Rich Peraud transforms from community college student to professor
BY: FAWWAZ ASHRAF
Staff Writer
Richard Peraud, one of STLCC – Meramec’s most tenured English professors, wasn’t originally planning on becoming a professor or even studying English. He was born and raised in Jolliet, Illinois, a small steel town south of Chicago.
“I’m the youngest of five. I was the first to go to college in my family … The expectation was: you’re 18; leave the house,” he said.
He was filled with uncertainty of what he wanted to pursue. At first, we went to college to study engineering but quickly left. Still not sure what exactly he wanted to do, he enrolled as a non-degree seeking student at his local community college. There, he settled that he still wanted to continue his education and, after receiving a great scholarship, left for Saint Louis University. He jumped around majors at the beginning but quickly settled into English and philosophy. Afterward, he got his master’s degree in English from Iowa State.
One of the main reasons why he chose English was for his love of literature, he said. Peraud is passionate about other subjects, such as history and psychology, and English gave him an opportunity to learn more about these subjects through narratives rather than just facts and figures.
“[Literature] encompassed the psychological stories about people,” he said.
After college, he became a teacher for three years then worked in corporate for 10 years. While working in corporate, he returned to teaching starting with night classes as an adjunct at STLCC – Meramec.
Peraud said he “always resonated with the students here and our population because a lot of our students then and still are first-generation, exploring, not sure what they want to do … That was certainly part of my story.”
Alongside his ability to relate to his students, he’s able to bring a unique perspective to the class, as he knows how to succeed in both corporate and academic settings. After teaching for a few years, Peraud became a full-time professor at STLCC – Meramec in 2003.
One of Peraud’s favorite books is Eugene O’Neill’s Long Day’s Journey Into Night, a drama and “some of the best writing in American letters,” he said.
Some of his favorite authors are Louise Erdrich, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and Henry David Thoreau, and one of his favorite poets is Ted Kooser.
His favorite lesson to teach is rhetorical theory from the beginning of College Composition II, as it encompasses so many different skills and helps his students navigate and engage with their world, he said.
One of his biggest writing tips is revision. In the same way an artist sketches or a musician practices, it takes time to create a polished body of work, as he described. “Go back through your work. Have somebody else go through your work with you. We try to be perfect on our first shot, and it never works.”
A final piece of advice that Peraud left was for making the most of one’s college experience. He said to “get involved. Meet somebody outside of your classes. … Take the opportunity you have here to engage: clubs, organizations, meet your faculty.”
