Jim Marcum
MA, ‘86
Lombard, IL
Retired
Can you share some highlights or meaningful moments from your life since you graduated from LSTC?
While I was not sure what my future role would be, I was sure that God had not called me to ordained ministry. Initially, I started my own company teaching workshops on personality types demonstrating the consequent implications of their own type for teachers, clergy, etc., in understanding the many different styles of learning represented in their classroom or parish. The hopeful outcome was to enable them to understand their own preferred style of teaching and how that would be experienced by their students/laity.
Surprisingly, while I was renting space from Elmhurst College (now Elmhurst University) I was invited to teach theology in the summer of 1988. Who would have guessed I would end up full time for almost 25 years until retirement in 2012 at the age of 69. I really wasn’t wanting to retire even then, but my aunt had a medical event that prevented her from being able to live alone. I retired and moved to Nebraska to care for her. We just returned to the Chicago area last year. She passed away at almost 101.
How has your LSTC experience shaped your journey?
LSTC fully prepared me for a career I had not anticipated, mainly since I only had a master’s degree and faculty at the college were required to have a PhD. After five years teaching full time, the college arranged a full-time position for me as Associate Director of Academic Services, a position where I handled computer technology exclusively for faculty. They wanted a faculty person to handle technology for faculty which allowed me to continue teaching for the rest of my tenure at the college. After six years, if one did not receive tenure, they would not be able to continue teaching there. Those years are the most meaningful of my entire life in terms of job satisfaction and there never was a day that I didn’t want to go to work. I had much more energy for my work than at any other time in my work life. I was 44 when I graduated from LSTC.
All the courses I took during my time at LSTC uniquely equipped me for a job I never knew I would have. God works in mysterious ways for sure. While we are trying to figure out our path, God is at work guiding us even, or perhaps, especially when we are unaware.
Do you have any words of encouragement for current students?
My encouragement for students would be to trust God to lead you in the right direction and be open to whatever he brings your way even when you do not have a felt sense of his guidance. He is there, never absent even though we are sometimes absent from him. I took several courses at CTU (now LSTC’s location), and all were important for my future. One comment that Dr. Lozano made while I was there, and there were many great ones, was, “The itinerary of prayer is the cultivation of the awareness of the presence of God.” I can offer no more important recommendation to any student other than to make that a regular practice.
