Rice Award Winner Julie Barst Leaves Career in Accounting to Teach English

By Doug Goodnough

A career in accounting just didn’t add up for Julie Barst.

After graduating from Central Michigan University with a degree in accounting and working as a successful CPA at one of the top accounting firms in the nation, Barst knew she wasn’t on the right path.

“I pretty quickly realized it wasn’t for me,” Barst said of her accounting job. “It wasn’t fulfilling me. It wasn’t making me happy.”

A mysterious debilitating back injury that laid her up for several months allowed her the time to reassess her career. When she recovered, she left her accounting position, returned to school, earned her master’s and doctorate in Literary Studies from Purdue University and started her new career in higher education.

Barst, who completed her seventh year as an English faculty member in Siena Heights University’s College of Arts and Sciences, was honored April 26 with the Eileen Rice Award for Outstanding Teaching.

Barst, an associate professor of English who also directs SHU’s Ethnic and Gender Studies Institute, said being honored with the award helps validate her decision to enter higher education.

“It’s the biggest honor of my career,” said Barst, fighting back tears. “Just to know that there’s this group of students who felt like I deserved that award, and to see the difference that they explained that I made in their lives as students and as people, it makes you feel like I chose the right path a long time ago.”

An expert in 19th century British Literature, Barst said what drew her to Siena Heights was its mission and the opportunity to teach courses outside of her concentration.

“All of that really spoke to me because it seemed to be a really great fit with the things that I prioritize in my teaching,” Barst said of her decision to come to Siena. “Respecting the dignity of all. That’s real and a valuable part of everything that we do here.”

She championed the Ethnic and Gender Studies Institute in 2016 at the encouragement of then-Dean Dr. Mark Schersten. This was the first institute in the University’s history, and Barst said she is hoping to expand its influence.

“It’s been a really nice honor to be able to work through that institute,” she said.

She also spearheaded another major initiative—the Scholarship Symposium. Conducted every spring on the Adrian campus, the event provides a venue for students from all majors and all campuses to showcase their academic achievement through a daylong program of presentations.

However, Barst said there’s nothing like the classroom experience with her students.

“I would say the most rewarding part of teaching is watching students succeed,” Barst said. “There’s nothing better than seeing (students) have little successes or big successes and knowing your class somehow helped them with that.”

And she said the caliber of student Siena Heights attracts is “amazing.”

“It’s fantastic the quality of the students that we get,” Barst said. “They give me a lot of hope in a lot of ways.”

Barst said students deal with more outside influences than ever before with things such as social media, part-time jobs, technology and co-curricular activities.

“It’s keeping all of us as professors and everyone at the institution on their toes,” she said.

As someone who has experience in the business world, Barst said she believes the English major has much to offer employers.

“It gives students the opportunity to develop their critical thinking skills, their oral and written communication skills,” she said. “These are all things that every employer wants no matter what field.”

Outside of the classroom, Barst said she is usually engrossed in a “triple-decker” Victorian novel like Charlotte Bronte’s “Villette,” and also reads contemporary short stories and poems. An avid fan of the outdoors, she is also passionate about the Detroit Tigers and Red Wings.

“I feel I have a better appreciation for what I now have than if I would have never gone down that other (accounting) path,” Barst said of her higher education career. “I went into this to be a teacher and to work with students and to do everything I could for them. … It just felt right from the get-go.”