March 3, 2023, GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. - As both a professor and a tutor, Tom Neils is always looking for opportunities to help students have a “lightbulb moment” - when a student fully understands a concept.
Neils came to GRCC 25 years ago to teach a variety of chemistry courses. Upon retiring in 2021, Neils became a tutor for the TRIO program to continue supporting students.
TRIO is a federally funded program that supports first-generation, low-income students, and students with disabilities during their college experience. The program's assistance ranges from academic and financial support to personal counseling and physical needs.
“TRIO is special because everyone works so diligently to help the students not only succeed in their studies, but also learn about all the opportunities available to them after they graduate from GRCC,” Neils said.
Working with students is the best part of Neils’s day. He tutors all STEM topics, but enjoys chemistry and math the most. As a tutor he is able to identify the hurdles that prevent a student from learning a specific skill or topic. A level of personal attention that was not as easily given in the classroom. Neils is impressed that students have so many great questions, and are eager to learn.
Neils is always looking for opportunities to continue learning. Over the past 15 years he has worked with colleagues and textbook authors to correct an error that has existed in the chemistry world for a long time about the pKa of water. The error appears in many common use textbooks, and Neils has written many modules and letters to get it corrected.
Since beginning the work in 2006, he and his colleagues have been able to get several textbook authors to make the changes and also some reference tables on the Internet. Their work was acknowledged by one of the most prestigious chemical journals, The Journal of the American Chemical Society. Neils and his colleague were invited to record a YouTube video with the editor-in-chief to discuss the error and their work to correct it.
Neils’s passion for chemistry motivates him to encourage students to pursue their own passions.
Neils tells students, “Choose a career that you are passionate about. If you are not sure what you want to do, take courses in a wide variety of fields so that you can find what is of interest to you. In either case, community college is a great place to start!”
More information about the Physical Sciences is available here.
More information about TRIO is available here.