“MSUM’s Kristjansson-Nelson named Minnesota’s Professor of the Year” InForum article
MOORHEAD, Minn. – A film professor at Minnesota State University Moorhead became the school’s 11th Minnesota Professor of the Year on Thursday.
Kyja Kristjansson-Nelson, 35, has been on MSUM’s faculty since 2006 and will receive the award today in Washington, D.C.
The Professors of the Year program recognizes excellence in undergraduate education, and MSUM has had more professors win the award than any other higher education institution in the state, according to a release from the university.
Kristjansson-Nelson, a Fargo native, started filmmaking in college at MSUM. A cellist and originally an astrophysics major, she said the discipline combined her love of art and science.
“For me, it’s one of those things that you can’t get bored with,” she said. “Every day is different, every project is different, so it’s a very active area to work in.”
She left MSUM before completing her degree because it lacked a film production program, but she returned in 2006 as a teacher.
Kristjansson-Nelson was hired just two years after MSUM launched its film major, and she was eager “to make the program that I always wished was here.”
In her first couple of years, enrollment of film production majors doubled twice, from 30 to 60 to 120 students, and the number has since plateaued at about 130 to 140, she said.
Alumni of the program are now working in Los Angeles, New York and Nashville, and some of them are attending top graduate programs in film, she said.
Talking with Kristjansson-Nelson, it’s obvious she’d rather tell you about her students’ accomplishments than her own.
“Kyja is extremely humble,” said Katie Diiro, an MSUM master’s student and one of the people who nominated Kristjansson-Nelson for the award.
Kristjansson-Nelson’s background is impressive, and includes a yearlong Fulbright fellowship in Iceland. During that time, she created a 30-minute film that she described as “part cultural documentary, part experimental musings about my family’s immigration.”
More recent projects include a collaboration with a South Korean dancer, a documentary about outspoken teens in Bismarck and a self-portrait.
Her creativity extends to her teaching, which includes “flexible assignments” that offer students more creative freedom.
“I’ve found is that people get a little more excited or passionate about something when they want to do it, when they’ve chosen to do it, versus when they’ve been told ‘this is what you’re going to do,’ ” she said.
Diiro, now 29, eventually discovered she was more passionate about counseling than film, but she said the lessons from her film classes still hold true.
“Within counseling, we really practice what we call unconditional positive regard,” Diiro said. “We care about every person we meet, and I think that’s something I really learned from Kyja. I saw her care about every single student.”
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