Episode 19 – Reaching Higher Education from Different Beginnings
Join us to listen and learn from Graduate Students about their journey to higher education. Each student with their own journey to the same goal. Take a listen with us […]
CSU, Chico First Year Experience
Time: 40:52
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
students, chico state, fye, campus, kendall, mentor, first year students, courses, support, people, aralia, amanda, college, events, resources, learning, community, lead, year, podcast
SPEAKERS
He-Lo Ramirez, joshuah whittinghill, Amanda Chavez, Teresa Hernandez, Aralia Ramirez, Kendall Leon, Introduction Music, Makynna Knockum
He-Lo Ramirez 00:00
Heytanayem nikki yam sa He-Lo nikki Mechoopda Maidu. Hello everyone. My name is He-Lo and I’m a Mechoopda Maidu. We acknowledge and are mindful that Chico State stands on lands that were originally occupied by the first people in this area, the Mechoopda. And we recognize their distinctive spiritual relationship with this land and the waters that run through campus. We are humbled that our campus resides upon sacred lands that have sustained the Mechoopda people for centuries, and continue to do so today.
Introduction Music 00:27
Introduction Music
Teresa Hernandez 01:12
Hi everyone welcome back. We’re excited today to introduce our next resource for you all. However, before I begin, I want to make it known that we are first generation one of many podcasts. Our mission is to create an archive of discussions with and about first generation student experiences in and out of the classroom. We hope to continue raising awareness and understanding, provide a voice for students and alum as well as presenting resources for faculty, staff, and students working for and collaborating with first generation students. So we have a great lineup of special guests for you all today with amazing information to share with you all. However, I’m not by myself and I could not be doing this alone. So please help me in welcoming my co-host, josh. Hey, josh. How are you today?
joshuah whittinghill 01:55
Great, Teresa, good to be back with you. Thanks for the introduction. And someone prior to this, we were having our little discussion and getting to kind of get comfortable with guests and everything we someone pointed out, we probably should have pressed record 25 minutes ago. And then that would have been a fun banter to add but but our focus really is on these mini episodes to be able to highlight a resource at the Chico State campus, for people to be able to access and learn more about what’s happening on campus, how they can use those resources, and then also meet the people who are providing those resources and that support. And so today, like usual, we’re going to start off with a quote, our quote today actually comes from one of our our guests, Amanda Chavez, and her quote is, Question why things are the way they are imagined and explore possibilities beyond the status quo. Amanda Chavez Thank you, Amanda, for providing that quote for us today.
Amanda Chavez 02:55
Thank you.
joshuah whittinghill 02:58
Yeah, so let’s get right into who is on the show with us today. First, we have Kendall Leon, and she is the newly appointed director of the First Year Experience Program as well as the composition coordinator, and an associate professor in the Department of English. Kendall received her PhD in Rhetoric and Writing from Michigan State University. As a first generation college student, Kendall received her BA in Multicultural Gender Studies at Chico State, and later, her master’s in English from Chico State as well. Welcome, Kendall.
Kendall Leon 03:28
Thank you. Excited to be here.
joshuah whittinghill 03:31
Yeah, yeah, it’s fun is Kendall left campus and came back to campus and, and whenever we do get to go into meetings, or talk about some of this stuff, it’s always fun to share. Kendall and I were in the same English master’s program together. And I’m not gonna say which year I don’t mind, but I don’t want to out Kendall right now on that.
Kendall Leon 03:48
I don’t mind either.
joshuah whittinghill 03:48
Oh, so I think that was what we started that program like in 1990 or 2000.
Kendall Leon 03:56
2000 I think.
joshuah whittinghill 03:57
Around 2000 we started so it’s been about 20 years ago. And people always kind of shocked like, Oh, my gosh, you’ve known each other that long. So yeah, so it’s great to be doing things again, having you back on campus.
Kendall Leon 04:08
I agree.
Teresa Hernandez 04:11
Perfect. So it’s my pleasure, and I’m excited to design next guest she might sound familiar to you all. So once again, we’ll welcome back to the show, or Aralia Ramirez. She is the daughter of immigrants and first generation college graduate who was born and raised in Chico, California. She attended Chico State where she earned her bachelor’s in Sociology. At Chico State she worked for the Education Opportunity Program as a student which motivated her to continue education to learn more about how to better support first generation, low income, and students of color during their time in college. She attended the University of Iowa, where she earned her master’s in Higher Education and Student Affairs. Currently, she is working at the core as a Coordinator for the CSU Chico First Year Experience Program. Welcome back Aralia. Yeah, thanks for being on the show with us.
