Brigitte Dillet, Professor

That Dr. Dillet wound up at WNC to teach science classes is remarkable in itself. She grew up on a farm in France more than 5,000 miles away. But she discovered a love of teaching near the end of her college education when she was hired to teach junior high students. She pursued her doctorate of geology at the U.S. Geological Survey in Menlo Park, Calif., and also married, changing her plans to return to France. After briefly teaching at Lake Tahoe Community College, Dr. Dillet accepted a full-time teaching position on WNC’s Fallon campus and has been part of WNC ever since.

She loves the students and the size of WNC, which allows her to know many people by first name, and the teaching support she receives from college officials.

Dr. Dillet captivates listeners with her French accent and knowledge of the region. She is nearing her 40^th anniversary of living in the United States and enjoys rock climbing and cycling when not in the classroom.

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Q: What is your background and how did you end up at WNC? 

DR DILLET: I was born and grew up in France. I actually got all of my degrees in France and came to the U.S. when I was preparing for my PhD, to do some research at the U.S. Geological Survey in Menlo Park, Calif., in the 1980s. I’m close to my 40^th anniversary in the U.S., kind of scary to think about that. I returned to France to submit my dissertation, then I came back to the U.S. to get married, worked for a few years in the high-tech industry and then moved to Lake Tahoe and started teaching at Lake Tahoe Community College.

While I was teaching there, a full-time position in Geosciences opened in Fallon and I applied for that position and I’ve been at WNC since 1995. 

Q: Why do you like teaching at WNC?

DR DILLET: I like that it’s not too big of a college, so we know pretty much everybody. I like the small classes. I like the students. I’ve seen the student populations change over the years. This has been really interesting as well. I think at WNC we have a great supportive organization, geared toward teaching, and I feel really well-supported. Also, because this is Nevada, geology in Nevada is very visible. You see it everywhere. Because of the dry climate, you see the rocks everywhere, making geology really fascinating in Nevada. 

Q: Was there a teacher or a class that inspired you to become an educator or something else?

DR DILLET: In my fifth year in college, I was asked to be a teaching assistant, and I was a teaching assistant for lab classes … where students had to identify rocks and minerals. That same year in France, there was a company that hired students to go to teach the formation of oil at the junior high level, so I would go to different places to teach about oil and I just loved teaching. That was my niche!

Q: Describe your method of teaching students?

DR DILLET: I use a lot of handouts and students have to take notes. For example, I give a presentation and they have to take notes within those handouts. I also have exercises that we work on during the lecture. And we do what I call the low-tech version of clickers. Students prepare answer cards with big letters and I post questions on the board through PowerPoint presentations and they have to answer the questions with their cards. 

Q: Why would students want to enroll in your classes?

DR DILLET: My classes are science classes so I teach Earthquakes and Volcanoes; this is the general education class that I teach for any degree except for the Associate of Science. I also teach two other classes that can be taken for credit for the Associate of Science degree — one being Physical Geography (study of maps, seasons and the climate and weather) and Physical Geology where we study rocks, minerals, volcanoes, and more.

Q: There are a number of compelling reasons to pursue teaching as a career. Can you talk about what might inspire college students to become teachers?

DR DILLET: I don’t necessarily think my role is to motivate students to become educators, but what I see my role is and what I really try to inspire in them is to have an appreciation for the Earth. I try to make them more aware of the environment. That’s really my main goal. After my classes, it’s very rewarding, and even during the classes, it’s actually very rewarding to see their interest spark and to see them relate their experiences to the environment every day.

 Q: Where are some of the places you take students so they can learn about the Earth hands-on?

DR DILLET: I do that in the Physical Geology class; one of the places I’ve taken them is on the old V&T Railroad trail. We walk and talk about the Basin Range province. We walk along that dirt road and look at the rocks that are on that hill. We go up to the granite section of the trail.

Q: What is something unusual or unique that students don’t know about you?

DR DILLET: I am a rock climber; it’s my favorite activity in all of the activities that I’ve done throughout my life. I really like rock climbing because you have to be 100 percent focused on what you are going to do. It’s also very relaxing. When I moved to the U.S., I climbed a lot in Yosemite Valley. I don’t do that as much anymore because they are very long climbs; I don’t have that endurance anymore. I’ve climbed a lot around Tahoe, too. We are really lucky it has an indoor gym as well. I haven’t climbed the face of Half Dome, but there is a somewhat easier route on the side between the face and the cables. And the same thing on El Capitan, I have not done the multi-day pitch routes; I’ve only done shorter routes on the far right-hand side that take only one day.

Also, if students read my bio that I put in my online courses, they know that I grew up on a farm in France and that I actually became interested in Geology when I was 12 years old. Originally, I wanted to be a volcanologist, but it just didn’t work out that way.

I ride bicycles as well … If you are familiar with Fredericksburg Road at the bottom of the Sierra at Highway 88 near Foothill Road. On Fredericksburg Road, there is a farm where there are black and white cows in a field and there is water. When I ride my bicycle through there, the smells totally remind me of the farm I grew up on. Every time I go there, it’s like, ‘Oh my gosh, I feel like I’m at home.

Q: What advice would you give to future aspiring geologists?

DR DILLET: First, they would need to decide what type of geologist they would want to be, whether they would want to be in industry, mining, environmental or pursue an academic career. Before they make that decision, they should get a Bachelor of Science degree with geology as a major. UNR has a really good program for geology, so for students here, I would recommend they go to UNR and start their geology studies and then once they have their bachelor’s degree, they can decide which area they want to pursue. Everything that is related to the environment and water are the biggest areas to pursue nowadays.

Q: What suggestions would you have for someone that has to make a move to different country like you did when you were younger?

DR DILLET: Be open to the opportunities that come along. In your life, you will be making lots of decisions. Sometimes you will make mistakes, and that is OK. Be flexible and open.