Summer Slump and a Country on Fire - Getting Ready for "what's next"

June comes with contradictions: we need to isolate to keep the world safe - but we need to congregate to make the world better. Stay in your home to stop a virus; march in the streets to bring about justice. Both are right, both are important, both are intensely personal statements about vastly public and far-ranging issues. Even more: the issues converge. People of Color are dramatically worse affected by covid-19, and in so many ways: health, employment, ability to stay safe - and that's on top of 400 years of systematic racism. And - the educational system, as much as we try to do right by students, is not an innocent bystander, both historically and today. So there is that.

The IS graduates are emerging into a world that, but for a visit from Godzilla, could not be much less advantageous. I am curious how they are doing out there this summer. I know some are staying home, caring for family, waiting for something, maybe still working up the courage to step into the professional world (which is bound to serve up a slew of rejections just at this moment). Is anyone hiring? If you need motivated individuals who are familiar with complex expectations, I may be able to hook you up.



Meanwhile, I am sitting at the same desk where I have spent almost every single day since mid-March, still wishing I had bought a more comfortable desk chair. A road trip to TX and ND is out - we are stuck. Nowhere to go, except virtually.







But my email and phone screens also show me some encouraging signs that our shut-down and disconnect is permeable: a request for recommendations from a graduate program in nursing, a note asking for a job reference for the public library, a message "I got a job as a teacher in a preschool." Some students and grads have taken me up on my offers of free masks. I sew, I address and stamp envelopes, I write little notes. "Stay safe!" and "See you this fall semester in class!" And yes, some of them are in Coker colors, or variations thereof. (Actually - you can specify individual preferences, because that's how the IS program rolls.)

I think of the long game. I think about whether and how the students I worked with are prepared for this world, and how I might have prepared them better. In some ways, interdisciplinary studies, with its focus on multiple perspectives, on collaboration, on creative problem solving, on openness towards others and boundary crossing, is a good foundation - the ground is constantly shifting these days, and being able to examine bias, articulate strengths and limitations, and be curious (both emotionally and intellectually) should be helpful. Fourteen out of fifteen interdisciplinary studies majors who sought to graduate this May pretty much did graduate - online instruction, multiple moves, limited resources, and general uncertainty notwithstanding. I think that number bodes well for their ability to persist and survive under less than ideal circumstances.

But so many questions remain. To create change, the courses I teach will need to acknowledge and reflect the current discussions on race, power, prejudice, and fairness and responsibility - and they will need to do that while half of our faces are covered in masks. Some of my students will be fiercely informed and opinionated, and others will be frightened and confused: one more dichotomy to accommodate in the classroom. This will require attentiveness, thoughtfulness, and new information. Also this fall, I hope to work with a cohort of first generation college students, for whom the recent developments, on both fronts, will have raised the stakes of college success while illuminating barriers and challenges. We can do better - we can be more just, more accessible, more accommodating, more aware - and more inclusive and effective. Experiential education is one way we can do this - Alyssa Reiser Prince (ART) and I are brainstorming projects and assignments to share.

When students confide in me, I like to reassure them: it does not necessarily get less complicated as we move through life, but we do tend to get better at it over the years (so it feels more manageable). At this point in the summer, I am not so sure - by mid-August, I should have a solid plan for my classes, and I should feel confident about offering relevant and helpful material toward my students' education and growth - but at this point, I am still waiting for that vision to materialize.

Caspar David Friedrich is a terrible model for the new perspective - a solitary white guy in the clouds. I don't think he'll get anything accomplished up there, by his lonesome. But at the same time, it takes me back to art class in high school - the dreams, the uncertainty, the uncanny familiarity: every generation has to figure it out anew, it can be an intensely individual pursuit, and sometimes it's really hard to see what lies ahead.

Congratulations, May 2020 Graduates!

(The length of this post is commensurate with the number of students graduating in the program this year. Hang in there - we did.)

This morning I posted final grades for my Interdisciplinary Studies majors, 11 of whom are actually graduating. There are a few Incomplete grades: corona virus stressors have been taking a toll on the troops, understandably so. But here we are, after wild efforts on everyone's part during the last month or so, having completed internships, followed through on additional projects, and reflected on and presented the products of the semester.

I have been amazed at the resilience, persistence, commitment of these students. Some of them moved several times during the last six weeks - from dorms to friends' houses, to their parents' or other family members' homes, each time packing up the car with their laptop and belongings. Or organizing a ride with someone else, driving into uncertainty, time after time. Google hangouts and Blackboard classrooms were interrupted by laughing and crying younger siblings, barking dogs, and a lot of dropped wifi connections. No library, no place to quickly check out a laptop if yours breaks, no printers, no face-to-face interactions with many of the people these students had come to count on and felt comfortable with. Geographic space affects head space. Everyone was stressed, and some checked out for a couple of weeks at a time. Not a good strategy in the final stretch before graduation, but understandable.

