Introducing Dr. Julius Demps II
Dr. Julius Demps II is a faculty member in the UFred School of Business at the University of Fredericton (UFred). His academic career began with a Bachelor’s degree from Florida State University in sociology, with a minor in business and biology. He then continued his education by completing his Master of Human Resources Development at Webster University, followed by a Ph.D. in organizational leadership from Northcentral University.
Just like many UFred students, Dr. Demps completed his final two degrees in a non-traditional manner; he was working full-time and had a newborn child at home during his Ph.D. His unique understanding of the challenges that come with advancing your education while maintaining a work-life balance have resulted in a commitment to bring empathy into his classrooms whenever possible. He has now been teaching at a graduate level for more than 21 years, mostly at at Jacksonville University.
Currently, he is in his second year of teaching at UFred where he teaches courses in both the MBA and EMBA programs including, Leadership Theory and Practice, Strategic Human Resource Planning, and Recruitment and Selection.
The UFred Experience: Welcoming Faculty, Talented Students, and an Environment that Fosters Growth
A point of pride in the Sandermoen School of Business has always been a high level of interaction and collaboration between both professors and students and at a peer-to-peer level, but those aren’t the only relationships where engagement is fostered. Sandermoen faculty are also engaged with each other, focusing on collaboration and continuous improvement whenever possible.
“It caught me off guard during my first UFred meeting two years ago when I noticed how much people really wanted my opinion. I felt as though I was in a safe space; I said things and saw my colleagues write everything down, they paid attention, and they acknowledged what I had to say. They’re a very talented group of professionals”.
Dr. Demps has found that UFred faculty members are very welcoming and encourage discussion to make sure everyone’s voices are heard. This support among faculty is particularly important as professors at UFred share in the unique experience of working exclusively in a virtual environment, mostly with mature students who already have full-time careers and life commitments. Dr. Demps says engaging students online can have its challenges, especially as you are trying to lead students who have already been at work for at least 8 hours. Despite these obstacles, UFred students are still ready to rise:
“It is my job to engage, to invite, and even to entertain in many instances. The thing that I think students need to know to get the most out of their experience in terms of being an online learner is that you need to participate; that you only get out of it what you put into it. Because of this, we work synergistically to make sure that both the student and the professor are engaging with one another. I’m not lecturing; I’m facilitating… they may have already seen this stuff in their organizations and in their lives, so I like to think of this as a process where we have an intense level of awakenings and engagement. When we learn like this, that hour and a half virtual class just evaporates”.
The students that Dr. Demps has taught thus far have exceeded his expectations and have even helped him to elevate his own abilities as a professor. When it came to the MBA and EMBA students at UFred, Dr. Demps said:
“I mean this from the bottom of my heart: UFred students have consistently been the most highly engaged, highly invested, most intelligent concentration of students I have ever seen in one place, at one time. It’s been a wonderful experience for me”.
Sometimes, when asked about the highlights of teaching, a specific moment stands out above all others. For Dr. Demps, it has been a culmination of many moments, most revolving around his interactions with students and the impact he’s had.
“I would consider the highlight of my time with UFred to be the point in time where I began to be consistently validated as having made a difference in peoples lives. When people started saying to me ‘Julius, I took what you said to me to work, and it changed everything’ or ‘I never thought of things in that way’ or ‘you helped change my mind about this topic’”.
The highlight of his UFred career thus far has been less about a single moment for Dr. Demps and rather a continuous evolution and growth among his students that he has the pleasure of re-experiencing each time new students pass through his courses.
Looking Forward: The Future of Online Learning
UFred has fully embraced online learning since its inception, operating as an exclusively online university. In terms of what’s next for virtual learning spaces, Dr. Demps sees current university students wanting to have more control over their education:
“I think the future of education has been thrust upon us exponentially faster than we thought it would be due to the pandemic. What I’m learning about online learning in light of this is that I firmly believe there is no going back. The graduate learner, and even the undergraduate learner, what they want now is choice. They want the freedom to participate synchronously or asynchronously, they want to be able to be a mom, a dad, a corporate executive, and still earn their education simultaneously. I think that the days of only offering a product in a building, in bricks and mortar, are behind us. We realize and the people have spoken: we want to be engaged, we want to be invested, but we want to engage in this process on our terms.”
As for what that means for faculty and universities, Dr. Demps believes that academics and academic institutions will need to continue to focus on delivering quality programs that hold the same value and interactivity as face-to-face counterparts. This means working with each other to collaborate, solve problems, and bring a high level of energy to their teaching in these new environments.
Academia and Beyond: Using Knowledge and Skills to Build Community
Outside of his role as Professor at the universities that he teaches at, Dr. Demps also values working in his community where he can have a different impact than he has in the classroom. He recently made the choice to take a step back from academic research in order to take on a Board-level position with the Baptist Health Foundation, which is the largest hospital board in Northeast Florida. “For me, it’s been an awakening, something that I’m involved in that shows me there’s more going on outside the world than what’s going on inside of my bubble.”
This board gives back to the community as a major philanthropic body for all hospitals, ERs, and doctors’ offices in Northeast Florida as well as the MD Anderson Cancer Clinic and the Wolfson Children’s Hospital. One initiative in particular that Dr. Demps is excited about is a program called AgeWell which provides seniors with transportation, therapy services, assistance with pharmaceuticals, and more.
Although Dr. Demps understands the significant value in academic research, he was happy to take a step back and work on a project that impacted his overall community. He realized that “if people are not working in my scope of research, they may have limited exposure to it, but as a community servant, I am able to have a greater impact on different people”.
This interview with Dr. Demps is the first interview in a new series featuring UFred faculty members. To listen to Dr. Demps’ full interview, click here.