Teaching

The negative impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on undergraduate students’ college readiness and mental health has been obvious, however, even as early as 2018, a survey by the American College Health Association found that nearly 90% of undergraduate students reported feeling overwhelmed by their workload, and nearly 40% reported at least one instance of debilitating depression in the previous year. In order to address these issues in my courses, I joined the Academic Resilience Consortium and completed the College Student Wellbeing: Trauma and Resilience certification program from Florida State University. I also created the Freshman Seminar “Music, Resilience, and Life Skills,” with the goal of addressing student wellbeing issues, enhancing academic potential, and ideally, improving retention.

I have also worked with the staff of the Learning Excellence program and other student services at HPU including Peer-Assisted Learning Services, the Writing Center, Counseling Services, and the Office of Career and Professional Development in order to to coordinate my pedagogy with their coaching. Most recently, I addressed significant gaps in my knowledge by completing the FSU certification program in the Fundamentals of Neurodiversity, and I will be exploring the implementation of Universal Design principles in the coming years.