Staff Spotlight – Ronnie Dewar
This month we caught up with Ronnie Dewar, who works in the Humanities and Social Sciences department at Perth College UHI. Ronnie is known for being a loyal friend, comedian and has won 6 OBI (Outstanding, Best and Inspiring) awards - including being Highly Commended at the HISA Awards in several categories. One piece of student feedback from these awards included:
“Honestly, Ronnie was a life saver during the most stressful time of my life. He would always answer my questions and calm me down when needed. He always checked in to make sure I was getting on fine and his feedback was always extremely helpful. He not only helped me but my friends too when they advisors didn't reply. UHI are lucky to have a lecturer like Ronnie!”
Can you tell us a bit about the work that you do and how you have progressed your career?
I am Programme Leader for BA Social Sciences and several other politics joint degrees. My primary teaching responsibilities are degree level politics modules. My subject specialism is in Israeli Politics, but I teach a wide range of political theory and international relations modules. My career has been quite varied, from working as a barman in an Alpine Lodge in Bavaria - to Assistant General Manager at the Gilded Balloon at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.
I worked in Theatre Box Offices extensively whilst I was doing my degrees. I had just left a Box Office Manager’s role at Pitlochry Festival Theatre when Emma Clayes (Psychology Lecturer), whom I have been pals with since teenage years, told me the college were looking for a lecturer to teach Higher Politics. I was interviewed by Eleanor Brown, who is still my boss, on 1 August 2007 and was full time from the following year.
What might people be surprised to know about you?
I think I’m fairly unsurprising as I am too much of a blether to have any secrets. However, one strange thing is I am morbidly afraid of cotton wool and I bet I have helped more people reach out with this phobia by being open about it.
What’s your favourite type of food?
Not an easy one for me, but it probably would be chicken soup (Jewish penicillin) and I absolutely LOVE honey.
Favourite holiday destinations?
I only go to two places 😊 - Israel and Cyprus. I have family ties in both places and love them both very much.
If you were a super-hero, what type of powers would you have?
Is it astral projection? My Politics colleague, Callum, ran it by me - the power to be in one place but you appear to be in another.
First thing you would do if you won £1 million?
Get an apartment in North Tel Aviv. Small enough for me to treat my wonderful nieces and nephews to the cinema and eat falafel with the change.
What’s the best part of your job?
There are many things, but seeing student achievement is fantastic. Working in an FE/HE hybrid institution, I have seen students arrive with no qualifications at all and then graduate with an Honours Degree and move on to the jobs they have aspired to. Nothing can beat their enthusiasm for life on Graduation day.
What is the best advice you have ever received and who did it come from?
Never take credit for student achievements, and never blame yourself for anything less - Anon
Happiest memory?
Boring answer alert! Many of my happiest memories revolve around Dundee! Visits to my granny, and other family members, with my parents when I was a child. Then my Undergraduate and Master years - meeting the people who are my closest friends today.
And most embarrassing?
I am a 47 year old man, most of the younger people around me say I am embarrassing often. I was pulling a rather unyielding Christmas cracker with a theatre colleague, in a Mexican restaurant, many years ago. When it did yield, the momentum threw my arm back and a plate of enchiladas flew across the room and into a fireplace. There were fragments of enchilada everywhere, including on the handbag of a lady sitting close to the fire!
