From an agricultural engineer in Spain to a University professor, Maria Navarro’s journey has taken her across disciplines and around the globe – but her biggest change came from within.

“When I first came [to the University] in ’99 I was working on my Ph.D and I started teaching part time,” she said. “Teaching at that time was just something that most of the people who go through their Ph.Ds do.”

She did not predict her just-because part-time teaching job would grow into a passion for education she couldn’t imagine living without.

Ag professor Maria Navarro moved to Georgia from Spain where she was an engineer. She came to Georgia to finish her Ph.D and became a member of staff. MARIJA VULETIC/Staff

“It was not an occupation that I felt was giving my contribution to development,” Navarro said. “I didn’t see the relationship between it and my teaching.”

But something happened: The teacher learned from her own lessons.

“As I have been evolving in my teaching I have understood what I want my students to understand,” she said. “Your contribution to whatever your passion is – fighting hunger, literacy of kids, or whatever it is – can be accomplished in many different ways.”

It just so happened that her way to contribute to poverty elimination and agricultural development wasn’t in the field — it was in the classroom.

“First I was doing it just because and now I just don’t see if I could survive without,” Navarro said. “Then I just had to do it, it’s part of the essence of where my passion is.”

Over the next few years, she would develop dialogue-based teaching methods to encourage students to view issues from different perspectives.

“I was called on to critically examine my own preconceived – and previously undetected – notions, only to be surprised by what I found,” said Jeremy Akin, a former student of Navarro’s. “We students appreciated the new relevance this multi-disciplinary approach breathed into our coursework.”

Akin said Navarro’s emphasis on critical thinking and creativity made a lasting impression.

In 2010, the same year he graduated with a degree in International Affairs, he was awarded a Fulbright Research Fellowship to study in Uganda.

“The purpose of the research was to … [contribute] to the problem of rampant land injustice,” Akin said. “I would probably never have picked up on the importance of land if it weren’t for Dr. Navarro’s class.”

But Navarro doesn’t take credit for his success — she believes instilling passion is a teacher’s responsibility.

“I would never claim that his success is because of me,” Navarro said. “But he always said my class opened his eyes to things he had never thought were important in development.”

As she teaches her students, a critical step to being effective lies in assessment of current conditions. Her first step was to analyze the existing curriculum and identify what it lacked.

“I started with the classes that were already happening in the department,” Navarro said. “I did see a need to have the students who were in agriculture expand their world on the social issues of agriculture around the world.”

She is now teaching only courses she started.

“The students in ‘ag’ were very technical and I thought they were missing a formal class … focusing on social issues,” Navarro said. “Now I can modify [the courses] – the issues are progressive and I can change them as they go.”

Another student particularly identified with Navarro’s views.

“It was amazing how in-line her interests were with mine,” Tyson Deal, a masters student and teacher’s assistant to Navarro, said. “We’re both interested in international agricultural development, but from a perspective of the people. That’s what struck me.”

Deal considers Navarro one of the biggest reasons for returning for the agricultural leadership program.

“I knew I would have her guidance and she’s done a lot of the things I hope to do one day,” Deal said. “Because of her interest and experience, I felt I could gain from her knowledge.”

And the relationship is symbiotic, Navarro takes as much from her students as they take from her.

“I also learn from the students because if I want to answer them I have to study it, look at it and think about it,” she said. “My research keeps me in-depth in specific things but my students help me go broad.”