{"id":345,"date":"2019-11-20T09:00:15","date_gmt":"2019-11-20T17:00:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dev.wordpress.kpu.ca\/tlcommons\/?p=345"},"modified":"2019-11-21T10:42:40","modified_gmt":"2019-11-21T18:42:40","slug":"faculty-spotlight-jon-howe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dev.wordpress.kpu.ca\/tlcommons\/faculty-spotlight-jon-howe\/","title":{"rendered":"Faculty Spotlight: Jon Howe"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Written by: Lisa Gedak<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Disney\u2019s animated feature The Lion King propelled the phrase Hakuna Matata<\/em> – loosely translated as \u201cno worries\u201d into becoming a household slogan and a catchy sing-along song that millions of people are familiar with.\u00a0 Jon Howe from KPU\u2019s brewing and brewery operations program is not just familiar with this motto but has incorporated it as a fundamental part of his teaching philosophy.\u00a0 He frequently expresses this mantra to his lab students, who can often fear failure.\u00a0 The brewery lab being a safe space for students to fail, to try again, and to ultimately triumph is only a part of the reason that Jon is worthy of being recognized for teaching excellence. \u201cstudents are commonly worried that the beer may not turn out or may be contaminated, but in the end, it\u2019s just a beer, make a mistake and dump it down the drain,\u201d Jon explains. His relaxed position stems from the fact that there are no mistakes in the lab that are life-threatening and that students are only brewing small batches \u201cThis is the environment to make mistakes, we are only making 200litres of beer at a time, not 1000litres.\u00a0 Make a mistake here; learn about it, become a better brewer, and a better employee in general\u201d.\u00a0 By embracing failure as an opportunity to learn, Jon is providing students with the freedom to rise above their mistakes and to further develop analytical and problem-solving skills in a safe and controlled environment.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jon\u2019s\n brewing career has come full circle from KPU student to KPU faculty. He\n started his learning journey as a KPU student in 2008 by enrolling in \nsome general science courses to explore what he wanted to do in life, \nwith the only thing he was sure of being his love for science.  Jon then\n went on to UBC and completed his degree in biology and chemistry; \nnevertheless, it was an elective that sparked his passion for brewing \nand led him back to KPU. Introduced to the science related to \nfermentation, Jon was inspired to begin brewing beer in his basement. In\n 2016, he discovered that KPU was offering a diploma in brewing, and he \nenrolled as a student. By the end of his first year, he was hired by \nBomber Brewing, where he has maintained industry connections ever since.\n By his second year, a teaching\n opportunity came up at the end of summer and he was encouraged to \napply; the rest is history.  Stepping into a teaching role as a current \nstudent had its challenges, and he quickly learned about classroom \nmanagement as many of his new students were previously his classmates \nand friends \u201cI was now teaching fellow students and had to create a \nprofessional line with my peers\u201d but once\n Jon established his role as the facilitator, the teaching came \nnaturally.  Being able to teach in what he calls a \u201chands-on-stuff\u201d \nlearning environment allows him to direct his energy into where his \npassion lies. Most importantly, the advantage of moving from student to \nteacher, and knowing what students are expecting allows him to excel in \nhis practice, though Jon acknowledges that as an active practitioner, \nthe learning will never end.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\n continuous learning includes a considerable variety of professional \ndevelopment opportunities in the craft beer community.  Jon and his \ncolleagues regularly attend conferences and industry events where he \nlearns about innovations in brewing from brew masters\n and experts. He also spends significant time reading industry magazines\n and listening to podcasts to stay abreast of new practices in the \nfield; he notes, however, that his favorite experiences include the \nstudents he teaches.  The program provides opportunities for \nexperiential field trips that are more than merely brewery tours \u201cwe go \nto Central City in Surrey, because not only do they have an absolutely \nenormous brewing facility, but they also have a high-quality \nmicrobiology lab, barrel-aging program, and state-of-the-art technology.\n We will go to steel manufacturing plants to see how the equipment is \nmade. Last March, we took a group of students by bus to a Victoria \nbrewery and distillery that had just opened, and we toured a brewery \nwhere they are malting their own grain\u201d he boasts, his passion bubbling \nto the surface.  It is important to Jon that all steps of the brewing \nprocess are experienced by the students, including cleaning and \nsterilizing, tasting, making, and marketing \u201cstudents go through all \naspects of brewing, and the most fundamental parts are sensory, they are\n tasting beer right from day one, and they often say \u2018eww\u2019\n after the first tasting as it doesn\u2019t taste like beer, it tastes like \nsweet, sticky, sugar water. Over the weeks, they taste it daily. Seeing \nhow the beer is over time\n allows them to identify when problems occur and use critical thinking \nto identify when the beer spoils. Near the end, they can see how the \nbeer has evolved over time\u201d Jon provides three samples for students to \ntaste for them to hone this sensory skill, with two being a correct \nrecipe and one is that is contaminated. By asking students to identify \nthe contaminated sample, they are immersed in their learning and can \nlearn those sensory skills so important to the brewing process. This \nexercise may seem like an individual activity, but it is a crucial step \nin becoming a part of a collaborative brewing team in the lab.