All alone, he sat on a 370-foot temple-pyramid and watched the sunrise over Tikal, Guatemala. Remembering that early morning, Professor Thomas William Ulch II said, “You can feel all those people.”
Ulch considers himself more of a student than a professor. His classroom is the world, as he has visited more than 37 different countries using the old saying
“The more you learn, the more you realize you don’t know anything” as his guide.
With such a will to learn, Ulch found it funny he was put into a remedial reading
class in grade school.
He said, “I had probably read more books than [the teacher] had.”
From 1990 until 1993, Ulch served in the U.S. military. During this time, he started a poetry group with some of the other men.
When Ulch came back, the itch to learn still resided in him as he started taking
classes at Eastern Michigan University. Ulch was an English literature major, not knowing what he planned to do with the degree, aside from recollections of childhood memories; “I wanted to be a rock star, baby.”
That is, until he was standing in his modern literature class giving a
presentation. The ten-minute lecture turned into a two-hour teaching experience.
It was then Ulch realized he had a gift, and said, “Teaching is a calling, you can’t teach teaching.”
Still, without much of a subject area, Ulch walked into Lori Burlingame’s Native American literature course. It was Burlingame’s class that started to inspire Ulch of the direction of his studies, and even more importantly, his life.
Remembering the days when he first became interested in Native American studies, Ulch said, “I dug the culture and the literature.”
The more Ulch studied, the more he grew to like how Native American culture approached situations, and the more Ulch incorporated Native American philosophies into his daily life. Even when teaching his English 121 and Native American literature classes, Ulch opposes any forms of hierarchy saying, “In my class, it’s about all of us hanging out.”
For Ulch, the evidence of this method working is visible in the fact that in each class since 1999, “The group controls itself, with trying to teach the class like the literature we read.”
For Ulch, this method of teaching is important, since he views a Native American literature class as an opportunity to push some of those “taboo” buttons of religion and politics. He said it’s important to “get a taste of how people live and worship … We’re not always going to agree on things… and that’s okay. Life is richer when you disagree.”
As an effect of allowing each class to argue and discuss opinions and ideas, Ulch said, “students from former classes still get together.”
In between class discussions, Ulch takes time to incorporate some of his own experiences into the lessons, saying, “I am a story teller.”
His stories come from memories of actual visits of different countries and Native American reservations. Ulch said his favorite trip thus far was El Salvador.
A former student of Ulch’s Native American Literature class was the sister-in-law of the shaman, El Aleph, on a Native American reservation in El Salvador. When the student offered Ulch an opportunity to participate in the Temascal ceremony down on the reservation, Ulch jumped at the chance. Ulch compared his arrival down in El Salvador as having “went down like a babe in the wood.”
Being of a completely different culture from the El Aleph and Lupee’s family, Ulch was amazed at the hospitality they had for him, and said, “They were the warmest people.”
From his stories, Ulch’s goal is that, “I want people to realize that Native Cultures exist… they’re still here.”
Ulch’s stories carry a special perspective in the classroom that has resulted in Ulch being honored with the “Outstanding Lecturer Award” by EMU.
Ulch’s experiences have affected EMU outside the classroom as well. Ulch is the founder of the annual “Halloween Canned Food Drive” on campus. The event takes place Halloween Night during the official trick-or-treat hours. During this time, student, alumni and families get into groups and drive down the neighborhoods of Ypsilanti, going door to door and asking for canned food.
Ulch stresses the idea is “folks in Ypsi helping Ypsi.”
Ulch said he welcomes anyone and everyone to come to the event, the only requirement being you have to wear a costume.
“I’m one dude with a random idea,” he said. “We go out and have a good time for three hours and can feed a thousand. That’s amazing.”
The cans collected from the “Halloween Canned Food Drive” go to SOS Community Crisis and Safe House for Women. Each year the drive collects about 1,000 cans, with a grand total of having collected over 20,000 cans.
After the drive, Ulch organizes the cans into boxes and drives about five boxes worth of cans to the shelters each week.
“It’s such a small thing to collect cans,” he said. “I’m just trying to leave things just a little better than I found them. I’m just a little sparrow, not a hawk or an eagle, but a little sparrow.”
Having inspired 70 students last year to participate in this event, both current and alumni of his class, Ulch’s message of trying to do everything one can for his or her community has certainly touched the lives of many.
As a man who attempts to live what he teaches, Ulch’s advice for the students at EMU is simple:
“Don’t be a jerk. Be ready to think and be ready to work. It’s not about me, it’s about us.”
To contact Ulch about the “Halloween Canned Food Drive” or his trips, please contact him at tulch@emich.edu or via his website www.thomasulchphotography.com/
