There are two Brer Rabbit (from Splash Mountain) bobble heads on Dr. Schaffer’s desk. She talks about the Briar Patch every year to her students.

“You were born and bred in the Briar Patch. Do not fall for any traps,” Dr. Schaffer said. “The College Board is very good at coming up wrong answers that are plausible. I give my students strategies like covering the answer choices. My students are prepared. They know what’s coming. They will not get trapped, so I say ‘bring it on College Board.’”

Dr. Schaffer is full of cues and traps. It may be her Neuron Dance choreography or “Boca Broca” alliteration, but her style of teaching certainly makes an impression on her students.

“I have had students years later email me about something that reminded them of me,” Dr. Schaffer said. “So many students have told me that they got inspired to study psychology as a major and even graduate school. It makes me so proud.”

An inspirational quotatioin from Maya Angelou, “People may not remember exactly what you did or what you said, but they will always remember how you made them feel,” motivates Dr. Schaffer to guide her students beyond the AP course objectives. Dr. Schaffer advises her students with valuable life lessons such as “wear a helmet” and “date, don’t mate.”

“When students share something going on in their lives it means so much to me that they trust me enough to open up to me,” said Schaffer. “I also love when students connect things in the world to something we are studying in class. They get so excited.”

About once a month, Dr. Schaffer along with a group of friends some of which she knows from graduate school get together for a book club. She likes to read fiction, and some of her favorite books include The Bonesetter’s Daughter by Amy Tan and The Red Tent by Anita Diamant.

“When I was in graduate school at UM, we were required to teach an undergraduate course,” said Schaffer. We only had to do one semester, but I loved it and opted to teach eight more classes.” She continues to teach at the University of Miami as an adjunct professor and has taught Introduction to Psychology, Social Psychology and Personality Psychology.