Julie Gochenour held Administrative and Professional (AP) faculty positions at JMU between 2001 and 201, and moved into an adjunct position as instructional faculty spring semester, 2011. With her recently earned PhD, she is excited to continue teaching GCOM with us. “This has been the most wonderful job,” says Dr. Gochenour of her instructor position with the School of Communication Studies.
1. What has stood out most about the students here at JMU?
Dr. Gochenour replied that she loves her students, they are hard-working, fun, willing to learn, and not afraid to ask questions or challenge content – which she encourages.
2. If you could teach any class, what would it be?
“I am happily teaching all GCOM classes—I love it.” She is passionate about her students, and it definitely shows. Teaching GCOM means being around freshman every year, and every year they are great students.
3. Has anything stood out to you of the culture here?
Since 2001, Dr. Gochenour has had the opportunity to see how hard we all work here. She said, “Routinely, everyone gives 120% minimum, typically 150%…which keeps everyone liking each other and positive.”
4. Any fun hobbies?
She loves graphic design and is completely self-taught. She has two rescue collies and has been happily married for 33 years. Other hobbies include swimming and yoga for disabled people.
Dr. Gochenour left me with this quote, “If you go home exhausted and happy at night, you are doing it right.”
Today we are introducing Meryl Irwin, a professor teaching primarily GCOM for her first year here.
Do you have any class you hope to teach here?
Dr. Irwin’s specialty is rhetoric and comparing politics to cultures. A main focus of her research involves immigration and how it affects their culture. Sometimes she focuses on traditional politics and other occasions she focuses on popular culture.
On teaching the intro classes, she notes that it is a major shift from focus on answers in High School to a focus on the questions at universities. A plus side of her position here is, “Helping first years realize their potential and possibilities.”
What did you find is different on the JMU campus vs. other universities?
The main difference of the JMU campus is our students. Dr. Irwin feels all the students are eager to learn and very conscientious; even the seniors are not-jaded in their final year. The biggest surprise is how JMU is a huge campus with thousands of students, yet it feels like a small place—in a good way!
What have you most recently been researching?
This past summer, Dr. Irwin worked on a very interesting ethnography focusing on emotion and attachments. The subject is fandom of Walking Dead via the medium of Tumblr. She immersed herself in the “fandom” culture and is finishing up her research currently.
Dr. Irwin is very passionate about rhetoric and her research. Feel free to post any comments or questions about her and her research below.
Christy-Dale Sims has joined us as a part of the SCOM department and said, “I’m grateful for how both students and faculty have welcomed me!” Read on to hear more about her experiences with JMU and how she went caving for the first time in Harrisonburg!
August 2013- Caving in an yet-unnamed cave in VA
What surprised you the most about JMU students so far?
I work with mostly first year students, and a pleasant surprise has been their enthusiasm for JMU itself- everyone is excited to not only be in college, but to be HERE for college. I appreciate how quickly they make friends with one another in class, despite coming from all majors, all parts of campus, and having very different interests.
What are you looking forward to most here at JMU?
I’m excited for JMU’s commitment to excellence in the classroom, and pursuing the resources available here to achieve it. I certainly don’t mind being on such a beautiful campus!
If you could teach a class in any area, what would it be and why?
I’m a rhetorician interested in how collective remembering shapes our understanding of and interactions about race, nation, and gender. Based on those interests, I’d love to teach an advocacy class about how social differences such as race, gender, ability, class, age, and other differences have affected our messages/rhetoric about who belongs in the national community, both past and present. I believe that calling out those common messages that many people overlook helps people see how everyday discourses shape our world, and how by changing them, we can create positive social change. I’d probably call it something along the lines of Advocacy and Discourses of Difference.
What is your favorite aspect of the JMU culture?
The JMU culture is very supportive of faculty members as teachers, not only as researchers, an environment I enjoy. It’s also great to be in a place where people are genuinely interested in your life outside of the office.
Did you find any fun places around Harrisonburg?
