Meet a Colleague: JT Torres JT Torres is the director of the Houston H. Harte Center for Teaching and Learning.

W&L News Office
March 5, 2025

Q. How long have you worked at W&L?
I joined the W&L community in June 2024.

Q. What is your favorite course to teach, and why?
I love teaching first-year courses. The first-year of college is a dramatic transition. Students are not only in a brand-new environment, but they are also learning how to be an independent adult. On top of that, college asks for higher order cognitive skills than secondary schools. With so much change, I enjoy being a threshold guardian, so to speak, helping students learn how to think and behave in different ways to meet the new world opening up in front of them.

Q. What is the most satisfying aspect of teaching?
Easily, the most satisfying aspect of teaching is taking a learning journey with students. There is definitely struggle — and very often heartbreak — when challenges seem insurmountable or when students become frustrated. But like any good film or book, thriving in the face of antagonism makes for the best life stories. The joy of helping students overcome setbacks, respond to failure, and ultimately surprise themselves with their flourishing is both eternal and indescribable — it’s sublime.

Q. What do you like most about working at W&L?
The community is rich with support, enthusiasm and genuine care for one another. These ingredients are necessary for any social setting, especially educational ones. I do not feel like I succeed or make mistakes alone, which is comforting beyond words. Everyone has each other’s backs.

Q. Where is your favorite location on the W&L campus?
The Harte Center!!!

Q. What’s your favorite thing to do when you’re not working?
Hike with my husky in the mountains and play video games.

Q. Where did you grow up?
Miami, Florida and Anchorage, Alaska.

Q. When you were a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?
This is very cliché, but I wanted to be a teacher. I arranged my stuffed animals as my first class and I often used family dinners as opportunities to present new ideas I had about the world (hence, the Medieval Society dinner debate).

Q. Who inspired you to teach? What about them inspired you?
I grew up a hyperactive child with attention deficit. I spent most of my early school experiences in trouble (either suspended, in detention or placed in remedial classes). Those experiences clashed with my curiosity about the world and my genuine love of learning. I used to say frequently as a child: “I love learning. But I hate school.” I grew up dedicated to the idea that school does not have to be hated.

Q. What is the most adventurous thing that you have ever done?
I moved to Alaska from Florida with no real plan and no other reason than loving mountains and winter and wanting to know what it was like to live in the place that had the most mountains and the most winter.

Q. What book are you reading now?
“Playing with Reality” by Kelly Clancy (shoutout to W&L faculty Liz Matthews for the recommendation!).

Q. What music are you listening to these days?
I’ve always been a Kendrick Lamar fan, and I’m back on a kick (especially GNX) after that Super Bowl performance.

Q. If you could have coffee with one person, who would it be and why?
Terry Thaxton, a creative writing professor from University of Central Florida and renowned poet who somehow noticed something in me and completely changed the trajectory of my life from wayward student to aspiring writer/educator.

Q. If you could live anywhere, where would you build your dream home?
Kenai Peninsula in Alaska.

Q. What is your favorite film (movie) of all time?
This changes frequently. Maybe “Birdman” by Alejandro González Iñárritu. I love the questions the film raises around human relationships with art, entertainment and meaning. I also enjoyed the critiques of contemporary American cinema’s obsession with superheroes.

Q. If they made a movie about your life, who would play you?
Elijah Wood.

Q. What is your desert island food?
Fish and coconuts, I suppose.

Q. Tell us something most people don’t know about you.
I once had hair. Long hair!

Q. What is your secret talent?
I am really good at appearing like I know what I’m doing, even when most of the time I have no idea.

Q. Anything else you’d like to share?
I love winter, snow and by extension, I dread summer. From May to September, you can find me in an air conditioned room.