Joe Valone has had a long career in teaching that began when he was offered a teaching fellowship. He has taught at various colleges, including Monroe Community College where he currently teaches as an adjunct professor. Valone worked for 31 years at General Motors before retiring in 2006, and attributes his teaching skills to his time there developing communication and presentation skills. Although retired, Valone continues teaching and finds it rewarding to see how he has positively impacted his students' lives.

1. Contact: Rich Healey
TO: The Monroe Doctrine
RELEASE: Immediately
Retirement Is Just the Beginning of a New Chapter
We all dream of finding that ideal job. The one we go to day in and day
out, and it doesn’t even feel like work. Professor Joe Valone has manifested
that job for himself, in teaching. He has always had a passion to teach, and
doesn’t plan on stopping any time soon.
His interest for teaching sparked when he was offered a teaching
fellowship in Career and Human Resources Development at the Rochester
Institute of Technology. “It spared my love for teaching,” Valone said. He spent
four years at RIT earning his master’s degree in Human Resources
Development.
Valone currently works at Monroe Community College as an adjunct
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professor in the Visual and Performing Arts Department. He has taught
courses including Interpersonal Communication, Public Speaking, and Small
Group Communication.
Valone a Rochester native, moved to Cuba with his family when he was
only nine months old. Valone’s mother, Amber, was Cuban, and his father,
Joseph, was looking to expand his interior decorating business in Cuba. In
1959, at the age of five, Valone and his family moved back to the Rochester
area due to the Castro Regime.
Before teaching became Valone’s sole job, he was hired by General
Motors to work in the Electronic Data Systems Department in January of 1977,
just before he graduated from MCC.
However, working in EDS lasted all of nine months before GM moved
EDS’s headquarters out of state. “There was always a twist,” Valone said,
which left him a choice, move to Michigan, or go into the plant.
Valone chose to work on the assembly line in the GM plant located in
Rochester on the corner of Lexington Avenue and Mt. Read Boulevard. He was
a product inspector and oversaw everything that came off the assembly line.
“It wasn’t for me, I wanted more,” he explained. “So I got very involved in
the union until I was able to get the fellowship.”
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Valone did learn a lot of skills while working at GM that have helped him
teach in the classroom. “I’m so glad I was there,” he said. “I learned a lot of
time management skills, making presentations, speaking in front of crowds, my
stand up skills.”
After completing his fellowship with RIT, Valone returned to GM and had
his first taste of what it was like to teach in the classroom outside of his
schooling. He became a corporate trainer and helped establish a training
center that offered online classes to GM employees that gave them access to an
affordable education.
Valone’s favorite part about working with GM was in personnel, teaching
in the classroom. “Working in the classroom and bringing the education to our
employees,” Valone said. “I enjoyed bringing the membership various classes:
classes that were mandated by the state.”
Valone worked for GM for 31 years, and retired in 2006. Retiring has
given him the time and opportunity to teach at various local colleges including
Bryant and Stratton, RIT, and most recently, MCC.
However, Valone attributes his success throughout his teaching career to
Gloria Valone, his wife. He described how she has been that person who has
helped guide him over the years.
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“What every man could hope for is to have a woman by his side to
support him,” Valone praised. “You need that person to pick you up and head
you in the right direction. Mrs. V. has been that person by my side.”
He explained how the most rewarding part about teaching is hearing
from former students to see how they have grown as individuals. “Students
coming back to me, and engaging in conversation,” he explained. “Making a
difference in their lives, I have that, and it never fails.”
Valone started his college career at MCC and earned two associate’s
degrees, one in computer science and one in business. He then went on to
finish his bachelor’s degree at SUNY Brockport, which he received in 1987.
In 2001, Valone returned to MCC, but this time to teach. He taught part
time, while still working at GM. “I would flex my hours, and do an 8 o’clock
(class) here (MCC), then get to work (at GM) at 10 a.m. and work from 10
o’clock to 6 o’clock,” he said.
“The experience that I had at MCC was always a positive experience, it
shaped to who I am today,” Valone explained. “What I like about MCC is the
energy, it’s just the energy of the hallways, and the classroom, and the
students. I thrive on that.”
Outside of the classroom, you can find Valone spending his free time
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with family and friends, helping out around the house, and continuously
learning. “I’m fascinated by learning,” Valone said. “You’re always learning,
I’m always looking to better myself.”
To all students that aspire to become teachers, “You really do need those
communication skills,” Valone explained. “You take on a role of responsibilities
as a teacher. It almost becomes secondary to interpersonal skills, that
relationship you can have with you students.”
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