Upon their release by the Shining Path, Gentile and Contreras became the only two American journalists to have been captured by that group and escape unharmed.

His captivity in Peru didn’t stop him from covering more dangerous situations. He went on to cover, among other things, the U.S. Invasion of Haiti, the U.S. Invasion of Panama, the Sandinista Revolution, the Haiti dictatorship ouster and the 1994 Rwanda genocide.

In 1995, Gentile was one of several still photographers selected by a company called video News International to receive training as a video journalist.

“I started out as a still photographer,” Gentile says, “never thinking about television. I never even liked television. But after you spend awhile in still images, you begin to think about the creative possibilities. To me, video is simply still images that move. They not only move, but they talk. So the creative possibilities [with video] just expand exponentially.”

In 2000, the Kent State University School of Journalism and Mass Communication recruited Gentile.

“Kent needed someone who could do all that I can do,” Gentile says. “I’ve had the good fortune of working in all these branches of communication.”

His duties at Kent State include being a professor of photography and videography, and also restructuring the visual communication component of the school.

Gentile has once again set high standards for himself concerning the restructuring aspect of his position.

“I want to see Kent State have the best visual communication program in the country,” he says. “And I think we can do that.”

As for his decision to accept the position at Kent State, Gentile said he has “always had a desire to teach, because it offers you an opportunity to have an impact on people’s lives. I think the University level is where I’d like to have that impact.”

Gentile’s wife agrees.

“When he went to Afghanistan, he was happy for himself, but I think he was more happy to come back and show the students how the world is,” she said.

The Oxygen channel hired Gentile as a videographer in October, 2001, just one month after the attacks of September 11. The job involved traveling to Afghanistan.

“He said nothing would happen to him,” Esther says. “I said, 'OK, you’re Superman.’ The truth is, I never tried to think about [the danger], because I wanted the days to pass quickly.”

His trip to Afghanistan enabled Gentile to bring even more field experience to his teaching.

“I think it’s great that students can benefit from him,” Esther said. “I’m very proud of him.”

And the students are proud to have him.

This comment came laughingly from Shannon Szwarc, a photojournalism major who is currently taking an independent study class with Gentile.

“I never miss one of his classes,” Szwarc says. “I love the way he teaches. Gentile goes far beyond just being a good professor. He’s a good person. He creates a reaction to want to be a better person in life.”

“What I like most about teaching is that I can affect the course of someone’s life in a positive way; that’s the most important thing to me,” Gentile says. “I want my students to come away with two things: number one, that there’s a fascinating, really compelling world out there; and number two, that they can actually be engaged with it if they want to. It’s a sense of empowerment I’d like them to have.”

“Just to be in his class,” Szwarc says, “he makes you excited about taking hold of your life, living, taking responsibility and going out and instigating something in the world. It’s intense.”

Gentile now considers himself both professor and journalist.

“I’m a working journalist who teaches,” Gentile says. “I am a working, visual journalist who teaches. That’s who I’d like to be. That’s who I’m trying to be.”

Gentile’s continuing passion for journalism remains strong, and was evident in a statement he made during a previous interview with the Daily Kent Stater. While being held captive in Peru, thinking his captors would surly kill him, Gentile was more focused on something else.

“Two days of [captivity] and I had no photographs. That’s very frustrating,” Gentile said. “I was thinking about trying to make pictures.”