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male narrator: Meteorology Professor David Changon is one of the nation’s leading scholars
in applied climatology and a 2008 Presidential Teaching Professorship Award winner. His research
focuses on the human and societal impacts of climate change by studying trends of temperature
and precipitation. He has also shown how businesses can benefit from long-term seasonal forecasts;
but those who benefit most from Changnon’s dedication, are NIU meteorology students.
Dr. Changnon: A big part of the role of having them observe data, is not only just to see
the instruments and work with that, but to understand what goes into creating the huge
temperature or precipitation data base which we then use to analyze various different problems,
not just in DeKalb or Northern Illinois but across the country.
narrator: Changnon helps students land internships at major corporations and local television
stations. One of his most successful partnerships is with WGN TV’s famous meteorologist Tom
Skilling, who has helped train over 50 NIU interns.
Dr. Changnon: And We’re very grateful that Tom Skilling and WGN have opened up their
doors to get involved with internships and clearly this is an important part of the educational
pursuit is that these education career activities- internships or a cap stone experience or study
abroad are critical for our students if they’re really going to become engaged in their learning.
Tom is one of these kind of guys that if you’re going to work for him, you’re going to get
engaged.
Tom Skilling: We’ve had interns from all different schools and universities literally
from around the country, and I would place the NIU interns right at the top of the list.
These young people are fine. And of course, the NIU meteorology program has an incredible
track record in our profession. Dave is referred to by his students as, “Dr. C”. They love
him, they just love him. They love him as a human being, they love him as an instructor.
Dr. Lesley Rigg: I think what makes Dave special is his ability to blend research, teaching,
and service so that it’s a continuum, there’s no one thing that is what Dave focuses on,
everything is connected. For he sees the student, their education, their learning. He sees their
research potential, he sees their role in his research and how the whole package fits
together from a university standpoint.
Dr. Changnon: We’ve gotta have connections within our university. We've gotta make time
as faculty and staff to learn what others do so we can identify opportunities for our
students to engage themselves in their education and broaden their learning experience, and
that’s what we’re all here for, really.