Everything’s perfectly ducky

Dr. Nancy Castilla may be one of the busiest bees on campus, but she never forgets to take time out for her students.

The popular English professor has been a mentor and role model to many students throughout the years and continues to push current students to reach their fullest potential.

Castilla began her career with the Dallas County Community College District in 1977 when North Lake first opened its doors to students. Her last name was Jones back then, and she was a single mother raising two sons.

That was 27 years ago and a lot has changed in her life. Her sons are grown and married, and she is a grandmother.

Her name is Castilla now -- that’s Mrs. Rene Castilla. Her husband is the executive dean of the South Irving Center. The couple met in 1984 when Rene left WFAA-TV to teach journalism at North Lake. They have been married for eight of their 20 years together, and she still talks about him as if they just had their first date. His endless romance and continuous humor makes it possible for her to describe him as “the most wonderful man.”

Before Castilla came to NLC, she proved to be an outstanding college student. She began her studies at Texas A&M, receiving her bachelor‘s and master’s degrees there. She went on to obtain her Ph.D in linguistics. However, she didn’t leave her college career unnoticed. She gained media attention from the Associated Press with her dissertation on Black English.

Soon after beginning her career at North Lake, Castilla was given the responsibility to be Duck Soup’s faculty advisor, a position she held for more than 20 years. When her husband became dean of Liberal Arts, she had to leave North Lake in spring 1998 and take a job in Mountain View’s English department. When Rene was appointed as executive dean of the South Irving Center, Castilla was able to come back. In fall 2002, she returned in the evenings to teach creative writing. She returned to full-time in spring 2003. That was almost three years ago, and she says she is not leaving NLC until she retires.

Linguistics continues to be part of Castilla’s daily life, as she passes her knowledge and passion along to her students in her world literature classes. It is obvious to her students that she not only loves teaching stories of the times, but she is attentive to individual learning capabilities as well.

One of Castilla’s former world literature students said, “She is very concerned with the students’ progress. She will dedicate extra time to any student who needs it.”

As well as being a professor, she is also a published author and editor. Castilla’s expertise and compassion makes her the ideal role model for aspiring writers. This real world experience has gained her the respect and admiration needed to head the creative writing program at North Lake. This program offers courses that allow Castilla to recognize each student’s writing strengths and fine-tune them.

“She has gone out of her way to be helpful,” said Liese Sherwood-Fabre, a former creative writing student, “and works hard in making her writing classes meaningful for her students.”

Since returning to North Lake from Mountain View, Castilla has resumed her duties as a faculty advisor to Duck Soup, sharing the responsibility with English professor Dr. D’Ann Madewell. But this academic year Madewell is on sabbatical, so it is back in Castilla’s hands again, along with the responsibility to produce another literary magazine for her creative writing students, CCWriter.

Many students are not aware that Castilla is a devout runner. Her daily three-mile jog keeps her energy levels high and her mind healthy.

Castilla is not only a mentor to students, she is also a mentor to other mentors. With her warm heart and soft words, she has an open door to anyone who needs a bit of advice. With all of her success personally and professionally, she proves to have a lot of wisdom to offer.