Dr. Janice Fritz teaches biology, anatomy and physiology at SC4 and is the department chair of science, technology, engineering and math.
Janice grew up four miles outside of Brown City and recalls how intimidating it was to visit the “big city” of Port Huron. She remembers being flustered by the large number of cars on the road and the strange experience of having to wait for multiple green lights at an intersection before she could finally go through.
From an early age, Janice desired to pursue higher education. During high school, she completed seventeen credits at SC4 through an off-campus learning site at the Sanilac Career Center in Peck. Following her time in high school, she attended Saginaw Valley State University and later transferred to Western Michigan University, where she completed her bachelor’s degree in biomedicine science and health chemistry.
Directly following her time at Western, Janice was accepted to study biological science at Wayne State University for her PhD program. During her studies, she coauthored three peer-reviewed publications on her study of the nervous system of fruit flies. She continued this work in her post-doctorate fellowship training, spending three years at the University of Iowa studying the auditory systems of fruit flies.
When she first started her graduate work, Janice was not interested in teaching. It wasn’t until her work as a teaching assistant at Wayne State that her passion for teaching began. She recalls “being scared to death” the first time she walked into a classroom, but that this teaching experience encouraged her to pursue a career as an academic scientist, which involves teaching as well as running labs.
Dr. Fritz excels at building relationships with her students and utilizing the “flipped classroom” method. She maintains a YouTube channel with her classroom lectures, which students take notes on outside of the classroom. This allows her to utilize class time for labs, hands-on group work, and student questions. She explained, “It’s one thing for someone to tell you about something; it’s another to try it. I want my students to try it.”
During her time at SC4, Janice served as the faculty union president for two years and was appointed as the faculty department chair for the science, technology, engineering and math division. She has a wide range of academic interests but takes joy in studying the nervous system, especially at the molecular level, illusion and perception in the brain, genetics and the cardiovascular system.
Dr. Fritz has been married to her husband for 25 years and has six children. She enjoys being in nature, tending her garden, and paddleboarding on the Black River.
For media inquiries, please contact Sarah Rutallie, Chief of Staff, SC4, at srutallie@sc4.edu
