Three-Time Rice Award Winner Carl Kaster Helps Biology Students Take
‘The Next Step’

Carl Kaster’s father wanted him to be physician.

“When I was a college under-
graduate, if people asked me what I wanted to do when I graduated, I always said ‘medicine,’ ” he said. “If I said medicine, I didn’t have to talk about it any more, because they all knew what that meant. You wanted to be a physician.”

In fact, after working as an extern at an internal medicine private practice for a couple of years, he was ready to enter medical school at the University of Louisville.

“I met with the medical school dean,” Kaster said. “When we got through with that interview, he gave me the best advice I had had at that point. He said, ‘Stop thinking about doing what your family wants you to do. Do what you want to do. … You don’t want to be a physician, you want to be somebody who is training physicians.’ So here I am.”

So here he is at Siena Heights University, beginning his 34th year on campus as a professor of biology. Last spring, Kaster was honored with the Eileen K. Rice Award for Outstanding Teaching for the third time, which is more than any other SHU faculty member. And although many things have changed since he arrived on campus in the summer of 1982, some constants remain.

“Back in the 80s, parents saw us as some place their children are safe, and that hasn’t changed,” Kaster said. “Our students were also very provincial. I had students who had never been south of Findlay, Ohio. I had students who had never seen a cow, other than pictures. … It’s a little bit better today. But in terms of being provincial, our students are still very provincial. Students who have been accepted into graduate and professional schools in big cities are really afraid to go until we talk to them a little while.”

And he remains impressed with the quality of his students, as well as with his faculty colleagues.

“When I came here, I had students that I would put up against the best students anywhere,” Kaster said. “We still have those students today. They can go anywhere, do anything.

“I was impressed as a new faculty member with the faculty that were already here, in what they had done with regards to scholarship and teaching and innovation. I’m still impressed today with what some of our faculty are doing.”

Kaster, who is also the chair of the Computer, Mathematics and Sciences Division, has helped build the sciences into one of the most respected programs on campus. In fact, SHU biology graduates have a 95 percent acceptance rate into medical, chiropractic, podiatric, veterinary graduate school.

“We have had a tremendously good run,” said Kaster, who also credited fellow biology professors Jun Tsuji, Tom Wassmer and Milson Luce as well as chemistry faculty Tony Scioly, Steve Wathen and Julius Nagy. “The fact that they are all good teachers really does help get students into professional and graduate schools.”

Kaster also credited Sister Helen Duggan and Sister Sharon Weber—the people who helped bring him to Siena—for building a strong science foundation at Siena Heights.

Kaster said his teaching philosophy is simple.

“I care that the students learn,” he said. “They are paying a lot of money, so I want to make sure they’re getting their money’s worth. And nobody’s ever complained that they didn’t.”

He recognizes that Siena Heights is not the last educational step for most of his students.

“If you are a biology major, you will go on to professional schools or graduate schools, and they have to be ready for those,” Kaster said. “That’s part of my philosophy, is that they’re ready for the next step.”

And Kaster’s experience in the medical field helps him relate to those students as well.

“I’ve actually used that (medical experience) in almost all the courses that I teach here,” he said. “I think that’s one of the reasons I can communicate really well with our students who have goals in human medicine.”

So, what does the Rice Award mean to him?

“It means that I’m doing what I’m supposed to be doing,” Kaster said. “I think it does show some flexibility on my part, that I can change with the students. I think that’s important. I was so surprised. This was completely unexpected.”