The Rampage #4 March 2020

The Rampage

Employee Features

30

Dr. Kimberly Farmer Celebrates

30 Years with by Megan Brandl Graphic Communication • 2020

I f you’ve ever spoken to a Bluefield College criminal justice student, you can almost guarantee they’ve told you about Dr. Kim Farmer, who recently celebrated 30 years of service as a CRJ professor at BC. A native of Bluefield, WV, Dr. Farmer began her college student experience at Bluefield College when she enrolled in a BC math class while still a senior in high school. Instead of continuing her studies at Bluefield College after high school, she decided she wanted to branch out and try someplace new. She ended up attending West Virginia University, but only for a short time before her heart called her back home to Bluefield. Dr. Farmer returned to Bluefield College where she began taking classes with the intent to earn a psychology degree. However, as she was sitting in class one day watching her professor lecture, she said it was as if God was telling her, “this is what you are meant to do” — not earn a psychology degree, but instead become a teacher. Dr. Farmer ended up transferring back to WVU to complete the last two years of her undergraduate degree. Her father then asked her to consider a career in law. With some doubt, Dr. Farmer applied to law school and ended up getting in. This is where she found her love for criminal justice. Although law school was a bit of a rocky start, Dr. Farmer enjoyed the last two years, simply because she could begin to focus on criminal

law classes that she had chosen. After law school, she moved back to southern West Virginia to begin working for a prosecuting attorney in Princeton, WV.

However, this is not where she wanted to stay permanently as she knew she still had the desire to teach. Soon after, she learned about a job opening at Bluefield College. She left her resume on the desk of those leading the search, and not long after she received a call asking if she would be willing to teach two classes for students pursuing their behavioral science degree, since BC did not yet offer a criminal justice major.