12 minute read
Where are they now? Featuring: Curtis Bradley
Advertisement
Where are they now?
Curtis Bradley
PhD in Psychology, concentration in Experimental Psychology Department of Psychology Year of Graduation: 2018
Why did you choose ETSU for your education? What does this position/research entail?
As a tenure-track Assistant Professor at a small, liberal arts college, the majority of my work consists of teaching (roughly 7 to 8 courses per academic year). After teaching, most of my time is spent conducting research with six to 10 undergraduate students who share a common interest in my research. The final component of my position is service. My service contribution to the college includes being the chair of the New Faculty Development committee, serving as an advisor to the Pre-Health Club, and the BC Disc Golf Club (my favorite service).
I chose ETSU for my doctorate because of Dr. Matthew Palmatier, his research, and the Graduate Psychology’s mentorapprentice style program. Matt and I have a shared interest in how learning, both associative and operant, mediate the relationship between a drug’s effect and behavior.
What is your current position and/or research? How did your time at ETSU prepare you for this career?
My time at ETSU prepared me for my career on two fronts. First, my advisor Matthew Palmatier prepared me to function as an independent researcher. These research skills include: research design, animal welfare, data collection, data management, data analysis, research dissemination, and just enough engineering to make and fix my laboratory equipment. Second, the graduate program prepared me to teach small and large classes at the college level. In my time at ETSU, I taught three sections of PSY 101 (Introduction to Psychology). I learned to quell my fear of public speaking, create proper assessment material, synthesize class material into manageable lectures, and disseminate that information in a way that students could understand.
What advice would you offer current or future graduate students?
I am currently an Assistant Professor of Psychology at Bridgewater College. Bridgewater is a small liberal arts college where most of my work is focused on teaching, but I also contribute a considerable amount of work to my scholarship. My scholarship refers to my independent research I conduct with undergraduate research assistants. My research is currently focused on the motivation to obtain caffeine, alcohol, or both in a mouse model of drug self-administration. I call it my Four Loko study. First and foremost, work WITH your advisor on all fronts. As graduate students, we sometimes get so overwhelmed with work and responsibilities that we can harbor resentment towards the people who hold us responsible for our work. There will always be someone or something holding you accountable, and carrying through your work begrudgingly will only make it worse. Your advisor did you a BIG favor by taking you under their wing. Whether you realize it or not, you represent them with everything you do (your classwork/attendance, research, and general behavior), so hold up your end of the bargain. In addition, make sure you communicate with your advisor. I saw a few advisor-advisee relationships sour, and some students withdrew from the program because of problems stemming from a lack of communication. No one knows you need help unless you say something.
Anything else you would like to add?
Take advantage of what is free! Attend sporting events. Attending the men’s and women’s basketball games at ETSU was some of the most fun times I’ve had as a graduate student. Finally, get a Trust Pizza from Scratch and go play disc golf! The tri-city area has some of the best (and free) courses in the world (Winged Deer Park & Warriors Path Park)! 19
ETSU’s 2021 3MT® Competition
The 4th annual Three Minute Thesis (3MT®) competition at ETSU was held in-person on November 10th, 2021 in the Martha Street Auditorium in the D.P. Culp Student Center. This competition provides graduate students the opportunity to develop their professional presentation and research communication skills by distilling their projects into a three-minute presentation designed for a general (non-specialist) audience using just one slide. Through this engaging three-minute presentation, audience members learn what students in master’s and doctoral programs are studying and gain insight into the future of research, design, and innovation on a variety of disciplines.
3MT® originated at the University of Queensland and was designed as a research competition for PhD students. However, many other universities, including ETSU, have opened registration to master’s students or students engaged in research through their coursework or other culminating projects. This allows for a variety of topics and makes for a very enjoyable experience for the audience.
The winner of the 2021 3MT® competition was Emily Napier, a master’s degree student in the Communication and Storytelling Studies program, with her presentation on “The InstructorStudent Relationship: An Interpersonal Perspective.”
Second place in the competition was awarded to Anna Musket, a doctoral student in the Biomedical Sciences program whose dissertation is titled “Glioblastoma: In Vitro Studies.”
Michael Tetteh received the People’s Choice Award, which was voted on by audience members. His thesis is “Folic Acid Carbon Dots Doxorubicin Nanoparticles as Cancer Theranostics.”
A donation from Tennessee Hills Brewing and Distillery resulted in a $1,100 scholarship for the first-place winner, and a $750 scholarship for both the second place and people’s choice recipients.
The judges for the 2021 3MT® competition were entrepreneur and author Scott Andrew; President & CEO of the Boys & Girls Club of Johnson City/Washington County Robin Crumley; and President of the International Storytelling Festival (ISC) Kiran Singh Sirah.
