained that in class,\u00a0 he will \u201cTry to apply the topics we cover to real life decisions so they will be positioned to make good choices.\u201d Students who have had Perkins in class fondly recalled the \u2018sermonettes\u2019 he shared with them from time to time and were grateful for the weekly Bible study he offers outside of class for anyone willing to attend.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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Dr. Perkins with students this summer during Study Abroad to Oxford and Leipzig.<\/p><\/div>\n

Dr. Perkins explained that his desire for students is for them to see college as an opportunity to develop their God-given skills \u2013 even if they don\u2019t know what they want to do yet. He remembered being in a similar position at their age, of being unsure about what life would look like after college. His best advice was this, \u201cDevelop your talents, develop your character, develop friendships, develop your faith\u2026 then see what opportunities God brings your way\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n

ACU is fortunate and thankful to have Dr. Perkins \u2013 not only for his knowledge and wisdom, but for his character and heart for his students.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A common theme among our faculty members is how many of them did not plan to become a professor after graduating college. This, too, was the case for Dr. David Perkins. In fact, teaching wasn\u2019t even a thought for him until a position opened up at Harding University, his alma mater. When the dean called […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18798,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2090,6633,154269,184663,6627],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4808","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-accounting","category-coba-faculty","category-coba-staff","category-faculty-testimonials","category-faith-infusion"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.acu.edu\/coba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4808","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.acu.edu\/coba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.acu.edu\/coba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.acu.edu\/coba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18798"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.acu.edu\/coba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4808"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.acu.edu\/coba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4808\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4881,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.acu.edu\/coba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4808\/revisions\/4881"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.acu.edu\/coba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4808"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.acu.edu\/coba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4808"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.acu.edu\/coba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4808"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}