In her years as a COC student, Katie Coleman experienced what it was like to have the support and resources necessary to move forward in life towards success. In fact, her time at COC was what convinced her that she quite literally wanted to stay in school forever -- she just needed to find a way to earn a living while she was at it.

Coleman is a professor in the Sociology department here at COC. She transferred out to UCSB with the help of COC’s own counseling and teaching faculty, after which she earned her M.A. in Sociology at CSUN before returning to her roots to teach at COC, where she’s been since she graduated.

She teaches a vast variety of classes within the sociology and criminology departments, including intro classes and more specific ones like Women Studies and Social Problems. If you ask her, sociology is one of the most interesting and engaging topics there is -- and it’s her top priority to share that enthusiasm for sociology with her students.

“I want my students to take away a sense of community,” she says. “We are far more connected than we are separate.”

Coleman is all about interpersonal connections both inside and outside of the classroom; when she’s not putting together next week’s lesson plan, she’s spending time with her family and her (seemingly infinite) dogs. For her, relationships are everything.

One fact you may be surprised to learn of is that in her past life, she was a competitive hula hooper -- nowadays, she leans more towards enjoying tennis as her primary sport, but who wouldn’t want to hear a couple of hula hooping stories now and then?

In her future are plans to continue traveling the world alongside her family. So far, they’ve visited five of the seven continents, and she hopes to cross all seven off of her bucket list in the coming years.

Her classroom bucket list consists mainly of uplifting her students and instilling within them all that the fascinating world of sociology has to offer.

“Students are the best part of my job, and it’s such a thrill watching them have their own ‘a-ha’ moments,” she shares. “I want them to know that they’re capable, important, and irreplaceable -- they’re each on their own path to success.”

At the end of the day, Coleman’s love for teaching and education brought her full circle, and now that she’s made the transition from learner to teacher, she’s made it her goal to inspire and uplift every student that walks through her classroom doors.