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Finding his way to the front of the classroom

Posted by Sonya Jampolsky on March 13, 2023 in News

Bryce Crossā€™s career path has taken so many turns, itā€™s tempting to call him an ā€˜accidentalā€™ accounting professor. When heā€™s at the front of the classroom, though, heā€™s so comfortable that it doesnā€™t 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. ā€œA buddy and I decided we were going to be cops,ā€ he says. It only took a week, he adds, to figure out it wasnā€™t for them. ā€œSo, 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 ā€”get 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 didnā€™t feel right, so he broke out on his own. He found that to be plain ā€˜boringā€™ and discovered he missed having colleagues.

Bryceā€™s 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, ā€œI 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 wasnā€™t TAingā€. With that experience in mind, he decided to apply. Surprised to get the job, he decided, ā€œalright, well, I guess this is what I do now.ā€

ā€œHow do I ensure everybody gets across the line here?ā€

Even though he wasnā€™t much older than his students, Bryce says the hardest part wasnā€™t the content, but learning how to support the students on an emotional level.

He knows that ā€œthings 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 wasnā€™t going to be a pushover, he says his biggest question was, ā€œHow 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

Bryceā€™s 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 masterā€™s degree, Bryce isnā€™t entirely convinced heā€™s going back to being a Ph.D. student just yet. All he knows is that, for now, the classroom feels like home. Ā