Navigating History Lessons and Student Success

Besides teaching History, serving as the Native American Student Alliance Advisor and mentoring students in the TRIO program, Dr. Wes Mosier has an interesting way of dealing with his crippling fear of heights.

Dr. Wesley Mosier, Assistant Professor of History at TCC, received a TCC Service Excellence Award in April 2023 with a student nomination. He joined the College as an adjunct in 2010; joined the full-time faculty in the Fall of 2018. He also serves as the Advisor for the Native American Student Alliance and is a mentor for the TRIO program.

In nominating Mosier, the TCC student wrote his “course structures are engaging, challenging, and rewarding. He genuinely cares for every single student of TCC and treats everyone equally. He does not just teach History. He teaches how to be a successful student and how to think objectively. I know that no matter my academic question, I can count on Professor Mosier to teach or point me in the right direction. He is always professional, polite, respectful, and fair to everyone.”

The student continued, “College can sometimes feel like a labyrinth, and it is very easy to feel lost and overwhelmed. However, I am so thankful that Wes Mosier was there to guide me and encourage me to keep going. As of today, I am set to graduate from TCC with a History degree in May 2024, and I hope to obtain my Ph.D. in History and become a college professor and positively impact students as Wes Mosier has me.”

Outside of TCC, Dr. Mosier spends time volunteering with the American Red Cross. He has assisted with the relief efforts for 2013 Moore tornadoes and served on the Disaster Response Team of the Bartlesville Chapter until 2018. In 2022, he became a Board Member for the Northeast Region of Oklahoma.

“As a board member I serve as an intermediary between the organization, our volunteers, partnering agencies, and local first responders,” he says. “We are currently working with the Bartlesville Fire Department to organize a fire alarm installation event for early summer.”

Regarding his time at TCC, Dr. Mosier says, “I love having a career at TCC and can't imagine working anywhere else.  The people of TCC (students, faculty, staff, and administration) form a wonderful community that has become an extension of my family.  I appreciate the opportunity to make an impact in student lives and am inspired daily by my students who never cease to amaze me.  I am grateful for the constant support provided by leadership and the priority TCC places on the lives and experiences of everyone it impacts.”

His favorite book: “I can generally be found with an Agatha Christie mystery or Ken Follett novel in my hands. Professionally, the two best works I have read lately are Louis Menand's The Metaphysical Club (2001) and Pekka Hamalainen's Indigenous Continent (2022). The former offers a window into some of the greatest minds of our nation's past while the latter places Indigenous peoples at the center of America's history.”

Fun fact: Despite having crippling anxiety regarding heights, he has been skydiving three times. He quotes Eleanor Roosevelt, "You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You are able to say to yourself, 'I have lived through this horror. I can take the next thing that comes along.' You must do the thing you think you cannot do."