Learnin' 'Bout Lytal

At this point in the semester, we’re moving closer to the finish line. At the beginning, we had some new additions to the staff and faculty of Blue Mountain College. This article is a continuation of a series meant to introduce the newcomers with a mixture of serious and not-so-serious questions.

The second person featured is Professor Lytal. Professor Lytal is the newest addition to our Science department, and one of Blue Mountain College’s own graduates. If you’ve had a class with her all semester, then you’re probably already familiar with her kindness and love for science. But, if you haven’t had her class yet, you probably aren’t as familiar with her. To help with that, I sat down with Professor Lytal and interviewed her.

Q: Why did you choose to teach at BMC?

A: Because Blue Mountain is where I’m from. If you talk about Blue Mountain or you talk about my past education, it is Blue Mountain, so everything I know came from here. […] The memories of how I became who I am as a teacher started here. Over the past year, God has really been showing me a new direction with my life, along with my career. I’ve been really feeling like college is that direction. […] So, I’m so thankful and I’m thankful it’s Blue Mountain, which is a part of my heart.

Q: You said before that you went from a focus in nursing to just plain science education because you really like science. But, what about science do you like? What pulled you into it?

A: I like the wonder of it. There’s so much that we don’t know about science, so it’s an area that I can focus in, that I can constantly learn more about. And, I like that aspect of it, just constantly learning.

Q: If you could pick the brain of any scientist, living or not, who would you choose and why?

A: I would want to choose Albert Einstein […]. I’d like to just be in his brain for a second to know how he thought to come up with some of the – theory of relativity, like what where does that even come from? And, I would like to know his confidence level. I’m in a class right now at Ole Miss where it’s all about the history and nature of science, and I’m learning that […] [scientists] had to really be their own advocate for all their own theories and ideas. And, so, I would just like to know, you know, was he scared to come out with a new theory? Or, did he have huge confidence and he just knew he would be the greatest person in the world?

Q: What’s your favorite Bible Verse?

A: Philippians 4:6 – […] the gist of it is to worry about nothing and pray about everything. It’s kinda how I get through life – especially as crazy busy as I am. You hear all the time, just give it to God – which is so much easier said than done. But I think if you kind of live that verse – don’t worry about it, let God handle it – you really can just let God handle it. You pray about it, and then you just let it go. And, understand that it’s not yours to worry about anymore.