I remembered my own college graduation, also filled with existential uncertainty - much of what I would like to remember as a time of adventure and possibilities was a frightening descent into undocumented struggle. College (never very secure, but inspiring in many ways) graduated me with a good bit of skills, confidence, and credit hours, but very scant ideas of how to translate them into a future - and no immediate safety net. (There were additional complicating factors.)

For Coker's IS graduates, I try to do better: all of them are required to search for positions that match their set of skills and experiences; all of them have complete and accurately formatted resumes, all of them have sat for mock interviews with the Coker Career Center, all of them have composed at least one close-to-perfect cover letter for a position within their field and reach. Most of them participate in internships that should supply them with a sense of the field they are entering, to help then affirm or revise their career plans.

They summarized their semester work on 10-12 slides with a voice-over video (scripted), and I collected the videos on a website, where each of them has a separate page with links to their work. Here is what those presentations were about, and where these students are headed next:

Abby Baroody (BIO/SPA) gained experience during an internship with a family physician, to which she added interviews with two health care professionals and researched career paths and requirements. She will apply to graduate school to become a physicians assistant, reaffirming her original career goals.

Daisha Champagne (PSY/SOC) interned with a family counselor and followed up with learning more about children's mental and emotional disorders, as well as surveying the opportunities for social work careers in her home town. She will apply to positions related to families' and children's well-being.

Jenna Collins (BIO/CHE/COM/BA!) returned from her semester abroad in Spain (corona virus!); by the end of the fall semester she had completed a project that showcased a career in pharmaceutical sales in a video aimed towards a high school audience.

Asa Gaillard (BA/COM) completed an internship with Coker University's human resource office. He aims to become an entrepreneur. 

Hayley Kropp (BA/PE), who loved her internship with Hartsville's Department for Parks and Recreation, followed up by researching similar recreation offerings in Louisville, KY, where she is moving. She can offer them a ready-made plan for organizing a softball league.

Austin Lantz (CS/BA) prepared for a career in IT, starting with an internship with Coker's IT team, and following that with online coursework to acquire additional IT skills.

Kayla Lazo (PE/BA) started out with an athletics facilities-related internship that was not a good match, but, having been released from that commitment by the virus, saved her semester by immersing herself in detailed plans to expand her family's business!

Asante Rice (EDU/PSY) started off with an internship at Therapeutic Solutions in Hartsville; she followed that by exploring different careers in therapy with children, and children's therapeutic needs. She is hoping to attend graduate school and become a counselor for children.

Leslie Schleiger (DNC/THE) researched the creativity and interdisciplinarity of Isadora Duncan's work - using archives, interviews, images, and journal articles. She has an offer to join a dance company in New York she has worked with in the past.

Bailey Vereen (PSY/BIO) interned with a physical therapy office, an experience she really enjoyed and on which she built with career research - as a result of her experience, she changed her direction from occupational therapy to physical therapy and is getting ready to apply to graduate school.

Kayla Whitaker (THE/COM), who had hoped to direct her students in performing a musical at the Governor's School for Science and Math, had to revise her plans throughout the semester - she recently accepted a promotion to Residence Life Coordinator at GSSM and may be able to actually do the show next year.



This semester, career planning and preparation took on even more importance: our graduates emerge into a job market that is plagued by unemployment, and they will need more savvy and presentation skills to snag one of the jobs that are available. So that's where the focus went during the second half of the semester, when most internships closed down: learn about your career options, expand your practical knowledge, practice conveying your experience and skills during an interview that may well be conducted on zoom. I think most of them are, if not ready, significantly closer to ready than they were two months ago.

So, we wish them all the success in this uncertain, plagued world - they have shown that they can deliver under less-than-ideal circumstances.

Post-Internship Solutions: IS Seniors Are Making It Work

The success of the Coker Interdisciplinary Studies program has come at a precarious time: 15 seniors are working toward graduation this semester, and 13 of them were in internships, each planning on 135 hours in a placement with a business, service, or organization. They were learning about careers, applying their coursework to real-life situations, observing and applying problem-solving and perspective-taking, and in general making that last push toward graduation and entering grad schools and the career market with just that much more preparation.

All but three of those internships ended with COVID-19, leaving students halfway (or just a third of the way) into their experience - and missing the rest. (Hooray for Sierra, who is still working on a website for FirstSteps; Angelique, who continues to research and work on marketing for the Hartsville Key; and Asa, who is researching employee support services for the Coker Human Resource office! Last ones standing.)

Let's pretend that none of them said (or at least thought) "Can we just cut the rest of the hours?" - in any case, it took us all about a week to "pivot" into our new responsibilities, and here is what we did:

I broke down the purpose of internships into four components:

• Career Research
• Applying Coursework in a Real Work Environment
• Building Interdisciplinary Skills
• Practicing Research Skills and Intellectual Curiosity

Then I created a table of ten types of projects and activities that would each promote one to three of those components, and let my students choose between two and four of those projects, depending on the depth they wanted to go into, and the hours they were still missing toward fulfilling their requirements.




