Joseph Elmer Class of 2023
E-Portfolio
ABOUT ME:
My Major - Education
Goals and Aspirations - I want to work in schools or colleges in western Massachusetts where I can make a positive impact on students and communities in Holyoke, Chicopee and Springfield, by working alongside others to together learn about and hopefully solve important social challenges.
Key Skills and Competencies - I have developed skills at collaborating with others, forming partnerships between faculty and community organizations, mentoring students to make social impact, advancing equity through inclusive practices, working with data for analysis and quality improvement. I am competent with information technologies and software for writing, editing, publishing, presentation and electronic communications.
MY EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING ACTIVITIES
Designed and presented a workshop for faculty on Experiential Learning, May 2021
Organized a "Latinx Communities" Panel, November 2021
I volunteered to be the "Community Partnerships" section editor for a journal in my field.
My workshop for faculty on Experiential Learning, May 2021
What I did: In May 2021, I organized a workshop for colleagues at Elms College to introduce them to experiential learning basics. I did this as part of my responsibility for working in the Office of Experiential Learning. To the left you can see the Google Slides presentation I created for this, and below it is a copy of the video from the Zoom meeting session in which I presented this workshop to faculty and staff.
What I learned: I found that people start from different places in their knowledge and understanding of what experiential learning is and how to organize good quality experiences for students. I also learned that it is important to stay focused in presenting to public audiences and to avoid using "um" and "uh" and keep my public speaking concise and fluid.
What I found challenging: Connecting with people I don't know, and involving them in good quality conversations about new and complicated topics is hard! It is especially challenging to do so on Zoom.
The Panel on "Latinx Communities, November 2021
What I did: As part of the Elms College First Year Seminar, all incoming students read "My Beloved World" by Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor. The book is a memoir all about her upbringing in New York and her journey to college and through law school as the first in her Puerto Rican family to attend and graduate from college.
In partnership with some terrific people at New England Public Media and their Medialab project, I organized a panel discussion that I hoped would introduce students to opportunities to learn about, connect with, and build projects for learning and community service with Puerto Rican communities in Springfield, Holyoke and Chicopee.
What I learned: Professionals from area Latinx communities are very generous in wanting to share their knowledge and expertise with students! But they also want very much to have those students follow up with them in ways that make their investment of time speaking to them and advising them worthwhile. Creating an event is just the first step - figuring out how to follow up and make connections happen is the real prize and takes a larger and longer-term commitment.
What next? I hope that the faculty and staff and students I introduced to these terrific people will see ways to follow up with them to create new research projects, internship opportunities, and other ways to connect Elms College to local Latinx communities.
BloomgardenOutoftheArmchair.pdfMy volunteer work as the "Community Partnerships" section editor for a journal
What I did: I served for about 5 years as volunteer editor for the journal, the International Journal for Research on Service Learning and Community Engagement. This involved a few hours each month reading incoming manuscript submissions by authors who are faculty and staff at colleges and universities around the world. My role involved referring those submissions that were worthy of further review to other scholars who serve as "peer reviewers." The job of peer reviewers is to read and determine if the quality and relevance in each piece is sufficient to warrant publishing in the journal.
What I learned: This experience showed me that there was a very loose idea of what "community impact" really means in this work. Out of some concern and frustration about this, I wrote the piece linked to the left as the introduction of the Community Partnerships section in the next year's issue of the journal as a call to action to focus better on this topic. I got a lot of positive feedback and many people have used this piece and cited it in their work to try and similarly advocate that college and university researchers on this topic take a more critical and informed look at community impact.