If you ask how Professor Tom Miner’s winter vacation was his answer may be a little more eventful than you would have guessed. Instead of relaxing and taking it easy from the stresses of the fall semester, he set his sights on something high. Way high. Miner spent three weeks in Argentina climbing one of the highest mountains in the world. With frost nipped fingers and weight literally lifted off his shoulders from his 45-pound backpack he is ready to start another semester here at City College.
Miner is an English and creative writing professor and has been at City College since 1991. Being an avid hiker, he has set a goal to climb a mountain in each country during his international adventures. Not to mention, getting a massage in each one as well. Miner has visited a total of 74 countries, striving to reach his goal of traveling to 100 countries in his lifetime.
“I’m curious about everything. I want to try everything. I want to read everything,” says Miner. Never even boarding a plane as a youth, Miner was inspired at an early age to see the world through the influences of his love of literature. “I always loved reading books, so when I read Sherlock Holmes I wanted to go to London. When I read Hemingway I wanted to go to France and Africa and everywhere he had gone.” And Miner has done just that. After obtaining his doctorate, Miner embarked on a monumental overseas trip to Europe where not only did he find a temporary job with a hostel for room and board— he met his future wife of more than 30 years. Every 8 years, Miner and his wife Elisabeth Miner-Goossens have made a pact to take a year off and travel. The first excursion was a 13-month long trip around the world.
Miner-Goossens is a Belgium citizen whom taught overseas and is now a fourth grade elementary school teacher in Elk Grove.
Adding two more passengers to their travels many years later, Miner and his wife also set out on a two year road trip around Europe with their two daughters, Mieke and Sara when they were at the ages of 2 and 5. During the 1970s, Miner applied to an exchange program from the University of Connecticut to UC Berkeley which fostered a love of California and eventually lead him to grow his roots right here in Sacramento.
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Miner connects his exotic travels to his lesson plans when teaching his students importance of details and writing in scenes telling his class about the time he was attacked by a shark in Belize.
Shanilla Bastine and Emmeisha Dinkins are currently in Miner’s English writing course and both agree Miner brings a lot of interesting stories and energy to the class. “Just last week he fell on the ground in the middle of class to prove a point,” says Bastine, explaining Miner’s high-energy teaching methods. “He’s out of the box,” says Dinkins. “He’s the type that would jump off a cliff I think.” English Professor Maureen Dana has taught with Miner at City College since 1997 and agrees the methods he brings to the classroom are “nontraditional.”
“He often begins class with a story from his travels, he’s engaging,” says Dana. Dana smiles as she recalls working with Miner in a combined classroom where they both shared students. “He has a wide range. He’s passionate, knowledgeable and energetic,” says Dana.
With 260 poems and 6 published short stories to his name, Miner does not attribute travels to being his major writing inspiration, he admits his “family and what is emotionally significant,” are his main muses. But if you ask Miner where his favorite location is he will say his home in Sacramento with his family.
“Nothing beats coming home to the smell of Belgian cooking and your own bed.”
