About me

The video and the following text are approximately the same.

Hello! I like to go by Herbert (Her-bert). My last name isn't the best to pronounce, so I am very used to not making people pronounce it. If you do want to be more formal, I do not mind. Just make sure to follow the proper honorific, Dr. Grotewohl (grow-tah-wall). My pronouns are he/him and I don't mind gender neutral pronouns being used for me, such as they/them. I often try to use they/them in general, if this bothers you let me know and I'll make extra sure not to use they/them.

I first went to college when I was 18 because my mother told me I had to. One year later, I dropped out of college due to failing grades. I worked as a landscaper, a server at Red Robin, at a football stadium, and a midnight donut baker over the span of two years. During the second year, I took a couple of classes at community colleges in Colorado, thinking about going back to school. Nearing the fall term, I was approached and asked to be the night manager for the donut shop. It felt like a fork in the road of life. I could either become a restaurant manager, or go back to college and do.... "something." As you probably guessed, I went back to college.

My first term back, I took a spread of intro 100 level classes I thought might be interesting. Afterwards, I decided that I would double major in physics and philosophy, those being the most interesting. After looking through the degree requirements, I realized it would take me an extra year to get both. So I instead just went for the physics major, as I thought it would be more interesting and give me more options for the future. I also got a math minor, because doing physics, it was only 2 or so extra courses to get the math minor. I decided to go to graduate school for physics, because the jobs with just an undergrad degree felt too much like a technician job, and not using the physics I learned. So I learned more physics and realized I didn't really like being in charge of the research and would have probably been find with a technician like job *shrug*. But getting the advanced degree enabled me to be a teacher at the college degree, which is where I wanted to be.

I've always enjoyed helping people learn things. So often in high school, when asked what I wanted to do, I would shrug and say "teach I guess." Then when asked what I would teach, I would say "Math I guess, because it makes sense to me." Yeah, not really very motivated in primary school. With that said, I still always enjoyed helping people understand things, and seeing them happy when they are able to figure it out. I thought I might want to be a professor and a university, but there are a lot other other aspects to being a professor at a university that I just didn't want to do. During my last year in grad school getting my PhD, I decided I would teach and got a gig teaching GS104 here at Chemeketa on the weekends. I was very fortunate that right as I finished my degree at the University of Oregon in 2016, there was a new full time physics faculty position that opened up. I applied and got the job. I was given the PH211 series and have been teaching it since then, with some other courses thrown in as well.

For a long time, my biggest hobbies were watching TV/movies, playing video games and dungeons & dragons. After some mental health issues, I realized I should be more physically active. I did CrossFit for about a year, before transitioning to roller derby. I played roller derby in Eugene while in graduate school and off and on since moving. I also played for the Portland team. I scrimmaged a lot here in Salem at the Mad House. My first son was born in 2017, so a lot of hobbies became more child involved. Then the pandemic hit and couldn't do derby any more. Lots of hiking since. I am getting back into roller derby now (Fall 2024)!

I acknowledge that growing up as a CIS white male raised in white suburbia I have had a pretty privileged life.  I know that this is not the experience that many of my students have had and I endeavor to learn about each of my students personal experiences as much as they are comfortable sharing with me to expand my own view of the world and help in anyway that I can.

Feel free to ask my any other questions about myself or my history. Not to say I'll give answers to all questions....