It is finals time here at the University of Louisville, which means exams and presentations are all coming together. I do share with my class the fact that professors do not all come together and see whether or not we could all offer our exams at the same time.
While we have high expectations for our students, As a professor, there are times where you have to step back and realize you may not know what is going on in the lives of your students. I do recognize I am one of maybe five or six professors they meet with during the course of the semester.
However, I do appreciate having students come to me to talk me about things that are going on outside of class that may impact their performance in class. This post is dedicated to talk about the experience one of my students this semester in my #Freberg15 is experiencing. His name is Tevin Johnson-Campion.
I first had Tevin in my Intro to Strategic Communications class at the University of Louisville. Tevin was always attentive and professional in class. Tevin, like several other students in class, expressed an interest to enroll into my social media class this spring, which he was able to get into.
Earlier this semester, Tevin sent me an email asking if he could schedule an appointment to meet with me to talk about the social media class. Based on the tone of the email, I knew it was serious and said of course, we could meet during my office hours. Tevin comes into my office and said he might have to drop the class, which surprised me. I asked Tevin why he would need to drop the class, and he responded he would not be able to be at the final presentations at the end of April.
I asked Tevin what was the reason since this was months before the presentations were even going to happen. I started thinking of some possible reasons, but I would have never have guessed the reason for why Tevin was going to miss the final presentations for my social media class.
Tevin took a deep breath and said:
Dr. Freberg, I am going to be at the Supreme Court in Washington D.C..
As a professor, this was a first for me, and I asked Tevin why would he be at the Supreme Court. Tevin shared how his family is one of the plaintiffs for the Supreme Court ruling that will be made later this month and he was going to be there not only to support his family, but to live report on social media for various organizations and news outlets. He has been interviewed along with his family on Huffington Post and has created a Tumblr page dedicated to the provide live updates of his time in Washington D.C. for the Supreme Court ruling.
I told Tevin two things: First, this is a once in a lifetime opportunity and he needed to do this and second, not to drop my social media class because he would miss the final presentation. Tevin has been very proactive in keeping me informed of his work and making sure he is in active correspondence with his team members while doing his part in the group project. Plus, there are some lifetime experiences you can’t miss – and this was one of them.
In addition, Tevin has been applying what we have learned in class to managing his presence online, conducting interviews, and strategizing how to use each social media platform to cover his time with his family next week for the ruling for local, national, and even global audiences. It is going to be interesting for me as his professor in social media to follow his updates on various social media platforms this upcoming week. As I have shared with Tevin, this experience is a huge teaching and learning opportunity for him, especially when it comes to social media. He’s been doing a good job so far!
In summary, I appreciated the fact Tevin approached me and shared this information with me as his professor. We never know what is going on at times with our students outside of the classroom, but we can be there to support them in their endeavors in the field and in life.
Hope you all are having a great day.
Best Wishes,
