This is Crafton: T.L. Brink—Crafton is the right fit for him.

Publish Date: July 18, 2019

T.L. Brink celebrates 30 years of teaching at Crafton Hills College this year.

The milestone is a long time in the making for the professor of psychology given what he was doing before stepping foot onto the campus in the late 1980s.

“I used to live in the San Francisco Bay Area and had a very hectic life,” he explained. “I was doing research at Stanford, had a consulting company, and was working for a small university running two of their graduate programs. It was a lot of stress and didn’t come with a lot of fulfillment, so one day I told my wife I wanted to teach.”

Brink said he received a phone call from Crafton some time later inviting him to interview for a teaching position 453 miles from “home.” And when he arrived to campus, Brink noticed the friendliness of his would-be co-workers brought something refreshing to the table. Mix that in with the natural elements surrounding the college, Brink knew he’d fit right in.

“And I’ve been extremely happy at Crafton ever since,” he continued.

Psychology itself is a tough course to tackle, but Brink said he enjoys the subject because it is “at the center of everything” and opens a lot of doors to students thinking about entering the fields of social work, nursing or, perhaps, politics.

“I’m able to show my students something from psychology they can relate to,” Brink said. “And it has changed so much since I started getting interested in the subject. So, I make it a point to go to conventions each year, and by going to all of these places and learning new things, I’m picking up new techniques and tools along the way, which is very exciting.”

Those techniques and tools are then implemented into the classroom whether directly in an on-campus classroom or through online courses offered through the college. The flexibility of teaching online allows Brink to attend as many conventions as he pleases and is backed by the college’s administration, which adds to the excitement of the job, he said.

While this year marks Brink’s 30th at Crafton, the 69-year-old local resident doesn’t have any plans to slow down just yet – especially when it comes to watching his daughter follow in his footsteps teaching at a community college in Santa Clara and spending time with his wife of 44 years.

“I don’t know where the time flies, but I’ve enjoyed my time here,” Brink said. “When I first came down here, I could not find anyone who said, ‘That’s not my job.’ They were a bunch of people who worked as a team and were committed to student success. And that’s what has kept me here--along with the students who are really appreciative of the help you can give them.”