Name: Scott C. Esplin
BYU employee since: 2006
My job at BYU is: Religion professor.
Currently I'm working on... a book telling the story of the Church's 20th century return to and restoration of Nauvoo.
Scott and his daughter at the Liberty Jail Historic Site.
I get most excited about my work when... students find meaning in the gospel and the history of the Church and apply these messages in their daily lives.
What makes teaching the greatest job in the world is... the Spirit that enters a classroom as you study truth.
The best advice I've ever got about teaching is... you teach what and who you are. I love a statement by Elder Neal A. Maxwell:
Each of you realizes... that you teach what you are. It is that lesson in the memories of your students which will outlast all other lessons that you will teach. Your teaching techniques will be secondary to what you are as an individual. Your traits will be more remembered, compositely, than a particular truth in a particular lesson. This is as it should be, for if our discipleship is serious, it will show, and it will be remembered... You can't be a successful teacher in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, not can I, if things are not right in our eternal callings. (Neal A. Maxwell, But a Few Days, p. 2)
I've been a BYU fan ever since... as a little kid, I lived in the old Heritage Halls one summer (early 1980s) while my dad attended graduate school. I would walk to the Wilkinson Center candy counter (now Jamba Juice) with my brothers and buy candy, go bowling, or play on the old indoor miniature golf course.
My favorite BYU tradition is... watching students walk past members of the Board of Trustees in the graduation processionals.
My favorite spot on campus is... the stream that runs along the hill on the south side of campus.
My favorite Cougar athlete is... my son Spencer, future quarterback for the 2030 national championship BYU football team.
On Saturday mornings you'll find me... cooking crepes and watching College Gameday on ESPN with my kids.
My go-to comfort food is... wood-fired pizza.
Three things that are always found in my refrigerator are: leftover pizza, authentic southern barbecue sauce, and European chocolate.
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