What instructor helped you out? Had a large positive impact on you?

And most importantly, why? What did they do to help you out like that?

I recently heard an inspiring story about a student who had been nearly homeless, involved in gangs, finding a college instructor who helped him completely turn his life around. I'm wondering what other positive stories may be floating around.

I have had a lot of professors that had a large impact on me. But the one that really stands out is my Atmospheric, Earth Science, Ecology, Climate, and Environmental Science instructor yeah it was the same instructor for all classes.

He was always impressed with my knowledge, but I also have a disability. He always encouraged me to not let my disability slow me down. He even put me in as President of the Environmental Club, which I did well at.

He always believed in me and did not let my disability define me.

I still talk to him once in a while to this day.

I had a professor in my later years in school that, while he didn't have quite an impact on me in particular, he did have an impact in the whole class.

He was knowledgeable in several scientific areas. He was our professor for both Chemistry and Technology as well as Social Math, and was also our second teacher for Physics and Math (due to the absolute incompetence of the professor in charge of those classes). And he was also a bodybuilder, with a massive physique he kept hidden most of the year under elegant suits, having a unique and imposing presence in the classroom.

He had no need for books or anything, he did all classes out of his sheer knowledge and he himself developed the exercises for homework in his particular blog. He was the only professor I've ever had who could teach the scheduled program for the year and with time to spare, all because he fully knew what he had to teach in each class and because his explanations were direct and quick to understand. And he had the unique quirk of publicly showing the solution to exams the class after they were done so we could all check what we did wrong and expect our grades, solving all exercises step by step and explaining everything necessary.

He was loved by all of us and he had our utmost respect. Despite his imposing presence he was quite open and friendly if you weren't a troublemaker. He was basically the perfect professor, and I'm so glad to have shared four years with him (which also happened to be among my darkest years, so even more welcome).

The impact he had on me was about being fully prepared for his job, being so knowledgeable about any subject that he could explain it to anybody. Despite focusing on the gym, he also focused in his studies and was a man of a great culture. Plus, like I said, he was a great reference when I was in my darkest times and we had a few funny moments together. I will always cherish the time I spent with him and will always be my reference in the teaching field or when trying to explain things to others.

We grew distant after I graduated, and when the school closed down just a couple years after that he pursued other goals in the education field. I saw him once in TV, talking about the new ways of teaching the young, and seeing him being himself was a very nice moment after years of missing him. I wonder what could he be doing now, but I'm sure he has a good legion of followers feeling as inspired by him as I've been.