Instructor Biography
My name is Ryan Hanson and I have been teaching at CWI since the spring of 2015. I became a full-time faculty member with the Business Department in January of 2016. Prior to this, I spent ten years working in the IT industry at Hewlett Packard, supporting IT Infrastructure for US Government contracts. I received my MBA from Northwest Nazarene University in 2012. I was born and raised here in Idaho, and have four lovely children.
My Philosophy of Teaching
The hardest college course I ever took was Leadership. I was partway through my MBA and this class wasn’t about facts and figures or processes and procedures. It was about who I was as a person and how I could use my abilities and strengths to define my OWN purpose and become a leader. The class forced me to hold a mirror up to myself. Armed with a better understanding of myself, I began to get a better idea of what I wanted for my life rather than simply working to support my family. This experience was the catalyst for pursuing a role as a professor, and for the development of my teaching philosophy: Engage students by giving them the skills and knowledge they need to define and reach their goals.
My Professional Philosophy
I believe that education is the single greatest asset of any society. An educated person is one with more opportunities whether that education comes from a formal schooling or life experiences. In order to advance society, we need to advance the individuals who make up that society. Community colleges offer that advancement to everyone.
My strengths and interests have always tended toward the accumulation of knowledge. My love of reading and solving puzzles has been lifelong and will continue until I am cold in the ground. Knowledge unlocked doors that I never would have been able to get through without it. My goal is to share my knowledge with students so they can unlock their own doors.
CWI’s mission of expanding the learning and life opportunities of the Treasure Valley and beyond dovetails with my own goals of bringing learning to those who wouldn’t otherwise have access to it. The value of a public education was instilled in me by my parents. They served as teachers and administrators in the Nampa School District for most of their lives. To them, every student was worth the time and effort it took to help them to grow.
Another key life lesson was sportsmanship, demonstrated to me by my father. He embodied the idea that it isn’t whether you win or lose, but how you play the game that matters. This starts with respect for others. Everyone has a story to tell and experience they can draw on. It may not look like my experience, but their stories can enrich how I understand my own.
Finally, I try to listen every day. To students, to colleagues, to my children, to everyone I interact with. Larry King once said: "I remind myself every morning: Nothing I say this day will teach me anything. So if I'm going to learn, I must do it by listening."