The College of Liberal Arts Celebrates Our Student Workers
This week is Student Employee Appreciation Week at 91社区! In the spirit of the week, we thought that we鈥檇 take a moment to cast a light on three of the student employees we see almost every day in the Dean's Office; Haleigh Rynski, Gabriela Fernandez and Maura Kluesner.
Rynski is an accounting major with a minor in finance. She comes to us from Woodlawn, Illinois, a village of about 750 people. Haleigh chose 91社区 because of all the campuses she visited, ours had the best vibe: 鈥淚t was the prettiest,鈥� she says.
When you see her sitting at the desk across from the elevators, she is probably studying. When she鈥檚 elsewhere, she enjoys hunting with her family, hanging out with friends or watching crime documentaries on Netflix. She will graduate next spring.
Fernandez is a junior in psychology from Panama City, Panama. She chose 91社区 because of its international community鈥攊n her own words, 鈥淚 wanted to feel at home far from home.鈥�
She likes to draw, lift weights, and run, ride her bike on the trails and cook. When it comes to media, she considers herself a Marvel person.
Kluesner is a freshman from Princeton, Indiana who is studying dental hygiene. She came here because the campus felt 鈥渧ery homey鈥� and because we have good sciences and dental programs. She lives in the 鈥渞ecreation and fitness鈥� themed-living community and enjoys playing intramural soccer, volleyball and tennis. She also enjoys the current season of The Bachelor.
Thanks to Haleigh, Gabriela, and Maura for being with us. We鈥檙e glad you鈥檙e here. If you have student employees in your area, please share a little genuine appreciation with them.
Isaiah Johnson, Master of Social Work听
Isaiah is a graduate student in the Social Work program who comes to us from Indianapolis via a stint in Virginia working with students there. He has a heart for troubled kids, a love of basketball and an easygoing sense of humor.
How did you decide to study social work?
Kids. It鈥檚 my love for kids. They鈥檙e my number one reason for doing this. I want to make sure every kid has every equal opportunity possible.听
What do you hope to accomplish with your degree?
First and foremost, I want to become a mental health therapist.
How would your peers describe you?
I hate to say class clown, so let鈥檚 go with 鈥渙utspoken.鈥� If there鈥檚 a conversation, I鈥檓 definitely involved.
What are your greatest strengths as a student?
Patience鈥擨鈥檝e learned that from working with kids. I think that my writing has come a long way, too, in graduate school.听 I pay a lot of attention to details, word choices.
What programs, internships, clubs, or other opportunities have you been part of here at 91社区?
I鈥檓 currently reffing intramurals in basketball two days a week. I was 鈥渞ef of the month鈥� once last year, which was kind of neat.
What characteristics do you prize the most in your fellow students?
My cohort is one where people definitely speak their minds. I like that. My classmates speak up for those who can鈥檛 speak for themselves.
If given all the resources needed, describe a research opportunity that you鈥檇 love to be part of.
Off the top of my head, I鈥檇 say I鈥檓 interested in how we diagnose young children for ADHD.听 I think that we don鈥檛 always take time consider that students are kids.听 We might need to think a little more on how we go about that diagnosis.
What are one or two of your proudest accomplishments here at 91社区?
Just being in the master鈥檚 program is an accomplishment. The level of work that I鈥檓 doing, too, is something鈥攖he reading, writing and the grades I鈥檓 getting.
Describe your dream job.
Well, it鈥檚 not a job but a career.听 I don鈥檛 see myself doing just one thing.听 I do see myself becoming a mental health counselor and managing youth sports鈥擨鈥檇 like to own a recreational center.听 Outside of all that, I want to connect to whatever community I鈥檓 in.
Who made the biggest impact on you as a student prior to coming to 91社区?听 Who here has positively impacted your success as a student?
A close friend of mine will be getting her PhD later this spring.听 Just seeing her passion for her studies, seeing what she wanted out of it, that made me think that I should want more out of my studies for myself.听 She definitely influenced me to evolve.听 Here, Professor Dickerson has influenced me鈥攕eeing how he responds to my papers and my work has been eye-opening.
What are three essential strategies for students to succeed in college?
One, because it鈥檚 a big deal, take care of your mental health.听 Two, managing your time is huge.听 A flexible work and school schedule have helped me get things done.听 Finally, use a vision board, or a goal board, to remind yourself of your bigger goals and put it in a place where you see it a lot.
