Trinity College of Jacksonville Welcomes New Assistant Professor of English

Trinity College of Jacksonville welcomes Mrs. Louise Leonard to the TCJ faculty as Assistant Professor of English.  Leonard holds a degree in English Education from Florida State university, another in Library and Information Science from UNF, and is pursuing graduate work at the University of Florida.

In addition to her own education, Leonard brings many years of teaching experience in a variety of settings: public school, private school, college, university, and even homeschool.  One thing that excites her about teaching at TCJ is being able to share her Christian journey with her colleagues and students, describing this prospect as “a dream come true” for her.

In her eyes, a Christian education is uniquely valuable. “We live in a broken world, so our students need to learn how to function as Christians in this (at times) very difficult environment.  Being at Trinity they are able to strengthen their beliefs and learn to defend them.”

Leonard approaches her subject matter from the perspective of putting God’s will first – and in the case of teaching English, this often looks like being exceptionally intentional with words!  She points out that “God gave us the gift of language… He created the universe with words, so using them correctly matters immensely.”   

Leonard especially enjoys teaching rhetoric and Shakespeare. She sees rhetoric as having a direct impact on the Christian’s ability to think and articulate important concepts with eternal consequences.  Rhetoric gives students the tools they need to accomplish this to the best of their ability.  This is something she is deeply concerned about. In fact, one of her main goals is to help students to develop the ability to read, write, and think critically.  

And what is special about teaching Shakespeare, you may ask?  To Leonard, it’s just plain fun to teach! “Shakespeare is a joy to teach because students are generally scared of him and I love seeing how surprised they are by how fun and relatable his plays are.”

When asked about her teaching style and what students can expect from her, she shared the opinion a former student: “She’s strict, but she’s fair. She really knows her stuff. And she’s funny!”

Mrs. Leonard is happily married to her husband, Roger, and has one daughter, Anastasia.