Thinking Outside the Blog - Guest Blogger

Vol 2 No 31

Opportunity in life is everywhere, perhaps no more so than during your college experience.  This week's guest blog comes from Jennie Erdle, Director of Student Life and member of the Honor's Advisory Board.  Profoundly dedicated to student academic, intellectual, emotional, and social success, Jennie's office does amazing work for students.  In this guest blog, she reflects on one of those projects.  Not just a past project, but a project that continues on.  Information on how to be involved in Fall 2018 is included.

Thinking outside the Blog…

Honors Studies meets Women’s Initiative on Leadership and Curiosity Blooms

At the end of Fall 2017, Dr. Trista Merrill, Director of Honors Studies approached Jennie Erdle, Director of Student Life with an idea she was curious about. In an attempt to expand opportunities for students to gain more Honors Studies points, Dr. Merrill inquired about the Women’s Initiative on Leadership program that has been on campus for 5 years. Dr. Merrill herself has served as both a guest speaker, mentor, and part of networking sessions and was able to experience first-hand the impact this program has made on our student participants and how simple it might be to be interconnected back to their studies. You see, “Women” maybe in the title and yes, that is for sure the focus of this homegrown leadership program, but in truth this program has yielded over 480 student participants including women, men, transgender, and those students on the full gender spectrum showcasing both fluid identity and expression. For the first time in Spring 2018, this program counted towards Honors Studies Program points and within two short weeks of advertising we had four Honors Studies students participate, two of which had completed the leadership program in previous semesters.

This Fall 2018 Student Life will be kicking off their 6^th year, and the program itself has undergone a bit of a pick-me-up. With the ever changing societal influences, the program has updated some of the information that will be shared, so in a way it’s to keep the program vital and relevant to the rising tides of change. One small but important inclusionary item will be the addition of the theory behind Revolutionary Love in a Time of Rage, by Valarie Kaur. For more information on this, please take a moment to watch this Ted Talk found on You Tube. It is our greatest hope that with the inclusion of this topic will aid in arming students with additional skills to persevere though their college years with us and beyond. 

If you know a student who could benefit from not only extra Honors Studies points, but students who could benefit from a bit of self-discovery, civil discourse, and above all, is looking for a unique way to connect to the college, please do have them reach out to Jennie Erdle to be able to get them signed up.

Thank you and hope everyone is having a great summer!!

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"Women's Initiative on Leadership taught me far more than leadership skills, and actually had me walking away with an increased understanding [of myself]" - Jill

The Heart of Honors

Vol 1., No. 9

We live in a world that seems more and more contentious and intolerant if all the negative stories that cross our paths are to be believed.  I’m not sure about the world as a whole, but I know that there are points of light no matter where you go and FLCC is no different.  November is upon us, and it often brings with it a nod towards things about which we are thankful.  I’m thankful for the moments I observe as a professor; moments that are perhaps far more telling than perhaps the people involved even realize.  So, sit back and meander through an eighty minute class of mine wherein I witnessed four vignettes of student interaction that have stuck with me.  There are more, but I really like these four and I think they say a lot about the students involved and the kind of environment classes can create.  I doubt I need to say that it was an Honors course, but it was. This is not to say that I don’t think these kinds of stories exist all across our campus and beyond, because I believe they do.  In my experience, however, it is in the Honors classrooms where I see these heartwarming stories more often.

“Pardon”

In a moment of waiting for some as others finished up in-class work, one student stood up to draw on the board.  She went to caption her illustration and asked her classmates how to spell a word.  One said, “really?!” in a sort of disbelieving way and she immediately turned around and said, “Hey, I have dyslexia, shut up.”  These last two words were said in a congenial sort of way and without any malice.  The first student asked if she really was and when she told him she was, he said sincerely, “I didn’t know, pardon” and then proceeded to goofily (and obviously) misspell the word for her.  This moment struck me for several reasons. First – a student with documented learning disabilities was enrolled in a 200-level English Honors class.  Second – she was comfortable enough with her classmates to admit this without embarrassment or apology.  Third – her classmate immediately apologized and then carried on as if she were just another classmate.  Because she was.

“I tried”

Another student in the class has near-crippling anxiety when it comes to speaking in class and especially when presenting.  She never refuses to do it, but it is occasionally very painful to watch her suffer, near tears, with whatever is asked of her.  On this day, she had to describe a classmate’s project to the rest of the class, who could clearly tell she was struggling.  Several students offered suggestions – including to put on sunglasses.  She did this, but then had to take them off because they were too dark for her to see what she was reading.  The student who made the suggestion said he tried, and he sounded sincerely disappointed that it didn’t work.  With a few more words of encouragement, they all then listened as she spoke in her shaky voice which kept giving out.  When she was done, there were several nods and smiles of support, and then the class just carried on, leaving her to settle and regain her calm as if that were the most normal thing in the world.  Because it is.

“Third person”

A third student in that same class is transgendered and just this semester, he came out as such.  It has been an adjustment for those who know him, of course, and a terrifying journey for him as well.  I don’t think everyone in the class knows yet, because it generally isn’t the kind of thing that you announce in a classroom setting.  There are some who know, however, and so a casual comment took on a much more meaningful depth when I put him in a group with another male of the same name.  There were comments about them being ‘Name Squared’ and whatnot, but when the other student was commenting on his classmate’s project, someone in the class piped up and said ‘You sound like you’re talking in the third person’ and that was just such a casual and flippant sort of comment until you realized what it actually entailed.  Students accepted their classmate who was transitioning and treating the flipped pronoun as if it were no big deal.  Because it shouldn’t be.

“Make it brighter”

The last vignette involves me.  I had a rough couple of hours before I headed into class that day and, had I not cancelled the class the week before for a personal reason, I probably would have cancelled it that day.  So, I walked in, settled into the room and someone asked me how I was.  For whatever reason, I decided to tell them I’d have a rough day.  Without missing a beat, one of the students said, “Well, let’s see if we can make it a little brighter for you, doctor.”  As if it were no big deal.

But it was.  Time and time again, students in Honors classes form a bond with one another and with their instructor.  Not that they pry or force intimacy where there is none, but I’m sure my fellow Honors faculty will agree with me when I say there is an Honors community that is unlike any other kind of class I’m used to teaching.  Except when I model them on my Honors courses.  There’s something about the Honors approach – the curiosity, the enthusiasm, the passion – that encourages students to let down some of their guard, to acknowledge and work with and around difference, to support and encourage each other, to raise each other up and to create a real learning environment.   They celebrate one another and value one another and, in turn, are valued themselves.  Not as just another face in just another classroom, but as fellow traveler on an intellectual journey. 

It is one of the most satisfying and amazing observations to make as an instructor, because I am only one small part of a much larger being born of synergy and shared experience, and a genuine love of learning.

That…is Honors.

“We travel, some of us forever, to seek other places, other lives, other souls” – Anais Nin