Born in Brooklyn, New York, Steve Remollino moved with his family to Texas in 1968 where he attended schools in the La Marque Independent School District.
Remollino attended COM for two years before going on to senior college. "COM helped me with my degree. I took all of my English here with Brenda Brown and Brett Jarrett," Remollino said. "I also worked on the newspaper (InterCOM) for two years and was editor for one year."
After attending COM Remollino went to the University of Houston-Clear Lake to finish his education. His degrees include a bachelor's and a master's in English. He also has a master's degree in education and is certified to teach secondary education, speech, journalism and reading.
As a student, Steve was a reporter and regular contributor to the award-winning COM student newspaper, InterCOM. While at UHCL, Remollino worked on the student newspaper, the UHclidian, as both reporter and editor. For the school's literary magazine, Bayousphere, he served as poetry editor and later as overall editor.
Remollino began teaching at College of the Mainland in1986—first as an adjunct instructor, later becoming a full-time instructor in 2003. He became a tenured College of the Mainland professor in 2006. He taught English 1301: Composition I and English 1302: Composition II.
He also taught English as a reserve instructor at Galveston College and taught English, speech and visual media at Dickinson High School. In addition, he taught English at O’Connell High School.
Considering how long and sometimes difficult his days were, Remollino still enjoyed what he did, "I like teaching; it's one of my strengths," Remollino said. "People ask how I go so many hours. I really don't know, but I do ·like to keep busy."
Remollino enjoyed teaching both high school and college, "but in high school you get buried in all the paperwork," he said. "It gets to the point where you feel you're drowning in paper instead of teaching.
"With college classes you don't have the technicalities that you have in high school. Also, the people want to learn, whereas in high school you're always telling the class to be quiet. I would take a full-time teaching job at a college if it were offered. It's because of the importance; people need to learn at a higher level."
"Education should be accessible to everyone. As a writing instructor, it is my personal goal to help everyone become a better writer and as a result, a stronger communicator."
Remollino felt strongly about learning at a higher level and in a letter to the editor of InterCOM, April/May 1991, he defended a group of students that supported academic freedom:
Dear Editor:
As a former student and current part-time instructor at College of the Mainland, I take great offense at Roy Windsor McCall's comments found in the Texas City Sun. He refers to the students as dissidents, and then further embarrasses himself by saying that he bets that there's not a scholar in the bunch. As an instructor for six years, I have encountered many scholarly students at COM, most of whom were scholarly enough to realize that academic freedom and freedom of speech are necessary parts of any democracy, and integral parts of any learning environment. Perhaps Mr. McCall would like to provide the college with copies of his high school or (if they exist) college transcripts. I would love to see a "scholar" who makes such irrational comments made in school. In my book he makes an "F."
-Steve Remollino
Instructor of English
Besides teaching, Remollino served on the Faculty Senate as a member, president and past-president. and was a member other campus committees including several SACS committees, Student Success Council, Employee of the Month, Technology, Instructional Leadership, Early Warning, P16, PASS Grant and the Curriculum Committee, for which he served as chair. He frequently served on hiring committees for positions at the college and was a member of the College Choir.
In his free time, Remollino loved to watch movies, go to concerts, view plays, read books (especially non-fiction), and visit museums.
He was a collector of toys, models and movie memorabilia "I'm a big movie buff." During his time as a student at UH Clear Lake, he and another young man served as movie critics in the style of Siskel and Ebert for the UHclidian.
Remollino loved to travel. His favorite destinations were the Walt Disney parks in California and Florida. He also enjoyed taking cruises.
You can see Remollino's articles as a student in the InterCOM and more photos in our Steve Remollino album or more about COM History.
InterCOM Articles by or about Remollino:
Go to the Steve Remollino photo album.
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