Aralia Ramirez 04:55
Thank you. I’m happy to be back with you all.
joshuah whittinghill 04:58
Yeah, our our second two time guests now on the podcast. Okay, and our next guest is, as you’ve already heard, Amanda Chavez, and you’ll see here I guess, where her quote, skills and knowledge and all of her comes from when you hear what she’s studying. So Amanda is a first generation Latina woman who’s in her third year of her undergrad studying history and of course, philosophy. And she hopes to become a teacher. Welcome again, Amanda.
Amanda Chavez 05:31
Thank you. I’m also very excited to be here.
Teresa Hernandez 05:37
And to add to our next lineup, we also have our special guest, Makynna Knockum. Makynna Knockum is a first generation African American woman. She is in her fifth year at Chico State graduating with her bachelor’s in Sociology this spring. Whoo, congrats. After college, she hopes to pursue counseling psychology to become a mental health clinician. Welcome to our podcast Makynna. How are you today?
Makynna Knockum 06:00
I am doing well. Thank you for having me.
Teresa Hernandez 06:02
Yes. Thanks for being here. All right. So now that we’ve introduced our guest, briefly, let’s go ahead and get to know a little bit more about them and their program and so much more. So we’ll start off by asking if you can go through your role on campus and what it is exactly that you each of you do.
Kendall Leon 06:26
So I’ll go first. This is Kendall and I am the director for the First Year Experience Program. I’ve been in the position for now officially, I guess it’s officially one week, right? One week. So I’m the new one here. Everybody else is a lot more experienced.
joshuah whittinghill 06:44
One one week, but what I think what, in the last, what month and a half or so we’ve already collaborated and talked and done, done some things for the first year experience together. And so, so Kendall is working extremely hard and focused more than just seven days.
Kendall Leon 07:02
Thank you. Thank you.
Aralia Ramirez 07:06
Awesome. Yeah. And I am the coordinator for the first year experience program. And I’m also new, but I guess not as new because Kendall has only been here for a week. Um so I started in September. So I think it’s about five months now. And so yeah, in my role, I supervise the student employee team, our mentors and our event staff, which I’m excited to, you know, have you all hear from them from Makynna and Amanda today, too. And yeah, so we’ll get into more of the logistics and everything that our program does in a little bit.
joshuah whittinghill 07:42
Yeah, and I’m personally excited even more than some people maybe in general to have Aralia back on campus because we’ve stayed connected while she was on the East Coast working. And I remember, we were able to zoom and you were in your apartment in North Carolina, talking about hey, I’m going to interview for this position with FYE. And we were able to talk a little bit about some things on campus what was happening and, and how excited you were in the opportunity to not just work with FYE, but also to come back to Chico and give back to a community that you’ve been a part of for so many years.
Aralia Ramirez 08:13
Yes, yes. And super grateful for your support and mentorship Josh throughout all of that. So thank you.
joshuah whittinghill 08:20
Always Always. Alright, Amanda, can we hear from you?
Amanda Chavez 08:26
Yes. So I actually been involved with FYE. Since my very first semester of college, I was in a U-Course, which is, you know what, FYI, does a part of what we do. And I loved it. And that very next semester, I was taking the training course to be a part of FYE and ever since then, it’s it’s been two years. So I’ve been here for about two years now. And this is my first semester in a lead position, which is very exciting. So yeah, event events. Also, I’m an event lead. So that’s another section of what we do.
Makynna Knockum 09:12
Hi, my name is Makynna my role as an FYE, lead mentor. I’ve been an FYE lead mentor for about a year now. So, this is my second semester. I’m a co-lead for the history 130 team. I’m not new to U-Courses, but I was not a part of the FYI courses. I was a part of EOP, my first, second, third, fourth and fifth year. And then I got introduced to FYE from a friend and I just fell in love and just stayed.
joshuah whittinghill 09:44
And yeah, and as McKenna said, Once EOP always EOP right. So yeah, it’s great to have y’all now. Okay, this is this is a lot. So you you you said we have we have a director, we have coordinator we have a lead, we have co-lead, we have event planning So that sounds like we could be here for what a couple of hours to understand really what FYE does. And fortunately, I’ve been connected with FYE for different things over the last 15-20 years. And there is a lot happening within FYE. So if you could Kendall share a little bit of, of sort of the the goal or the mission of FYE. And then what are some things that you all do to help support students and our campus and our community?
