Karina Gonzalez
When walking near the Social Science building, don’t be alarmed by the loud booming voice of a hillbilly.
Not to worry, it’s just History Professor Tristan J. Traviolia beating the understanding of history into his students.
He began teaching at Pierce in the spring of 2005 and at CSUN in 2001 as a part-time professor.
“I choose to teach at Pierce because it is a teaching college, and it’s a great fit for me,” said Traviolia who got his master’s degree in history from CSUN.
Traviolia, 44, was born in Torrance, Calif., but was raised in Tulsa, Okla.
In order to not be such a burden by his single mother, he spent his summers on his aunt’s farm, where he learned about agriculture. He loves driving onto campus via De Soto Avenue to smell the animal manure and to see the corn grow, because it reminds him of home.
“Pierce is an oasis in the valley,” Traviolia said. ‘It’s something you don’t find at other campuses.”
Traviolia moved to California in 1978 to reunite with his girlfriend. They have been married for 18 years, with one child.
From the age of 27 to 38, Traviolia worked his way from Santa Monica College to graduate school.
After serving six years in the U.S. Army stationed at Fort Leonard Wood, Mo. and Redstone Arsenal, Alaska, repairing electronic systems of anti-tank missiles, Traviolia began taking automotive classes at SMC in 1988 to become a mechanic.
However, he was not as passionate for automobiles as he was for his love of history.
“Discussing ideas is the easiest part of my job,” said Traviolia.
The story telling ability that brings history alive to his students is what he loves most about teaching.
“I like the immediate exchange of ideas a classroom offers, said Traviolia”
He loves his students because they all differ in age, education, economics, language and ethnicity.
“The hardest part of teaching is trying to communicate history to such a diverse classroom effectively,” said Traviolia.
“One thing that amazes me about my students is how bright and gifted many of my students are in their insight, questions and eloquent writing,” Traviolia said excitedly. “You never know who is sitting out there in front of you.”
He promised to only test students on what they know and to not assign work they could not earn credit from. Also, he never lets his students out of class early.
“My students pay me to teach them history,” Traviolia said, “and I don’t want the Dean’s office flooded with complaints about students cheated out of five minutes of their history class.”
Not being so big on “name-and-date history,” Traviolia likes to relate what he is teaching by making clear correlations with the past.
“Understanding history will help them in their life,” he said, “any current social topic has a historical perspective that is valuable.”
Traviolia measures his success as a professor by whether or not his students come to class. Happy to see they do, he likes to keep the lines of communication open.
“I am very honest about my failures,” he said, “and if I don’t know an answer to a question I go home and research it until I do.”
Above all, Traviolia believes in respecting his students for what they do today and what they will accomplish tomorrow.
In the future, he would like to teach a History in American Movies class to show students how social times have changed based on American films from the 1920’s to the present.
He wants to keep teaching no matter what because it’s what keeps him young.
“I cannot imagine not having a new class every semester,” Traviolia said, “and I want to keep teaching at Pierce as long as I can.”