Office Hours

Giselle Kowalski:
Hi everybody, my name is Giselle Kowalski, and I'm the Digital Content Producer here at Texas State University. You're listening to Office Hours, and today I'm here with AnaBelle. AnaBelle, what's up?

AnaBelle Elliott:
Hey Giselle, how are you?

Giselle Kowalski:
I'm great. You just got to speak with Dr. Brian Cooper, who is a geography professor here, kind of a celeb at Texas State. What was that like?

AnaBelle Elliott:
It was crazy. So before I was even a student here, I knew about Dr. Brian Cooper. My brother took him during the pandemic, I remember being in the kitchen and just hearing his voice on the screen. So, I've known his name for a while. I came to Texas State and I took him too and it completely lived up to everything my brother told me about. And then to get to sit down and hear the behind the scenes, hear about his life story and how he got to where he is today, I think people are going to love this episode.

Giselle Kowalski:
His energy, his personality, and the way he talks about school makes me want to go back to school and just his whole career journey was really inspiring. So, we hope you enjoy this conversation between AnaBelle and Dr. Brian Cooper.

AnaBelle Elliott:
Alrighty. Well, to start us off, for people who don't know of you, what do you teach and how long have you been here at Texas State?

Dr. Brian Cooper:
I teach a number of different courses in the Department of Geography and Environmental Studies. I teach world geography every semester, and I teach economic geography every semester.

AnaBelle Elliott:
OK, cool. And then for context, world geography is what class I had with you, so.

Dr. Brian Cooper:
Yes.

AnaBelle Elliott:
And I enjoyed it.

Dr. Brian Cooper:
Yes.

AnaBelle Elliott:
It was a great class.

Dr. Brian Cooper:
There's a lot to like about world geography. For people that come from all sorts of different majors and backgrounds, there's always something that most students can latch onto in that class and be like, "OK, that was neat," even if like most of the class, they're like, "OK, I got my gen ed credit out of the way," that sort of thing. But most students, I think, can find something in that class because there's so many different places around the globe, so many different things that we talk about in that class.

AnaBelle Elliott:
So now that we know what you teach, to get to know you a little bit better, what are three things that you tie closely to your identity?

Dr. Brian Cooper:
Oh, three things that I tie closely to my identity. I would have to say my love of just learning. I have a natural curiosity about things, and I think that's one of the reasons why I went into education as a career choice. I would say that one of the other aspects is just my sense of humor about things. I try and always find something to laugh about, if I can. Even if it's kind of dark and things, I'm like, yeah, still trying to find some humor to kind of lighten things up. Life's too long to go through it without finding some enjoyment and things like that. And I think that that's also kind of the third sort of thing, is that I like just kind of peace and tranquility sort of thing.

AnaBelle Elliott:
OK, gotcha, gotcha. So now that we know a little bit more about you as a person, what made you decide you wanted to teach geography?

Dr. Brian Cooper:
Well, my love of geography goes back to when I was just a little kid. My father taught geography at the junior high, middle school level. He was a coach, football, basketball, and track. And when he first got to the school that he worked at for 31 years, they didn't have a PE position, and that's what his degrees were in. His degrees were in physical education, he had a bachelor's and a master's. And I wanted to be like my dad, like a lot of little boys do. And my dad was an excellent athlete. I mean, he was just one of those people who was a natural athlete. So, I wanted to be like my dad but I realized very early on I'm not really athletic. And so-

AnaBelle Elliott:
Did you feel pressured to go in that direction?

Dr. Brian Cooper:
No, my dad was awesome in that regard. In fact, my mom still raves about it, that he was just such an excellent father in that regard. Because he sat me down because I felt it or I felt like I needed to, but he never did that to me. And he sat down with me one time, he's like, "Son," he's like, "Do you enjoy sports? Playing sports?" And I was like, "I enjoy watching them." I was like, "Playing, I'm not really good at them." So he's like, "I did it because I enjoyed it." He's like, "If you don't enjoy it, you don't have to." And my mom said she watched my face as my dad was telling me that, and just like this burden just lifted off me. And she was like, "Just loved your dad so much as a father for what he did for you that day." It just took so much pressure off. So he was awesome in that regard.
And I think some of it came from the fact that he, in his career, had seen parents do that to kids, but it also wasn't in his character either. But yeah, it was great, I never felt any pressure in that regard. And that's one of the reasons why I love, I enjoy watching sports to this day. I think that had I experienced that, my attitudes would be a lot different. It was great.

