Hello,
this is Joshua Pardey and Primrose Zenga
interviewing Doctor
Jacqueline Scott
on December 3rd at 10:33 a.m. in the Sage North Hall.
This interview is part of the Barrett Oral History Project.
Our goal is to preserve a record of
Barrett's history in honor of our 30th anniversary.
Thank you so much for taking the time to sit down with us and share your experience.
It's my pleasure.
So,
uh,
what led you to apply to be a faculty member here at Barrett?
Um,
The interdisciplinarity of the teaching opportunities here at
Barrett is really exactly what I wanted.
I think I became a professor
because I love learning and any job I was trained as a business manager,
uh,
and worked in business for 7 years,
more than 7 years before I came here,
um,
but I would find in the past that.
Any job I,
I would sort of get it after 6 months and then I was eager to learn more
and
this job
teaching
the human event and all the other teaching opportunities here,
you never are there you're there's always,
always more to learn and.
And other opportunities when I came here I had
tenure track job offers from universities around the country,
but those jobs tend to be
more
singular path.
You have to stay in your area of,
of research,
which for me was
English literature,
whereas being a Barrett faculty member,
it's like being able to declare like 10 majors
at the same time and you can just
focus in different areas,
so.
I
knew
this was my dream job before I even applied,
I was working to get the experience
to be able to apply
for it.
So that's why basically the opportunities.
OK,
uh,
so how long have you been a faculty member here?
Since the gold olden ages,
so
I actually came
to Arizona State in 1992
and I joined Barrett as a faculty member in 2001.
And so this is my
18th year
teaching at Barrett,
but to put that in perspective,
when I came to ASU,
the Tempe campus was called SU Maine.
ASU West was just getting started,
um,
ASU.
Polytechnic was called
the East Campus,
ASU East because everything was like relational to
Maine and now we don't do that anymore
and downtown had not even been conceived of yet.
And so,
um,
it was a very,
very
different landscape there and when I came to Barrett in 2001.
It was
the
ASU was a bit more developed,
but just to put it into perspective,
we have
40 honors faculty fellows now.
Then we had,
I was the 8th
person
to be hired,
and,
um.
We were not on
this beautiful campus that we're on now.
We were over in Irish Hall,
which were
buildings like built in the
60s and
maintained in that same way.
So,
um,
so I've been here a very long time.
I've seen many changes.
You mentioned that,
uh,
coming to Barrett was almost a dream come true.
So how did you get to know about the Honors College?
Well,
I worked when I,
I,
I knew about Barrett from working with Barrett faculty
in my previous role,
um,
I was the
business manager
in ASU's English department,
uh,
and then I became a program manager in the,
this is where I really knew about Barrett.
I was a program manager of the Interdisciplinary
humanities program that existed at that time.
So it was like
similar to a Barrett
interdisciplinary.
humanities students were getting their degrees in
a whole combination of subjects and putting those together
and the teaching was similar except so
so have you taken human events
yes and so and have you had human inventor history of ideas
yes exactly so
those are seminars it's
you have small class sizes
capped now at 21
back the interdisciplinary humanities program taught.
Similar type classes,
but to like 300 students at a time.
So it'd be lecture,
lecture,
and then we'd have small
breakout groups.
So I was working in that field and then,
then began working as a teaching associate when I was getting my PhD.
And so
that's how I,
I knew about it.
It became my dream job because I loved teaching the material,
but I love teaching seminars where everybody's active
and sometimes in those lecture classes.
You try,
but
they can,
they can tune out a bit.
So,
uh,
you played a major role in the designing of the Barrett campus here at Tempe,
including proposing the amphitheater just outside.
So what were your goals for Barrett's students' academic
and social life here when designing this complex?
That
was the best committee I've ever been on,
let me just say,
because we got to.
Dream
about
it was a 4 year long planning committee and we got to dream
about ideal for me it was teaching and mentoring spaces I was really
looking at
and then the architects,
they didn't agree with every everything I said,
but,
um,
but they,
they really listened and so
that was wonderful and so my goals.
We're really to create space that would
allow for collaboration because what I find.
Distinctive,
really distinctive about
Barrett,
um,
ASU in general and Barrett in particular is that we are
high achieving people but we're not cutthroat,
um,
maybe towards Uve,
but not,
not
with each other.
Like the students I work with are just so beautifully
collaborative and supportive,
but you need space to enable that.
And so,
a,
a priority for me was to take advantage.
Of our
wonderful,
um,
fall and winter weather and have outdoor teaching spaces.
So I'm quite proud of that.
Like the,
the,
the fireplace and the different places where sometimes you'll see outdoor classes
in the amphitheater,
those were,
those were ideas I proposed
and also,
um.
