S4 Episode 7

A Story of Failure

In our third story of failure for the season, on the shortest day of the year, we spend the core of the year with someone who is at the core of this season. William Golston is an advisor for the School of STEM and has been thinking about our questions since last season when he and Professor TJ Kimel shared with us how they talk about their own failures with students.

In this story episode, we hear more detail about William's failure story and how he shares it with students. We consider the weight of expectation in students' experience of failure. Also, we think about what it means when students fail in a path that they aren't committed to. Is that different from failing at a cherished dream? And we also talk about shame in higher education and its pervasive presence.

William is ready to talk about creating a literal "place for failure" and we start having a conversation that we hope might bring some very new and interesting ideas to support our students and our teaching community.

Listen to Episode 7

Stream the episode here or listen through Apple Podcasts or Spotify.

A Place for Failure

What could an actual place for failure on a college campus be? Who would be there? What services could be offered? What could this place look like? When would students go there?

Faculty and staff could talk together to explore these questions and perhaps find some answers that could change the way our students - and our entire instructional community - encounter failure.

We'll keep talking and thinking and bringing our ideas to the community. Reach out to the CTE if you'd like to be a part of these conversations.

Will Golston in Our Original Conversation on Failure in Learning

Will was part of our first conversation about failure in higher education in Season 3, Learning to Learn with Political Science professor TJ Kimel. If you're curious about the origins of our season, this episode began that process.

More About William Golston

Here's a short interview with William in a local publication that tells more about his work and has some wonderful pictures of himself with his family and community.

At the CTE, we often ask ourselves, our faculty and our staff, what is a community college? What is our flow into the community? Here you can see one of our staff who's dedicated himself to all kinds of work in and with our larger community, in addition to within our college community. It's always worth finding out more about each other and how we all connect.

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