Doctoral Student in Political Science (Public Administration Concentration)
- Tell us about your background. How did your experiences lead you to become a graduate student at the University of Tennessee-Knoxville?
There are truly many facets of my path to higher education and becoming a graduate student at the University of Tennessee. On paper, it seems that my path is linear – I completed my Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and Master of Public Policy and Administration (MPPA) at the University of Tennessee and have continued into my Ph.D. studies. However, my choice to endure as a student of Rocky Top reflects my belief in the spirit of UTK, as well as my love for teaching students and the color orange (all joking aside – UTK is home).
My background is in education, as I have worked concurrently, including as an Educational Specialist, in the Math and Science Upward Bound Program, housed in the CAPS Outreach Center in the College of Education and Health and Human Sciences (CEHHS). As a student of Upward Bound myself, it has been easy to pursue a varied approach to education, giving back to the same programs that helped me prepare to be a college student while also teaching political science students in accordance with my love for politics and the courts.
My academic career thus far is characterized by drive and adversity. I am a first-generation graduate of high school and college and I have witnessed the sacrifices my family has made to enable me to be successful. For first generation students, it is nothing about being the first to graduate. It is everything about being the first to overcome and persevere. My constant drive toward higher education and elevated career prospects are a direct result of the values and priorities I adopted early on. Still, I possess a tenacity for progress and achievement.
Adversity is perhaps one of the most common characteristics many use to express their experiences surrounding college, while it is also one of the qualifying characteristics that make us unique. As I transitioned to graduate studies at the conclusion of my Bachelors, I faced a stark health battle that resulted in the first three months of graduate school being spent in a hospital with absolutely no focus or care about academics. It was the care and compassion shown by my faculty in the Department of Political Science that helped me through that adverse time. The same faculty, mind you, who led graduate and undergraduate students alike through the pandemic. Though drive and adversity characterized my early academic career, focus and support from others is what allows me to progress. I am in my final year of Ph.D. studies, and I can confidently say it has been a joint effort.
2. Please describe your experience partaking in events and workshops through TLI and CIRTL programs. How has this experience supported your overall goals as a graduate student and a future educator? If you haven’t ever participated in our TLI/CIRTL workshops and programs, please describe your experiences with courses or other professional development opportunities that shaped how you teach, instead. Which would you say had the largest impact on you?
Upon entering graduate school and being told of the competitiveness of the job market for academics, first-year students often frenzy to begin diversifying themselves from others in hopes of making themselves more competitive and memorable when the hammer falls. This frenzy, though cautioned against by those concerned about distractions from graduate coursework and thesis/dissertation progress, is essential as more graduate students finish their degrees and academic jobs become more competitive.
I have enrolled in the Facilitating Undergraduate Evidence-Based Learning (FUEL) and Best Practices in Teaching (BPIT) workshops offered by both TLI/CIRTL, as well as a Responding to Student Writing Workshop offered by the Herbert Writing Center on campus. These workshops and those like them provide graduate students and faculty alike the opportunity to engage with trained professionals on how to better our interactions inside and outside of the classroom. Further, they allow motivated educators the chance to engage each other on the nuances of teaching in the modern classroom – exploring topics like technology, diversity, and of course pedagogy. I had particularly memorable experiences in the FUEL workshop. As an educator who values the tangible effects of experiential learning (take my Congressional Hearing Simulation or Mock Supreme Court Experience as examples), this workshop provided a mechanism to discuss targeted outcomes of experiential learning in the classroom, how to effectively navigate various classroom environments alongside an experiential learning curriculum, and of course best practices for engaging in the classroom. For aspiring academics who wish to make the most of their experiences in the classroom, professional development workshops are an opportunity to explore what could be.
In addition to these workshops, perhaps the best professional development experience I have had is from being a student and paying attention to how my faculty teach and command the classroom. As students of higher education, we must recognize that our teachers are best equipped to develop us as teachers ourselves, and in that respect I have been fortunate. The shape of my syllabi, the means of communication and interpersonal relationships with students, and the ability to express my passion for the content I teach are skills I have learned directly from the workshops described above, as well as my own faculty members.
Consider your experiences teaching students: do you have one or more experiences that let you know that you are making a positive impact on their learning?
I have had many great experiences teaching students at the University of Tennessee. As educators in higher education, one of the obstacles we face in the classroom is fostering engagement. We face disinterest and a growing sense of transactional education – students flip through syllabi on the first day to see what is required by the instructor and instructors sometimes feel constrained from being able to teach how they wish (I won’t speak to specifics because there are too many).
My answer to these obstacles includes two concepts that sound so similar and are a match made – passion and compassion. Compassion for our students reminds both us and them that we are all people seeking a greater purpose (in the context of this – higher education). By taking that extra step for our students, they reciprocate through engagement with what we teach and an appreciation for what we do. For example, my attendance policy is simple – excluding university-related absences, students may be excused from class so long as they notify me prior to the start of class. The reason for an absence does not matter and the cost is low – notifying me before the start of class. This eliminates the need for fabricated excuses and for unnecessary worry on the part of either party involved. For me, this compassion has translated to reduced absences overall. Since the Spring of 2020 and the start of the pandemic, every semester my class attendance has been over 90% across all students.
Compassion goes far to aid in building healthy academic relationships with our students, but it will not keep them awake or engaged in class. That requires passion. As much as I would like to maintain my composure when talking about Judicial Politics, students in my classroom can express to you with wide eyes that it simply isn’t possible. My passion for the topics I teach is perhaps my greatest academic blessing and it conveys to my students my passion for their education. While I have a loose no-phone policy in my classes, I have never had to enforce it. My students recognize my passion and for many of them it becomes their own. The number of students who push the time limits of my class by offering insights and comments and who stay after to ask qualitative questions about the content, applying taught concepts to their perceptions and understandings of the world around us is the litmus test for my effectiveness in the classroom.