The
amphitheater itself was because we do study abroads,
a lot of study abroad programs to Greece and Italy,
which I have
been involved in,
um,
I thought how cool if we could have a little performance space.
I,
I was based on Epidauros in,
in the Peloponnese in
Greece,
which is actually
much bigger than the amphitheater we got,
but I was
happy with it.
So,
so that
I just to reiterate,
the space is.
It enables the kind of innovative exchange of ideas and collaboration,
um,
and we,
we.
That we're known for at ASUN and Barrett and,
and we wanted to make it
so the classrooms were
spaced out.
They weren't in one building where maybe the faculty
would only be seen in one place on campus.
Instead,
they're the classrooms are all over the campus.
We go to the dining hall so that you,
it really feels like a living and learning community.
You see the people you know
when you're living here,
or even if you're just visiting
all over,
not just in one little centralized place.
So,
um,
as a Dean's fellow at Barrett,
how do you see your current role in its community?
I'm very fortunate to be a dean's fellow for national scholarship advisement,
which means that
40% of my appointment is
advising students on nationally competed scholarships
such as
Fulbright's and Gates Cambridge and you know the ones that are really hard to get,
but our students do do really well in that,
um.
So in one sense,
as a Dean's fellow,
I'm a
liaison between the rest of the Barrett faculty
and other faculty also outside of Barrett,
who are mentoring high achieving students and trying to
help them do the best job that they can do in supporting our students.
An example of that would be that
Dean Kyle Max and I.
Frequently do workshops for faculty
who are writing letters of recommendation for students with,
you know,
tips on how to write the most,
uh,
powerful letters of recommendation and how to
best mentor students because everyone at ASU who's a faculty member wants to
support their students,
but they don't necessarily come in
knowing,
having the kind of experience that that Dean Mock and I do.
But basically it's really,
uh,
because I am a teacher and my
core.
Even more than
helping students get the scholarships,
what's even more important is that they learn the application tips
so that they can go on
to apply them throughout their,
their lives.
And those tips are things.
So,
I don't know if you you see all those
thank you notes.
A lot of those are from students who will say
to me,
I have said.
Uh,
thank you.
I'm this,
this scholarship has changed my life,
but there,
there are many of them from students who said,
even though I didn't get the scholarship and wish I had,
um,
I really appreciate
these application tips that I know I'll be able to apply.
And one student was like,
I didn't get this one,
but I got the next
3 things that I applied for.
So
you know,
Barrett students apply for a lot of things,
and,
um,
and
these are.
It,
it's a,
it's a wonderful thing that ASU can do
to provide for their students.
I've had students
because that is not just Barrett students,
it's ASU students too that we support,
and I have had
not ASU students too,
but we serve the whole population,
but I've had students say,
I can't believe that a state university
is offering me
this level of support
on,
on scholarship,
um,
applications,
so it makes you feel good.
I was wondering,
just because this is something that you obviously love,
uh,
what are some of the most prestigious,
um,
scholarships that you've had,
like,
you've advised students and they've gone on to get.
Um,
the most prestigious are
That I,
I have helped students with Marshalls,
for instance,
is one of the most and Gates Cambridge,
which is one that I work on a lot.
Gates Cambridge
is one to Cambridge University,
um.
Created by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
But they are absolutely focused on students not just who
are excellent and who would get into Cambridge anyway,
but who are committed to improving the lives of others,
which is,
you know,
a scholarship is an investment
in people's education with the hopes that they will make society better.
So
that one makes a lot of sense.
So I've helped students with that one,
but the one that I really love,
really,
really love is the Fulbright,
both
1st and 2nd,
for there are 2,
there are,
there are 3 in particular that I advise on.
One is for Fulbright English teaching assistantships.
That's a graduate,
uh,
that one applies for starting your junior year and in the fall of your senior year,
and then you go for a year to teach somewhere
abroad,
um,
and that one has a tremendous amount of impact.
So
I love that,
but one that's,
and then the Kille is also Killam is to study in Canada,
to study abroad,
but it's also through Fulbright.
But
the one that I
probably am proudest of is the one for
1st and 2nd year
undergraduates,
and that's the Fulbright UK Summer Institute
scholarships.
So
that one.
We have been once
when I started as a Dean's fellow,
that was my first assignment,
and we've been really
successful,
um,
in on many different
levels.
So there are 60 of these scholarships awarded per year
across the whole nation.
And they're to study
at one of 9
summer institutes in the UK which would include Wales,
Northern Ireland,
Scotland,
and places in England,
and it's a full ride scholarship for 3 to 4 weeks for,
for the student,
and they
prefer to give them to students who have had
little opportunity to travel outside the US,
so it's really a game changer for them.
So we're proud of those because
in I'll tell you this is a story we couldn't believe it so
that we had one person,
um,
who had secured it before I started advising and
the year I started advising to our surprise,
we got
4 students get them.
