{"id":8272,"date":"2018-04-06T17:36:35","date_gmt":"2018-04-06T17:36:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/?p=8272"},"modified":"2018-04-06T17:36:35","modified_gmt":"2018-04-06T17:36:35","slug":"utrgv-snapchat-and-how-the-man-the-myth-the-legend-came-to-fame","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/?p=8272","title":{"rendered":"UTRGV Snapchat, and How The Man, The Myth, The Legend Came to Fame"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"John<\/a>

John Faust, a UTRGV astronomy lecturer, has developed a following on the university\u2019s popular Snapchat account. When people spot him on campus \u2013 usually attired in interesting fashion combinations \u2014 a photo (on some days, several) will pop up on Snapchat with the caption: \u201cThe man, the myth, the legend.\u201d Faust admits he had absolutely no idea he was myth or legend until recently, and in fact has no personal social media presence at all and isn\u2019t really sure what, exactly, Snapchat is all about. Photo: Paul Chouy\/UTRGV<\/p><\/div>\n

by J. Edward Moreno<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

RIO GRANDE VALLEY, TEXAS \u2013\u00a0<\/strong>On any college campus, you\u2019ll hear tales \u2013 rumors, myths, legends \u2013 some tall, some not. The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley is no exception.<\/p>\n

One\u00a0popular, contemporary way to spread those tales \u2013 at least at UTRGV \u2013 is\u00a0Snapchat, a popular social media messaging platform.\u00a0And with almost 36,000 followers at a university of about 28,000 students, the UTRGV Snapchat account can pack some punch.<\/p>\n

With that many students Snapchatting, it\u2019s no surprise the account has had its share of trends. Like the white cat on the Edinburg Campus, said to bring good luck when spotted before an exam. Those Snaps of a \u201cparachute guy,\u201d with a large backpack.<\/p>\n

And, of course, The Man, The Myth, The Legend.<\/p>\n

When people spot Astronomy 1401, 1402 lecturer John Faust on campus \u2014 usually wearing interesting combinations of colored pants, shirts, sweaters and hats \u2014 a photo (on some days, several) will pop up on UTRGV Snapchat with the caption: \u201cThe Man, The Myth, The Legend.\u201d<\/p>\n

Faust has gained popularity on the UTRGV Snapchat account and across social media platforms. But the man himself had no idea he was myth or legend until a few weeks ago. In fact, he has no\u00a0personal\u00a0social media presence at all, and isn\u2019t quite sure what, exactly, Snapchat is.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know where this\u00a0\u2018legend\u2019\u00a0business came from,\u201d said the self-effacing Faust, \u201cbut I must be doing something OK.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cristopher Din, a kinesiology major who started the UTRGV Snapchat account, said students truly like Faust.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re not making fun of him by making him go viral,\u201d Din said. \u201cIf anything, it\u2019s out of admiration.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Faust-(UTRGV-Snapchat-Photo)\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2018HE MAKES YOU WANT TO LEARN\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n

A native of San Benito, Faust began teaching in public schools in the 1980s, and in 2011 joined UT Pan American, his alma mater, as a part-time lecturer.<\/p>\n

Now a lecturer at UTRGV, Faust says most of his students aren\u2019t science majors; they\u2019re there to complete their basic science credits.<\/p>\n

Ask Faust\u2019s students about him, though, and they\u2019ll tell you just how good he is as a teacher. And as proof, he\u00a0rocks a\u00a090 percent positive rating on his student evaluations.<\/p>\n

Joan Juarez, a history education major in Faust\u2019s ASTR 1402 course, says he\u2019s one of the best teachers she has had.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s funny but he makes you want to learn,\u201d Juarez said. \u201cIf you mess up, he doesn\u2019t get after you \u2013 he just makes you laugh. And that just makes you want to pay more attention in his class.\u201d<\/p>\n

Faust\u2019s approach to teaching is simple, but effective. In any given lecture he\u2019ll repeat things like \u201cin other words\u201d a dozen times or so to rephrase complicated theories. When approaching a term like \u201cdenominator,\u201d he\u2019ll simplify it to something like, \u201cthe guy on the bottom.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMy philosophy in teaching is to take what the field knows and put it into terminology that everybody can understand,\u201d Faust said. \u201cIn science, our biggest mistake is that we tend to publish for our peers, when in reality, we should publish for mankind. Every scientific paper should be written so anyone off the street could understand it.\u201d<\/p>\n

With his big personality, Faust keeps his students alert by inserting humor\u00a0into\u00a0his lectures.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs an educator, you have to be aware of this thing called \u2018attention span,\u2019\u201d he quips.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by J. Edward Moreno RIO GRANDE VALLEY, TEXAS \u2013\u00a0On any college campus, you\u2019ll hear tales \u2013 rumors, myths, legends \u2013 some tall, some not. The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley is no exception. One\u00a0popular, contemporary way to spread those tales \u2013 at least at UTRGV \u2013 is\u00a0Snapchat, a popular social media messaging platform.\u00a0And with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":8264,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8272","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-valley"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8272","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8272"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8272\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8273,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8272\/revisions\/8273"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/8264"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8272"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8272"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8272"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}