Disneyland, oranges and second grade shape speech communication professor's life

"I'm allergic to oranges, but there was a bunch of orange groves in Orange County, so my friends and I would hop the fences and have orange fights. I would come home all swollen. . . . It was a pretty happy childhood," said Seiter.

Seiter asked his friends what their plans were after high school. They all planned to go to college, so he did too.

He attended Cypress College in California for two years.

"Fortunately I had some professors that took hold of me and pointed me in the direction and taught me," Seiter said. "They discovered something in me . . . a desire to learn."

His desire came from the professors he encountered who had an enthusiasm for their subject matter. Seiter found it contagious, and that's when he dived into academics.

After his two years at Cypress College, Seiter transferred to California Sate University, Fullerton, also known as Cal State Disneyland by its students.

It was a good thing Seiter discovered his love for learning and followed his friends to college, because that is where he met his wife, Debbie.

She was the student coach for the speech and debate team. She tried recruiting Seiter to the team, but was unsuccessful. She was, however, successful in recruiting his best friend Scott. Scott, in turn, was successful in recruiting Seiter.

Seiter explained his dating with Debbie as a taboo romance where debate coach and student fell in love.

"She is a terrific person," Seiter said of his wife. She worked to put him through graduate school so he could eventually become a professor.

"She told me once I got my professor job all she wanted was a front porch and a rocking chair," Seiter said. "She doesn't have her porch, and she works harder than me, raising our son, Christian."

Seiter knew he loved learning when he would get into his text books and find himself "thirsty" for the knowledge in them. Being a part of the debate team also sparked a passion for his love of communications. He received bachelor's degrees in speech communication and psychology, as well as a master's in speech communication at Cal State Fullerton.

He went on to receive his Ph.D. in the department of communication arts and sciences at the University of Southern California.

"It seemed like a natural fit that someone who really loves to learn would be in an institution of learning," Seiter said.

After receiving his doctorate, Seiter was offered his dream job at Cal State Fullerton as a professor of interpersonal communication.

Then it fell through.

That is what brought him and his family to Utah, the opportunity for a different position to teach what he had become so passionate about, his field of speech communication.

Seiter has been teaching for 20 years. He taught as a graduate teaching fellow at Cal State Fullerton and lecturer/teaching assistant at the University of Southern California, as well as California State University, Long Beach. He has been teaching at Utah State for 11 years.

He is passionate about what he teaches. That is what makes teaching so fulfilling for him. He loves the communication field because communication is how our world evolves, and it continues to fascinate him.

"It is the way that we connect with other people. Imagine if we weren't able to communicate. It was erased. What would society be like, or life be like without that?" Seiter asked.

"People are fascinating. If I've got ideas in my mind and want to share them with someone, telepathy would be the best way to do it. I can't do telepathy so I've got this imprecise tool of communication. The idea of how to tune that to be more effective to share ourselves with other people is amazing. Communication is the vehicle by which culture is transmitted. We couldn't have culture, history, philosophy, just about any subject short of maybe hard sciences, but even scientists have to communicate and persuade," he said.

"He makes you really think," said Rachel Johnson, one of Seiter's students. "When he gives you the answer to a question you remember it because you've gone through this process of discovering it with him. It's not just a lecture, it's a discovery."

Seiter said he believes he is a creative person but he thinks he's creative because his students are. He likes to enable his students to be creative and allow them to discover things on their own.

"I think allowing students to make a connection to a theory or concept, and see the application and usefulness of it, excites them," said Seiter.

Seiter proves that his teaching excites his students through his teaching evaluation scores. For the Spring 2004 semester Seiter scored a 5.8 on the section which evaluates overall quality of the course and a 5.9 on his ability to effectively teach the subject matter. The evaluations are based on a 6.0 scale.

Johnson said she wishes more professors could be like Seiter.

"His friendliness toward everyone is what definitely makes him an awesome professor. Students like his classes because he is so enthusiastic about what he teaches and that is an important thing for a teacher," she said.

Professor Seiter teaches Interpersonal Communication, Intercultural Communication, Persuasion and Speech Theories for the Speech Communication department. For his Persuasion class he is the co-author of the text, Persuasion Social Influence and Compliance Gaining. He dedicated the book to his second-grade teacher.

"I loved her, I had a huge crush on her," Seiter said. "Her name was Miss Gordon, she's not Miss Gordon anymore but she still lets me call her that."

When the book was published he took a copy over to Miss Gordon's home for a Christmas gift.

"She saw this book with my name on it and she was so happy and I said to her, 'Well open the cover,' she started crying. It was a really nice moment," said Seiter.

Inside the cover the book reads, "To 'Miss Gordon,' my second-grade teacher, for knowing that self-concept is the proper starting place." "It was nice to pay tribute to an important teacher in my life," Seiter said.

One of Seiter's main goals as a teacher is to have his students walk away and feel inspired.

"The most flattering thing would be for all of them to say, 'I'm going to major in communication now because I'm so inspired.' I want students to be successful and do what they want to make them happy."

Johnson said she notices Professor Seiter has a real desire to fulfill his dreams. For example he likes to experiment in different styles of writing and is currently working on a spy novel.

"He does things not because he has to, but because he wants to. He kind of goes the extra mile to fulfill his goals," Johnson said.

One of Johnson's dreams has been to illustrate children's stories. One of Seiter's aspirations has been to write them, so together they are accomplishing their goals. They are working on a story about a cricket that is afraid of the dark. Their goal is to help children who are afraid of the dark conquer their fear.

"John is going to be the type of person that is a well known researcher and professor," Johnson said. "He is well-rounded and is going to accomplish the things he wants in life because he is energetic and enthusiastic about whatever it is he does, and whoever he meets."

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