TCNJ

16 The College of New Jersey Magazine professionals already decades into their careers. Along the way, they've collected top awards from the National Communication Association, studied in South Africa, and done research for the United Nations. The achievements belong to the students, but year after year, Pollock has served as the spark that lights the flame. With an endlessly open door, he helps them wrestle with ideas, land internships, apply to graduate school, and map their futures. He makes them believe in all that is possible. "So much of his career has been about helping his current batch of students start down this path and do cool things," says Hipper, an assistant clinical teaching professor and associate director of the Center for Public Health Readiness and Communication at Drexel University. "It's pretty amazing to see someone just almost entirely devoted to their students' success." This fall, Pollock, now 82, began what will be his final year at TCNJ. For many grateful alumni, the moment is bittersweet; he's the kind of professor whose imprint extends long after graduation. "I'm explicit about saying, 'We're friends for life, so reach out anytime,'" Pollock says. And they do. On any given day, years after they've collected their diplomas, Pollock's former students call him for job advice and pep talks and to announce publications and promotions. They invite him to their graduation parties and weddings and to the birthday parties of their children. This coming spring, they will call with heartfelt congratulations, amazed he's actually retiring; they thought he might stay at TCNJ forever. The decision to leave surprised Pollock, too. "I always thought I would die here, because I love teaching," he says. L to R: John Pollock and Tom Hipper HEN TOM HiPPER '07 hopped on a plane at the tail end of his junior year to fly to Kentucky, he knew the trip would be special. Not only was he about to attend one of the most prestigious health communication conferences in the country, but he and another TCNJ student had been tapped to discuss their research in front of the field's heavy hitters. But nothing prepared Hipper for the moment when the crowd realized, with a gasp, that they were listening to the first undergraduates ever invited to present their work at this event. "We just felt like rock stars," he says. "People couldn't believe how young we were. Like, 'Where the hell did these two come from?'" The quick answer to that question was a small college hundreds of miles away from the state where they stood. But the even better answer revolved less around a place than a person — a TCNJ professor on a mission to foster serious scholarship, to convince every one of his students that they could do research and write papers and stand toe to toe with the very experts whose work they studied in class. The truest answer — and the heart of the story for Hipper and hundreds of students before and since — was John C. Pollock. And on that day, when the crowd at the Kentucky Conference on Health Communication gasped and showered his students with well-earned accolades, Pollock was there, too, proudly cheering them on. "It just doesn't get any better than that," Pollock says. SiNCE ARRiViNG at TCNJ in 1992, Pollock has shaped the lives of generations of students with a distinct and determined teaching style designed to launch them into the world — not once they graduate, but as soon as they step into his classroom. Over the past three decades, more than 600 students in Pollock's communication studies and public health courses have co-authored peer-reviewed papers on critical social issues, including immigration reform, reproductive rights, and child labor. They've packed their bags and traveled to more than a dozen cities across the country to present their work at conferences with academics and communication

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