Hats off to Albert Ng

Aside from being one of the founding members of the RGD, he's also my Information Design 2 prof.
This guy is by far one of the best professors I've had in the three years so far of the Design Program. Every week he has the same caring, friendly attitude towards the class which drives us even more to explore the material, get involved in class and just have fun. He's changed the way I see design as a profession and myself as a designer.

For the past three classes in a row (ie. three weeks in a row) I didn't go to my Info Des 2 class. The first time, I just sorta missed it for no reason. Then I fell a little behind and so I didn't go to the next class and so on. So when I finally went to class today, I was naturally expecting a serious lecture from him, "Umar, there's only two weeks of class left, you've missed three classes, and the final project is due next week. I don't know how you're going to pass the course."

But what happens instead? (note: not actual conversation, but close enough)
Albert: So, how are you?
Me: Uh, ok, I guess. I'm really sorry, I just missed the first class, and then I didn't come for the next one either or the one after that.
Albert: (pats me on the shoulder) Don't worry about it. I just want to make sure everything's ok with your project and you're on track.
Me: oh, yeah, I'm getting there. (running on 24+ hrs without sleep b/c I was up all night getting up to speed with the project)
Albert: Ok, no problem. Just let me know if you have any questions.

Wow. I was dreading going back to class, but he made me feel like I didn't even miss a single class. And it's not like he's one of the "I don't give a cr@p" professors either... he genuinely cares about the progress of his students. There's only one other guy I'd compare him to in terms of caring about Design education... and that's David Scadding. But Scadding is on the extremely intimidating side of the scale, while Albert almost tries to be a father-like figure (design-wise).

(ok, now I must get off blogger and start on that assignment due next week)

update: btw, he's working on a new publication/book about Design Accreditation and apparently is going to quote me in it.