Showing Up

Breaking through the barriers of lived experiences

When I am curating my list of guest speakers for my classes I try to identify people who I know, people who are known to me, and people who are known to others who I trust. I am always incredibly honored to have these folks spend time with my students and am grateful for the enhancement to the learning that their appearance provides. As I always say, “nurture your network”, and these are the moments where that sentiment is really felt. 

Prior to the pandemic, I invited folks to visit class in person. When Zoom became so pervasive, I opened up these panels to appear by Zoom on a screen in class. While it isn’t as fun to have people on a screen, this allows for more variety of speakers, especially as we consider the broad range of higher education institution types, locations and sizes. Plus, the pragmatist in me is celebrating not needing to stress over finding parking for these good people. 

Photo by charlesdeluvio on Unsplash

This past week, I had a surprise. One of my speakers decided to travel from Newport, Rhode Island to Boston to speak in person. Dr. David Vacchi was booked to come to a class I am teaching at Boston University on the topic of Enrollment and Student Success. In a module where we are focusing on Adult Learners, I thought that David’s expertise in Veterans Student Services would be a compelling addition to the class content. Typically even local speakers prefer not to battle traffic, a transit system in disarray and parking anxiety. So, I was excited to hear David say he was coming in person.