Um,
2 students to the same institute,
which we didn't think would even be possible
since there's only 3 to 10 people from across the nation
who get the awards for a particular institute.
So I thought,
well,
this is great,
it'll never happen again.
The next year we got 5,
and I thought,
oh,
I can't even believe this,
but.
You know that's that in 2016 we had 6 students get this,
and what that means,
so that was 10%.
Of all of the people who got it came from ASU,
but then
what's beautiful about that one is because it's
only for 1st and 2nd year undergraduates,
the students come back and as as opposed to the graduate ones,
then they're
off doing their alumni thing,
but
they come back and then they were so happy to be mentored
that they are very generous in mentoring
other students and other students hear about it
and that is what I was saying that I love about.
The students is that they're collaborative
students who are applying like with the
other students would come back from this experience
and they would they would write me these emails and
they got back and so many of them when you
like I would open it would be the
email would say Doctor Scott exclamation exclamation.
It's just very funny they're like
so excited and uh.
One student was like it was like a fairy tale.
I just can't even believe it.
And so then they come and they want to support other students who are
applying for these scholarships
and so they have
very generously would volunteer their time at
information sessions and I would have group workshops
where those students wouldn't come in.
One year I had a write in
where.
At one point we had like 14 students who had returned from these
who are still on campus
who came in to help students
like polish up their essays and such.
It's just
that is the kind of learning community that I want to be involved in.
I'm very proud of these students
and so I'm just,
when I leave here,
I'm gonna go do a workshop
for this particular
scholarship,
the Fulbright UK Summer Institute.
So it's,
um,
it's a good one and it gets students.
From their first year knowing how to apply,
realizing that
like last year we had 3 students get it,
but we had 28 students
who were named semifinalists,
so they know even if they didn't get it,
they know that they are contenders
and that's just,
that's phenomenal,
you know,
and so the confidence that they will gain in applying for
other things,
it'll just grow and grow.
I'll be quiet,
but I love that one.
I'm not supposed to be quiet,
but.
So,
uh,
you mentioned you were the founder of the Barrett faculty Training Program.
So could you expand on the reasoning behind its development
and the value of this training for the faculty?
So this one,
the,
the name of the program is actually the
Barrett Faculty Mentoring Program for Teaching Excellence.
And
I started that in 2005,
um.
And so I mentioned I started at Barrett in 2001,
and when I came to Barrett.
What I saw,
I,
I saw a lot of opportunity,
that
opportunity for growth.
So
when I came there,
there were
8 faculty,
and they were,
every single
faculty member was devoted to student success.
They were very committed to their students,
but it was so new then
that they weren't necessarily
collaborating amongst each other.
It was almost actually a little more territorial
sometimes and so.
The thing about human event in history of ideas is
it takes a special person to teach that class.
You have to be,
you know,
it's,
um,
it's very challenging because we all have our degrees in different
areas of disciplinary expertise
and so an astrophysicist like my wonderful colleague
Doctor Joseph Foy,
you know,
is teaching Confucius.
And,
and you know,
everybody has that.
It really stretches us as instructors,
which is one reason that I love it,
but
I think it's really important for faculty to support each other.
So I created it originally
for anyone,
not just
Barrett Honors faculty fellows,
but any faculty across the university
who was new to teaching honors courses
so that they could get support
because what happens sometimes in.
Teaching,
especially at a research university,
is sometimes people,
new faculty,
they don't want to ask for help because it might look like weakness,
and every faculty member at Barrett is hired
already based on being teaching experts
so
it could be that you don't want to have to ask.
I wanted to make it so they wouldn't have to ask.
They would automatically be supported
and so we created what that program is,
is
in the first two years for honors faculty fellows
they have assigned.
Senior faculty mentors and they go visit
human event classes and see how because we don't all teach them
the same so they get to see that there's a wide range of
ways of eliciting classroom discussion and things like that.
Um,
so they get to see a bunch of people
and then
their classes get visited and they get feedback
on their teaching and then we do workshops on
pedagogy because we all love talking about teaching we love it
and so it gives us even
it would it almost got too successful because
it the workshops would be
open
to.
Like the,
the junior faculty had to go
and everybody else could go
and when early on in the program everybody was going
and then the junior faculty had no time to talk about
about their own challenges so we've adapted it over
over the years,
um,
you know,
based on how many new faculty that we had and such
but the basic program is
giving people making sure that people have the resources they need to be successful
and if I may ask uh
why is the.
And why do you think this is such an important course?
Um,
I'll limit my answer to 8 reasons.
The first one,
the first one is that
it's a critical thinking
and writing
and speaking
class.
And
by critical thinking,
we mean just generally examining evidence from multiple perspectives,
and part of that is questioning assumptions.
And so
both for people.
