Dr. Marcus Polhmann, the 2017 recipient of Rhodes College’s Clarence Day Award for Outstanding Teaching, addressed the Class of 2021 during Opening Convocation on August 18. In his address, “Learning to Learn,” Pohlmann talked to students about their opportunity to use the vast array of information and opportunities available to them at Rhodes and to think about today’s pressing issues and come up with solutions. In an increasingly polarized world, Pohlmann’s advice to first-year students as well as seniors is to question everything, explore openly, and validate thoroughly.
A member of the political science faculty at Rhodes since 1986, Pohlmann is a past recipient of the Clarence Day Award for Research and the Jameson M. Jones Award for Service. He has coached the college’s highly competitive intercollegiate Mock Trial team to four national championships, received the American Mock Trial Association’s Neal Smith and W.W. Reynoldson Awards, and been named to the American Mock Trial Association’s Coaches Hall of Fame.