A new month means a new professor spotlight here at the Prospectus. This time around, Brain Cafarelli was given the honor of adding his name to our sacred series. Cafarelli is a communications professor here at Parkland, who has dedicated sixteen years to helping students build confidence in public speaking. Cafarelli feels that the best part of the job is working with students.
“At the end of the day students come to school for a reason and I get to help with that reason, if the reason for my class is they can not public speak so that they do not get a good job, my job is to help them get a good job. If they are just here for self-confidence then it is my job to help them gain self-confidence.”
Life before Parkland
Cafarelli grew up in a small town called Vicksburg, Michigan with three siblings, of which he is the second child. Growing up, his father was an entrepreneur and owned a carpet store and multiple restaurants. Cafarelli grew up in the restaurant field, working in his father’s pizzeria which he said contributed to how he improved his customer service skills.
Cafarelli attended Vicksburg High School where he took full advantage of the school’s extracurriculars. He was a star soccer player and captain of the tennis team, as well as being in both the marching and jazz bands.
From there, Cafarelli went to Ferris State University to obtain his undergraduate degree in business marketing. Following that he attended Eastern New Mexico University for his master’s in communications, which he got a full ride to for being a graduate assistant and running the debate team.
Why communications?
As aforementioned, Cafarelli initially studied business and marketing, before switching his focus to communications. What drew Cafarelli to communications was gaining the ability to persuade and effectively communicate, which also led him to grow fond of debate teams. He actively coached debate teams from 1993 up until the Parkland debate team stopped running.
One unique opportunity that his speech writing skills facilitated – which Cafarelli is no longer actively doing – was to work as a ghostwriter, where he essentially wrote political speeches for individuals. He went on to emphasize the ability to communicate saying, “You can not even order takeout at a restaurant if you do not have the skills to communicate.”
Why Parkland?
After taking some time to teach at Linfield College, Ferris State University and Western Illinois University, Cafarelli decided to take a break from teaching and go into the banking field. However, he began to miss teaching and the satisfaction that came from assisting students in becoming their best selves.
From his time at bigger universities, he was certain that he wanted to teach at a community college and he knew that he wanted to be able to live in Champaign. Being given the opportunity to teach at Parkland fit perfectly into his plan with the added bonus of the debate team.
Where did the debate team go?
The Parkland debate team was cut for a few reasons. Moving the debates online because of COVID-19, changed the effect of the field and traveling costs for the in-person debates no longer fit in the budget. It was ultimately a format issue. Now that things are moving away from the online takeover, Cafarelli has hopes of it being started up again.
The best part of the debate team process for Cafarelli was traveling to the different debate sites and the debates they would have en route. Being able to see students gain confidence and realize that they could make a valuable argument right or wrong made it all worth it.
Family life
Cafarelli met his wife Katie nineteen years ago. They first became acquainted at Parkland and a year or so after she graduated they crossed paths again and things blossomed from there. The Cafarellis have been married for 12 years and they have two children, Ashten,18, and Evan, 10.
Cafarelli is extremely family-oriented, supporting his kids in all of their sporting endeavors and extracurricular activities. A typical weekend involves trips to Chicago and hockey, his oldest being a dedicated player.
To both fulfill a childhood passion and influence family bonding, the Cafarellis began participating in race boat competitions where the family builds the boat and travels together to compete against others.
Speech time
Cafarelli enjoys hearing both informative speeches and political ones. His favorite speeches from students are the ones that confront current societal issues from a personal perspective.
When asked how he is able to have discussions on difficult or sensitive topics he explained how it was important to remove the emotion from the discussion without removing the emotion from the act itself. “You have to go at it from the perspective of a clinical worker, like a therapist. [Not everyone can do that,] some people will not accept a topic or a reality even because of the emotion [attached].
Parkland reputation
Cafarelli has a strong reputation here at Parkland. “I am either feast or famine. I find that students either like me or they hate me.” Cafarelli believes strongly in accountability and holds his students to the same standards he holds himself to. Finding success in this class may be challenging for some, as the responsibility for the work rests entirely with the student. It is up to the student to attend, participate, and absorb the information. All Cafarelli can do is provide it.
Advice from the professor
“Think of what kind of car you want to drive when you are old. What I mean by that is most people worry about what they are going to do tomorrow or today but they do not worry about what they are going to do three years from now or ten years from now or twenty years from now. Pick a career that will put you in the car you want to drive thirty years from now. Do you want to live in a retirement home or have a bank of servants taking care of you? Take care of your older self now while you can.”
