Standing in front of an auditorium of over 100 students is probably one of the last places Tracy Ore, a self-proclaimed introvert, would have imagined herself in her early life. Nevertheless, she takes her place at the podium several times a week, rain, snow or broken arm. Armed with an arsenal of anecdotes and a native New Yorker’s bluntness, the combination of which makes her seem at once intimidating and likeable, she teaches the nuances of sociological theory with effectiveness, humor and passion.

Growing up on the south shore of Long Island, N.Y., Ore always excelled in academics, graduating high school one year early, despite being homeless her sophomore year and being forced to change schools. Early graduation was driven not so much by an earnestness to achieve as by a desire to get out of her home.

“When I was in tenth grade I realized I needed to get out of my house. I needed to get away from that,” says Ore. Towards the end of her early graduation, still not sure of what to do next, a wealthy woman from her church urged her to apply to college.

“Someone in our church said I should go to college and she offered to pay for all my application fees. I applied to college as a sophomore in high school and I got in to every place I applied and I decided to go to the place furthest away from home,” said Ore.

Ore began her undergraduate studies with the intention of doing pre-med, but a mix up with advising sent her down a different path.

“I was assigned the wrong advisor,” said Ore. “When I went to him to get him to sign off on my transfer to a pre-med advisor, he said he wanted me to take a Sociology course before he would sign off.” Despite not having an interest in Sociology, Ore took the class.

“That’s how I found Sociology,” said Ore. “This professor pretty unethically made me take the class, but he wound up being my mentor for my undergrad.” During her senior year, Ore again was faced with the uncertainty of what she should do next. She decided to apply to the Peace Core to teach English in Sierra Leone, but that plan was interrupted by what Ore describes as a “political awareness awakening.”

When she wrote her senior capstone, the theme of which was a Christian ethical dilemma, she focused on the question of whether or not a homosexual could be a Christian.

“Throughout my college years, I began to realize that I was gay,” says Ore. The realities Ore was awakening to about herself and the world around her went in the face of many of the politically conservative views she had held for most of her life. After handing in her capstone, Ore said she was threatened with being kicked out of school.

“That woke me up to a lot of different things,” said Ore. “I was becoming more politically aware of social oppression that I hadn’t been thinking about before. I did a lot of reading and started thinking, ‘Who the hell am I to go to a different country to teach them English, this is stupid.’” After being shaken out of her resolve to go to Africa, Ore was left trying to figure out what to do next. When one of her professors suggested she apply for grad school, Ore decided to apply, not thinking that she would get accepted, but she was.

She did research for two years in the Institute for Social Research, which in the Sociology world, Ore says, is the best research center in the world.

“I enjoyed doing that, but my advisor, the person I worked for, turned out to be a pig,” said Ore. “He liked to flirt with his female research assistants and if you didn’t return it, all of a sudden you didn’t have a job. So, I didn’t have a job suddenly and I thought, ‘What am I going to do?’ They said I could a teaching assistant position where I had to assist the professor and teach certain sessions. I thought, ‘I will never be able to do that,’ but I ended up doing it and loving it. That was in 1988 and I’ve been teaching ever since.” After a teaching stint at the University of Illinois, she came to SCSU in 1998, and has been here ever since.

Besides her passion for teaching Sociology, Ore has long had an interest in working with and learning about food, food politics and sustainability.

“I’ve always liked to cook,” said Ore. “My mom made sure my brothers and I all knew how to make a meal from beginning to end by the time we were eight, salad to dessert.” In addition to teaching a Politics of Food course at SCSU, Ore also runs the campus community garden, which she says she was inspired to start by an initiative in Detroit, Mich.

“For five years I took students from [SCSU] to Detroit for something called ‘Detroit Summer’, which is a youth led movement to rebuild Detroit,” said Ore. “I got involved with some of the garden stuff they were doing.” After experiencing the power of gardens to build community in Detroit for several years, Ore began to wonder if a community garden on the SCSU campus would have the same effect.

“I went to the administration and said, ‘I think we need to have a garden.’” Ore got approval for the garden and it was installed in 2005. When asked, ‘Why is food so important to you?’, Ore talked about how food makes one think about how everything is interconnected.

“When you think about family, you think about food,” said Ore. “When you think about global trades, you think about food. We could talk about your cup of coffee for several days; about the politics of the beans-where they came from, to the cup to the employees to whatever. It’s a great way to see how things are connected.” Food for Ore is not only intellectually fulfilling, but is intrinsically linked with relationships and the values she was taught growing up.

“My mom always taught me how food was important and how to care for people through food. When somebody’s sick, you bring food. When somebody dies, you bring food. I’ve always enjoyed that aspect of food. I like to cook for other people,” said Ore. “With my job here, there’s very little that’s tangible- you don’t always get to see the product of it. But just this morning at home, I made two cheesecakes for a party, and that will make people happy.”