A professor in not one, but three departments on campus, Dr. Sonia Manuel-Dupont loves interacting with her students.

"They have such different personalities and different world views. They could view the same problem and all see different solutions," she said.

Teaching courses in USU's English, education and engineering departments, Dupont said despite differences, the common threads among her students are their dedication and hard work.

Saying choosing a favorite course would be like asking an artist to choose a favorite painting, Dupont's specialty is language restoration. Dupont spent several summers teaching Native American undergraduates and devising alphabets with the language experts and elders of the Maricopa tribe in Arizona.

"It hardly seemed like work," she said. "It felt more like just listening to stories."

Regardless of the subject, Dupont said she hopes to instill a sense of global and community responsibility within her students.

"I want them to come away with the sense they need to be contributing," she said. "I want them to leave with the skills they need to make a meaningful contribution -- whether it be building a bridge, helping a kindergartner or restoring speech, they're enriching someone's life."

Dupont practices what she preaches. Both her family and her Girl Scout troop are "big in to animal rescue." Her family washes all the laundry for the PetsMart animal shelter and currently shelters 52 cats.

Teaching a variety of courses allows her to explore areas she had never considered as an undergraduate, such as engineering, she said. All of her courses are communications related, though, and regardless of the subject, the rewards of teaching are the same.

"I love seeing students be successful," she said. "I've had students from 30 years ago write me and tell me something we covered in class has been significant in their training. That makes it all worthwhile."

-- PHOTO BY JOSH J. RUSSELL; TEXT BY BROOKE NELSON