David Huebner, Art Workshop Supervisor
David Huebner started at 91社区 in 1993, making him the longest-serving member of the Art and Design Department. He鈥檚 also a regular in the pool at the Aquatic Center and a man with what some might consider Luddite tendencies. When invited to attend Outlook training, Huebner was unaware that it was a software product but instead assumed that he was being told to work on his attitude.听
What do you do?听 What does a typical day or week look like?
I鈥檓 the art workshop supervisor. I maintain and repair equipment, support students and faculty, supervise student workers, and I make things that are needed like specialized tables and mailboxes.
When did you decide to work in the art world and/or academia?
I鈥檓 a sculptor. I like to work with metals and found objects鈥擨 really enjoy casting metals and mold-making. When I was an undergraduate at Virginia Commonwealth University, I first went for something more design oriented. I tried interior design and did that for a year to make sure that it wasn鈥檛 what I wanted to do. Then I got the courage to go into sculpture, I asked the department chair what I could learn from studying sculpture and he said 鈥渞esourcefulness.鈥� That was attractive to me. After that, I went on to get my MFA in Fine Art Studio with an emphasis in Sculpture at the University of Kentucky.听
What other jobs have you had prior to this one鈥攖he first, the worst, or the most interesting?
I worked at a restaurant for a couple of years as a dishwasher and a cook. We got tips, and I was able to save enough money to go to Europe for three months. I have also worked in wood frame construction and metal fabrication.
What strategies did you use to be successful in college?
I spent incredible amounts of time in the studio. I became a federal work-study student so that I could pretty much live there my last two years.
What are your current professional interests?
I鈥檓 trying to angle myself for retirement with the hope that I can set up a professional studio practice for myself.听
What characteristics do you prize most in your colleagues?
We have the most collegial department in the world. People work together to do what鈥檚 best for the students. Rarely do we have to even take votes on issues. Over the years, new faculty have come on board, but that ethic of consensus has remained, which is remarkable.
What are one or two of your proudest accomplishments here at 91社区?听
I made a sculpture for the city of Ocala, Florida, in 2019 that is now on display at the Marion Theater there. It鈥檚 titled 鈥淩etro Reel.鈥� It measures 40 feet across and took two years. (See photo.) Another highlight would be participating in the renovation of all the 3D studios in 2015 at the same time that my second daughter was born. I was involved in all aspects of the renovation.听 We finished just five days before the semester began. It was an amazing, wrenching experience. Finally [editor鈥檚 note:听 we said 鈥渙ne or two鈥� of proudest accomplishments, but if you put in three decades here, a third highlight seems fair], I was a participant in the accreditation and re-accreditation of the art program here. I鈥檓 proud of that, too.
Faculty Achievements
Click here to see more achievements from the College of Liberal Arts.
Dr. Alexandra Natoli, Assistant Professor of French, was selected as one of 20 educators for the summer pedagogy seminar 鈥淭eaching in Troubled Times,鈥� hosted by the Olga Lengyel Institute for Holocaust Studies and Human Rights (TOLI) in New York, NY. Dr. Natoli joins Drs. Todd Schroer and Oana Popescu Sandu as 91社区 faculty members to have received this honor.
Dr. Caroline Jalain and Dr. Melissa Stacer of the Criminal Justice department presented their research on how Veterans Treatment Courts adapted to the COVID-19 pandemic at the Western Society of Criminology conference held in Vancouver, BC on February 2-4, 2023.
Stalking The Legacy: The Science and Art of John James Audubon is set to air on WNIN at 7:00 p.m. Sunday, February 26.听Produced by Leigh Anne Howard and Dave Black, Department of Communication and Media, this documentary also features Dr. Tamara Hunt听补苍诲 Dr. Kristalyn Shefveland from the History Department.
Dr. Kristalyn Shefveland, Associate Professor of History and Interim Assistant Dean of the College of Liberal Arts, gave the keynote address,听Old Florida: Yankee Settler Colonialism in the Land of the A铆s and Seminole, at the 2023 Florida Conference of Historians in Stuart, Florida.
