Most of what I learned during my higher educational career, I don’t remember. I don’t remember all the facts, numbers, dates, places, names. I may use a lot of the concepts I learned, but I don’t remember who I learned the concepts from or what the names of them are. At least, it’s rare that I do. The other day was the first time in a long time that I read someone’s meaningful Facebook post and understood Pascal’s Wager from a class I took at MATC. But as I said, it’s rare. So I’m going to share what I’ve taken away from every class I’ve taken. To me, education isn’t what you memorize, it isn’t the grade you get, it isn’t even about setting a high standard for the future generation; it’s about learning life lessons and applying them. It’s about digging to find the values you’ll hold dear for the rest of your life, and it’s about the connections you make that inspire you for a lifetime.
University of Wisconsin – Madison
J345 Principles of Strategic Communication (Shah): When you’re pitching, find ways to make it personal and connected to whoever you’re pitching to. I overheard the judges talking about how much they loved ultimate frisbee, so during my pitch about Mexico I mentioned all the activities one can do there including ultimate frisbee. One judge tweeted at me during the pitch “you had me at ultimate frisbee.” When you’re pitching with a team, smile, nod in agreement with whoever on your team is talking, and show some movement to indicate your excitement. Passion sells. You can never research enough about a client, but there needs to be a point when you start working based off the research you’ve done so far.
J405 Creative Nonfiction (Baughman): The best way to make connections and to learn about any subject or just society in general, go write profiles on people. The best writing is writing you’re passionate about. The best time to write your story is 45 minutes after you finish your interview. The best boss always provides feedback on a project before she/he accepts the final version.
J417 CURB Magazines & Magazine Editing (Culver & Forster): Being a manager, a leader, an organizer is the best job out there. You can have the best setup, but it’s pointless if you can’t communicate how people should use it. If your name is on something, make sure it’s the way you want it all the way through. Two words are missing on the bottom of the first page of a story of mine, but they were on there when I looked at the proofs. At the start of any project, dedicate yourself to connecting and establishing a relationship with everyone you’re working with. Hold others accountable, but also account for some leeway. Make deadlines earlier, better to reward people with extra time than to wish you had some.
J618 Mass Comm & Political Behavior (Graves): Discussions work best when you’re at a round table. It’s good to have a game plan for a discussion, but the best insights and lessons come from letting a conversation run its own course. Step one of any project that involves working with other people is to connect with them. It’s okay to write a paper your own way, deviating from the prompt as long as it’s entertaining to read and informative. It’s not about writing the best paper in the class, it’s about writing what the professor would enjoy reading. Take a risk. I’ve never been penalized for writing a paper I wanted to write.
Bio101 Animal Biology (Steven): This was the only available class during the summer that I could take so I would graduate on time. Nearly everything went over my head because I had zero knowledge of chemistry and science-related mathematics. I didn’t learn much because I was focused on just making it through. This class was the only thing that stood between me and graduating on time. Everyone expected me to fail because I struggled so much. But I succeeded. When you put your mind, heart and soul toward something and you decide you don’t have any other choice but to pass, to succeed, then you will. Oh, and I learned if you have to try to be funny, you’re not. And that’s okay.
Eng201 Intermediate Composition (Mary): This class to me was what church is for many people. It reminded me how important and rewarding it is to connect with nature, to free write, to be in a place you can feel comfortable opening yourself up without feeling vulnerable at the same time. An easy way to overcome a fear is to let others know you have it. More times than not, they share the same fear, but even when they don’t, people still support you and you can go into conquering your fear with the knowledge that your audience knows you’re trying exactly that, to conquer your fear. Being transparent with who you are working with and around makes working easier, more productive, and more rewarding.
J445 Develop Creative Messages-Media (Doug): Every opinion matters because everyone can see one thing differently. There is always room for improvement. Large projects turn out well when the team is broken down into smaller teams that tackle specific parts of the project and there is time for all to review the smaller team’s work. You can learn nearly everything about a business or brand in a week. People work hard when the bar is raised high and there are real-life stakes in place. We worked with Lands’ End as opposed to a made up client who doesn’t know what my team is doing for their brand. My team and I put together a 55+ page brief showing our re-branding decisions and strategy. We won the pitch. Certainly one of the most hectic three weeks of my life, but also the most rewarding. It’s no coincidence that the greatest lessons come from when you’re under the greatest amount of pressure.
