Roet makes geography fun
Globe trotter makes world cultures come alive to students
By Piper Huddleston
Skiff Staff

The only thing Jeff Roet, a geography lecturer, said he regrets about his teaching career is not making enough money to provide all of his geography students with paid-for trips and excursions throughout the world.

Roet, known as Dr. Jeff to his students, said his love for geography is rooted in his curiosity about the world. He said he desperately wants to know and understand how physical environments relate to the history and culture of a people. Roet said he has traveled to 31 countries and been to every continent except Antarctica.

Inside his Reed Hall office, surrounded by colorful maps, photographs and postcards his students have sent him from destinations all over the world, Roet plans and organizes study abroad excursions. His most recent projects are two study abroad trips this summer, one to Australia and one to Rome and Pompeii.

Instead of transporting students to exotic locations, he arranges budgets, accommodations, sightseeing destinations and transportation to ensure that his trips are both appealing and affordable to his students.

Being a geography teacher can be challenging, Roet said. He said his ultimate goal is to create mental pictures in students’ minds using photographs, slides and colorful language to help them develop an intellectual understanding of geography.

Ben Tillman, an assistant professor of geography, said he has no doubt that Roet’s zeal and love for geography is effective enough when teaching.

“Jeff’s enthusiasm is infectious,” Tillman said. “He is able to make places come alive for students.”

Tillman said Roet makes an effort to get his students excited about geography by interacting with them outside of the classroom.

Roet said he occasionally takes his students out to lunch at different ethnic restaurants, like an Indian or Vietnamese restaurant, to discuss the food and how it relates to a particular culture.

Roet said the only way to truly experience geography is to travel and see different lands and cultures. He said geography can not be mastered in a classroom or from a textbook.

“Every teacher wants to see their students grow,” Roet said. “With geography, the best way for students to grow is to take them places.”

This is the basis of why Roet plans trips for his students. Taking students abroad has become an indispensable part of teaching for him.

Roet said since he arrived at TCU in 1999, he has taken students on eight different trips around the world, including Rome, Sicily, Guatemala, New York City, Paris, Honduras and Mexico City.

Roet’s wife, Jeanette Rice, has joined him on two excursions with TCU students. When Roet travels with students, he explores himself and his limits related to geography as much as his students are, Rice said. Being a geographer herself, she said, she is delighted by the satisfaction Roet experiences when he watches students investigate a new place.

“Jeff loves nothing more than helping students understand their environment,” Rice said. “Seeing him in the role of leading students with his boundless energy is exciting to me.”

Roet stumbled upon his passion when he was 19 years old and took a year off at the State University of New York in Buffalo to travel in India. Fascinated by the variations of land and people in India, it occurred to him that he would love to be able to study different physical and human characteristics of regions and how they relate to each other.

Upon returning to Buffalo, he searched for a major that would allow him to study regional characteristics. He was turned down at both the anthropology and economics departments, but was directed to the geography department.

Roet said geography is an inherent part of his and his wife’s lives. He said when they travel, they travel as geographers and are having fun, but are also working at the same time.

Will Brooks, a junior marketing major, traveled to Sicily and Rome with Roet in summer 2002. He said Roet does not waste any time while traveling. Brooks said he saw parts of Rome and Sicily that only natives know about.

“I thought about hiding his walking shoes from him one day just so we could take a break, but then I realized it was pointless,” Brooks said. “He would walk around Italy barefoot before he would miss a day of exploring.”

On Roet’s New York excursions, he would take students to the top of the World Trade Center as a teaching tool. Geographers like to look at a city from a very tall building or a high point, like a mountain, he said.

During his last New York trip, he took his students to the site where the World Trade Center had been because he felt there was another lesson involved.

“My students went to go see where the World Trade Center had been and I felt that there were connections,” Roet said. “Even though we lost something, there was still plenty of geography. My students couldn’t go to the top, but they still understood the lesson of its importance.”

Currently at TCU there are about 20 geography minors. Many of the minors come from social science majors, such as history, international business or communications, Roet said.

Rachel Chutchian, a junior English major, said she chose to minor in geography just from taking Roet’s classes.

“The way Dr. Jeff teaches helps put the whole world in perspective,” Chutchian said.
Chutchian said Roet has had a tremendous influence on her college career. She is seriously considering getting her master’s degree in geography when she graduates and then hopes to teach geography.

Roet has been teaching for just more than 20 years and has taught at the University of Houston at Clear Lake, San Jacinto College in Houston, Rice University, the University of Texas at San Antonio and Southern Methodist University.

“Without geography, we are nowhere,” Roet said. “I should make that into a bumper sticker.”

k.p.huddleston@tcu.edu