Life lessons

She looks healthy. She looks happy. She's energetic. She is attentive to her students' needs. You wouldn't know it, but she's battling breast and bone cancer. Rebecca Soper, an instructor in the Department of English and Mass Communication, says she doesn't want people to feel sorry for her.

She said she sees her cancer as something that's teaching her a lesson about life. She said she is the type of person who wakes up every morning saying, "This is going to be a good day."

Soper said she's known about her breast cancer for three years. Her first surgery, a mastectomy, was in October 12, 2008. Bone cancer showed up in May 2010.

Since then, her weakened immune system and complications from chemotherapy treatments have led to multiple staph infections and diabetes.

Breast cancer is the most common cancer and the second leading cause of death among women. Common symptoms of breast cancer are change in the look or feel of the breast, change in the look or feel of the nipple, and nipple discharge.

The key to breast cancer survival is treatment and early detection. "I made a conscious decision a long time ago to go through with realizing that it's a blessing," said Soper. "I decided to be honest with my students because they were experiencing it with me."

Soper has taught courses in speech and interpersonal and small group communication at N.C. Central University for 12 years. She was born in Iowa and went to college in California and Colorado.

She said she loves NCCU and calls it "home." In fact, her sons, Jason and Morgan, are members of the Eagle family as well. Jason, 32, studied political science and graduated in 2007. Morgan, 28, is a nursing junior set to graduate in June 2013.

She says her children are worried but prepared; however, they are not ready to lose her.

Soper wasn't always a teacher. She started working in 1973 as an industrial trainer in information technology and sales for a furniture chain.

While she was working on her master's degree in organizational communication, a classmate asked her if she was interested in teaching at Lowry Air Force Base in Denver.

She said she only agreed to the position "reluctantly," but soon fell in love with teaching.

Since then she has taught at North Carolina State University, and Hartnell College and Monterey Peninsula College in California, before settling in at NCCU.

"Teaching came to me, I didn't come to it," said Soper. And come to her it did. Ask any of her present and former students about how they feel about Soper and you'll get a clear and simple answer: She's a great teacher who's had a powerful impact on her students.

"I went through it with Soper," said mass communication junior Ishmael Hinson. "At first it was scary because her and my mother were both fighting cancer at the same time. She is much better now and seeing her conquer it was inspirational. She is a strong person."

Not only do her students love and admire her, her co- workers are also huge fans. Jim Pearce, associate professor of English and director of MA program of English, got to know her during his time as department chair.

He noticed that she had the highest Student Ratings of Instruction of any teacher in the department. He says she never received any complaints.

He also said that she is one of the people faculty go to during difficult times. She is more focused about the well being of others than herself, according to Pearce.

"She is one of the most authentic people I've ever met. So few people know of her illness because she has no self-pity," said Pearce.

She shows these admirable characteristics in her teaching.

In her lectures she relates her teachings to her life situations and when she mentions her illness, it is never in a negative way.

"My students motivate me to keep going," said Soper. "They teach me more than I teach them. They keep me young."

She says that everyone will have to leave this world one day and finds it comforting that she knows when she will leave.

"I don't want people to cry at my funeral. I want them to celebrate because I have lived a long and beautiful life," said Soper.