Self on a shelf: GU students put self interests aside to serve others
Published: May 05, 2022
Classes, sports, campus jobs, student government, internships—students at Greenville University had every reason to want to say “no thanks” to adding immersive semester-long projects to their agendas, especially projects that involved solving problems for others.
Last week, however, students from two Experience First teams and one team of student teachers recounted putting self-interests aside to help others:
- a city, in one case,
- teammates in another, and
- schoolchildren in a third.
Excellent communication throughout the semester played a starring role in all three.
Museum mayhem times nine: Communicating with clients
The six students who comprised the “Museum Mayhem” group assisted Greenville Director of Tourism Jes Adam with promoting the City of Greenville’s second annual Museum Day.
They've got this, Greenville: Your Museum Mayhem team
When digital media major Aris Hogan first heard about her team’s role as marketers, she exclaimed, “Oh, we’re going to have to get people excited about going to a museum!”
Then reality set in: “Oh, Greenville has nine museums?”
Marketing major Draeden Kreger said that collaboration with each museum was key: “We had to make sure that we were marketing the museums in the way they wanted us to [market them].”
The students hit the ground running by engaging museum curators, listening to them carefully, understanding their visions, and taking what they learned to the drawing board.
The students’ response? Do something innovative, like a tour route with stops at the museums and passports for participants to collect stamps from each one. They pooled their talents and:
- created and produced a promotional radio jingle,
- designed a passport that doubled as an information guide,
- planned food and family-friendly activities at each stop on the route to ensure a fun-packed day, and
- arranged tractor-wagon shuttles between locations for fun and convenience.
The students plan on being present to welcome friends and neighbors to Greenville’s Museum Day.
New kids on the block: Communicating with teammates
Students who comprised the business half of a mixed engineering and business team discovered that their success depended on effective communication between team members.
Engineering students on the team had worked together since early fall to design and build a system that combined a special wheelchair platform with virtual reality technology to simulate adventure experiences for persons with limited mobility.
Their business teammates entered five months into the nine-month project, ready to assess target markets, plan financials, and establish a budget. The engineers brought them up to speed, and soon each player filled a specialty role, finding a rhythm to their work.
“Communication was the foundation of our project,” said business and marketing major Paige Bennett, creator of the team’s business and marketing plan. “We were two separate groups becoming one.”
To illustrate the extent to which they unified, Luke Rushik, who managed control systems and programming for the project, revealed his newfound empathy for the engineers. By semester’s end, he said, “Stepping into their world, I could see how they worked and how they thought.”
Later that evening the full team ran like a well-oiled machine, its members seamlessly taking turns presenting aspects of their accomplishments to GU’s Engineering Advisory Board. The event presented one more installment of a familiar, recurring theme—in Paige’s words, “Stressful . . . but successful.”
Getting all those little non-readers on board (without tears): Communicating with preschoolers
“Anybody can truly teach to a lesson plan,” said student teacher Hope Henson, “but what makes a teacher special is being able to control the classroom.”
She and three other student teachers teamed up to share their discoveries about managing the classroom. Among them, Keaton Wort, who had just concluded his practicum in early childhood education, may have faced the biggest communication challenges.
“Pre-K is a different beast in terms of classroom management,” he said. “I can’t just yell—they’ll probably all start crying.”
He discovered, however, that communicating via pictures bridged gaps. Pictures on his posted daily schedule helped each
child know what’s next at a glance. Picture cue cards on a lanyard he wore around his neck gave him tools to instantly reinforce directions like “stop,” “sit on the floor,” “listen.”
Teaching in a small, close-knit community, he also discovered the communication magic of mere presence. The children and their families noticed when he attended ballgames and dance recitals. His interest and openness invited conversations, the precursors to relationships.
Keaton’s story reinforced a quote the students chose to share: “Classroom management is not about having the right rules” said Danny Steele, author of The Total Teacher, “but it’s about having the right relationships.”
A Common Day of Learning near the end of each semester at Greenville University allows students to report back to the University community on their semester-long projects. In Spring 2022, 16 groups coached by faculty and staff immersed themselves in learning experiences over a broad range of subjects.