August 2013-Dr. Sims climbing Old Rag
I’m a big fan of the outdoors, and like to spend as much time as I can adventuring and am fortunate that the Shenandoah Valley and surrounding area has so much to offer! I am a rock climber, but I am branching out and recently went caving. I had the good fortune to be invited to helped survey and photograph a wild cave that had only been discovered the day before! My first caving trip found me underground for 12 hours, exploring a cave where no one else had ever been before, helping map and photograph it for further exploration. It was an exciting—and muddy!—experience that I hope to have again. Above ground, I’ve also been spending time in Shenandoah National Forest, where I’ve hiked Old Rag Mountain and am seeking out sections of the Appalachian Trail, and I recently visited the New Rover gorge in WV for some very scenic rock climbing!
Dr. Sims is excited to be here at JMU and will definitely help mold the freshman into passionate members of the JMU community.
Stay tuned for two more faculty introductions tomorrow!
SCOM hired six new wonderful faculty members entering the fall 2013 semester.
This week, I will post introductions of new faculty members at SCOM.
Dr. Schill has joined the SCOM faculty, I had the opportunity to sit down with Dr. Schill and hear his passion for advocacy and politics, along with instilling this passion in his students.
What stands out the most about JMU students so far?
He is excited to see students’ commitment to service here at JMU and in our local community. At JMU he has already noticed that these are “students that want to engage and make a difference”
What are you looking forward to most here at JMU?
His first response was an excitement to work with the students. He also has the opportunity to work with the first class of students in the Communication and Advocacy graduate program, whom include a wide variety of students from all over the United States. On the other end of the spectrum, Dr. Schill is teaching group GCOM and is looking forward to “growing students at the undergrad level.” Additionally, Dr. Schill said he was excited to collaborate with the accomplished faculty in the School of Communication Studies.
If you could teach a class in any area, what would it be and why?
“I am lucky in that I get to teach and conduct research in the area that I am most passionate about, political advocacy,” Dr. Schill said, “The classes I teach are exactly what I want to be doing.” It also helpful to be close to Washington, D.C., he said. His interest in political advocacy stems from seeing how political communication can propel political change and mobilize people for a cause. As a professor he has the ability to help people and students develop their voice and navigate this world.
Overall, Dr. Schill is, “really excited to work with students” and encourages them to come by his office.
Please feel free to leave a message welcoming Dr. .Schill to the SCOM.
From October 12-16, 2012, five members from James Madison University’s Public Relations Student Society of America, including myself, headed to San Francisco, California to enhance their professional development and network with public relations professionals at the PRSSA National Conference. Speakers came from all over the country hosting professional sessions on various PR related topics such as pitching, media training, sports PR and the importance of social media.
JMU PRSSA’s professional development coordinator, Angela Scibilia, said that the conference was a “really unique opportunity to meet and network with students from all over the country and exchange ideas to improve our organization and our careers in public relations.”
Students also had the opportunity to meet and network with many agencies around the country while representing their chapter and university. “I absolutely loved the atmosphere in San Francisco. We had the opportunity to make great networking connections with both students and professionals in the field,” says Melissa Peale, Secretary of JMU PRSSA.
The SCOM has six organizations to help enhance your education and kickstart your career. Joining one of these organizations allows students to become involved in leadership positions and help build your pre-professional career.
What are some other benefits of joining pre-professional organizations? Share your comments below.
The era of course evaluations is coming. In every class, students will be asked to comment on the past semester: how much they learned, how effective their professor was and how fairly the grades were assessed. As a fifth-year senior, I’ve filled out more of these than I can count. I know that my feedback is confidential and anonymous, but that it’s used by both SCOM and the professor.
Last Spring, I received an email from a professor, Dr. Leppington, who taught one of my favorite classes at JMU. She was asking for student comments on that course so that she could market the course to new students better. I, of course, offered my response happily. This past week, I visited her again to ask her how she uses student feedback. She said, “I try and work out to what extent I have succeeded in connecting with the students. What I try to look for is evidence of growth and learning.”
As I got ready to leave, I told Dr. Leppington that her course had been one of a handful that had really made a difference in my college career. She smiled and said, “Well that is the most helpful feedback of all.”
Have you had any experiences like mine? Share in the comments!