Who are students and people in disciplines and in their professions,
but
especially as citizens
who are critical thinkers who don't
just automatically go with the way things
have been so in my human event class I just
taught the last class
and
um students listened to a keynote,
a commencement address by David Foster Wallace called
This Is Water where he was talking about
critical thinking and the value of a liberal arts education really is about.
Um,
making,
making sure people know that they have a choice in
how they think
and that
and to pause and not just let your decisions be
based on a default setting but to really question assumptions
and to do that you can't do that on your own,
uh,
you need the help of people who are coming from a diverse
uh array of perspectives so that you
really can know.
That you're making the best
decision for yourself.
So,
um,
my boss,
uh,
Dean Mark Jacobs
likes to,
he for a long time,
I,
I think he probably still does,
he talks about the human event as
great ideas humans have
had throughout history,
but I also like to teach really bad ideas
that humans have had
and,
and that other business and there's no.
Shame in having a bad idea,
but
what's bad is if people don't speak up
and say,
let's think about this from a few other perspectives.
They need to be confident enough
to speak up when decisions are being made
and
decision makers have to listen,
and that's another value of human event
is that
practicing critical discussion
and sort of,
uh,
that
18 person.
18 to 21 person
seminar format where everyone is speaking and sharing their ideas
because it if you don't practice that
early on they're gonna get in their professions
and people are gonna try to make terrible decisions
they have to feel that they can
speak out that's
that's just two of the reasons of so many reasons about human events.
The writing is huge,
um.
We wish ultimately I think that everyone,
every student at ASU
could have the human event,
but it is,
it takes a lot of instructor energy to give the customized
writing feedback and and speaking feedback.
So
I think it's,
I'll just end with that question with saying
faculty across the university say.
To me all the time that they love having Barrett students
in their classes because they raise the bar for other students because
we get students their first semester
at ASU
and
and teach them the joy of learning in
the community which is like not just that passive
I'm gonna do what I need to do for the grade but really.
Being challenged to have done your homework,
which is sometimes epically long as you know,
and,
and to contribute your ideas
and so they go out and they
share that love of learning in their classes,
um,
at least so my colleagues across the university tell me
so I think it's really important in helping people learn how to learn.
Um,
you mentioned that each professor can customize their human event classes.
So how have you been able to apply your experience and education to your sections?
Um.
Well,
so,
as I mentioned,
I'm sort of always learning,
but that doesn't mean that I read in every field.
So what I,
what's very cool about,
so I don't just teach human events,
so I also.
Teach study abroad classes and
teach special when when I'm not a dean's fellow I speak teach special topics courses
here and I've been able to do that
um I've
so there are a lot on my CV,
uh you know from all over the place
and so
my expertise in
literature because my PhD is in Irish and African American.
Modern literature
I've been able to bring into of course my human event classes,
but then I
have developed classes such as
um special topics classes that are upper divisions such as race writing indiffer
um
Inventing Ireland so they they're about culture
and identity you know through written expression
basically
but then because.
Much of my career is devoted to teaching.
I was able to create a special topics course on
teaching excellence,
which was for students who are not education majors
but who think they might want to teach at some point,
and that was a fun class because it can
bring in people from all over the university to,
to
share their ideas.
But one thing that I've really,
I've moved very much in the direction of creative nonfiction,
um,
for a class called Writing About Self in Place which I teach on study abroad,
but I also teach it.
At
ASU and so
it's sort of like travel writing but not
not like
Rick Steve's guide to Paris it's
stories,
stories that students have
you can actually see if you look around you back there do you see the
Discovery Greece Italy Self book on the
shelf right back there,
um,
and
you see books that students have made like from
their travel writing experience and they're basically their,
their storytelling,
um.
And so
I'll be reading creative nonfiction
and I and then I'll think.
Well,
when I was,
I taught downtown on the downtown campus,
um,
from 2014 to 2017,
and there was a new sports journalism major,
and
I was creative nonfiction would also be
nonfiction books about sports,
and I'm like I'm gonna create a class for them
because it was a new major and they needed more classes and so
that works and and then in doing my research for that class I'm like.
The Blind Side by Michael Lewis would work very well in my human event class,
so that came into there,
so it all feeds into each other,
but I'll just tell you,
Joshua,
that one of the best things
is not just putting my own disciplinary
expertise into my classes,
but learning from my colleagues.
So that mentoring program that we
that I was talking about.
Means that I have visited classes
from people who have
degrees in
in the natural sciences,
social sciences,
humanities,
fine arts,
all different things and we learn from each other
through visiting each other's classes
so I have
what I think is a really fun class
on Darwin.
Charles Darwin in my human event class,
but I
learned a lot of the
strategies for teaching that class by visiting one of my colleagues' classes
and
so,
um,
a lot of the things that are actually on my syllabus
were because I heard one of my colleagues were doing it.