J335 Intermediate Reporting (Pat): Trust people’s ability. Simple as that. Certainly regular check ups on clients, students, and friends are necessary, but you don’t need to hold their hand and walk them. Pat recognized the students who took her class wanted to be journalists and all they needed was a direction to run in. Also, never accept food or drinks from a person, group or corporation that you are reporting on.
J565 Effects-Mass Communication (Shawnika Prof/Catasha TA): How you enter a room, the energy you have when you walk through the door, it sets the pace and the atmosphere for the time you are in there. When in doubt, show a video and build a discussion from it.
J614 Communication & Public Opinion (Wagner Prof/ German TA): Public opinion is extremely difficult to judge, to predict, to analyze, and to understand. What you care about, no one else might. Because people join school organizations doesn’t’ mean they’re active volunteers. I learned so much from the more than 5,000 students who responded to the campus wide survey that I still question to this day. You can learn more from being on the hot seat than at a desk. I also learned how to write a great survey (and how much time and energy it takes to do so). Asking questions is important, but asking them the right way is even more important.
J202 Mass Communication Practices (Forster Prof/ Alicia TA): It’s easy to forgive when you know someone put in a lot of effort and tried their best. Work is made easy when you can laugh with partners. Turning something into a competition works, but there must also be pleasure, slack, and a reward attached. People still appreciate your work even if it’s not perfect. Don’t underestimate your ability. Fine a structure or platform to help you start and then slowly deviate as you progress. Often times platforms come with borders. Break’m. Provide a solution to a problem that already exists instead of creating a product and trying to convince people they need it. The best way to learn is to do.
Soc125 American Society How It Really Works (by a tool Prof/Carillo TA): TAs are invaluable, under-appreciated, and the true heroes at big institutions like UW-Madison. The professor for this class was absolutely worthless, regardless of how smart he was or how many academic papers or books he’s written. He didn’t care, didn’t give the time of day to anyone, and just went through the motions. Not to mention he told the class they should NOT message him for anything. Thankfully I had Carillo as a TA who sparked good conversations during our meetings and always had activities for us to do rather than spitting back definitions. He challenged us to let go of stereotypes by bringing in photos of people and asking us to guess the nationality of them.
ComArts325 Mass Media & Human Behavior (asian guy Prof/indian woman TA): The fact I don’t remember a professor’s name says a lot. Research papers may have been fine to read 10 years ago and possibly still essential for those seeking their PhD, but a class of undergrads learn from storytelling, not research. Learned from the TA that one must take charge when they are in a leadership role or they’ll be walked all over on.
Hist351 Seventeenth-Century Europe (old man reading slides): Learned never to read directly from slides. Actually, put at most three words on a slide. Better yet, no words. Again, education is depressing when a professor doesn’t care, doesn’t have energy, doesn’t exert passion.
J561 Mass Communication & Society (Lew Friedland): Learned that there are books out there worth reading for academic purposes, to understand the society we live in, to take in an objective (or simply a different subjective) view of the world we live in. Speak loudly so all can hear. Find a human explanation for all things, there’s no better way to get people to understand a problem or a solution unless it’s communicated in a way they can understand it. By understanding where we are in the connection economy, we can better direct and deliver the future we want.
German: I’m placing German here because I’ve taken it at every institution. It was fun, to a degree, but everyone taking language classes should know that you won’t be fluid by the time you graduate college. Unless you’re serious about learning the language, I would take the bare minimum language classes to get by and spend your time in more important subjects. Even then, you might be better off learning a language online and for free. It has everything to do with memorization, that’s it. The culture that you learn is exciting, but should be a class all on its own. Taking German classes was the worst use of my time, especially taking a year off before taking a class again because I had to retake a lower level German.
