Mohammed AL-Abdulla

3/22/12

                       Knowing about Dr Sherry Lamb Schirmer

Yesterday meeting with a history professor Dr Sherry Lamb Schirmer was fun. I asked her about how she grew up, what things did she does for Avila as well as for her family and her future goals.

We started the interview with how she grew up. According to Dr Sherry Lamb Schirmer she said that she learned from her father that words are important. Dr Sherry Lamb Schirmer also said that the love that her father had for gaining knowledge, reading, and writing shaped her life and made her love writing.

The main thing that she has achieved for Avila University is publishing a book about Race relations between African American and white people. According to Dr Cherry Lamb Schirmer started to explain the book by saying that her book started with her doctorial dissertation. Schirmer also said she did lots of research in books and papers about the attitudes toward Race that she recognized as being apart of her middle class white background. In addition, Dr Sherry Lamb Schirmer said she recognized statements about African Americans and she wanted to know where those come from and because of that she wrote her book. Also, she had the ability to make the students love as well as be involved in history, which makes her feel successful at Avila.

According to Dr Sherry Lamb Schirmer the things that make her successful in her family life come from her father and grandmother. Her father loved words and her grandmother was really interested in education. Her grandmother sacrificed tremendously to get all her children educated including moving away from her husband. She took her children to town schools instead of country schools because she thought it was better for them. So, because of that she moved to town with all her children, leaving her husband by himself to take care of the farm. Also, she cooked and cleaned for a hotel in town so she could have money to rent a home and provide a good family life for her children who went to school over there. According to Dr Sherry Lamb Schirmer, her grandmother’s dedication to education played a part in her desire to get the highest degree she could get in writing of some fashion.

 According to Dr Sherry Lamb Schirmer, she always imagined herself retiring to some acreage, a place where she could tend the ground and grow flowers and plant a garden. Now she finds that she can’t do that physically, plus her voice is getting weaker. So, because of that she has decided she would like to retire as soon as she can.