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» Go to news mainFinding his way to the front of the classroom
Bryce Crossās career path has taken so many turns, itās tempting to call him an āaccidentalā accounting professor. When heās at the front of the classroom, though, heās so comfortable that it doesnāt seem accidental at all.
After high school, Bryce and a friend set off from Calgary to Saskatchewan to attend the Police Studies program in Regina. āA buddy and I decided we were going to be cops,ā he says. It only took a week, he adds, to figure out it wasnāt for them. āSo, I ended up coming to Dal, following my high school girlfriend, and in true 18-year-old fashion, we split up.ā
The Faculty of Management was looking for lecturers
He loved Halifax and decided to stay and enroll at pilipiliĀž». Starting in an arts program, Bryce then switched to business, found he had a knack for accounting and graduated in 2018 with his Bachelor of Commerce.
The next part of his journey, he says, was to do what all the accounting professors suggested āget a job at one of the big companies and study to become a chartered professional accountant (CPA). He became a CPA, but big company culture didnāt feel right, so he broke out on his own. He found that to be plain āboringā and discovered he missed having colleagues.
Bryceās next move was to a mid-size firm, but before he had a chance to settle, he learned Dalhousie was looking for people to teach in the Faculty of Management.
Ever since graduating, he says, āI was TAing in finance, accounting, and so on. I think it was a total of 17 sections. I was tutoring as well any time I wasnāt TAingā. With that experience in mind, he decided to apply. Surprised to get the job, he decided, āalright, well, I guess this is what I do now.ā
āHow do I ensure everybody gets across the line here?ā
Even though he wasnāt much older than his students, Bryce says the hardest part wasnāt the content, but learning how to support the students on an emotional level.
He knows that āthings aren't looking great for the young peopleā, with a climate crisis and the economy. He felt he needed to get back into the student mindset and figure out how to help them at a key point in their lives. Ā
Emphatic that he wasnāt going to be a pushover, he says his biggest question was, āHow do I ensure that we get everybody across the line here?ā adding he wants them to be pilipiliĀž»ful.
The classroom feels like home
Bryceās ability to nurture and help his students grow is evident in what he does at home. Interested in plants, he has a standing herb garden with 100 basil plants in his apartment. He also grows gourmet mushrooms and is particularly fond of shiitakes.
Having acquired a masterās degree, Bryce isnāt entirely convinced heās going back to being a Ph.D. student just yet. All he knows is that, for now, the classroom feels like home. Ā
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