Mustang News

South Western Graduate Named California State Professor of the Year.

Saratoga, California. The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and the Council for Advancement and Support of Education have named South Western High School Alumnus, Class of 1992, Andrew Kindon as the 2010 California Professor of the Year.  Dr. Kindon was selected from more than 300 top professors in the United States and teaches at West Valley College in Saratoga, California

Upon meeting Andrew Kindon for the first time, you might presume him to be a student, not a Ph.D. in Anthropology. His short-cropped hair, youthful features, casual beard and tattoos allow him to fit right in among his students. But engage him in a conversation and you come to understand why his students, his colleagues and the administration at West Valley College have been so enthusiastic about supporting his nomination for this prestigious award. “There are three qualities that define excellence as a teacher: passion for one’s field of study, unflagging enthusiasm for sharing that passion with students, and a deep-seated commitment to the purpose of education. Dr Kindon possesses these essential qualities and artfully melds them together to create an enriching and rigorous learning experience for students. The essence of Dr. Kindon’s teaching comes down to inspiration – he inspires his students, he believes in them, and he challenges them to examine the manner in which they interpret the world around them,” said Dr. Lori Gaskin, President of West Valley College.

A faculty member at West Valley College since 2004, Dr. Kindon earned his Ph.D. in Anthropology from UCLA. Growing up on a farm near Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, every year when the fields were plowed, new and different historic and prehistoric artifacts would be unearthed. These intrigued him and made him want to know more about the people who used them and what their life might have been like. His choice to be an Archaeologist developed from these early discoveries. And since his family had no television, he read a lot of National Geographic magazines and was fascinated by Aztec and Mayan cultures.

Today Andrew takes students to assist with archaeological research in Central America during the summer, with concentration in Belize and its Mayan sites where civilizations thrived between 200 and 900 AD.  He also works with students locally at the historic lime kilns in Wilder Ranch State Park in Santa Cruz. In Andrew Kindon’s own words, “The opportunity to take students into the field is incredibly important, as it brings them into the discipline in a way impossible to achieve in the classroom.  The level of excitement I see in students finding an artifact for the very first time always takes me back to my first excavations in college. I still feel that charge of exhilaration myself when I am in the field, and I love being able to share that with my students.  To receive an honor like this just makes something I love doing even better!”

Congratulations Dr. Kindon! Once a Mustang, Always a Mustang!