My teaching career spans more than three decades and has taken place across a wide range of environments including church and community spaces, K-12 classrooms, athletic fields, private tutoring, and university lecture halls. In each setting, I have worked with students from diverse racial, cultural, socioeconomic, and academic backgrounds. These experiences have shaped not only how I view my responsibility as an educator, but also how I design classroom practices that foster inclusion, communication, and resilience.
I began teaching dance as a teenager, choreographing for my church and later instructing in theater and social dance. By age eighteen I was assisting in college-level classes, and by twenty I was teaching swing and Latin dance independently. These early experiences taught me to meet students where they are and to value the joy that comes from participation, especially when students arrive with different levels of preparation or comfort. They impressed upon me that instruction is not simply about transferring skill, but about creating confidence and belonging.
Beyond the arts, I taught in K-12 schools, coached youth baseball and soccer, university libraries, and led Sunday school and youth groups. I worked with students from a wide range of backgrounds and age groups, from preschoolers to high school seniors. Tutoring math and English for college athletes showed me how structural pressures such as balancing academics with athletics affect learning outcomes. Later, volunteering in elementary schools, I mentored both struggling readers and advanced math students, learning to provide encouragement while tailoring instruction. These experiences instilled in me the conviction that equity in education means creating multiple pathways for success.
In higher education, I have served as Instructor of Record for multiple finance courses, including Investments, Real Estate Finance, Financial Management, Real Estate Principles, and Asset Management. My teaching has been consistently recognized by students and faculty alike. I was a finalist for a graduate teaching award, featured in student media highlighting top instructors, and identified by graduating seniors in institutional surveys as making a significant positive contribution to their education. These recognitions matter because they reflect impact on students with varied learning needs.
Student voices capture this impact best. One wrote, “This is by far my favorite class this semester. Professor James is a very enthusiastic professor with lots of background expertise. He is very passionate about teaching Real Estate Finance and he goes above and beyond to help students understand the subject” (Fall 2023). Another emphasized, “Although this was a fast paced course, the instructor did a great job of not only explaining the material but being receptive to questions about covered material” (Summer 2023). A third reflected, “I like how he makes us socialize and network” (Fall 2023). These comments affirm that my strategies to promote engagement and inclusivity are felt by students.
My pedagogy is built around engagement and collaboration. Drawing from my coaching background, I use player-centered strategies that emphasize active participation. Rather than relying on long lectures, I structure classes around frequent questions, group discussion, and problem-solving. When I pose a question, I allow time for peer discussion before calling on someone at random. This ensures that all students, not just the most confident, get to “touch the ball.” First generation and international students, who may hesitate to speak up directly, benefit from processing thoughts in smaller groups before addressing the class.
I also create intentional opportunities for networking. I distribute large nameplate tents so students can learn each other’s names, provide an online collaboration sheet with contact information and suggested problem set groups, and randomize exam banks to encourage pooling knowledge rather than working in isolation. One student captured the effect: “He would bring professionals in class for us to network and understand the real estate field in depth and from different real life work examples. All of the assignments were done with intention and served a purpose” (Fall 2023).
My experiences have shown me that students succeed when they see themselves reflected in course materials and professional pathways. To that end, I bring in guest speakers from underrepresented backgrounds, design case studies that highlight diverse communities, and create multiple forms of assessment so that a student’s grade reflects persistence and growth as much as preparation.
Equally important, I emphasize that finance is a language of trust. Investors do not place capital based solely on spreadsheets. They invest because they trust the person presenting the numbers. I encourage my students, particularly those who may doubt their place in a business classroom, that their ability to communicate, collaborate, and think critically is just as valuable as technical proficiency. As one student noted, “He also forced collaboration which is something I grew to appreciate because a lot of us in the class didn't understand certain topics. The forced collaboration allowed us to talk to each other and figure out the answers on our own without them being handed to us” (Fall 2024).
What I have learned across these environments is that inclusion is not passive. It requires deliberate design. I have seen that when students feel respected and supported, they rise to challenges with resilience and creativity. Whether mentoring struggling readers, preparing finance majors for careers, or coaching athletes, I approach each student with dignity, compassion, and the belief that they can succeed.
Ultimately, my commitment is to create classrooms where students from all backgrounds; including first generation students, Pell-eligible students, international students, underrepresented minorities, and women in finance; see themselves as capable decision makers. By fostering open dialogue, embedding diversity into curriculum and professional examples, and emphasizing both technical skill and communication, I aim to prepare students not just for exams, but for leadership in an increasingly diverse and interconnected world.
I will leave you with one of the most passionate reviews a student has left me. “Everything, he made it engaging and very fun. He used real life examples and his own experiences to have us engaged. I feel as though I learned a lot in this course and I could use this for my career. I loved how he said we weren't gonna pass if we didn't network and connect with students and I think he should continue to say that because I have made life time friends and great great connections because I learned when you talk to people, you learn things you didn't know about them. Very important. A wonderful Professor, honestly the best Professor I've ever had at UNCC. I love Professor James as a person and it made the course very fun and great. Felt as though he was my mentor more than my professor” (Fall 2024).