I visited the class and then I did the research to bring it to my own class
and that is a
joy of teaching at Barrett is that.
Uh,
the people who I
Uh,
talk with every day are not
in my same field.
They're in different fields,
so I'm constantly learning
and being able to bring that
into my classroom.
Eventually it becomes an expertise.
In the beginning I just say let's try this.
Uh
Uh,
so you mentioned that writing and learning how to express your ideas through,
uh,
written language is one of the main,
uh,
parts of the Human event.
Uh,
and you were also involved in the founding of the Barrett Writing Center,
which is one of the most popular and impactful resources
available for our students in the Human event and other classes here.
So,
how do you develop new ideas like this to enhance the Barrett experience?
So I thank you for saying that it's impactful.
I'm glad to know that.
So
the thing that I just,
I just look around and
sort of say,
what if we
and then.
Always things are like let's create a pilot program.
Then it's not too much pressure,
you know you're gonna evaluate it at the end of the year.
The way that the Barrett Writing Center came about was
from my very when I joined the Barrett faculty in 2001,
so I'm the most junior person.
I didn't have as much to do as the other people because I was brand new
and a number of the faculty were saying.
They really wish we have a challenging curriculum as you know
we're trying to cover human thought and expression from antiquity to
to modern times
to 2000 now and um
but still really challenge the way students think about writing
and just digress for a moment to say the reason is
when students come in they've been trained to teach
a certain way or to write a certain way.
And that writing,
that training was to prepare them to get here,
so it was to write really good 5 paragraph
essays
on their
SAT written component or what,
you know,
it's,
it's like the timed writing,
but that is not the kind of writing most people do in their disciplines
and so we changed the.
The rules and
really up the bar and then that's very challenging for students.
So we wanted more of a resource.
Also,
the faculty are very available like so we try to
train students on writing in class to the degree we can
be available for.
Office hours
but you probably know
students aren't writing their essays when faculty are available
between 8 and 5 p.m. They're writing on weekends.
They're writing at night
and you don't want your you don't wanna talk to your faculty member at midnight.
So,
so,
um.
So there was a grant opportunity
by the Arizona Board of Regents for learner centered
education and so I was able to write a
proposal,
not even really expect I thought let's just try this,
um,
and it was one of the three proposals,
um,
that got funded at ASU to create a writing center
based on Learner Center.
Um,
education principles
and so probably that that worked and then we tried it for a year
had a great team of tutors they were so wonderful
and they gave me a lot of feedback and we just kept,
you know,
revising it and we continue to do that
so I'm happy that it has
stayed and then
um.
Probably that gave me the confidence to keep
trying new things and,
and
even like the mentoring program like what if we did this
and so it's we're fortunate
it is to
to be so focused on innovation so this
is a university that supports that they don't all
and um we're fortunate Barrett to have the funding
to be able to say let's try a global classroom and
such so
but basically I just say what if.
And,
uh,
if I may ask,
what year was that when you got the,
the,
the grant?
2002.
So that was my,
in the spring of my first year I got the grant,
and then it opened in the fall of 2002.
So we are estimating that it has served,
um,
12,000 students since then.
So,
uh,
you mentioned that you were,
or you are a very strong advocate for study abroad experiences,
and you've taught abroad as an as an instructor.
So could you share a couple of
the most memorable experiences that you had as
an instructor on these study abroad programs?
I will try.
There's so many,
but,
um,
uh,
one that happened recently,
so I've taught 11 Barrett study abroads,
um,
to places like
London,
Dublin,
Edinburgh,
Paris in the Loire Valley,
Greece and Italy,
uh,
Paris and Berlin,
you see,
like I,
I focus more in Europe,
um.
And most recently to Prague
and so our spirit we wanted to.
Um,
make study abroad accessible
also for students who didn't either have the time
or the resources for a summer study abroad,
so we created last year
the,
um,
global intensive,
and the one to Prague was the first one and so
took 18 students to Prague and my goals for
study abroad and what leads to the most memorable
stories,
um.
Our cultural immersion and so not just
uh a group of Americans hanging out with each other and saying
taking selfies in front of the Acropolis for example but really engaging
with locals and trying to learn a bit about their.
Um,
their lives really
and so,
um,
my very favorite one was when we went to Prague.
I always do a cooking class.
My,
my class writing about self in place is cultural immersion
and then writing about it in those creative nonfiction stories
and so
we arranged for a cooking class where we made,
um.
Uh,
Czech
staples such as strudel
and,
um,
and we made mac and cheese for because
it wasn't just my students taking the cooking class
we they brought in about
10,
um,
elementary age students from a shelter for displaced families,
um.
And so these,
these kids were excited just to come into central Prague.
