Nineteen Fifty-Six Vol. 4 Issue 1
Nelson Mandela once said “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.” With the Fall 2023 Issue of Nineteen Fifty-Six, "Blackology" we wanted to highlight stories of Black Education from past, present and future. Focusing on the beautiful aspects of Black education but also he trials and hardships with it as well. Mostly we wanted to celebrate what it means to Black and Educated in an edition dedicated to Black educators, students and youth.
Nelson Mandela once said “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.” With the Fall 2023 Issue of Nineteen Fifty-Six, "Blackology" we wanted to highlight stories of Black Education from past, present and future. Focusing on the beautiful aspects of Black education but also he trials and hardships with it as well. Mostly we wanted to celebrate what it means to Black and Educated in an edition dedicated to Black educators, students and youth.
Create successful ePaper yourself
Turn your PDF publications into a flip-book with our unique Google optimized e-Paper software.
at diversifying the faculty for that reason,” he said.<br />
“They know it’s important for student retention and<br />
recruitment to make surethat there are faculty on<br />
campus that can assist students that look just like<br />
them.”<br />
Simon said another issue that can derail<br />
interpersonal relationships between faculty and<br />
students is some faculty members’ sense of<br />
importance. “Some faculty perpetuate this idea<br />
that we are somehow better than and our time<br />
is important, and we’re important people and<br />
then other faculty are much more engaging<br />
and open and make clear students know they<br />
want them around,” she said. She said this can<br />
at times create this mythology around faculty<br />
members, but they’re normal<br />
people. Simon and Denham also said some<br />
students think faculty members are hard to<br />
talk to because of how they are socialized.<br />
If students think that a faculty member is<br />
“untouchable” they will be less inclined to<br />
connect with them.<br />
Denham said the main way to connect with<br />
faculty is to meet them in the middle and<br />
for students to put themselves out there.<br />
There are various methods that students<br />
can use to talk to faculty. “I always<br />
recommend for students to become a<br />
member of the professional organization<br />
within their discipline,” Denham said.<br />
“Another way that probably underutilized<br />
is participate in undergraduate research,<br />
because then you’ll get kind of that taste of<br />
what’s going to happen in graduate school,<br />
you’ll probably also be around graduate<br />
students as well.”<br />
Simon said the best way for students to<br />
connect with faculty is to start by easing into<br />
conversations and talking to them more<br />
regularly after class. “I would probably do the<br />
easiest thing first, which would be to go up to<br />
their professor after class, or to sit in that<br />
professor and email after class and say, ‘Oh, I just<br />
wanted you to know that I enjoyed the<br />
lecture today,’” she said. “A lot of times we don’t<br />
get that kind of stuff.”<br />
Connecting with professors on such a big campus<br />
can be difficult, but it can also be an essential part to<br />
a student’s academic success.
Change language