Fall 2007 Vignette 3
Reflecting on the Power of Communication
To be able to work one-on-one with a professor in her first year at Emmanuel has been just one of many experiences that have confirmed Erin Fogle's decision to transfer to the College was the right one.
"I love Emmanuel," she said. "I think it's the perfect school. It's a small college in the middle of Boston, which offers students so many opportunities to learn and grow. I could not be happier."
Erin, a member of the class of 2009, has been assisting Assistant Professor of English Dan DeGooyer with an on-going communication study he has been conducting. The project is based on a series of meetings of an academic unit at a large university and Dr. DeGooyer is examining how the team members, through verbal communication, create identities for themselves, and how these identities affect the self-assessment process.
Erin's work has involved transcribing the meeting tapes and meeting twice weekly with Dr. DeGooyer to discuss books and articles on this type of research. "The articles I am reading, which are part of Dr. DeGooyer's bibliography, have helped me to understand the theories we're using to analyze the group dynamics," she said. "In the communication field, I am learning that it's important to bring in core ideas to give the proper context to a project."
The culmination of the project will be a peer-reviewed article, which will then be submitted to either the annual conferences of the National Communication Associa-tion or the International Communication Association. For Dr. DeGooyer, Erin's work has helped to bring a fresh perspective.
"It expands the student's awareness, but it also helps me in that Erin brings up questions about things that I may take for granted, but that need further explanation. We have been having important dialogue which has been insightful for me."
Emmanuel professors are able to be both teachers and researchers, and this opportunity has allowed Erin to get a glimpse of that.
"This gives more depth to my studies and it has helped me to learn what professors do outside of class and what their main interests are. I think that's one of the things that is really unique about the college experience, learning that your professors are not just teachers, but they are doing research and continuing to educate themselves in the field."
While Erin is just entering her junior year, she already has her eye on the future and how this research project is preparing her.
"I am an English literature major and I eventually want to become a teacher, so this experience is helping me to learn how to communicate more effectively and be able to study more effectively the theories behind the ways people communicate."
Dr. DeGooyer agrees. "A lot of what we're looking at is about academic discourse and how people talk in an academic institution. Demonstrating intellectual sophistication and presenting it in everyday conversation is so important in the field of teaching."