Professors from the SCOM presented research on topics ranging from family communication to health communication to social media. Assistant professor at JMU SCOM, Dr. Isaac Woo, said before he left for the conference, “I am excited about traveling with colleagues and building relationships with communication scholars around the country.” Woo also presented two research studies. “I am especially excited to present my paper about the use of social media in collegiate sports organizations because I am very interested in both social media and sports,” Woo added.
This year’s conference theme was entitled Celebrating COMMunity. “My experiences at the recent NCA convention were quite diverse, but all served to energize both my scholarship and my teaching,” said Dr. Melissa Aleman, professor of communication studies. Aleman presented a project on the use of narratives in bicultural families with her co-author, Dr. Carlos Aleman, associate professor in SCOM. “It was particularly rewarding to hear the narratives of the other panelists, as they resonated with our own family experiences. I am looking forward to sharing those insights in SCOM 440 Family Communication this coming spring semester,” Melissa added.
In addition to presenting research and participating in panel discussions, JMU SCOM had the opportunity to share their new MA program at the NCA Graduate Open House. This event was a way to meet prospective graduate students as well as introduce the new program to colleagues from around the country. “We had fantastic conversations with other faculty about our respective programs and are hopeful that they will encourage their students to apply to our program,” Melissa said.
According to the NCA website, the NCA “advances communication as the discipline that studies all forms, modes, media and consequences of communication through humanistic, social scientific and aesthetic inquiry.” The NCA serves its members by supporting their teaching and research. The NCA Annual Convention is a way for members to present their research through the leading outlet for the discipline’s scholarship. Attendees had the chance to participant in special sessions/events, special series and annual series.
The School of Communication Studies is part of the College of Arts and Letters at James Madison University. Their mission is the teaching of communication theory and criticism, the development of communication and advocacy skills, the research of communication processes and practices, and the application of generated knowledge about human communication toward the betterment of self and community. Visit http://www.jmu.edu/commstudies for more information.
SCOM students have many great resources to help with school work. One of those resources is SCOM Librarian, Kathy Clarke. Kathy is the person who buys all of the journals, books and movies that we use to assist us with our research projects. In addition to those responsibilities, Kathy also helps out in the classroom, to get our research off the ground.
I had a chance to interview Kathy and ask her a few questions.
Question “What do you do to help SCOM students?”
Kathy “I help the SCOM 280 classes, to show them what research is about. We look at how we would study a topic, how we would find information about the topic, and how would we look at it from a communication studies perspective.”
Question “How do you help individual students with their research?”
Kathy “If a student is stuck on their research, we look for things to study.”
Question “Why do you like being the SCOM librarian?”
Kathy “Communication Studies comes at you in a different way. It’s very interesting”
Question “What else do you do as the SCOM librarian?”
Kathy “I help out with the Debate team and IE. If the topic was something not related to communication, I would help them to find that research”
We are all humans. As humans, we find stories about other humans to be interesting. They can be inspiring, heart-breaking or funny. This is why the JMU blog, Be the Change, is worth a read. The blog contains human stories about how people are living the motto, “Be the Change.” As SCOM students, we should be especially interested in these human stories. We can look at how the bloggers use their words to construct a reality. We can build relationships through discussion. We can use these stories to learn about our field of study.
Gil Welsford, a 2012 alumnus, had an inspiring story about how powerful the little are in life. “People feel like they have to do something big to change someone’s life, but doing small things can be so powerful. I truly do feel like smiling at somebody who’s sitting on the street will save their life,” Welsford said. He also spoke about his desire to make the world a better place by using his College of Business education. As SCOM students, we could use his story to promote JMU and Be the Change. The Be the Change blog is full of stories like Gil’s. Be the Change can be a great resource for SCOM students. Whether we use it for publicity purposes by promoting the stories, for research purposes or just to be inspired, Be the Change is worth the read.
If you would like more information about Be the Change, email them at BetheChange@jmu.edu or post a comment on their blog.
![[Blog Post] PRSSA National Conference](https://sites.lib.jmu.edu/harrisonconnect/files/2012/12/IMG_3201.jpg)
![[Listening Post] Be the Change](https://sites.lib.jmu.edu/harrisonconnect/files/2014/09/278493693_6401-300x168-1.jpg)
