Inside This Issue
FRONT PAGE CAMPUS & COMMUNITY ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT FEATURES SPORTS OPINION BACK PAGE CONTACT US ABOUT USSecond Annual Showcase Highlights
Student Learning Beyond the Classroom
Students, faculty and staff at Johnson State College celebrated the wide variety of education offered and achieved beyond the traditional classroom walls at the second Extended Classroom Experience Showcase on Thursday, April 17 from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. in the SHAPE facility.
“It’s an event that brings together students, faculty, staff, community partners, friends of Johnson, the board of trustees, and potential founders,” said Ellen Hill, co-director of the Career Center.
Students had been asked to create visual displays highlighting educational experiences, projects and courses that have taken them sometimes thousands of miles from the classroom. The event provides a forum for students to share their learning experiences with peers, professors, and the rest of the JSC community.
“It’s a way to bring to life course content, and when students experience it… they talk about it [with] such pride and ownership,” Hill said. “It’s for students, faculty, community, to come together and literally be in awe of the incredible depth and breath of extended classroom experiences that we’re promoting here at the college.”
Exhibits from virtually every academic program within the college – from fine and performing arts, the sciences, business and economics, journalism and creative writing, to service learning, outdoor education and the humanities – were featured, highlighting everything from the upcoming Urinetown musical to world travel to Italy and Nicaragua.
An art history and digital photography project featured an exhibit on Italian art and culture, in part the product of a trip last summer to Italy.
The event also provided a chance for students to share their individual and group research projects, which too often go unnoted. “It’s really neat to walk up to students and say, ‘tell me about your research project,’ and for them with such a great deal of pride to talk about what they’re doing and what they are learning as a result. So it’s really truly a celebration of student learning.” Hill said. “It makes you very proud of Johnson State and the students.”
Many of the extended classroom projects were much closer to home, including internships throughout Lamoille County.
The showcase offered Christina Gilbert a chance to speak of her recent psychology internship. “My experience has been amazing, she said. “I started out with two degrees. I was going to do a minor in psychology and a major in elementary education, but as time has gone on I found it easier to ecome a double major. Now that I’m coming to the end of my career [at JSC] I almost find that I like psychology better than elementary Ed. My internship gave me an opportunity to explore both options.”
For her internship Gilbert was able to work in a 5th grade classroom as a teacher’s assistant, working one-on-one as a mentor for two students. Gilbert was also able to spend time shadowing the elementary school’s guidance counselor as well. “It’s been really eye opening. I just think it opened a lot more opportunities by doing the internship. I’m lucky to have found something that worked for me,” Gilbert said.
Professor Robert Genter peruses posters. (Photo by Sarah Lamb)
Taking education outside of the classroom doesn’t just allow students to get a hands on experience with their field of interest, but it benefits the community and the students coworkers as well.
Fran Weindaum the coordinator of People and Partnership, a community partnership that brings together different organizations, spoke of her appreciation for the students she has worked with. “It’s been a great experience,” she said. “Lots of things wouldn’t have gotten done if the Johnson students hadn’t done it.”
Weindaum worked with a handful of interns setting them up with different organizations and agencies. Students were able to work with a variety of social service agencies to help address social, health, and education issues in the community. Through the organizations students gathered and analyzed data and took part in conversations that will come together in a strategic plan for the region.
“We sit around talking about poverty and not living with very much, and that’s student life,” Weindaum said. “Students who are supporting themselves have to make tough decisions so when you’re sitting around talking about how to make your dollar stretch on a limited budget, they understand that. Those of us working in human services, education, or health get stuck in our big thinking about things and my experience with the students we work with is that they bring it right down to reality. It’s a fresh perspective,” she said.
Dean of Academic Affairs Daniel Regan worked with Hill to organize this second annual showcase of student achievements. “What I really loved about this event last year and this year is the articulate and passionate way that JSC students talk about their projects and their work,” he said. “It’s really very wonderful for us to hear the commitment of students to the work that they have done and is exhibited here.”
For Regan, the event illustrated an emerging emphasis at the college on educating that takes students out of the classroom into the community and into the wider world beyond. “I think Extended Classroom experiences have recently become a hallmark of the JSC education and an integral part of the education students get here,” Regan said. “I feel it’s been a major commitment at JSC and will continue to be because students need to practice their skills and apply their knowledge in a world beyond the classroom. This event gives students an opportunity to do that and display the fruits of their efforts.”