Written By Sara Anderton
The fedora-wearing professor, Joe Dennis works at Piedmont University, a private liberal arts college. Dennis teaches his college students and his own kids journalism.
“I have no senior family members that did journalism. I’m the first one to do it, as far as I know,” said Dennis. “My oldest son did a little bit in high school. He won some awards for it too but he’s more into computer programming. My fourteen-year-old has expressed a lot of interest when I’m just talking about things. He has a weird fascination in it. I’m like oh cool, maybe he’ll take after me.”
He has matching tattoos with his oldest son of the sun and stars from the Philipino flag. It connects the two to their culture along with their father-son bond. Dennis also wrote a blog about his three sons and how he raised them along with some fun moments.
Now Dennis writes editorial pieces based on his students lives.
“The day after the election I had students in my office; I had an openly bisexual student, I had an illegal immigrant, I had a self-identified feminist and I had someone with severe anxiety and an African American student,” Dennis said. “They were all devastated and they were waiting for me. I keep my door unlocked and they were all waiting there. They needed someone to talk to, someone to vent to, someone to know they weren’t alone and that really inspired me.”
Dennis has loved being a teacher to his students. They inspire him to write. He gets to be a safe space for them, which is different from his catholic school. The professor enjoys seeing what his students have learned and how they have grown in their writing skills.
And the fedoras?
“Yeah, I have 6 fedoras that I own,” said Dennis.
Most of them are light because of Georgia’s hot weather.
“I do have a favorite, it’s a black fedora,” Dennis said, “I purchased it at the House of Blues in Chicago. It’s kinda the same fedora supposedly that the Blues Brothers wore in the 1980s movie that I loved. So that’s kinda my special fedora. It’s thicker, it’s wool, so I really only wear it in the winter.”
We can see how education matters to Dennis. He continues to teach and wants more people to be interested in journalism. He cares for humanity and enjoys talking to others and learning their stories.
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