The ideal teacher: Someone who does not make students pay for books, assigns exciting homework and uses great visuals. Fortunately, a teacher like this exists at Ohio State in the entomology department.

Dana Wrensch, who asks that her students address her by her first name, is a professor who is hard to forget. She has had many life-altering experiences that enable her to relate to each student.

Rob Michaud was Wrensch’s former teaching assistant for Entomology 500.

“She is a free-formed teacher who sticks with current events,” Michaud said. “She is simply the shizzle.”

Wrensch’s teaching style is unique. She starts out almost every day talking about the role entomology plays in the world. Students learn about entomology while looking at a picture of soldiers finding rare or newly discovered insects around the world.

Michaud laughed and said, “It is because she loves show and tell.”

It also excites her students because they know she is up to date on current affairs.

“I always make myself available and it is also important to never lose energy,” Wrensch said. “That is what makes me good – energy.”

She learned teaching skills from the personal attention she received when shewas a child from her own teachers.

She said she never felt she had roots growing up. She was moved from Mississippi to New Jersey to Oklahoma and then later to South Carolina. Her family moved around because her parents never felt comfortable in one area for a long time. She said she desperately wanted her teachers’ attention after giving up on making friends.

“I wanted my teachers to think I was a good girl, so I could be noticed somewhere.”

When she was in ninth grade she was placed in a special class with 17 other advanced students, in which they received a live broadcast about science every day. That special attention led her to realize her capabilities and would later lead her to how important instilling confidence in her own students is.

She became pregnant and was married by 16. She wanted to attend college in California, but said her plans were delayed because of her responsibilities to her child and family.

Still, school was important to her so she started taking night classes in South Carolina. Her husband wanted to move back to Ohio and within two years she received her undergraduate degree in zoology from OSU. After graduation, she was given a four-year fellowship and received her master’s and doctoral degrees in genetics.

At the time her marriage was in trouble and she was confused about which path to take in science. Soon she got divorced and later met a professor in entomology.

“It was love that brought me to entomology.”

She became interested in the field and began conducting research for OSU.

In 1989, she was given a position at OSU as an adjunct professor of entomology and began teaching Entomology 101 and 102. Because of her new husband’s sudden death she became a professor in more entomology classes. She now teaches Entomology 101, 102, 500 and biology 597.

It might seem unreal to an undergraduate to have a teacher who can relate to her students as much as Wrensch does. However, her life experiences have proved that she can relate on many levels. She seems to impact students and understand them.

When asked about one of her greatest accomplishments, she talked about a former student.

“There was this one girl who was an Italian major, struggling to pay for school. After she took my class, she decided to go to graduate school in tropical medicine and now is getting her Ph.D. in genetics”

“She invited me to her graduation,” she said. “I cannot wait to go.”