She’s come a long way in 26 years, and while she still has plenty of room to keep going, it won’t be at Maryville College. Jan Taylor, senior lecturer in composition, will retire at the end of the 2025-26 academic year.

Her title is a deceptively simple one, and gives no hint about the vast array of positions she’s held since coming to MC as a tutor. Before that, she was a stay-at-home mother and small business owner, but around the turn of the century, she decided to make a career change.

“My reason to come to the College? I love being in a classroom!” she said. “I (mostly) enjoyed school as a student, and I’ve learned that I’m happy on either side of the teaching/learning conversation.”

When Taylor came to MC in 2000 as a K-12 tutor in what was then the Learning Center, she hadn’t quite finished her own college degree. It wasn’t long before she earned a Bachelor of Science in Liberal Studies from Excelsior College in New York, with concentrations in biology, writing, and education. She went on to obtain a Master’s in Higher Education and a Master of Fine Arts from Goddard College. At Maryville College, it became clear that her skills and hunger for learning required additional vocational challenges, so she was named coordinator of the center’s tutors and transitioned to a full-time academic support liaison.

In 2011, she was given her own classroom as a lecturer in first-year composition for the English Department. It was, she said, a great opportunity.

Putting pen to paper — or rather, fingers to a keyboard — is a way to cut through the noise, Taylor pointed out. Through their devices, students are bombarded with an overwhelming amount of ideas, opinions, information and misinformation, Taylor said, and writing can serve as an anchor for critical thinking. Making room for their own thoughts and opinions, she added, is more important today than it’s ever been.

That’s also the point of the College’s AI Initiative, she added.

“Our approach is, ‘Slow down and do some thinking of your own,’” she said. “AI can be a useful tool, but it can’t replace what someone actually thinks, and writing can help students articulate and clarify their thoughts.”

Taylor has kept abreast of technological possibilities throughout her time at MC, beginning with shifting carbon triplicate progress reports to electronic forms. Along the way, she picked up a web authoring certificate from Nashville State Community College and a Media Literacy certificate from Appalachian State University. In addition, she completed a short course about tech-related pedagogy for face-to-face classrooms, and her training and experimentation with the Tartan LMS (learning management system) were put to good use when COVID necessitated the pivot to online learning.

When she came up for air, her three-year tenure as assistant dean was over, COVID had subsided, and AI was a new academic challenge that needed to be addressed. AI, it appeared, wasn’t just a new techno trend bound to fade with time; students were embracing it, and a plan was needed. Taylor dove into the AI rabbit hole headfirst.

“If they’re going to use AI, we need to give them guidance,” she said. “Last spring I created an AI literacy curriculum, which our Composition and Speech team integrated into the syllabi and assignments. Now, at the end of our pilot year, we have data to refine our plan.”

One thing is certain: Taylor is more than ready to talk about it. On April 9, a number of alumni will come to campus to discuss AI in the workplace; on May 12 and 13 at the Maryville College Downtown Center, the College will host its second annual AI Summit to bring together educators, business and nonprofit leaders and community members interested in the ways AI continues to shape education, work and society.

“I’d like to stay in the AI conversation (after retirement) because I find it fascinating, and there’s so much for all of us to think about,” Taylor said. “But what that will look like remains uncertain.”

There are no firm plans beyond her last day on campus, but AI isn’t the only tool among her various skillsets with which she can find meaningful post-Maryville College work … which she plans to seek out, because there’s not really an “off” switch for Jan Taylor, especially when she’s faced with a problematic challenge.

“If I’m learning, I feel more alive, and as a place that’s given me challenges and opportunities to grow and smart colleagues who like to think, it’s been awesome.”

Maryville College is a nationally ranked institution of higher learning and one of America’s oldest colleges, located in Maryville, Tennessee, between the Great Smoky Mountains National Park and the city of Knoxville. Maryville College offers more than 60 majors, seven pre-professional programs and career preparation from their first day on campus to their last, in the words of our Presbyterian founder, to “do good on the largest possible scale.”

Karen Eldridge, Executive Director of Communications: karen.eldridge@maryvillecollege.edu.

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