That was a good excursion for them and
then they met all these Americans and got invaded
and,
and we cooked together
so they helped us prepare
as we were learning how to make the Czech food
and then we made mac and cheese for them so
that they would know because people hear about it,
but they don't actually know what it is,
you know?
And so we had
one little elementary age student per,
per,
um.
Two
of the 18 students uh in,
in,
uh,
sorry,
who went to Prague,
Sun Devils,
and they would cook together
and those students didn't speak English
so it was all sign language and such and that it was just so beautiful
but while we were waiting for
the dessert to cook.
We,
we sort of had a sing-off in which they sang for us.
The children sang,
um,
a,
a song from
their culture,
and then our Barrett Sun Devils responded with a
really beautiful version of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.
It was like they had beautiful voices,
and then the,
the,
the children sang back and then we sang back and it was just like one of those
beautiful moments and some of the students were hugging.
Our Barrett students so much before and once said,
I'm not gonna let you go and
it was translated,
she said it in,
you know,
in Czech,
so
that
those sort of moments are
amazing.
A lot of for me a lot like food is very important to culture.
So
again,
always,
you know,
always the cooking,
but when you're,
when you're adding in
the students,
it's great.
Another one I would say,
and I,
I pointed
you to it before,
I'm gonna get a book behind you you just said
is.
When you can give someone an opportunity
to grow,
um,
it's amazing and
this,
uh,
portfolio I'm showing you now we had a student
in 2017 who went to Greece and Italy
who um was legally blind
and she would never have thought that a study abroad
was possible for her,
um,
and so
to be involved in.
Helping to facilitate such a tremendous she's a philosophy major so she wanted
to go to Greece so bad and for her to be able to go
I mean badly,
um,
for her to be able to experience the Acropolis through um through
touch and sense and such
was really amazing for her and to be able to self navigate through
the little town of or it's not that town but the city of Naflio.
Uh,
on the coast in Greece was
also amazing,
and then when she went to Rome she said,
I love this city with every fiber of my being.
It's,
it's a wonderful thing,
but
my experience with that student is memorable because I learned
just as much from her.
Like she changed my life
too,
and it's when
you're.
You know,
as it all comes
down to learning,
you know,
when you're learning and expanding
your understanding of the world,
that happens all the time on study abroad,
and it's,
it's really wonderful,
I think.
So,
uh,
this,
so do you agree that study abroad experiences are
one of the most valuable things you can do as a Barrett student?
Absolutely,
I agree.
It was
just based on my,
my own experience.
I'm from Detroit
and I would just say
just about everyone I grew up with is still there.
And
um I mean we went to Canada all the time,
uh,
all of us because we lived right on the,
you know,
Canada was right across the bridge,
but for me
doing my study abroad in Strasbourg,
which was on the bor it is on the border of,
uh,
Germany and France,
it was so transformative.
I,
I mean
I hear students say that all the time that
every decision you make.
It,
it changes you and sometimes students before they,
they go,
they're like,
I'm afraid to change.
Why would I want to change?
I'm quite happy.
It's just because
you just don't know yet
what you're going to learn and about the
opportunities and such.
And also
for a lot of students it's,
you know,
you learn about the big world and it can help you.
Deal with the
stresses of your,
your,
you know,
undergraduate life which are real,
you know,
um,
but it gives you a bigger perspective but also the confidence to know
because
travel is challenging,
it's not
all singing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star,
you know,
it's,
it,
it can be really challenging and to know that
that you can figure things out and be independent,
um,
even with a group of people
is.
It
is singular.
It's one of the singular things for students that
they come back much more
aware of their own capabilities.
So,
uh,
with Barrett now being the number one honors college in the United States,
and with,
uh,
your participation and involvement with pilot programs,
and
the growth of Barrett till now,
how do you envision Barrett's future,
both academically and physically,
such as in campus enhancements and e-buildings?
I think
physically,
well,
I know that we have plans for some really exciting,
um.
New developments such as the,
the,
um,
Lewis Academic Center and,
and we're going to sort of consolidate
student services near the Gold Dome and that makes uh you know tremendous amount of
sense to me um.
So
the area that I'm more involved in now would be the curricular,
expanding the
curriculum and
so I'm what I believe is.
I'm a huge fan of
President Michael Crowe's design imperatives,
the,
um,
8 design imperatives,
which do you know what they are?
I do know what they are,
but I love them so much that these are always here.
I didn't put them up for you.
I,
I keep them like
in front of me so I always can think about how my work aligns with the university's
mission.
So
for those of you listening,
those design imperatives
in the 1st 4,
we already do.
Really well I think at Barrett,
which enables student success,
fuse
intellectual disciplines,
leverage our place and engage globally.
We're,
we're
we pursue those
every minute,
um,
all the time
the four that I,
I.
