by Lisa Heasley

She never imagined she would publicly speak for a living, but God led her into teaching, she said. At 24 years old, she came back to CU to teach English.

After the current spring semester, Beach will be done teaching full time at Cornerstone.

Beach said the timing has not been her choice, and she is very sad about leaving. Her years at CU taught her many things, gained her many friends and brought her out of her shell.

“Being a professor helped me to get out of myself. I was really shy when I began. Teaching taught me how to step over myself,” Beach said.

Her students have always been important to her.

“There’s a sense of humility in that I’m honored by those who are open to be challenged and changed, and trust me for that. Some students move through without opening themselves, but some do and that is the real joy in teaching,” Beach said.

Beach said every year there are a few students who are particularly important to her, and she forms close relationships with them. She even stood in a wedding for a student years ago.

Two students she mentioned who are close to her are junior Libby Burton and sophomore Jorge Jaramillo. Burton and Jaramillo are both sad to see Beach go.

“I am honestly left a little bit speechless when it comes to words to express how much Professor Beach means to me. She has been a light and breath of encouragement over the past year,” Burton said. “Through the constant care, passion and love Professor Beach has in her heart for her students, writing and life I am encouraged to seek out my passion of writing. I may be inexperienced, unpublished and young, but she has consistently provided advice, support and wisdom to cultivate this gift.”

Beach said something she’s loved in teaching writing is when students “give what they have,” and read what they have written to their classmates.

“Seeing them choose this, standing in front of their peers, swallowing hard and reading moves me tremendously,” she said. “I about bust with joy. They are learning to hear their own voice. It’s enormous risk, and some choose it.”

Jaramillo said he is saddened by Beach leaving.

“We learn a lot of things in college, but so far nothing has stood out to me like Intro to Literature with Professor Beach. I loved all the discussion that occurred in that course. Everything seemed to directly apply to my life in some way,” he said. “I felt like I was truly learning something in a class that many people, quite frankly, often blow off and take lightly.”

“I’ve loved when, in Intro to Lit class, students grapple with Emily Dickinson or Wendell Berry,” Beach said. “They enter the struggle that making meaning demands and stay with it. Then, their faces brighten. There can be such an ‘aha’ moment. Moments like that thrill me.”

One thing Beach loved about teaching at CU was the ability to be able to talk about God with students in class. She said it was significant to her that she could pray at the start of class and invite God into the room and believe he is there.

“I am endlessly thankful for her time and encouragement to continue to show my talent,” Burton said. “God has blessed her immensely to be a blessing unto others.”

Jaramillo said he hopes he can impact lives someday as Beach has.

“People may pride themselves in their ability to compute complex math equations in math and science but I will be too distracted to hear them, knowing simpler, and in my opinion much more profound things concerning suffering, hope and love,” Jaramillo said. “Suffering, hope and love in and of themselves are not simple matters but even the simple truths buried in them are like gold to me. Nobody on this planet is an exception to certain things. We all bleed. We all cry. We all love. We all hate. We all want to be loved. We all want to be forgiven. I’ve learned all this and more from Professor Beach.”