Another school year has come and gone. 

Between the annual May Seminar (a 3-day, in-person conference for our online PhD students that took place right after our university’s spring finals) and the new summer semester that’s starting this week, I had a little break from school-related work and enjoyed a bit of rest. During this small break, I also turned another year older. And as most birthdays entail, there was some retrospection and introspection… which amounted to a sense of gratitude and thus this blog entry.

Teaching was first on my mind when I considered how the academic year went. I got to teach and mentor some amazing students last year. As always, their aspirations and accomplishments energize me. I am so grateful for the opportunities to see these students grow professionally and develop confidence in their own craft. At a time when the national narrative surrounding higher education increasingly devalues a traditional college degree, these students have proven that their experience is irreplaceable as they tailor their learning to their respective goals and interests. Key to this experience is involving faculty members and university resources to maximize gains. I am especially thankful that many students are sponsored through strategic research partnership like the TrUE or Transformative Undergraduate Experience program, McNair Scholars program, and community-engaged initiatives at my institution. Like my juniors and seniors, my graduate students also showed resilience and persistence in their progress. Their perseverance, particularly during the tough parts of their journeys, fuels me with strength to offer guidance and moral support.

Next, I thought about workplace culture. As citizen of a large, multidisciplinary department, I am grateful for the opportunities to share leadership in different capacities over the past year. Within the technical communication and rhetoric unit, I have enjoyed welcoming new faculty members and learning about the smart work they do. I am elated by the intellectual activities my colleagues perform and that they sometimes include me in the action. Most importantly, it excites me to help shape the department via different committees (i.e., technology, student recruitment, community success, alumni engagement, etc.) and associated efforts. I’m proud of the amount of service I got to contribute, and happy that it made me feel belong to the collegiate community here. Not to forget, a big shout-out to the department administration for supporting me through continued professional development (community-engaged scholar fellowship, leadership institute, summer seminars, curriculum design initiatives). These enrichment programs helped to expand my horizon. I got to make numerous new contacts outside my usual/comfort circles. And because of these new connections, I got to create new collaborations. 

On the research front, I felt just busy enough to stay engaged with field movements, disciplinary discussions, emergent projects, and the larger scholarly network. I must admit I haven’t been writing as much and as intensely as I did pre-tenure because some pressure has been alleviated. My focus for knowledge building and mobilization has been redistributed to community-building and programming efforts. I simply realized there are more ways to build scholarship than just publishing and presentations. Cultivating capacity within the field (and its sub fields) is equally important compared to research as I understand it. So, I intend to continue to make space for consultancy, extramural stewardship, inter/national relations, and other scholarly needs in the near future. Even so, I still aim to complete a number of writing projects that I’m passionate about. Please do stay tuned for upcoming research news! 

All in all, it was a great academic year. Having mourned the lost of several bright and important figures from our field this and last year, plus having heard from peers who have endured negative experiences that caused them to transition from academia, I am cognizant about the privilege that enabled all the wonderful things I recounted here. Academia has a systemic problem, and we’re all affected by it at different scales. Still, nearly a decade into this profession, I find this work to be amusingly complicated at times and can be surprisingly meaningful throughout. I hope only to continue to be enlivened by what I get to do and to be a source of strength to others. 

Happy summer!