Dr.听Matthew Hanka, Associate Professor of Political Science, appeared on WNIN Lawmakers to discus local, state, and federal governments with WNIN's John Gibson.听
A Word From the Dean
鈥�Del Doughty, PhD
Dean, College of Liberal Arts
Some years ago, Steve Martin published a short piece, 鈥淲riting is Easy,鈥� in The New Yorker.听 It began like this: 鈥淲riting is one of the most easy, pain-free, and happy ways to pass the time in all the arts.鈥澨� As a writer and a writing teacher, I was amused.听 If I recall, the upshot of Martin鈥檚 advice for writers was to write in sunny southern California, look at flowers and type away. Nothing to it.
Times have changed. Southern California isn鈥檛 what it used to be, and writing is actually even easier now thanks to the advent of artificial intelligence programs like ChatGPT. (I know, I know, enough about that already. In the last month, ChatGPT鈥檚 writing has gotten more attention than Prince Harry鈥檚, which is saying听 something.) Now writing is so easy it doesn鈥檛 even involve any actual writing, or maybe even typing.
I don鈥檛 like that. One of things I most like about writing, in fact, is that it is not easy. It鈥檚 challenging. Writing well demands a lot of a person, sometimes all of a person鈥攕ometimes more than a person has to offer. Now that I think about it, the older I get, the more I seem drawn to things with high degrees of difficulty: playing golf, doing the Sunday crossword, keeping orchids alive. Those kinds of things engage the full capacity of my being and bring out the best in me.听 (Well, you may disagree with that claim if you would happen to hear the kinds of things I鈥檓 liable to say after missing a four-foot putt.)
One of our colleagues, Dr. Sri Dandotkar, Assistant Professor of Psychology, recently made a similar point in an excellent paper that examines the relationship between a student鈥檚 belief about learning and their motivation to do so, specifically when it comes to critical thinking in the analysis of arguments. From Dandotkar鈥檚 conclusion: 鈥淚f a student believes that you can learn everything there is to learn about a subject in a single setting, that student will not see the value in taking the time to learn critical thinking skills. If a student believes in singular truths, that student will not see the value in being open to multiple points of view, a key disposition in the critical thinking process. Indeed, if a reader is not willing to believe that the acquisition of learning is a super-complex process to be illuminated rather than solved, then that reader may not be willing to consider the multitude of ways in which we know, as both learners and teacher, how we think, and why we learn, are intertwined.鈥�
It鈥檚 a fine point, but a sturdy one, and one worth remembering as we step further into the era of smart machines and automation.听
(Dandotkar鈥檚 article, 鈥淜nowing, Thinking, and Learning: Fostering Critical Thinking in Undergraduate Psychology Classes,鈥� appears in The Journal of Effective Teaching in Higher Education 5(2), 123-141, and can be found online at )
Going On Now
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February Events
91社区 Theatre Performance
February 23-26
91社区 Performance Center
Fun Home
6 p.m. February 22
Forum I
Parasite
Stay after the film for a discussion about its sociological implications.
Queering the Memoir: Alison Bechdel's Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic
1 p.m. February 26
University Center East 2219-2220
A pre-theatre performance talk by Dr. Amy Montz, Associate Professor of English.
Liberal Arts Faculty Colloquium
3 p.m. February 24
Kleymeyer Hall
"On the Razor鈥檚 Edge: Exploring Gillette鈥檚 鈥淲e Believe鈥� Prosocial Advertising Campaign" presented by Dr. Erin Dennis, Assistant Professor of Advertising & Public Relations
Mandela Social Justice Day - Multiple Events
February 27
Gender stereotypes, social expectations and career aspirations in STEM
11:00 a.m. | Location TBA
A Time of Crisis: Maternal Mortality in Indiana
1:00 p.m. | University Center 2207
Consent and Sexual Safety
3:00 p.m. | University Center 2207
Keynote Speaker
"Black Reproductive Health: Getting at the Root Cause of Inequity" featuring Dr. Rachel Hardeman
4:30 p.m. | Carter Hall in UC West
Save the Date
Spring Break
March 6-10
No classes, University is open.
Visiting Writer
7:30 p.m. March 15
Performance Center
Liberal Arts Faculty Colloquium
3 p.m. March 24
Kleymeyer Hall
Social Media Symposium
March 22
Time and Location TBA
Alumni in Residence
12 p.m. April 12
Kleymeyer Hall
Global Salon Series
12 p.m. April 12
Zoom ID: 990 1194 7122
Distinguished Scholar Series
2 p.m. April 19
Kleymeyer Hall
Interdisciplinary Colloquium
8 a.m. April 20
University Center 2217-2218
