How a Crime Writer Became an Inspirational Mentor

By Amanda Tukaj, Class of 2019

It's 8:00 AM as two dozen students file into building 5S for another day of English class.

There's an occasional remark about yesterday's football game or the most recent controversial celebrity gossip stemming from a scandalous tweet from Kanye or one of the Kardashians.

And now it's up to CSI professor and professional writer, Barry Sheinkopf, to explain there's more to writing than 140 characters on a phone screen.

Barry Sheinkopf has impacted the 
lives of many Verrazano students

Having taught both remedial classes as well as students of the Verrazano Honors School, Professor Sheinkopf has dealt with pupils from all writing backgrounds and skill sets. He insists that mastering strong fundamentals of writing is as essential as ever for students vying for positions in the workplace.

"An articulate command of language is key to all occupations," he said.

Professor Sheinkopf studied English at the University of California in Berkeley and has been teaching at CSI for over 30 years. He has also been working with Verrazano School students on and off again for 10 years. Of these honor students, he speaks fondly.

"The kids are better prepared," he said. "They have more of a worldview."

As for how Professor Sheinkopf launched his own writing career, the details are quite endearing. As an only child in a parochial school, he tried his hand at entering the Passover Poetry Contest and was hooked.         

When he's not teaching at CSI, he is leading seminars at The Writing Center in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, or editing other writers' novels. Additionally, he has published a great deal of his own fiction (predominantly within the genre of crime fiction) and poetry, including titles such as What There Was and the most recent book he has yet to finish, a memoir called Myself and I—The Stories in My Life. 

His experience with juggling multiple genres and forms can be seen in his teaching, and he has been praised time and time again by his students.

Jesse Jordan, a Verrazano student and CSI sophomore who was a part of Professor Sheinkopf's English composition class in the spring 2016 semester stated that "I loved his attitude and the discussions we would have in class. He helped me develop better writing skills and increased my confidence in writing college level papers."  

Professor Sheinkopf claims the positive feedback he gets is the greatest reward a professor could ask for.

"Students learn by studying the way in which their teachers think," he said. "They learn from who you are."