Kendall Leon 10:31
Yeah, definitely. So I think, you know, you’re right, FYE, our mission, broadly, is to aid and support students in their first year as they transition to college, with the aim to increase retention and student success. I think what’s really exciting about FYE is it’s a model program. So other campuses have looked to our program to kind of to learn about some of the the theories and practices that we engage in that successfully successfully support students. We are grounded in some theoretical models, our programs and how we work with students are grounded in some theories like public sphere, pedagogy, liminality, communities of practice. And I know this, you were really working hard to make sure that we integrate equity driven practices as well. And we achieve these things through a variety way. So FYE, he does a lot of different like, you know, everybody was saying we do a lot of different things to achieve this. We have U-Courses like Amanda discussed, those are built on, on a public sphere, pedagogy and communities of practices. They engage high impact practices to help students build community and become agents of their own learning in the classroom. U-Courses are sometimes interdisciplinary, and they utilize mentors embedded in the courses kind of act as that more experienced peer to help the undergraduate students in their first year kind of see their more capable peers. Let’s see what else we also provide faculty support to understand how best to teach first year students. And recently we’ve really been trying to think about how to focus on engaging transfer students in that in that conversation as well, to really broaden how what we see is what counts as the first year. And we also work with students staff, and we’ll hear from students staff, so we provide training and mentorship to students, staff, and we also host events that also that connect to supporting students in achieving success. I’m totally ready. That’s a that’s a blooper right there. See what else, we I think that um, one thing that I learned a lot about, just as I started in this position is really the kind of critical role of these transitional moments in student lives. Now I know like, in my past, I’ve worked with first year writing classes. And I think I didn’t realize how much that kind of liminal space is, you know, when students transition between high school and college or wherever they’re coming from, whether that be another college, or life, you know, in general, how much that kind of got how important this key moment is, and it’s a really distinct developmental stage. And there are certain things we can do to help support students as they navigate their kind of identity and their place on campus. And as they think about, you know, who they want to become, as students, and hopefully, you know, future leaders outside of Chico State. So I think FYE, is really hoping to help support that process. And then, What’s the next one? How do people participate?
Aralia Ramirez 13:50
I can um, you know, going off of Kendall. So I just wanted to mention that we do a lot. So if you hear us like kind of like pause and hesitate, because we’re trying to think of like how to communicate everything that the program does. But the one like huge factor that I’ve seen in my time here is how student centered FYE is so not only do our services support first year students, but we have upper class students who are embedded in these courses as mentors and who are helping plan the logistical side of our events like Chico Great Debate, Town Hall and sense of place. And our students are also collaborating with faculty for event dirt for those events to make sure that you know, those logistics and how those events are going to happen in person and now virtually, will be done so students who are participating in those events will be supported and then a huge prize that we have our student employees, we have about 30 student employees who are mentors and or event staff and then we have leads who lead those teams. And so we have two leads with us today. Amanda, who’s our lead for Chico Great Debate this semester and then Kynna who is the co-lead for our history 130 course. And so I kind of want to hear I want if you are interested in sharing a little bit of like what your role has been as a mentor, and then now as leads, so our listeners can kind of hear from you on, on that experience, too.
joshuah whittinghill 15:22
Yeah, before you jump in, Theresa and I are going to go ahead and take a coffee break, go out for some lunch or something. And we’re gonna introduce our new hosts overall, yeah, and Kendall are doing a great job of just just moving us through so so we can just enjoy. And this is a wonderful, wonderful experience. And, and partly it shows, I think it’s great because it shows just the ability of what our first year program has, and who’s working there and, and the leadership and ability to collaborate so greatly with other people. So take it away, students.
Makynna Knockum 15:54
Um, I would say as a team, we facilitate group discussion. As a team, we facilitate group discussions to really help first generation, our freshmen or even upperclassmen who end up in our U-Courses, to help them get the best out of the GE courses. Even if they have the skills, we are able to move as a team, where we’re all gaining knowledge and using each other accordingly. We really plant seeds and help build student leaders on campus, a lot of the people who are in the U-Courses end up being a part of a four year EOP, or the different higher education programs on campus. And they just turn out to be really great human beings.
