A Call for Empathy

As a first-year community college instructor teaching on zoom, I have attended several professional development meetings, where a frequent theme was “how will we help students reach their academic goals during a pandemic?” As a first-generation, non-traditional, recent MA graduate myself, the qualities that I most valued from my professors were their approachability, empathy, and guidance. Currently, empathy seems to be not only a recurring theme but a predominant one, one that deserves attention. During my first week of class over zoom, while some students struggled with their audio and video buttons and I struggled to keep up with the chat and sharing my screen, I asked my students “what do you expect from me this semester?”. Students responded with the following words: respect, helpfulness, honesty, patience, presence, mindfulness, and grace. After reading and gathering these expectations, I set out to practice these commitments to my students during our weekly meetings. I offered them the opportunity to reach out to me. And, although I was not always able to “fix” their problems, one-on-one focused time seems to be sought and valued. It is noteworthy that encouraging my students to engage in conversation with me was a rewarding experience.

Students had an opportunity not only to discuss class matters but to share their recent and past experiences, as well as future goals in and outside of academia. Essentially, my students had an opportunity to engage in a conversation with an adult who shared time and was willing to listen to them. Certainly, not every professor will have enough hours in the day to juggle their own work and family responsibilities while trying to accommodate every student. However, it is worth keeping in mind that one conversation can go a long way, plus, not every student will need that extra time or meeting.

All in all, I would encourage professors to pay attention to the needs that come up during conversations with students and to think of the different ways we can address such needs. At times, all we can do is point them in the right direction.

My experience as a first-time instructor during a pandemic has been enlightening, challenging, yet gratifying. My students have exemplified the meaning of the words resilience, adaptation, and empathy. In spite of countless factors working against many, particularly threats to our own health and wellbeing, still, we manage to continue pushing forward, working, studying, caregiving, and hoping that soon we can get control over this virus.