MILES CITY, MONTANA: Kristin Buck grew up on the outskirts of Miles City in Kinsey, Montana and had her first job working with sugar beets, which is possibly where her ideas for her future career started.
Kristin has been working at the college for 17 years and is the science technology instructor, teaching courses like chemistry, organic/biochemistry, and one of her favorites, Livestock Feeding and Nutrition.
“I love college chemistry because I just love chemistry,” stated Kristin. “We go into enough detail to make it fun for the students.”
Her day-to-day duties include teaching classes three days a week and running labs and grading on the other two. “When I’m not teaching, I’m prepping to teach.”
Kristin’s favorite part of working at MCC is the students. Teaching comes naturally and she loves being able to teach her students to apply their coursework to their everyday lives.
Her favorite piece of advice comes naturally as an instructor and recommends relying on learning rather than grades alone, as it will serve better in the long run. “Focus on learning,” she tells her students and peers. “Learn all you can about anything that you can!”
And while Kristin loves seeing her students go on and achieve their goals, her biggest achievement in her own life is her family, as she enjoys chasing her kids and livestock when she’s not working at MCC. She describes herself as caring, laidback, sarcastic, committed, and analytical and imagines that she would be teaching somewhere (perhaps high school) else if not currently employed at the college.
“I love to travel and see historical places,” stated Kristin when asked what adventure or experience she would like to someday have. “But I’ve had a lot of adventures of my own and now I want to experience sharing that with others. I think that’s why I like to travel with my kids.
“And I think that’s why I love to help students be motivated. I want them to do things...and see things...and most of all, experience things.”
