Greetings all. I look forward to an en entertaining and enlightening semester with all of you.
My concentration is individually designed, titled Community Studies. I focused on learning communities. What I'm really trying to say is I majored in Watauga College. No, seriously.
Well, a tale is better told from the beginning...
I had participated in Governor's School of North Carolina the summer before my senior year of High School. I was intoxicated by the process of residential learning communities, and wanted to find a similar program to participate in during college. Ideally, it would be at a university with a strong music program. I found both at Appalachian!
I came in a be-dreadlocked, naive, foggy-minded freshman with an intended major of Music Industry Studies. Well, Watauga College smacked me across the brain with a deep social conscience, forced me to re-evaulate what I was doing. I considered Sustainable Development, Appropriate Technology, or designing a concentration in 'Paradigmatic Intentionality.' Several classes and headaches later, I am now a be-dreadlocked, naive, foggy-minded senior with a major of Watauga College. Fuck.
I've taken a myriad of unrelated classes and attempted to smash them all into an incoherent concentration. After heavy advising, I began doing a lot of independent studies with Dr. Joe Gonzalez on Watauga College, and eventually a pattern arose. Those classes include:
* China's Changing Mentalities
* "Housework"/"Housekeeping"
* Intro to Sustainable Development
* Principles of Agroecology
* Learning Communities Research Seminar
* Poetry Workshop
* Bologna to Boone: 1200-Present
* Building Community: Hopi/Navajo
* Pedagogy of Problem Based Learning
* Ancient and Modern Chinese Culture
There are some others, but these are the principle courses, which are all well-argued and justifiable in my head. I also spent three years as part of the student government of the LLC, serving on the student judiciary council my first year, re-crafting the organizations into the PWC for the second year, and serving as a staff advisor to the PWC my third year. I was a staff member because I was a Community Guide at the LLC, giving me first hand experience of the trials of guiding a community.
Moving on to work history, I mentioned that I was a Community Guide; I was also a Student Manager of the LLC Great Hall Cafeteria Breakfast; as well as a Peer Leader for the Freshman Seminar Summer Preview program. These three positions gave me valuable insight into the different facets of learning communities, Wataugan or not.
Additionally, this past summer I had the opportunity to teach English classes in China, where I had the opportunity to try out some of what I had learned from studies and employment. For this position I was certified by Zhejiang University as a Foreign English Teacher.
I also minored in Music (Voice) and Chinese. I hope to combine my paths of Community Studies with Chinese, as I continue to travel Sinophonic centers and teach English. I'm curious as how an interdisciplinary, communal experience would affect language acquisition in the class room. I hope this mere curiosity develops into an academic career.
Well, that's my scholarly identity in a rambling, twisted nutshell.
What?
