PELLA, Iowa — Longtime broadcast journalist Harry Smith is teaching in Iowa, after his announcement on the Today Show in the spring that he’s leaving NBC News.

The veteran journalist who spent his career asking questions is back at his alma mater Central College. Only this time, he’s the professor.

“I had some nerves, had some real nerves coming in,” Smith said. “And I think we’re doing OK now.”

The students in Smith’s classroom might not be as familiar with his work as they should be.

“I knew he was a famous [alumnus],” Leah Howard, junior at Central College, said. “I never watched any of his shows. I never watched any of his interviews. Then when I heard his voice, I was like oh yeah, that guy is definitely on TV.”

For what they didn’t know, their families filled them in.

“I knew the name,” junior Paddy Bozik said. “So my grandma obviously knew Harry Smith from when he was on TV.”

“My family knew who Harry was,” senior Grace Hoffman said, “and I remember growing up and watching the morning news but I really had no clue.”

“When I told them I was taking this class, they got very excited,” senior Colton Mayberry said.

Excited would be an understatement to get into Smith’s fall semester course focused on curiosity.

You won’t find any phones or laptops in class — only pen and paper to take notes and encouragement to speak up in the discussions.

“They need to feel free to say what’s on their minds and to say what’s from their hearts,” Smith said. “And you saw that in this class today. I mean, they had stuff to wrestle with.”

Smith knows what it’s like to be in their seats because he was once there too. He was part of the class of 1973 and recruited by Central College to play football, but what really peaked his interest was the liberal arts education.

“I dabbled in almost everything here. I feel like I took whatever was not nailed down,” Smith recalled. “I took English. I took linguistics. I took feminist authors. I mean, that’s what was here that just lit me up and served me so well in a career because I said almost anything I’ve encountered that I haven’t thought oh that connects, that connects, that connects, that connects. In the very first lecture in the first day, I said what this course is about ultimately is connection.”

Connection that brings students of different majors into one classroom. Not to learn about current events, but to share ideas, opinions, beliefs about life and be curious together.

“You can’t create, like re-create the magic that happens in this room,” Howard said.

“Like it really is about curiosity and connectivity and how everything is connected,” Bozik said, “and how we move throughout the world.”

“Honestly the coolest part of it is it’s so full of people,” Hoffman said. “Science a lot of times you get stuck digging in on the exact and the nitty gritty and just how specific you have to be. And this class just allows for just so much exploration and fun and getting to relate to people who are so different from me and I love that. That’s the best part.”

One of the best parts for Smith is learning from his students.

“Oh God, I love this class,” Smith exclaimed during class.

“I’m so happy I decided to do this,” Smith said. “The thing that has been really great is the students responding to the instruction.”

As these college students prepare for what’s next in their lives, Smith’s pass/fail course called “Commencement: The Beginning” will hopefully help them succeed.

“One of the things we know for sure is that students who graduate from college now, half will never work in the field they studied,” Smith said. “Some suggest that students who graduate from college now will work in as many as three completely different fields and all have a dozen jobs. That goes without question … So part of this class is this notion that you’re juniors and seniors. You almost can see the finish line in sight. It’s not the end. It’s the beginning.”

The beginning is a chance to be curious. 

“We’re just saying drink this in, give this planet and this life and all that it has to offer an opportunity,” Smith said.

And according to Smith, the end is too. Because retiring from a job of telling stories could have created a new calling of teaching students.

“I can absolutely see myself back here doing this again next fall,” Smith said. “I can absolutely see that. I can’t guarantee it, but I can absolutely see it.”

Central College tells us Smith will not be teaching this upcoming spring semester, but hopes to be back next fall.