In our individual check-ins this week, I was able to make further suggestions on many projects-in-progress, such as:

• a mock-up of a summer camp (play and learning) for young children in Sumter
• interviews with two health care professionals (a Family Practitioner and a Registered Nurse) about job responsibilities and job satisfaction
• a business expansion and marketing plan for a family plumbing business
• research into four commonly observed issues and therapies encountered in occupational therapy
• research into professional organizations, websites, and certification programs in physical therapy and occupational therapy
• a proposal of an addition to the recreational offerings of the South Louisville Community Center: a softball league, complete with marketing analysis and tournament scheduling
• research into the most commonly prescribed medications accompanying physical therapy
• certification through an online IT support course

Students are tracking the hours they are working toward these projects, and they report their findings through a google doc. At the end of the semester, they will present all their work, in a short video, to advisors and each other - it would be challenging to round up all their discipline-specific faculty, schedule google hangout presentations, and overcome their specific technical, internet-related, and home-based challenges. (I am hearing a lot of young family members and dogs in the background when we meet - and not everyone is sufficiently connected to join on camera.)

I know this is not what we had in mind when we set out on the adventure of IS400 capstone projects - in spite of weekly class meetings on google hangout and vast numbers of emails and phone conversations (my own internet gets a little shaky) for individual check-ins, we are all feeling a little bereft, I believe. But: we are making it work. Because that was the commitment we made to ourselves and each other.

I did promise them that, whenever graduation is rescheduled, I would sit there for them, on the hot asphalt, even in August, to watch all 15 of them walk across that stage. They deserve it. (I do, too.)

In the Throes of Covid-19, IS Remains Fluid and Flexible

This past week has been, obviously, a challenge. The IS program is thriving, which means that 15 students are hoping to graduate with a declared major of Interdisciplinary Studies in May. Glorious? Rewarding? well - yes. Challenging, as well, as we have temporarily closed down the campus, internship placements are closing for weeks at a time, students are returning home for the duration, and the library support has moved online.

I am supervising the progress of two students who are engaged in research papers (on creativity and Isadora Duncan; on chemistry and art forgeries), and one student who has undertaken the staging
of a musical with students at the Governor's School for Science and Math - which also just sent all its students home, stopping the production in its tracks.




One student just returned last night from her study abroad program in Valencia, Spain - after boarding her plane at 3 am (visions of the rainy airfield in Casablanca).



And - somewhere out there, tentatively connected to my heart via email and the occasional panicked text message, are eleven seniors who are working off 135 hours each in internships - most of them stalled around 40 hours logged, as their placements have either closed down or moved to remote work, leaving several of them stranded with unclear prospects for the remaining weeks of the semester.

"The Key," Hartsville's Downtown Business Association office? closed. Parks and Recreation and the T.B. Thomas Center? closed. (No adult soccer league!) Coker's IT department? working from home. The Family Counseling Center? closed - no counseling. Coker's Human Resource office? working remotely. Marketing for "First Steps"? working remotely.
The placements that remain open are two physical therapy providers (one in Hartsville, one in Greenville), and a doctor's office (well - yes! we need doctors!) - and the latter even provided two exciting cases for the student intern's observation: Lyme disease and - drum roll - potential corona-virus exposure!
(Oddly enough, reading that particular journal entry was the highlight of my late afternoon.)



So - where do we go from here?

So far, mostly we send emails.

Reassuring emails, encouraging emails, updating emails, pleading emails, inquiring emails, and haranguing emails. Also: clarifying emails, and the kind of emails that are so thoughtfully and carefully worded that they somehow convey confidence in the idea of continued confidence, without actually predicting, with any confidence, exactly what we will be doing. Emails that use the words "fluid" and "flexible" to convey that, yes, we are comfortable with not knowing exactly how we will be spending the rest of the semester - or where. But confidence, real confidence, that we will remain productive and engaged.

And you know what? My emails don't lie. I have terrific students. I have students who are creative, and I have students who are enthusiastic, and some curious and excited learners and observers, and I have students who know stuff I know nothing about (like chemistry! or coding! or dance!), and I have students who can cope. We are adding to our interdisciplinarians' toolboxes: flexibility, patience, creativity, intellectual dexterity, and humility - those are skills, and that's the stuff that we are made of.

Tomorrow we are having a three hour google hangout check-in for all my seniors - to see each other again, to think of some plans to research careers and specializations, to be creative and supportive as we move into some alternate projects to build on the internship hours everyone has experienced, the research completed so far. I actually meant to schedule two hours, but apparently my hand slipped while I was mousing around in google calendar, so that's my afternoon - but I had barely posted it in the calendar, when the automated invites returned one ping after another - five students accepted in the first seven minutes. I guess we miss each other! I am not really a google hangout person - I love my students in person. On the other hand, I won't accidentally spit on them when I get excited and talk too loud. So, you see the upside. (They probably do, too.)