Skander Lazrak will tell you his calling was never teaching.<\/p>\n
As a graduate student at the University of Montreal, he wanted only to do research, not be at the head of a class.<\/p>\n
But he also knew standing behind a lectern was inevitable, given his ambitions of earning his PhD in finance from Concordia University. His goal was to continue doing work that would make him a thought leader rather than work on Bay Street and the front lines of the finance industry.<\/p>\n
So no one was more surprised than Lazrak when he realized he loved being in front of students as a professor that first time he taught at U of M.<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought, \u2018Wow, this is for me,\u2019\u201d he recalls. \u201cThat\u2019s what I wanted to do. I can share my opinions, my knowledge. I can explain it all. That appeals to me personally.\u201d<\/p>\n
The way he does all of that also appeals to his students. Lazrak was honoured with the Goodman School of Business Award for Excellence in Teaching during Brock\u2019s Spring Convocation on Thursday, June 16 and delivered the morning ceremony\u2019s Convocation address. <\/span><\/p>\n Earning the distinction, he admits, is almost as surprising as learning he loved to teach.<\/p>\n \u201cRecognition for teaching is really, really great, especially for my area,\u201d Lazrak says. \u201cI\u2019m in finance. It\u2019s usually dry and hard. That\u2019s not easy, at least for undergraduates.\u201d<\/p>\n Still, Lazrak has a way to make information stick, get mind-bending concepts across clearly and even convince some of his students to make finance the focus of their studies and futures.<\/p>\n \u201cI let students know it\u2019s in their best interest to learn this. I show them how important this is in real life,\u201d Lazrak says. \u201cI get them enthusiastic about the topic. I get them to see it\u2019s interesting.”<\/p>\n As interesting as he saw teaching could be all those years ago in Montreal.<\/p>\n After experiencing that rush with the first lecture he gave, Lazrak knew for certain academia was his professional destiny. He trained in pedagogy while doing his PhD at Concordia to make sure he would be the best version of himself in front of a class, even though working on Bay Street was an appealing option.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is the best job for me,\u201d he says. \u201cI do research and then I teach students. I spark their enthusiasm in the subject. I feel it has an impact.\u201d<\/p>\n But students continuously spark his enthusiasm, too. It\u2019s a feedback loop, he explains. Students ask him questions; he asks them questions. They discuss current issues like real estate prices and consumer behaviour. He shares his knowledge and relevant examples often using math models. All in, it\u2019s \u201csomething powerful,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n But perhaps the most powerful of all \u2014 even more than winning an award affirming his career choice \u2014 is the ongoing relationships he establishes with those who really get what Lazrak does in a lecture hall.<\/p>\n He often has students provide him with their personal email addresses after graduation so they can stay in touch, no longer as mentor and prot\u00e9g\u00e9, but as equals.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s the best thing, receiving that kind of recognition,\u201d Lazrak says. \u201cOnce students finish their studies, they\u2019re no longer students for me. They\u2019re friends. We are now colleagues.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Skander Lazrak will tell you his calling was never teaching.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":78917,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[39,7,1,4665],"tags":[156,2852,594,10960,1759,10474],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78906"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=78906"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78906\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":78918,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78906\/revisions\/78918"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/78917"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=78906"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=78906"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=78906"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}