Jordan Lanfair ’11

As a first-generation, low-income student, Jordan Lanfair ’11 utilized the Golden Apple Scholars of Illinois teacher preparation program for tuition assistance. He now serves as the director of undergraduate scholar support services for the foundation.  

In his present role, Lanfair works with universities around Illinois and other states as they continue to expand so that students working to become future educators have the support services they need to graduate and enter the field. 

Lanfair always wanted to work with students, believing he could connect on a different level. “I was a terrible student growing up,” he said. “I knew I could deal with students who were like me–the kind that wanted to be kicked out of class.”

While studying at Knox, Lanfair didn’t want to limit his experiences. He wanted to explore his interests and utilize the liberal arts approach to its fullest. After taking multiple anthropology and sociology classes, he became interested in how language expresses culture while tying what he learned back to English classes. He decided to self-design a major, working with professors from different departments to create his academic pathway in language, pedagogy, and culture. “Sometimes, you gotta make your own path,” he said.

After graduating from Knox, Lanfair worked at the Navajo Nation, which he first visited through a two-week immersive teaching program at Knox, and later returned to Galesburg to teach full-time. He later accepted a position abroad for two years in the United Arab Emirates as an English Medium teacher, where he conducted evaluations and professional developmental opportunities before finally joining the Golden Apple Foundation in 2019.

Lanfair believes that his success can be attributed to his experiences both within and outside of Knox. He looks back at memories fondly, recalling winter term when he and his friends brought sleds out and drank hot cocoa on a snow day.  As president of Allied Black for Liberation and Equality (A.B.L.E.), he learned the role that collaboration plays in success along with the importance of planning from a diversity, equity, and inclusion perspective. It all came together to help him get to where he is today.

“I think Knox prepared me in some very real ways,” he said. “The education I received at Knox made me intellectually curious and afforded the opportunity to meet all types of people and have experiences I wouldn’t have had at home.”