Madison Area Technical College
Feature Writing (Maureen Alley): Telling someone else’s story is a win-win situation. Nearly everyone loves talking about themselves, which makes it easy to do a story on them. Through Maureen I learned even more so how important connections are. I’m still friends with her and she’s connected me with my photographer friend and has helped out with finding sources for other stories I’ve written. It is extremely rewarding to have someone as a resource and be a resource for someone.
Women In Literature (online class): Women are remarkable. I was amazed at how many books were written by women under manly pennames.
Intro to Mass Communication (Larry Hanson): It was during this class that I started observing the trends in news (the good, the bad, and the technology). I didn’t learn much from the book, I learned from observing the storytelling that was occurring then.
Reason In Communication (Jason Lopez): Lopez was hip and easily connected with students, but that could easily be a result of what he has studied and teaches, and that is how to reason logically. Dress and be cool leads to students participating and being intrigued. I learned technical argument structures, inductive and deductive reasoning, and fallacies. I couldn’t label any one of them, but that doesn’t mean I don’t use them in my own way. I learned how to influence on my own, but it was nice to have some support for my reasoning based on educational information.
Culture Anthropology & Human Diversity (Donnie Dean): We are a lot like monkeys, people spend way too much time researching the past instead of making a better future, and some professors know they just need to make a class enjoyable.
Rock Valley College
Bio106 Environmental Science (Haverly): Study and be inspired by the big picture of things instead of diving into the details without knowing why. Always push the boundaries of learning. Surround yourself with people who are passionate. Choosing a teacher who is passionate about a subject you might not be is better than choosing a teacher who isn’t passion about a topic you’re interested in. Read books that tell a story about a world problem in a unique way. You’ll be moved.
Mth120 Algebra (Short bearded guy): Poetry is more important than math. Creating new flow and structures is better than memorizing how to input algorithms into a calculator. If you’re forced to be in a place you don’t want to be, find a way to do what you love while you’re there.
Eng101 Composition I (Alfe): Always have someone to read over your work before you hit submit. Learn by helping others.
Hst142 History of U.S to 1865 (Quirk): People love having your attention and don’t appreciate you doing things like drawing pictures or being on your phone while they are communicating with you, whether directly (individual) or indirectly (group). Ask tough questions and always ask for clarification.
Cis102 Intro to Computer & Info Systems (idr): Learned that there are cool things to do on software technologies if only you do them regularly, otherwise they get forgotten and it’s a waste of time learning them. Attention to detail is critical.
Bus101 Introduction to Business (GeRue): Don’t heavily head bang at a concert because it throws off your equilibrium and makes you feel worse than a hangover does. Be cool offline and online. Make an image for yourself, establish how your students and peers will define you, see you. Employ trust in everyone’s ability and make yourself available to those who may need additional help.
Eng103 Composition II (Alfe): What you wear says a ton about you, but how you treat people still says more. I learned how important it is to let people know that they’ve done a good job on a task or project. It adds fuel to their belly fire. I practiced realistic but imaginative labeling of things. I titled my papers in a way special enough to get attention, provide insight as to what the reader will read, but also contain verbiage from the climax of the story. These essays were my first experiences of making drafts, which helped a bit to brainstorm, but actually set up. I consider it work in the sense of preparing to wing it, not preparing to follow a structure.
Hst143 History of US since 1865 (Quirk): You don’t need to read an entire book to learn from it or write a paper on it. Sometimes it’s better to skim and find what sticks out most to you and write from there, from your heart. Essentially you’re searching for your connection with the book, the protagonist or maybe even the author. There is a difference between cutting corners and searching for significance, excavating it and showcasing it.
Pge100 Physical Geography (idr): A lot of what we learn can be Googled. A lot of what we want to know can’t be answered. Where does wind come from? Does the rotation of earth have an impact on the speed of a tsunami? It’s easy to teach the basics, but it’s hard to get people to ask difficult questions, to seek answers themselves, and, quite frankly, one must learn to move on without knowing answers.
Eng206 Creative Writing Poetry (Alfe): Face your fear every chance you have, but do it quickly before the fear gets to you. Be the first to volunteer, first to get up and speak, first to contribute. Go first for a few reasons: you’ll never run the risk of someone that’s better than you going before you, you’ll get to set the average, you’ll do the scaring instead of being scared.