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Jon\n fosters collaboration in the lab by overseeing six teams of two who are\n working with the same ingredients in pairs, which, when combined, \nbecome a part of the larger batch.  This requires teamwork and \ncollaboration \u201ceveryone is helping each other out. They must strategize \nbetween the teams – if the equipment isn\u2019t clean, it could contaminate \nthe whole batch, if one team is falling behind the next team will jump \nin to clean it\u201d Jon values this collaborative approach and notes that \nthe industry is collaborative by nature \u201ccraft brewing is unlike other \nindustries, for example, if you have two coffee shops that open across \nthe street from one another, one may go out of business. It is the \nopposite for craft breweries; you\u2019ve got brewer’s row in Port Moody and \nwhat they are trying to create in Langley loop where breweries are all \nwithin a 2km radius. When you get all of these breweries together, not \nonly are they not putting each other out of business, they become a \ndestination for people to visit\u201d He notes that the KPU brewing and \nbrewery operations program has become a part of this craft beer \ncommunity and has\n had several collaborative partnerships with local breweries, radio \nstations, and recently partnered with the Surrey firefighters. All these\n symbiotic community relationships hold many benefits. One such benefit \nis the feedback received from industry experts that Jon and the team \nfind crucial to improving practices and procedures.     <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jon knows the feedback from industry is invaluable \u201cin 2017 we won a single award, got some feedback, in 2018 we submitted more samples, took that feedback to heart and looked at feedback from previous years and said let’s see how we can take the criticism and make it better. The next time we entered we did much better\u201d he emphasizes that providing feedback to his students is a crucial part of the teaching and learning process , but knows that students need to learn how to accept it and not take it personally \u201cyou can\u2019t take it to heart \u2013 if I say the beer you made is bitter, don\u2019t get all defensive, don\u2019t be offended, learn from it and dial down the  bitterness the next time\u201d\n Jon ascertains that by the end of the program students see the \npositives in receiving feedback, and for Jon and his colleagues, the \nfeedback from industry and experts in recent weeks has been extremely \npositive.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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This past October, 121 breweries competed at the BC Brewery awards, and KPU won the coveted \u2018Brewery of the Year Award\u201d, an incredible feat considering the brewery has only been in business since 2014.  Jon acknowledges that this prestigious award has drawn some media attention and hopes this award \u201cputs us on the map.\u201d Jon strongly feels that this type of recognition \u201cgives the program credibility and puts value on our KPU students. Previously before 2014, there wasn\u2019t formal education, and people are definitely starting to realize that if they hire from KPU, they will get significantly more value out of the hire as our grads have the science of the brewing, the sales knowledge, and marketing experience. This approach ensures our grads our prepared for management positions.\u201d  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jon feels fortunate to be teaching at KPU where the student has become the instructor \u201cI thoroughly enjoy this job; I am always learning new things, and I love the environment.\u201d Without\n question, his students will always be learning new things and loving \nthe environment as his enthusiasm and expertise are critical components \nin the recipe for student success in the lab and beyond \u201cour grads are \nin demand, anyone who wants a job gets a job, recruiters want to hire \nour students before they have even graduated\u201d Sounds like grads who \nlearn from this example of teaching excellence have \u201cno worries\u201d – Hakuna Matata<\/em> Jon; Hakuna Matata<\/em>.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

If\n you would like to be featured in an upcoming newsletter or have a \ncolleague, you wish to see featured please contact tlcommons@kpu.ca   <\/strong> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Written by: Lisa Gedak Disney\u2019s animated feature The Lion King propelled the phrase Hakuna Matata – loosely translated as \u201cno worries\u201d into becoming a household slogan and a catchy sing-along song that millions of people are familiar with.\u00a0 Jon Howe from KPU\u2019s brewing and brewery operations program is not just familiar with this motto but…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","iawp_total_views":7,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-345","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.wordpress.kpu.ca\/tlcommons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/345","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.wordpress.kpu.ca\/tlcommons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.wordpress.kpu.ca\/tlcommons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.wordpress.kpu.ca\/tlcommons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.wordpress.kpu.ca\/tlcommons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=345"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/dev.wordpress.kpu.ca\/tlcommons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/345\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":352,"href":"https:\/\/dev.wordpress.kpu.ca\/tlcommons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/345\/revisions\/352"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.wordpress.kpu.ca\/tlcommons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=345"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.wordpress.kpu.ca\/tlcommons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=345"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.wordpress.kpu.ca\/tlcommons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=345"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}