Amanda Chavez 16:36
And so I love the mentoring side, I was a mentor up until this semester. So that’s where my heart is that I am learning to love this new side of FYE, that I didn’t know much about prior to all this, but it is a great journey so far learning about. And then and, you know, these events are put on specifically, for the majority of first year students, and, and the main goals for them are to really get students to get involved into their community. And we are trying to inspire like civic engagement. So students are, you know, sharing what they’ve learned in their classes with each other. And, you know, and these are, these events are held, you know, in wide settings, usually, when we’re not online. And, you know, real community members, members of the community actually attend these events, you know, it’s a great resource for first years, because they do get a sense of belonging, I mean, that’s at least our goal, and I think it works. So I’m glad to be a part of this.
joshuah whittinghill 17:42
I’m gonna say we have, and the bigger sort of where FYE is kind of working with people and where they are on the campuses, officially part of the undergraduate education. And so we had a previous episode with civic engagement, which is another program connected under UED as well. And it really highlights a lot of the work that, that all of you are doing inside of UED with really not just here’s what we’re doing in our classrooms, but also connecting students to the community, and getting to learn and talk with and also then teach outside of the class of community members, and really see what’s happening in sort of the application of things that students are learning about studying, doing the research on not just going in and learning about it, reading about it, and then giving sort of a summative report on it, but then engaging with it, and then moving moving forward with activities or projects or, you know, resources that are continuing to move on in the community that are maybe started four or five, six years ago, and students have been connected to them all those years through the FYE program.
Kendall Leon 18:49
And I think we all and we know that those kinds of that kind of program, that kind of pedagogy that can community based outreach pedagogy, the the having students talk about and address those real world issues with applicability outside of the classroom. it you know, it really enhances student learning, when we know that that makes a project based learning is something we’re really big on in in FYE, as well, because we know that it makes it helps with student retention, right, it helps with student learning. So I think that when I think about I think going back to that there are a lot of things we do because we have this like like, we have petitive pedagogical models we help faculty with, we apply those pedagogical, pedagogical models when we work with students, staff, I mean, all of that kind of just shapes everything that we do in FYE. So we’re not just you know, having those theory, the pedagogical models of communities of practice embedded in the course we also practice that within our own staff, and in you know, in the internal FYE group, and I find that to be the most like really exciting part of FYE is the student staff that we have are just phenomenal. And, you know, they’re like they’re driving all this stuff like the events that everything that they’re putting on it is like huge, like, they’re big undertakings. It’s project management skills. And when I’ve sat in on these meetings, josh, like, I am just blown away at how, you know, just the initiative and the innovation that the students bring to these to these events. And knowing too, that the skills that they’re going to that they’re learning and enacting are going to help them so much outside of college is really exciting.
Teresa Hernandez 20:32
That’s amazing. And for, for students listening, and they can they want to know, or they’re curious as to how they can get involved, maybe as students staff, or how they can utilize your resources, or the resources or something that they can utilize, whether they’re freshmen, sophomores, or whatever grade they might be in. Can you tell us a little bit about, and this question is posed to whoever wants to answer, a little bit about who can utilize your resources, whether it’s looking for employment, or, you know, just maybe some help in navigating through Chico State as a first year.
Aralia Ramirez 21:03
I can touch a little bit on that. So if you’re interested in working for FYE, you can always reach out to like myself or Kendall, there is a course that students are interested in working with FYE will take in the spring semester usually. And then from after completing that course, you have, like the option to be hired from that course. And then there’s a second course that you take as you’re employed with FYE in the fall. And so that’s how we historically have done it. So if you’re interested in working with FYE, that’s the way to go. If you’re interested in having a mentor in any of the courses, you can look to see which U-Courses are being offered. So this spring, we have history 130 as an offered U-Course. And typically in the fall, we also have CMST and philosophy that are offered to us as a course in science and English. And so that’s a way to kind of get involved. On the mentor side, if you’re interested in having a mentor in the course you’re taking. On the event side of things. If you’re interested in participating in Town Hall, you would look for the Town Hall sections of Political Science 155. And then I was like getting long, like I didn’t get and participate in the Chico Great Debate. There’s a specific CMST 132. I believe 131 courses that participate in Chico Great Debate. And then sense of place is Bruce are certain University 101 and 105 courses. But Kendall, Kynna, or Amanda, if there’s anything that I left out, please feel free to do.