Would want us to
hope I think that we'll be
thinking more carefully about and how we can make sure that
we're
also creating programs for students that do these things
be socially embedded
we have some things we could have more I think
um because it goes back to what we're talking about like
work that.
To have responsible scholar citizens you want people who
are improving the lives of others who are creating the
the kind of communities that
they want to live in that they would be proud to live in
and so being socially embedded,
you know,
comes with that
conduct youth inspired research so
not just for the theoretical but how is this ultimately really
going to help
people or the planet or
what have you
and then value entrepreneurship.
I love that one.
In fact,
and it goes back to the idea of like
how do you develop new
ideas is,
is really thinking about the,
the what if we,
and I would love to develop a program
that supported entrepreneurial
ideas from students and they don't have to be huge
like
they can be a small like you know what if we had a.
Healthy snack machine.
I don't have that's a really bad example.
I should have thought of it ahead of time,
but you know,
um,
it could be
something small,
but that improves,
improves people's daily lives.
Or it can,
you know,
with Barrett's students,
it could be really big,
but we have students doing inc incredible things.
And then the last one,
of course,
all of that leads up to transforming society
and
That's what we're,
that's what
that goes back to the human.
I think that that is the foundation for
transforming society.
Um,
those are all the questions that we have for you today.
Uh,
do you have any more thoughts that you'd like to share,
just in general about your experience of Barrett,
the study abroad programs,
or anything else?
Well,
I,
I just,
I'll,
I'll just say no.
Feel free to come back for a follow up if you wanna like highlight stories,
uh,
just because I've been here for so long and,
and seen so many differences,
but.
Yeah,
I'll just leave it at that.
I thank you.
If you don't mind,
uh.
I wouldn't mind revisiting one or if you have those
like engagement how have you seen that working like for you
and for Bret and for ASU obviously which one the engage student success that one,
that's the one I think that we think about
all the time.
So when you think about student success,
you can think about it from a Um,
so many different perspectives,
and
I think through your project
you'll find
like
members in student services completely thinking about
the social lives that students need.
I don't think about that as much.
I'm really focused on
curriculum and such,
um,
although as a teacher of course
I try not to sign homework over big holidays and things like that,
but,
um.
But from,
from a point of view of
how they're going to be successful
in their academic
and in their academic careers and in their applying
professional careers,
which is part of what I do too,
um,
some things would,
some examples would be how in the classes that we have.
Do we know
that students are getting
the support that they need
to be successful?
So the Barrett Writing Center was
one example,
um,
of
what I've done.
I created a.
Uh,
a series of modules called the Human Event in History Ideas
Learning Project modules,
and that's because we found out
that
students could understand conceptually
a lot of the principles of argumentative writing such as like a road map.
They could understand as a concept what that was,
but when they,
when you go to do that in a in a challenging human event
paper that has
or history of ideas paper that has like nuanced thoughts.
That can be really challenging.
So I create these kind of modules.
There are 4 of them,
um,
one is on textual analysis because that's the
key is like looking for non-obvious underlying.
Implications and and such
so there's textual analysis and then there's
topic sentences which that is not that is not there
for the writer the topic sentences are there for the
very busy reader
who needs to know ahead of time
what claim you're making so that.
They could evaluate so that's a module
really explaining the what and the why,
what not to do,
what to do
and such
and then the next one is on introductions
which would be all that forecasting and
then there's academic style which you can learn
a lot of anywhere but.
We did that.
I made that because Doctor Brune and I were talking
about how our students would understand.
They would say they understood and then they would make
the same
error on the next paper
and so we're like we need more,
more than just the writing center we need something to illustrate
that they can go through
on their own so
we created those.
And,
um,
many faculty use them or a version of the modules
and we're constantly adding to it,
adding student videos and things,
and we're moving into Google Drive.
So
that's another kind of thing where you just go,
what are,
what more do they need?
How can I,
how can I get that for them?
And then I don't know if you've had it,
but um.
We now a bunch of us are doing
we're doing grading conferences to grade the papers rather than
just writing the feedback and giving it back and that's very stressful for students
that was something that I initiated on the Tempe campus also,
um,
and the reason
that is it it.
I will say I started in 2014
and
100% of my students who I polled anonymously every semester have said
to keep them
because even though they're afraid
when they first come in
and often leave with comments like it's not as,
it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be,
what it turns your,
your feedback that you get on this essay that is where so much of your.
Grade and you're learning,
it turns it into a dialogue
so we can talk together about what's strong
and what like we grade them at the same
time and the student sees what they actually wrote
and then we talk about them and then we we identify three areas
um for improvement on the on the next draft and so again
I know it can be stressful but on the
other hand students find out faculty aren't like dragons.
And hopefully
and um and I really enjoy it because I,
I,
I like to talk to people.