AnaBelle Elliott:
OK. So where did that love of geography start then, if we're going back to childhood?

Dr. Brian Cooper:
I realized I couldn't be like my dad as an athlete, but I could be like him as a geographer. So I got his textbooks and I started reading, or, well, I've started flipping through them. It was before I was able to read, but I got fascinated with the map. My mom was an art teacher for 31 years, so I had gotten that aesthetic sensibility from her. And so I appreciated the maps as kind of works of art, which a lot of maps are. If they're really well done, they're works of art. So, I fell in love with the shapes and the colors. And then as I started reading, I found out that all these shapes that I had learned had personalities to them. Reading about their history and things like that, the lay of the land and their politics and their economies, it was just so fascinating. I loved it, but I never, ever thought of it as a career path until I got to college.
And my bachelor's degree is actually in biological science. And so originally, I wanted to go to med school. I wanted to be a doctor, a medical doctor. I am a doctor, but a medical doctor. I had to take six hours of social science for my gen ed credits, and I wanted to do something that was not going to be nearly as much of a workload, given that I was taking all this hardcore organic chemistry and systems physiology and vertebrate biology, just stuff that was, oh, I knew it was going to have a heavy workload. And so I was like world geography. I was like, I've been learning that since I was a little kid. So I was like, let's do world.
And so I took world, had a great professor and made an A in it. And it really, it was an easy A for me. And I just mean that from the fact that, like I said, I had been learning the world map and having that base to go off of, it just made things so much easier. But I had to take another three hours. I had six hours of the social science to take, so I knocked out world. And so I'm looking through the catalog and I say political geography, that looks interesting.
So I took political geography with Dr. Jim Miller at Clemson. And Dr. Miller fell, he just absolutely loved me as a student. He was like, "I've never had a geography student like you in any of my classes here at Clemson," and — because Clemson didn't have a geography department, they had a history in geography, but you could only minor in geography, you couldn't major in it. So he's used to having students who are just taking it as a minor or getting social studies certified to teach. And here comes this student who just is blowing the material away. And he asked, he's like, "What's your major, Brian?" He's like, "I really got to know where you came from." And so I said, "I'm biological sciences and I want to go to med school." And he's like, "OK," he's like, "I don't want to derail that, but," he's like, "Do something with your geography. You're just too good."

AnaBelle Elliott:
Wow, that's got to be like a confidence boost.

Dr. Brian Cooper:
Oh, it absolutely was, because I'm sitting here going, I'm like, I didn't realize I was that good. This was the first high level geography I'd ever done. And I really loved it, I love political geography and I still do. I taught it for a number of years here at Texas State when I first started. So, that planted the seed.
End of my junior year, I take the MCAT, I do well on it, I'm ready to start applying for med school, but over the summer I'm kind of dragging my feet and I don't know why. First day of my senior year I'm sitting in advanced biochemistry, but I'm sitting in class and all of a sudden I have an epiphany. I'm like, I don't want to do this the rest of my life, I want to teach college geography.

AnaBelle Elliott:
What was it? Can you describe that moment?

Dr. Brian Cooper:
It was just, I was sitting there, the professor had drawn hemoglobin on the board. And the reason I remember that is because it had that big iron, that FE atom in the center of it. And I just said to myself, finally it clicked that I wanted to teach college geography.

AnaBelle Elliott:
Well, thank God for hemoglobin.

Dr. Brian Cooper:
Well, yeah, I mean, and for a lot of reasons. It doesn't just keep us alive, it sometimes changes the path of our lives.
So I went that afternoon and I talked to my geography professor, and he was like... And he mentioned there's a school, Southwest Texas State. And I was like, where is that? I'm thinking, in my mind, I'm picturing the southwest corner of the state, like Big Ben. And I didn't realize at the time, it's the southwest inhabited portion of Texas, where most of the people live. And he said San Marcos, the chair out there actually taught here at Clemson, Lawrence Estaville. And I said OK, so I started investigating it and I came out here and I fell in love with the campus, because how could you not? And so I applied, but I got accepted, got an assistantship, came out here.
I ended up working for three years as a graduate assistant for an absolute legend here at Texas State, Dr. Byron Augustin, Doc Augustin. He was arguably the most popular professor on campus for many, many years. And he helped build our department by bringing in students, recruiting majors. But working for him and seeing how he taught, and he's still the best classroom teacher I've ever seen in my life. No offense to all the other great teachers that I've ever seen, but he just had a way of captivating 350 kids in a room and locking them in and getting them interested and passionate about geography, and changing their lives. And I always like to say I got a master's degree in how to teach college geography from those three years working with him.
And then after my third year, which was my first year of my Ph.D., and so the summer of 2003, I had 35 students in a world geography class, and I was absolutely a ball of nerves. But I have always had kind of the ability to get up in front of people, even if I'm nervous, I have no problem getting up and talking in front of people. And I was actually emailed, a former student of mine this morning, he talked about how he had butterflies getting in the classroom for the first time this semester. And I told him, I said, "Hey, fun fact, I had them for years until, I've been doing this for a while. It just takes time. It does go away," because he talked in his email about, oh, he's like, "You made it look so easy." I was like, it was never easy. It was never always easy, let's put it that way.
Now, I can walk into the classroom just straight out of getting out of bed if I wanted to and be able to start rattling off my lectures, especially world geography. I always say that I can teach that class in my sleep now. You remember, I didn't have any lecture notes. I just taught it off the top of my head.

