Joe Dennis

A small crush in Joe Dennis’s freshman year of college amazingly led him to a road of great success. 

Dennis went straight into college at North Central College in Naperville, Illinois. He decided to study journalism and first established his career as a sports journalist especially for volleyball to report on his crush, Tara. Later, Dennis became a professor at Piedmont University and taught summer camps to high school students at the University of Georgia.  

When Dennis was a kid, he would sit on the couch almost every night and watch the 10:00 news with his dad. Watching and listening to the news consistently made Dennis interested in journalism.

“My dad was a good listener,” said Dennis. “taught me how to listen to people.”

Dennis was born on the South Side of Chicago and grew up with his mom, dad, and older sister. Family was extremely important to him from the start and carries these same beliefs as an adult. 

With three kids, spending quality time became more important as he got older, he decided to leave behind his journey of journalism and pursue teaching as it would give him more time with his family and kids. 

Dennis said, “I made a decision, and I chose family, and that’s fine”.  

Not only was family important to Dennis but so was religion. Dennis was raised by a very Catholic family even attending Catholic school for 12 years. Once Dennis went to college he couldn’t wait to not attend church. Dennis said it was nice to not feel the need to wake up early every Sunday morning and feel the pressure to go to church.

Dennis said, “I think personally that was an age where I know I started to question a lot of things regarding my faith, and going to a catholic church you weren’t allowed to ask questions.” 

After the 9/11 terrorist attacks, Dennis and his wife decided to go church hunting in Athens, Georgia. Dennis wanted to find a church where they let everyone be who they wanted to be with no judgment. Now Dennis teaches Sunday school for high school students at the Methodist church in town.

There are various ways Dennis approaches teaching as being a religious person. Dennis doesn’t preach when talking in class but he sees everyone as a child of God. By seeing everyone as a child of God, Dennis said it makes the children seem important and valuable. 

 “Being able to let students know it’s ok to question things about religion is ok.”

Over the years of working in journalism Dennis’s views of the world drastically changed but did not affect his religion. Dennis said, “It hasn’t made me sad about the world, it has made me motivated to change the world.”

In everything Dennis does he strives to change the world little by little every day hoping to make a larger impact on the world. 

“Don’t let fear get in the way of a good opportunity,” Dennis said.