I don't like,
I don't like to spend all my time like looking at a computer screen or
or what have you.
So
those are some examples of things that we've
tried.
I,
I should probably think of the things we've tried that didn't work.
Oh,
I have one for you.
Do you wanna know?
Now you don't want to say didn't work,
but it didn't work as we had hoped.
So when
Dean,
so
we used to have.
Uh,
when I started,
human event was 171
and 172,
so what's now 272 was 172,
and,
um,
it looked a lot as it,
as it looked today,
but when Dean Jacobs came.
To bear it and talk to a lot of students
we found more and more of our students are in STEM
fields
and they were interested in sort of like natural sciences focused
human events
so we thought about this a lot we came up with the idea that 171 would be 171
and then.
Instead of 172,
we would have three different tracks.
It would be 272,
273,
and 274,
and 272 would be a humanities focused.
Human event second semester human event 273 was natural sciences focused
and 274 was
um social sciences focused
and
it wasn't they were still really interdisciplinary
the way you would figure out like I'd still do science in
mine and someone who's a natural scientist would still do poetry,
but it was based on the disciplinary PhD of the instructor,
um,
that was,
that was the idea.
We tried that for for many years
but it didn't ultimately
help uh students got confused they were expecting that it
would be all science or all human uh you know humanities
or whatever it wasn't really clear and since.
Since we really find that
a liberal arts sort of that's what human event is it
makes you think about you look at all different kinds of
human thought production,
um,
you know,
from art to music to architecture
to philosophy and science and everything else
and so,
uh,
so we went back,
so we came back to just 272,
so
I don't think it was a failure.
I think it was a successful experiment
that we decided
was not.
The way that we should,
you know,
emerge in the,
in the future,
so,
but that would be a fun follow up is like what have been some,
what have been the epic failures.
I,
but I'm sure when you first came to Pirate,
were you still miss Scott because now you're Doctor Scott Lynch and
Doctor Lynch is down the hallway.
Oh.
OK.
So the story there,
which is sometimes confusing,
is that
I
was married when I first came to bear it,
and I had changed my name,
so
I was Doctor Lynch.
So because
I don't know if you know Star Trek,
but.
this really was in my mind is Doctor Scott
sounded a lot like Doctor Spock
to me,
and I didn't like that feeling,
so I'm like,
I'm gonna
change my name and go with Doctor Lynch
and my first year teaching,
I was Doctor Lynch for the first few years,
but back there then on the old campus,
my,
my office was right near my husband's
and who's also on the faculty here as Doctor,
we even had the same initials John Lynch,
Jackie Lynch,
and so.
Too often students would come into my office and then stop
startled and say you're not Doctor Lynch
and so
I just gave up after a while and I said,
OK,
I'm gonna use my maiden name at work to try to
clarify it and so I tend to go by
by Doctor Scott,
but we put Scott Lynch
on the signs,
uh,
just so that.
Students who don't know this boring story,
uh,
like will be able,
will be able to find me and I don't ultimately
care which of the last names that students use,
but,
um,
that's the,
that's the reason why it was.
Just,
just to distinguish myself from a
tall,
uh,
red-haired Irish man that I am not.
Another is happy that she had one.
Another funny story about that is that
so
when my husband and I before we started Barrett but at ASU,
um.
When we first got married,
we lived at what was then called ASU East.
It's now the polytechnic campus because we were able to rent
a 3 bedroom,
2 bathroom house
for $500 a month,
which
was just about all we had,
you know,
that's about all that we were making,
and so it was,
it was new because it was.
Like transitioning from Williams Gatefield Airport to this
campus,
so yeah,
it was amazing they had had military housing
and so that's what we
ultimately moved into.
But for,
you know,
graduate students on a very,
very limited budget,
it was wonderful,
but we would have to drive all the way out there and there was nothing.
At the time it was just wasn't developed yet
and so there was one restaurant
within like miles
and it was very funny because it was,
I think it was called,
maybe it was called
it was Cosmo's
Restaurant on the corner just outside the,
the,
the campus
and um
there were a lot of retired people out there so they would,
it would be Cosmos would be very busy between like 4 and 6 during the
early bird special and then there would be nobody.
It was,
it was
funny,
but we were very,
uh,
appreciative to have that.
That opportunity.
Well,
thank you so much,
Doctor Scott Lynch.
You're very welcome.
It's a pleasure.
And if we have any other questions,
we will definitely follow up with you if you give us the time.
OK,
great.
Yeah,
if you have any questions about this interview or the oral project,
uh,
please contact Doctor or Vice Dean Nicola Foot.
And if any more thoughts you'd like to share for this interview,
uh,
please feel free to reach out and we can schedule a time
that works best,
and we can talk more about it.
OK,
great.
Thank you.
This is really fun.
Nice meeting you.
Thank you as well.