AnaBelle Elliott:
I was always wondering how you were remembering everything.

Dr. Brian Cooper:
That has been a blessing and a curse in my life, mostly a blessing. I have just an excellent memory. I have a great memory for names and faces. I have a great memory for just a lot of things that I've read and learned throughout the years. It's been a real asset to me in my career, I will say that.

AnaBelle Elliott:
Well, thank you for giving us that timeline. It sounds like several times in your life you have been picked out and chosen by name because of your hard work or because of what you've shown. Have you noticed that?

Dr. Brian Cooper:
I have, and I always say I had opportunities and I took full advantage of them as much as I could. I had that opportunity in my mind, I was only teaching for two classes that first fall of 2007 I was back. But I said to myself, "I'm going to make the most of it. I'm going to show them why they called me up in July." And I went in and I did the best job that I could, got great evaluations, and they continued on and on and all that did was just build the support that I got from everybody. Everybody was like, we were right to bet on this guy.
But most of all, my students are the biggest reason why I have my career, why I have my job. Without them enjoying what I do and appreciating what I do, I would not have gotten hired. I wouldn't have gotten that call back in July of 2007 to come back in the first place. And all the other things that have happened would not have happened either. So, the biggest reason why and the biggest debt that I owe is the students that I've had in my career.

AnaBelle Elliott:
Yeah, I love that, I love that. Well, I'm really excited about this next question I'm going to ask you.

Dr. Brian Cooper:
OK.

AnaBelle Elliott:
So when I took your class, you had a very specific and consistent greeting. And it's the same as when my older brother took your class on Zoom years before, I'm talking pandemic era. So, I've heard students from all over campus talk about how you start your class. And I was wondering, could you do your infamous greeting here live on Office Hours right now?

Dr. Brian Cooper:
Well, good morning folks. How are we doing today?

AnaBelle Elliott:
There we go. You heard it here.

Dr. Brian Cooper:
I've always been amazed at how that pops up on my evaluations. Back in the days when I was on Twitter, students would mention it when they email me, when they talk to me. And I, when I first started off my career, I was like, I can't just start talking about geography. I can't just start talking about Mexico or Spain or Algeria. I got to have something to transition. And so I was like, why not just a greeting, you know? So, good morning everyone, or well, good morning folks, how are we doing today? And I realized just what an impact that it made. And I was like, OK, well, keep it up.

AnaBelle Elliott:
Yeah.

Dr. Brian Cooper:
And it starts things off, it just gets that rhythm going.

AnaBelle Elliott:
Yeah, and you don't use any kind of mic and these are huge teaching spaces. Is that right?

Dr. Brian Cooper:
In the big theaters like Alkek and LBJ, I do use a mic in there just to make absolutely certain. However, I've had the mic go out teaching in those rooms.

AnaBelle Elliott:
You never know. You would never know.

Dr. Brian Cooper:
And I've had to go the analog way, and I can do it. And that comes from being the son of a football coach.

AnaBelle Elliott:
Well, I remember being in the kitchen and my brother's on your Zoom class over in the other room, and I remember hearing, "Well, good morning, class," real loud and being like, that's Coop.

Dr. Brian Cooper:
During the pandemic era, I wanted to replicate in my online videos as much of being in the classroom with me as I possibly could. I did a lot of the, I was really animated, like I am in class. I did a lot of silly stuff and things like that. When the cats would be around, I'd show them on camera. I had silly, I had LEGO dinosaurs perched on my monitor.

