Tatiana Ballion is a professor of psychology here at WSC and has officially been here for a whole year.

Ballion spent most of her childhood in Sterling Heights, MI, and lived outside of Iowa City, IA and Orlando, FL, as her mom was a professor. While in Florida with her mother, she attended the University of Central Florida and received her bachelor’s in psychology, master’s in liberal studies with a focus in psychology, and earned her PhD in applied experimental and human factors psychology.

As a graduate student, Ballion was an adjunct professor for what is now Valencia College. She was able to travel around the school’s satellite campuses located in places like Daytona and Coco in FL.

After her mom passed away, she started applying for positions outside of Florida. “Florida is a wonderful place to visit, but not a great place to live,” Ballion said.

She felt the people there were very superficial and more focused on their appearance to the public than living a healthy life. Since Ballion grew up with Midwest values and pace of life, she found it difficult to connect with those in her Florida community.

Now that Ballion has been in Wayne, NE for a year, she is teaching many courses within the Psychology department including lifespan psychology, social psychology, experimental psychology, personality theory and evolutionary psychology. In the future she would like to create a forensic psychology course as she has not only had the idea on her own, but students have approached her expressing interest as well.

Ballion wants to teach so that students may gain knowledge of life to do better than she has done.

“A good teacher allows their students to surpass their accomplishments,” Ballion said. She wants her students to find inspiration and interest in the fundamental aspects of life.

“Don’t expect someone to give you the answers,” Ballion said. “Learn to question yourself, not in a negative way, but to be able to reevaluate. It’s not good to always doubt yourself, but also not to be so sure that you are always right.”

Even though Ballion has only been here a year, she appreciates the support from other faculty and staff.

“They are the most fantastic people I could have ever met,” Ballion said.

She knows if she has any issues at all there will always be someone there to help her figure out a solution. She loves the community spirit and is looking forward to getting more involved in campus life, such as visiting people at athletic events while being able to see students enjoy their college experience.