Written by Kennedi Beauchamp
Brian Bollone is known as the teacher of criminalistics, but maybe even more for his always positive attitude.
“This building is full of rainbows and unicorns,” Bollone said.
Majoring in both chemistry and biology, Bollone began his higher education at Hope College. Bollone went on to graduate college and begin his teaching career, eventually ending up at Northview.
“I taught elsewhere before I taught here, so at that point at my school we were looking at what the state was requiring,” Bollone said regarding the idea for criminalistics.
At that time the state was requiring three years of science, and the only required classes were biology and chemistry. Bollone and his team knew that not all students would be able to do physics because of the math used. Forensics, however, seemed perfect to Bollone. It tied together all different components of science, not only what he learned in school, but also in his former job in the emergency room.
Bollone enjoys teaching medical subjects like Pathology because he worked in the ER for four years. He refers to himself as a “peon” while he worked there. From bringing in vomit from patients that had overdosed and counting the pills to taking deceased patients to the morgue, Bollone was the go-to guy.
In his class Bollone thoroughly enjoys telling stories from his emergency room experience, and his students enjoy it. He tries to find a story for every subject he teaches.
“It’s the stories that students remember more than the material,” Bollone said.