Kendall Leon 22:53
Also on a collab have a partnership, supporting the connection courses. And josh, I know you’ve taught in the connection courses, which are courses that are connected for students and students, students enroll in both of the courses, they’re not as they don’t have to be interdisciplinary in the same way that the U-Courses tend to be. But the idea is that they have a mentor outside of the course that organizes events to help again build up community. So going back to like, our main goal is to really help students succeed. And, and keep students on Chico State right after their first year. And so connection courses is another way you can look for connection courses. And we also if you’re a faculty member interested in getting involved, we are we are working on developing a brown bag series on faculty who are teaching first year students to really build up the community of faculty members to see that if you’re working with first year students, you know, you have your own community. It is you know, a really important role that you have on campus. So and and trying to connect people across disciplines who are working with first year students. And we’re always interested in hearing from faculty members who would like to teach U-Courses for us or maybe proposed some courses that are really focused on first year students success.
joshuah whittinghill 24:19
And as I’m, I’m trying to be a listener who doesn’t know what you’re talking about. And I realized I realized, wow, okay, that’s a lot of things. And there’s some acronyms, and there’s some codes. And so, of course, in the shownotes, there will be a link to the first year experience website, because there is so much there. And I and I want it maybe the next as we kind of move if you can share, Amanda and Makynna. What were some of the benefits you received from all of these not so much in the employment side that you’re working there but previously as a student participating in these activities, what was one or two of them you printed paid it in and then over some of the things you really gained from it.
Amanda Chavez 25:06
Yes, definitely, I love the way our U-Courses are set up, because they really are there to help first year students. You know, you go in there like, fresh out of high school, like not knowing what to expect. And a lot of times, you know, these freshmen like, this is their very first ever college course, this new course. And it’s really a monumental moment, if you think about it, but it, they do just such a great job helping students integrate into into college. And, you know, no, there’s no other class like this on campus, you know, you you really have so much support as a student in that class. And the mentors are great. I mean, I was a mentor, so I think I’m great. And, you know, they are specially selected to connect and give students resources. So I felt that way, as a student, I love my mentor. And, as a student, myself, I am really interested in leadership. So, you know, I took the extra step to apply for the job, take the course. And now I’m here. So it all really just intrigued me. And, yeah, I love U-Courses. And the events are great, too. Again, I don’t know too much about the events, I’m new. But I think they all do great service to first years.
Makynna Knockum 26:36
I was introduced to university 105 is how I got into FYE through the sense of place. And that’s how I really became connected to my community into Chico because after my first semester, I was ready to leave Chico, it wasn’t like the Bay Area, it was really small. I didn’t like it. And I was ready to leave, josh, I don’t know if you remember that. But I was ready to leave. I decided to stay another semester. And I went piece into place. And I was able to really just connect to my community through my courses. And through my mentor I was I felt like I was listened to listen to. The people involved in the courses, they really take the time for you to understand, not only gain the resources, but understand how to use them in our classes, I was able to learn how to read scholarly articles, how to find scholarly articles how to get around Chico State, even how to use the bus system. I remember a mentor taught me how to use the bus system. So it’s not even just on campus, it could also be off campus as well, resources.
joshuah whittinghill 27:42
Yeah, that’s great. I definitely remember having a couple of talks with you in the office, because it was, it wasn’t just that, I mean that you’re not alone in that, right? That a lot of times students who come in particularly first generation students who are coming in, and we know that’s our largest student population on campus, and the it’s not so much that I’m not doing well. But it’s also I’m struggling with other things that are personal family. Just that whole, you said the whole sense of belonging. That’s one of the things FYE, does such a great job of helping people from various backgrounds and different experiences, and different identities to be able to find a place and it’s not always about okay, you need to be a belonging, new belong to Chico State period. But it’s more of like, how can we help you flourish and find areas that you can be connected to, and help you to develop more as a person as well, not just a student, because despite spending all my years in my career in higher education, spending time in graduate school, you know, getting a doctorate in education, I still have this, this sense of the education is very important. But more important, right is is people and what we’re doing to help support us people because you’re gonna leave college at some point, whether you graduate or walk away for different reasons. So the bigger part is what have we done to help you become a successful, confident, knowledgeable person, period, right. And that’s a bigger part. And that’s what’s great to see from both of you coming in as students and sharing that and seeing that’s what FYE is really doing to help prepare that it’s bigger than the classroom and school.
