English Professor Sid Sondergard enjoys everything from listening to hours of music each day, to working with his students in the classroom, to nurturing his fruit and nut trees at home, to traveling around the world for his research. “I have been extremely fortunate here to be encouraged to offer a wide variety of courses that ensure my professional curiosity is always piqued,” Sondergard says.  He offers courses on European and American popular culture, early modern European and Asian literature, and screenwriting.  Sondergard believes that “St. Lawrence has recognized the value of encouraging its faculty to continue developing as teachers and researchers throughout their careers.”  He says, “We’re able to model the zest for life-long learning that we wish to communicate to our students.” As many teachers agree, Sondergard finds nothing more rewarding “than watching the look of satisfaction that appears on students’ faces when they realize that they have just completed a difficult piece of work – whether it’s a seminar paper or a screenplay – and have performed to the best of their ability.  Hard work is empowering,” he says. This summer, Sondergard received a grant from the Asian Studies Initiative and Freeman Foundation “to pursue research in the Mekong Delta region of southern Vietnam, gathering information to contextualize a screenplay adaptation I’m writing of the book South Wind Changing, by Jade Huynh Quang Ngoc,” he says.  And currently, Sondergard says, “I am translating the supernatural tales of Chinese author Pu Songling.”