Vail-Eagle Valley Campus part-time faculty of the year
Accounting and economics adjunct professor Rich Tarmey is passionate about teaching and his subjects, but he also continues to learn from this students.
“I think I’ve learned more from the students than they learned from me,” said Tarmey, who was named the Colorado Mountain College Vail-Eagle Valley part-time faculty of the year for 2008. “People from all over the world are here, and they incorporate their experiences too.”
Tarmey, who has a master’s degree in economics from Northeastern University, is in his fifth year teaching at the college, following a 25-year career in corporate finance. After professional success including a job as a chief financial officer, Tarmey thought he would retire at age 52 and become the ski bum he had wanted to be as a youth. His love of learning and of finance brought him to the CMC classroom.
Tarmey teaches interactive classes with a goal of achieving 100 percent in-class participation from his students in just a few weeks. Student evaluations note Tarmey brings energy, humor, passion and international experience to the classroom.
The economics professor said one of his favorite lessons in his microeconomics class is a production simulation for making valentines to illustrate concepts such as diminishing marginal productivity. In his macroeconomics class, students learn about relevant topics such as outsourcing, globalization and the current U.S. economic stimulus package. In accounting classes, Tarmey engages students through a review of quarterly and annual reports of ski resorts.
Students say Tarmey manages to make numbers interesting. As one student noted, “I am going to take Accounting II next semester because he is teaching it, and I know I’ll understand it well because of that.”