Pete Moye’
Arts Button

English Professor Linda Palumbo has made many accomplishments while teaching at Cerritos College.

With two outstanding faculty awards under her belt, Palumbo also wrote two books that are were well-received in the Literature world.

She’s built a reputation on the campus for being involved in students’ academic life and spending her time designing curriculum.

Her dedication to Cerritos College served her when she was awarded Outstanding Adviser repeatedly as well as Outstanding Faculty twice. Palumbo earned, in the past, a specific award from the National Institute for Staff and Organizational Development that was awarded when she was nominated by former President of Cerritos College Fred Gaskin.

Colleagues of Palumbo have also been moved by her devoted passion for teaching and literature. Director of Scholars Honor’s Program, Timothy Juntilla, who has worked with Palumbo since 1997, describes her inspiration to students in the Liberal Arts division.

“I have witnessed countless numbers of students who have entered her classroom and experienced a transformation of consciousness. In other words, her students are no longer mired in self-doubt – they leave her classroom as confident young scholars who are ready to tackle the challenges that they face in higher education.”

For Cerritos College students that want guidance from a professor that will support them in performing well in school and preparation for their scholastic careers, Palumbo states that this is her focus.

“I’m really putting my energy into helping students with their goals and dreams. That’s where I’m at right now and I feel very happy.”

Her first book, “Casts of Thought: Writing In and Against Tradition,” was co-written with George Otte during her time teaching at the University of Tulsa. It was published through Macmillan in 1990, and became accepted in the academic world after being tried out with 12 different campuses across the country.

“There weren’t books in composition that really looked from the point of views of the rhetorical situation of the writer. That is, who is the writer really having to deal with – what was really at stake,” Palumbo said, “now it’s really common to look at those things, but at that time there was nothing like it on the market.”

Two years after her first book, Palumbo published a second book, “Vocabulary for a New World,” with co-author and husband Frank Gaik, who is also an English professor at Cerritos College.

The book was meant to be more of a dynamic use for vocabulary building that would fit into the market. Writing the book with a sense of humor, usage of cartoons and stories that set the book apart from customary books that had a simple layout of vocabulary roots.

“The book ended up going through a very competitive process and wound up being widely-adapted,” Palumbo said about the book’s first being published, ”for example, Toyota Motors used the book for their executive training program in English and lots of campuses used it for their vocabulary books.”