My name is Sue Cox and I am native to the Bellevue area. I was born in Seattle because that is where the hospital was, but then my parents brought me home to Bellevue the house where I lived my entire childhood. I lived in several cities on the Eastside as an adult, and am now living back in my childhood home with my immediate family and my mother, who thought the house was too big for just one person.
I first took sociology in high school. I can tell you virtually nothing about that experience except that I was so bored that I wrote my notes backward. You could read them by holding them up to a mirror. Believe it or not, I took another sociology class in college. (Why not? I didn’t learn anything the first time around.) This time the light bulb went on (to use a colloquialism) and I have had a passion for sociology ever since. I also have a degree in computer science, but it has been sadly neglected. Sociology is much more fun!
Before coming to teach at BC, I did social work in adoption, foster care, and juvenile corrections. While finishing up my master’s degree I worked the graveyard shift at Echo Glen (a prison for kids). After that, I worked there as an intermittent (any shifts) filling in for people who were sick or on vacation. I also worked there part-time for a while after getting my job at BC. My first job after getting my degree was as an adoption counselor. I worked some with birth mothers and with families wanting to adopt an infant, but my focus was on special needs adoption. A short description of children who fit into this category is children over two years of age, sibling sets, and children with medical needs. After that, I worked at a group home for boys as the Foster Care Coordinator. Eventually, I ended up at BC and I have been here ever since.
My journey with Bellevue College’s Interdisciplinary Studies program began in 2005. It has been an adventure with several twists and turns along the way, but it is always a rewarding experience. Having the chance to explore a theme together for several hours a day with a group of students and an instructor (or two) from a different discipline is such a great opportunity. It is always enjoyable because I love learning, and I love to see the relationships between the students, as well as their understanding of the subject at hand, grow as the quarter progresses.