My name is Karen Dugan. The academic environment has been my lifeline. Experience in adult education as secretary, community education coordinator, and volunteer plus coursework at the University of Central Florida reflect my interests in grant-writing, community partnerships, and adult workforce-readiness programs. As an Interdisciplinary Studies graduate, my degree incorporates disciplinary insights of adult learning with the challenges of language barriers and other social hurdles.

With a love for language, editing and peer review projects have been fun. Technical Editing led to Professional Writing: feasibility reports, proposals, grants, abstracts, and progress reports are challenges to create efficient and effective communications. Other favorite coursework in Modern Language included lessons in Communication Research and Organizational Communication.

Additional classes, Interviewing and Counseling, Principles of Behavior Modification, and Pattern Alcoholism in Society, have been groundwork for teaching, counseling, helping. Concepts, theories, and techniques in the social sciences are invaluable life lessons necessary to any endeavor.

Volunteering as a classroom facilitator has been rewarding. Bridging cultural barriers and developing students’ self-awareness are paramount for successful school-to-work transitions. Students with a variety of needs deserve the best learning environment possible. Creating a universal design that offers educational opportunity to all learners and to a diverse population is the challenge of the future.

The University of Central Florida has done more than prepare me for this challenge—it has revealed and nurtured my strengths.