Written by Mattie Rametta

Michael Bulfin is Concordia University Chicago’s new Director of the Academic Center of Excellence. Before landing at CUC, Bulfin received his bachelor’s degree in history at Northwestern University in Chicago. After graduating with his bachelor’s degree, Bulfin did a two-year stint in the Peace Corps serving Mozambique where he taught English in Mozambican High School. Upon finishing his service in the Peace Corps, Bulfin attended University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) where he received his master’s degree in African studies. Bulfin then went on to pursue his Ph.D. in Geography at the University of Iowa but due to the unforeseen death of his dissertation mentor, he was forced to relocate. After leaving the University of Iowa, he began working as a coordinator of a writing center, as well as teaching classes in world history and African history at Lewis University in Romeoville, Illinois. He also is enrolled as a student in the Doctoral Program of Education. He is currently three chapters into his dissertation, and he hopes to complete it by 2020.

When asked on whether he would consider pursuing teaching at CUC, Bulfin said, “I would love to teach here [at Concordia] someday based on what they need. I can teach general history or African history, [it] is my specialty, but right now I need to focus on my writing and finishing my dissertation. Getting that doctorate is the primary goal outside of being a husband and father.”

The Academic Center for Excellence (ACE) is a resource on campus that students can utilize; they can get help working with subject tutors, math tutors, and they are an ally of the Writing Center. ACE is also the place on campus where students who chose to disclose disabilities can get learning accommodations.

Bulfin hopes to expand student utilization for the services that ACE offers like tutoring. In addition, he also wants to change the conversation around ACE. He hopes to shift the thinking that tutoring is only for students who are struggling in class and hopes it will be duly utilized by students who excel. His goal is to turn ACE into a place that is synonymous with scholarship, studies, and support. He wants to brand ACE as a place where students can come to work on graduate school application, turning papers or studies into publishable work, applying for prestigious and competitive scholarships, and applying for fellowships or grants.

Bulfin has big plans for Concordia University Chicago. He said, “My vision for ACE is to become a place that supports students who struggle but is also a resource for students who are really interested in excelling here at Concordia.”

He has already started making some changes. Tutors are staffed every day of the week in the Academic Center of Excellence as well as an outreach program where he is going into classrooms, meeting with professors and coaches to let them know how they can be an asset to their students and athletes, and working with the Associate Dean of Students, Mia Garcia-Hills, to make the ACE a more pleasant environment. Bulfin hopes to continue planting seeds to get more students utilizing these services because he finds supporting students in their studies is integral to the mission of the University.