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It’s All About the Students: Dr. Bek Orr

Royall Bryan
Arianna Gordon
This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at CNU chapter.

If you attended our 3C’s event on Thursday, November 9th, then you probably saw and/or interacted with Dr. Bek Orr. Never without a pair of Doc Martins and a simple silver nose ring, Dr. Orr teaches in the Department of Sociology, Social Work, and Anthropology here at CNU. Read on to learn some interesting tidbits about this amazing professor! Shout-out to HC at CNU photographer Arianna Gordon for taking some AMAZING pictures!

Hometown: Whitney Point, New York

Alma Mater(s): SUNY Brockport, Syracuse University

Major(s): BA in Sociology with Minor in Women’s and Gender Studies; Master’s & PhD in Sociology with Advanced Certificate in Gender Studies.

Years Teaching at CNU: 4

I met with Dr. Orr in her office in Luter, which is filled with knickknacks, photos, and gadgets that show off her personality and give a slice of insight into her life outside of teaching. When you meet Dr. Orr, the first thing you notice about her is her smile: she’s always happy to see her students, which she claims are her “favorite part of teaching at CNU.” Over the past four year teaching here, Dr. Orr says that she loves being so close with her students. “At first, it was a little weird,” she admitted, “because, compared to bigger schools, there’s usually this divide between students and professors. That’s not how it is here.”

In fact, Dr. Orr has become so accustomed to the student-professor culture here at CNU that when she went to defend her dissertation (re: become a Dr. of Sociology), she basically experienced culture shock while at Syracuse: “It was so different.”

Oh, yeah — Dr. Orr just recently became “Dr.”! “It’s hard,” she says when asked about what it’s like. “I think if you talked to me three months ago I’d say I’d never be finished, but now I’m sitting here saying, ‘Yes, it’s possible, and it’s worth it.’” She admits that sometimes, she’ll just be sitting and then think Dang, I’m a Dr. now! It’s probably one of the most well-earned accomplishments of her life: she’s a first-generation college student, and has been the whole way through.

One of the other things Dr. Orr loves about CNU? She gets to work with her wife, Dr. Jenn Billinson! She admitted that at first it was a bit strange — “We’d be walking to work and I’d just stop holding her hand because it was so weird!” — but eventually she got used to it, much like everything else here at CNU. “It’s so funny because we get our teaching styles from each other. Everyone’s always like, ‘If you love Billinson, take Orr,’ or ‘If you love Orr, take Billinson,’ and that’s because when we were in grad school, we’d observe each other’s classes and give each other advice.” It’s even funnier because they work in the same building, and a lot of times the curriculums overlap between the two departments.

But, this whole idea of work is so different to her than how her — and our — parents probably felt about it. I asked her not just how the two groups think differently but why. This, of course, is something that speaks sociologically; we think in whys to get a deeper understanding of the hows. Her response makes so much sense: “When our parents were growing up, they’d get done with school, start a job, and that one job would lead to a career for the next fifty years
 As the economy changed, and the world changed, how we viewed and were able to get jobs changed with it.” This was just one of the many questions she was able to talk about during our event at the beginning of November.

Dr. Orr was amazing to talk to. If you ever have the chance, take a class with her — she teaches Sociological Theory, Women & Gender Studies, and a few other Sociology courses. You’ll be in for a treat! Special thanks to her for attending our 3C’s event and allowing us to Profile her.

You can categorize Royall as either Leslie Knope when she has her color-coded binders: or Hyde whenever Jackie comes into a room before they start dating: There is no in-between.  Royall recently graduated with her B.A. in Sociology & Anthropology from CNU and now studies Government & International Relations at Regent University. She also serves as the Victim Advocate and Community Outreach Coordinator for Isle of Wight Co., VA in Victim Witness Services. Within Her Campus, she served as a Chapter Writer for CNU for one year, a Campus Expansion Assistant for a semester, Campus Correspondent for two years, and is in the middle of her second semester as a Chapter Advisor.  You can find her in the corner of a subway-tiled coffee shop somewhere, investigating identity experiences of members of Black Greek Letter Organizations at Primarily White Institutions as well as public perceptions of migrants and refugees. Or fantasizing about ziplining arcoss the French Alps. 
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