As noted by one letter writer, “He is a spell-binding presenter, a showman with pizzazz as well as substance, who utilizes humor, rhetorical flourishes, and a fast-paced delivery to keep students interested and engaged. He so thoroughly inhabits his ideas that his presentations often seem off the cuff, even though he works diligently on them.”
Chrol has been at Marshall for 12 years and has also received the university’s Pickens-Queen Teaching Award and the West Virginia Foreign Language Teachers Association’s Outstanding Teacher of the Year Award. While a graduate student at the University of Southern California, he was honored with departmental and university-wide teaching awards.
One of his popular classes is, “The Rhetoric of Seduction,” designed to enable students to think through campaign rhetoric. Local and state politicians visit class as guest lecturers, which not only offers lessons in rhetoric but introduces students to successful men and women, many of whom have similar backgrounds to theirs.
That’s one of a number of ways in which he tries to broaden students’ horizons, also traveling with them to regional conferences. He has also offered a team-taught major seminar on horoscopes, divination and astrology, which included a field trip atop a parking garage for a lesson on the casting of horoscopes, according to several ancient systems. Also, Chrol incorporates oral Latin into his Latin classes, uses gamification and simulation in language and culture classes, and regularly teaches “Reacting to the Past” modules. Chrol mentors students who aim to teach Latin and those interested in graduate programs, and he regularly fills his classes and has contributed to enrollment growth across the program.
For more information, contact Chrol at 304-696-4323 or chrol@marshall.edu.