AnaBelle Elliott:
I've seen all of this. He would bring us over and show us the screen. You've got a big old fan club. You really do.

Dr. Brian Cooper:
Well, good, good.

AnaBelle Elliott:
How funny. Well, OK, so your lecturing style, now that we're talking about you in the classroom, it seems to be filled with humor and it's memorable, maybe even odd imagery, references, different anecdotes. It's a whole performance. So, what is your teaching philosophy?

Dr. Brian Cooper:
My teaching philosophy is, I try to put on a class that I would have enjoyed as a student. I understand just as reality, that my teaching style isn't for everybody. I get that, but a lot of students enjoy it. I have a lot of really good material. Even when I get off track, I still am on track. It's very, very rare that it's something just kind of personal or just side anecdotes that don't have anything to do with what we're talking about. Try and keep it relevant to something geographic, something that is relevant or at least even a life lesson, things like that, something valuable for the students. But I try and do things with humor because as I mentioned earlier, I'm like, that's just kind of my attitude towards life. I try and find the funny in everything.
My mom, she wrote me a big, long sappy note when I graduated high school, and one of the things she told me in that note that I've always stuck with was, "Keep your sense of humor," because she put in that note, she said, "It'll get you through tough times and there's going to be tough times," and absolutely has. But it also makes the good times a whole lot more fun. And I always look at it and I go, if I'm not having fun in class, they're not going to be having fun. And so if I feel like I'm enjoying class and I'm enjoying what I'm teaching and I'm finding some humor in it, things like that, that at least a lot of the students will find something that they can enjoy.

AnaBelle Elliott:
Well, to round off this episode, what advice do you have for students listening to this podcast?

Dr. Brian Cooper:
I would say, enjoy your time in college and use it to the best of your ability, not only in terms of getting yourself ready for your career path, what you want to do for your working life, but also for your non-working life. What you do outside of the classroom and outside of your job going on later in your life. Take some classes that you're just interested in, even if it doesn't build toward you... I get that there's restrictions now more, 120 hours, blah, blah, blah. I understand. But if you have the opportunity, take some things that just interest you. Even in your major, your minor, some of those random classes can just be some of the ones that you never know change your life. I took political geography and it ended up dramatically changing my life, and I ended up doing something now for 21 years that I absolutely love. I don't think that I was put on this planet to do anything other than teaching college geography.
And I always tell my students this, and it is still true, I've never had a bad day in the classroom. I've had bad days at work, but I've never had a bad day in the classroom. And so my advice to students is, find those things, you never know, but enjoy and appreciate your time here. Not only in the classroom, but outside the classroom. It's a lot of fun and it gets even better after. I always tell my students, I ask as we get towards the end of the semester, "How many of y'all are graduating?" Or on the day of the final, I always ask, "How many of y'all are graduating?" I get some hands and I go, "Congratulations," give a round of applause. But I always tell them, I'm like, "It's much more fun on this side of the classroom than on that side." And not to say that being on the student side is it can't be fun, it absolutely is fun. But it's a lot more fun when you take what you've learned in college and you apply it to your life.

AnaBelle Elliott:
Wow. As someone about to graduate, that's really comforting and really exciting.

Dr. Brian Cooper:
Yeah.

AnaBelle Elliott:
Yeah. Well, thank you so much for being here with us.

Dr. Brian Cooper:
Well, thank you, AnaBelle. I appreciate it.

AnaBelle Elliott:
It's fun to have been in your class to... Like, I am an advocate for, like, take this class, take Brian Cooper's class. It's incredible, it's fun, it's engaging, and it sticks with you for years. And to be able to sit down with you and then hear what's behind the scenes, that's really meaningful. So, I really appreciate it.

Dr. Brian Cooper:
Well, in marketing, y'all know, word of mouth is the best advertising that you can have. So, I appreciate that, more than you know. It's been that way my entire career, students telling, "Hey, take Coop's class." And so I deeply appreciate that. Thank you.

AnaBelle Elliott:
Yeah, thank you so much.
Thank you for listening to this episode of Office Hours. We hope you enjoyed this conversation, and make sure to tune in next time to learn more about the experiences of our amazing Texas State faculty. Also, remember to follow us on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and YouTube at TXST. This podcast is a production of the Division of Marketing and Communications at Texas State University. Podcasts appearing on the Texas State University Network represent the views of the host and the guest, not of Texas State University. Once again, I'm AnaBelle, and I'll see you next time.