Written by Dr. Jennifer Jackl
Senior Seminar in Communication Studies, Fall 2019, was full of our current graduating seniors who were diligently working all semester long to create and complete a research study of their choosing in a research team. One team (Claire Kivior and Elise Baer) was researching narrative sense-making of college binge-drinking. As a result, the class was discussing existing literature related to binge-drinking. Oh, the conversations we had that day! I won’t bring up all the details of those quasi-academic discussions…but suffice it to say, we all learned a lot about each other that afternoon, particularly the drinking habits (or lack thereof) and preferences in the room. Especially important was that some *cough—Adam—cough* learned that “dark wine” is not a thing!
At the conclusion of Communication Studies Senior Seminar in fall 2019, we all went to Mac n’ Bob’s to celebrate everyone’s successful research project. It was such fun to sit at a table with 12 delightful seniors at the end of a semester and kick back and chat! For a few (Cara, Maddie, Janney) that was a pre-graduation celebration, as they are December ‘19 grads! (see attached photo)
Sadly, Spring 2020 Senior Seminar in Communication Studies hasn’t exactly been what we had all hoped in terms of community building and memory making… But for the first 8 weeks of the semester it was fun to hear about their daily lives and plans for post-graduation. And the research ideas coming from that group (currently still in progress) are interesting: discourses of college dating; definitions of healthy relationship communication; correlations between loves styles and gender; correlations between attachment style and perceptions of emotional infidelity online.
Congratulations, Class of 2020! May your futures be bright, your paths be unique and full of interesting twists and turns. Remain thoughtful, diligent, humble, kind, patient, and generous—be the karma you hope to get some day! It has been a pleasure getting to know you and grow in wisdom with you.
Pictured, left to right: Carolyn Kitsock, Elise Baer, Claire Kivior, Madeline Miles, Cara Basham, Gabby Arnold, Dr. Jackl, Ashley Eagleson, Garrett Ruggieri, Ryan Wilson, Adam Spangler, Janney Alvarado, Fortune Sibanda.