Kendall Leon 29:20
Well, and I think the the mentors are so important, because I know as a faculty member, a lot of those kinds of questions and the end those those feelings that first year students have, they don’t want to talk to their faculty member about that. And so having a mentor there is hugely important to open up that avenue, you know, a different kind of communicative, you know, role, but also how important it is to have those mentors who are successful college students, you know, kind of model what it what it looks like to be a successful college student it how much more impactful that is for first year students to see a student who’s not, you know, like just a couple of years out from where they are, and they were recently in that place, you know, and so that I mean, like, as a faculty member, you just can’t you don’t have that same kind of ethos with students, right. So like, how I how invaluable it is to have those successful, intelligent, capable mentors in there to show those first year students like you can do this, right, and this is how you do this. So it’s just hugely important.
joshuah whittinghill 30:25
Excellent. And I think that’s a, that’s a great segue right into our area of recommendations now, because you’re gonna have a chance here to recommend something to listeners, that then will be a support for them in a different way that is not just a one on one person. But so I think I think everyone has a recommendation it looks like so let’s go ahead and start with Makynna.
Makynna Knockum 30:51
So my recommendation is to really help with your mindset. Watch the video below. It’s by Will Smith, he says a lot of inspirational things just to get your mindset about,
joshuah whittinghill 31:04
About life in general?
Makynna Knockum 31:05
Life in general, and everything I like to watch it before I go to class, or before I really start my assignments. Another recommendation, I would just like to say is really if you’re motivator to another recommendation, I would just like to say is, if you’re interested in student leadership, just to take that step, and to take that course, even though I know, it’s a two to three unit course, you learn a lot, you you meet a lot of interesting people, and you get a lot out of it within yourself. In your classes, you get to mentor other people and it’s just a great experiences opportunity.
joshuah whittinghill 31:46
And I love the idea of working on motivation, because we know that’s a very sensitive subject sometimes, because people might say, oh, someone’s not motivated. But really they are. But it’s it’s the it’s this understanding of access to the resources or what it is that helps keep them because there’s the there’s the balance, and always Battle of external motivation and internal motivation. And we know that can be difficult for people and we know for first generation students, that becomes a big topic of point once once they’re in school. There’s this I’ve met this threshold I got into college, but now what? And so that’s a great one. Thanks for sharing that for sure. Amanda, what do you have? Okay, as we wait for Amanda’s computer to cooperate with her and let her unmute, then we’ll go ahead and go to oh, it unmuted. She’s back.
Amanda Chavez 32:33
Yes. Sorry. So my video is similar to Makynna’s. It’s definitely inspirational, uplifting video, I believe that is given by a Chico State alum. Pretty sure in the funniest thing is that I actually was introduced to this video, being a mentor in a new course that we have, Makynna probably remembers the video I’m talking about, is a great video. And it just, you know, it tells you that even if you struggle, like you’ll prevail, so I love it. I I’ve watched it a couple times since then, and lots of great quotes in there. So I recommend highly.
joshuah whittinghill 33:21
Excellent, thank you, Teresa. We know you are in the in the spirit of supporting students, you’re gonna go log off now to meet with a student. So do you want to share your recommendation before you have to go?
Teresa Hernandez 33:34
Yeah, so I don’t have an official recommendation. But well, I think something that I wish my mentors or my mentors would tell me this in college, but I hopefully if it was later on, earlier on in my career, would be just making sure that if you are a first generation student, and you did already succeed, and you’re in higher education already, and you’ve kind of surpassed all these different obstacles, to not hesitate in seeing how you can get involved and making sure you find you know, kind of your nation in college and seeing where you belong in the community that you identify with. It makes an a drastic difference in what your experiences. And also I realized that first gen students first generation students of color have a struggle doing that because of time, and maybe they’re balancing work and families and so many other things in the commute and whatnot. But I would encourage to ask and see, you know how to what level of commitment you’re able to be involved on campus or you at least can get a little taste of, of having a sense of place. So that would be my unofficial recommendation.
joshuah whittinghill 34:38
Thank you, Teresa. Sorry, you have to leave before we’re finished up. But it’s been another great time spending this time with you. It’s been wonderful again, and I will see you tomorrow.
Teresa Hernandez 34:47
Of course. See you, catch you guys in the next episode. Bye.
joshuah whittinghill 34:51
All right, Aralia you want to continue with some recommendation?