Sph131 Fundamentals of communication (Ross): Learned to remember people’s names (and how important it is to!) by attaching the name with something special about the person. Ex: Sara had a tongue piercing, Ricky had blond hair. Take deep breathes before you give a speech. Expect technology not to work when you want it to and know how you will work around that if it happens. Draw people’s attention by getting them involved in your speech: ask questions, use a story that involves you and someone in the audience, pull someone random and tell them to remind you to say something before end of speech, anything! The best speeches don’t follow exactly what’s written on your note-cards or paper. Dave Ross asked me to be a tutor for students. Sadly I was graduating that semester and couldn’t do it, but his offer filled me with confidence I carry to this day. Speaking of confidence, carry something with you to every speech you give. Use it as a symbol to calm/slow down, to be personal, to be human. I carried a little plastic monkey in my pocket during every speech.
Mth220 Elements of Statistics (Chamberlain): Probability matters because it will influence your motivation, your energy, your ability to persevere. Statistics is a faction of math that is easily applied to nearly anything in life.
Mth125 (Guo & McCombs): I failed trigonometry with Guo because no one could understand him, he didn’t make any effort to look or connect with students or help them if they had a question. In a class of originally about 30 students, all but 6 dropped out and four of the six were forced to stay in his class because of the special program we were in. When writing this up, it was saddening to see that he is still teaching at RVC. I can only hope he has improved as a teacher. Guo was a lesson in what not to do. Retaking the class with McCombs taught me to give the benefit of the doubt, to allow for some leeway, and to be realistic about the ability of one’s audience. I got a B in his class not because I tried harder, studied more or got a tutor (because I didn’t), I got a B because I could understand McCombs and he made an effort to teach in a way that the class could learn. I recall him repeating things in four different ways so that everyone would be able to understand.
Lit140 The bible as literature (Walters): When I was a painter, I painted the interior of this professor’s house and we connected going into the class, but we quickly disconnected because I couldn’t take the class seriously. We read the entire bible for his class, but didn’t get involved in a serious discussion, no one questioned anything, no one asked “why?” and as a result I didn’t learn anything valuable from him. However, that doesn’t mean I didn’t learn anything at all. I learned the value of self-education, of doing my own research and my own personal questioning. I was thankful to have a friend I took the class with who I could talk through things we had read.
Hum125 Intro Non-Western Humanities (D’Alonzo): Robert D’Alonzo always encouraged his class to ask questions and to explore theories. Him and I had a chain of emails about knowledge, plagiarism (how everything that could be created has been), and spiritual practices. He encouraged me to read Nausea by Jean-Paul Sartre. It opened my mind. I learned the power of being passionate about a subject in his class, how contagious it is. Learning history is one thing, but understanding the impact it had on humanity makes it all the more memorable. I still recall lessons from his class when I’m at a museum. I was also inspired by ancient Chinese and Japanese art and architecture because of his class.
Psc160 American National Government (Ruckman): “A bad idea has never turned me off.” That is my biggest takeaway from his class. That, and how easy it is to promote a product to a class by doing and using things unexpected and in public. (He would always use MiO during class.) Meet professors, idols, and bosses in their home turf, in their office, in their environment. You’ll learn a lot about who they are and they’ll feel comfortable talking to you. I don’t remember much from this class, I couldn’t answer a lot of the basic American government questions, but I did learn to be vulnerable, open, and human by the way I carry myself, what I do in public, and how I respond respectfully and fun to people’s inquiries.
Soc190 Introduction to sociology (C Dinwiddie): I practiced the art of studying auras, I questioned everything, I actively asked why? I was interested in how people interacted and how they made decisions to benefit themselves vs each other. I learned how to learn better.
Phl155 World religions (idr): Loved Buddhism. I realized there are some things to take from every religion and that no religion is smarter or more stupid than another. Vivid memory of field trip to various temples. Realized the spirit is powerful, but I like to be fueled off my own energy.
Eng108 Intro Creative Writing (Alfe): Write in ways people never have before. Turn cliches on their head and make them break dance.
I’m more than happy to discuss any of the classes or lessons above. thegarthbox@gmail.com
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