Reeves leaves ULV following a year of growth
Campus Times
May 10, 2002
Her strength of character is tremendous, and what she has endured through
in her lifetime would make any average human life seem trivial. But Eva
Reeves, ULV's visiting professor of German, considers her life normal.
Born the oldest of three children in Munich, Germany, Reeves was tied
to German language and culture from birth. She is a daughter of a Jewish
Hungarian father, a Holocaust survivor, and a Czechoslovakian mother. Her
interest in European culture and language extended from her family's past
and her desire to expand and open her own mind.
When she was just a year and a half, Reeves and her family moved from
Germany to the United States and settled in Michigan, where Reeves attended
high school and continued on until her thirst for knowledge was quenched.
Reeves began her educational pursuits at Wayne State University as a
double major in French and German, and after she received her Bachelor of
Arts, she was awarded a fellowship to study abroad in Germany.
The journey back to her homeland began in the year of 1978 when Reeves
traveled back to where she was born. She attended Cornell University, and
after four lonely years of tedium at Graduate School, she finished her Master
of Arts in German Literature with a minor in French.
With the desire for further study, Reeves entered the doctorate program
at Cornell University determined to reach the uppermost level of education.
In her second year at Cornell, Reeves was offered another fellowship to
study in Germany, where she also taught German literature at Bielefeld University.
There she fell in love with a German man; the two married and soon after
gave birth to two boys Alex, 15 and Philip 16.
"I had always dreamed of marrying a German man so I could raise
my children bilingual. It just made sense for my life having studied German,"
Reeves said.
After 9 years of marriage and changes in her family life, Reeves returned
to Michigan and set out to complete her education, which she believed had
not yet been entirely fulfilled.
"At that point in my life, I knew that I either had to finish it
up, or give it up," Reeves said.
She finished her educational journey in January of 2001, and from there
she knew her love of education was so overwhelming that the only way to
fulfill it would be to teach others.
After applying at several universities, Reeves settled in to the one-year
German teaching position at ULV, which began last fall.
"Living in California has been a real experience," Reeves
said. "There is just so much to do."
Her love for languages and meticulous perfection are contagious because
of her knowledge. Never before have students felt such energy while travelling
on foreign language endeavors.
"She is very passionate about her students," said Michael
Anklin a student from Switzerland at ULV who tutors Reeves' German students.
"It is important to her personally that [her students] acquire a reasonably
solid knowledge of the German language."
Reeves believes that students are given the opportunity through foreign
language studies to become critical thinkers and encourages her students
to step outside their traditional frame of mind in order to grasp a global
awareness.
"Even in a foreign language classroom I try to teach students that
learning is not a question of being wrong or right," said Reeves. "I
want students to know that it is not in the answers, but in the questions
that you ask. That is more difficult in a foreign language classroom than
in others."
"She is very personable, " said German student Haley Stokes.
"We don't just learn and discuss language, we discuss the German culture,
it is very interesting."
With only two weeks left at La Verne, uncertainty is on the horizon
for Reeves, but those that have had the privledge to get to know her during
her short time at La Verne, know that her life will continue to surpass
the standards that she has set down for herself.