Aralia Ramirez 34:55
Yeah, I mean, one of them’s I believe I gave this one the last podcast that we We’re on. But I’ve had the privilege of working with the FYU students, staff, and specifically closely with the leads, and we’ve started having conversations on what is leadership? What does it mean to us? How do we, you know, practice leadership, and we talked a lot about accountability, and vulnerability and all that. And so one of the books that we’re reading is, dare to lead by Brene Brown. And we’ve listened to one of her podcasts recently on accountability, specifically in the context of what happened at the US Capitol earlier in January. But just talking about like, how do we hold ourselves accountable, and each other and keep up with what is happening, and how do we make a positive change. So Dare to Lead is definitely a book and a podcast that I would recommend. In addition to the Student Learning Center, I know it’s like kind of random, but Student Learning Center at Chico State helped me a lot as a student at Chico State, supplemental instruction tutoring, I utilized all their resources and worked for them too for a little bit, and they’re just phenomenal. And so I’ve definitely recommend reaching out to them. If you’re, you’re interested in getting additional support.
joshuah whittinghill 36:19
Excellent, thank you. And Kendall,
Kendall Leon 36:23
I said, I don’t have any resources, but I just thought of something. I just wanted to just second what Kynna said, and I’m so glad she brought that up is to find, you know, and Amanda to be able to talk about like, you know, finding connection to campus and going like, I was an undergrad student on campus, and ended up working at the GSEC, which now the GSEC center. And these kind of opportunities on campus are so good, especially like if you can like for employment, because you know, these places, we know that they’re, that everybody is a student, right. And so I just think it’s like such a great, they’re great moments and opportunities to learn into into continue learning in a professional setting and to learn different kinds of things. As you know, as we all know, college is just not about not only about academic learning, but learning other things that will that will take you, you know, that you can take outside of campus. And so if you can, you know, check out internships on campus, check out, you know, different groups, you know, made lead to employment, and what a great opportunity to learn, you know, in a setting where we know everybody’s a student, right. And so, if sometimes the process can be messy, I’m thinking about, you know, Aralia and I’ve been talking about, you know, the event planning part of it, like our students are learning, like legit project management skills that are in and outside of campus, you may not have the opportunity to do that in a space where it is understood that you’re learning, right, that you’re that sometimes it can be messy. But first and foremost, you’re a student. And so if you can get involved in those and those kinds of opportunities on campus, I think they’re really beneficial. And they help you find your people to, you know. So yeah, I don’t have a resource on.
Makynna Knockum 38:21
Yes, if I could just add on, I will say, use your social capital, make sure you use the people around you and who they know and the resources they know and who they know and who they know. Because you never know what job opportunity or internship may come out of it. I got this job because my dear friend, Diana, sent me an email about FYE. And then I signed up for the course and here I am, many semesters later, as a lead mentor. So please, please use your social capital.
joshuah whittinghill 38:49
Yeah, that’s that’s definitely a big part of first year students what they’re acquiring right, this idea of social capital to be to be sure that listeners if they’re not familiar with the term, it’s it’s essentially sort of the connections, the relationships, the networking you have. And so a lot of students come in with social capital that’s not directly connected to campus, especially when talking about first generation college students. And so the more you can build that up the first year and the least a little bit, keep adding to it, then it definitely helps as you move forward and move on. So I have one recommendation, and it links the whole sort of thing back to some of the beginning of this on Chico State’s campus, around public sphere pedagogy and our podcast. So our podcast, some of the organization, the flow was inspired by a podcast called teaching in higher ed. And so if you haven’t listened to that, that’s a great podcast. There are over 350 episodes, and it’s called teaching in higher ed. It’s hosted by Bonni Stachowiak and there’s an episode episode 101 so you can there’s gonna be a link right to this episode, but it is with the former or a previous First Year Experience Director Thia Wolf, was also a professor in the English department. But her episode is all about public sphere pedagogy. So if you’d like to learn more about what that is, what it kind of encompasses and some of the focus behind it, of how it support students and how it really encourages learning and growth for for students, faculty, staff, and community members as well. All right, well, that will wrap it up for today’s episode. Again, thank you to all our guests, Kendall, Aralia, Amanda, Makynna, and to my wonderful co-host Teresa for making this episode another wonderful day and time with first generation one of many.