As the winner, Emily Napier represented ETSU in the virtual Southern Regional Competition during the Conference of Southern Graduate Schools 2022 Annual Meeting in Raleigh, NC, on February 18th 2022. kara boynewicz early childhood education emily napier communication & storytelling studies
anna musket biomedical sciences
emily katt communication & storytelling studies
michael tetteh chemistry
ummear raza biomedical sciences
olusegun olatunji history leticia pizzino communication & storytelling studies
hanna traynham studio art
aaron caesar chemistry
From left, Emily Napier, First Place; Michael Tetteh, People’s Choice; Anna Musket, Second Place
Judges: From left, Kiran Singh Sirah (President of the International Storytelling Center (ISC); Robin Crumley (President & CEO of the Boys & Girls Club of Johnson City/Washington County); Scott Andrew (Author, entrepreneur, and CEO of Retail Services Systems)
Emily Napier, Conference of Southern Graduate Schools, 2022 3MT® Competition
Assessing the Barriers to Developmental Advising in Higher Education Institutions
Alicia Abney
Educational Leadership, EdD Higher Education Leadership concentration
Dr. Jill Channing
Faculty Advisor
Written by Marten Baur
Research consistently shows that academic advisors increase retention and completion rates at higher education institutions, yet there remains a disconnect between advisor best practices and what actually happens in higher education academic advising. This disconnect stems from the deprofessionalization of academic advising and the limited resources available to current academic advisors. Alicia Abney, a doctor of education student at ETSU, is investigating the educational and occupational backgrounds of academic advisors in order to identify the barriers that prevent them from offering academic advising beyond a simple, prescriptive approach.
Alicia Abney, from Kokomo, Indiana, received her bachelor’s degree in English (with a minor in secondary education) and her master’s degree in student development counseling and administration from Indiana Wesleyan University. After graduating, she began working as an academic advisor for Middle Tennessee State University (MTSU), where Alicia also earned an EdS in Administration and Supervision with a concentration in higher education. Alicia wanted to pursue a doctorate degree, and she saw that ETSU offered an EdS to EdD online program. After speaking with advisors at ETSU, she knew it was the perfect fit. Alicia is now working on her dissertation with Dr. Jill Channing
Alicia Abney
(department chair and assistant professor) at ETSU. Alicia is interested in answering the question, “Who are academic advisors?”
Two of the most common forms of academic advising are prescriptive and developmental advising. Prescriptive advising is the most basic, and it consists of helping the student register for classes that fit their major. Prescriptive advising is often paired with computer programs like Degree Works, a tool that monitors a student’s progress toward their degree. While this form of advising is important, it often falls short when it comes to students who are feeling lost in college. Advanced forms of advising, such as developmental advising, assess a student’s goals and needs. From this assessment, the advisor can offer tools, resources, and recommendations to enhance their college experience. “Academic advising goes beyond asking students what classes they want to take,” explained Alicia. “You have to have the tools and the knowledge to identify and empathize with the student in order to understand their goals.”
Alicia has found that advisors hold degrees from a variety of fields. Oftentimes, the degrees have nothing to do with academic advising. Alicia explained, “Research consistently shows that academic advisors have a significant impact on student success rates, yet there is no direct educational pathway to become an academic advisor, and no standardized qualifications exist.” The lack of an established educational pathway leaves some academic advisors without the theories and methodologies needed to provide quality advising. This results in a deprofessionalization of academic advising, which hurts students, advisors, and the institutions they work for. One major concept used by academic advisors is student development theory. The theories presented by several education and psychology researchers give advisors the framework to implement transformational advising approaches, which has been shown to increase retention and graduation rates of college students. Another important resource for academic advisors is NACADA: The Global Community for Academic Advising. The organization provides continuing education to academic advisors and promotes the importance of advising to student success. NACADA outlines the roles of academic advisors through their four Pillars of Academic Advising: Concept of Academic Advising, Core Values of Academic Advising, Core Competencies of Academic Advising, and Council for the Advancement of Standards in Higher Education (CAS): Standards and Guidelines for Academic Advising. Alicia is using a research method called phenomenography. Phenomenography was created to evaluate thinking, learning, and the number of ways in which learning can take place. Alicia’s phenomenographic study examines how advisors learn and seek knowledge in their professional environment. Specifically, her study elucidates how advisors learned about student development theory and NACADA’s Conceptual Core Competency. To recruit her sample, Alicia sifted through NACADA’s membership demographics to find institutions with the highest number of NACADA members from ten different regions. Alicia selected the institutions with the highest NACADA members from each region. She began recruiting academic advisors with less than five years of experience from those institutions to participate in her study.
Alicia interviewed each participant (n=17) to gather information on their educational and occupational backgrounds. She also asked how they began their careers in academic advising, if they knew about NACADA’s Pillars of Academic Advising, and if they were familiar with student development theory. Alicia’s initial results indicate that advisors who have earned a degree within student personnel/higher education have some knowledge of student development theory and NACADA’s Conceptual Core Competency. In contrast, advisors without a student personnel/ higher education degree have very little knowledge of student development theory and NACADA’s Conceptual Core Competency. Some advisors reported seeing the Conceptual Core Competency mentioned during onboarding training or within literature shared as a new hire.
Almost all advisors perceived student development theory to be helpful for effective academic advising. Advisors with no background in student development theory expressed interest in learning more about the theory in order to become more effective advisors.
Alicia’s work will add to the growing body of literature and further professionalize the budding field of academic advising. She hopes to change the misperceptions of academic advisors, as they are frequently undervalued on college campuses. Because academic advisors impact student retention and completion rates at higher education institutions, administrators should know who they are hiring as academic advisors and provide them with ongoing training and professional development opportunities. In addition, institutions need to hire enough advisors to keep the standard caseload ratio below 250 students to one advisor. These conditions will allow the implementation of transformational advising approaches. Alicia’s study will help identify the occupational and educational background of academic advisors in order to identify exactly the resources they need to perform their jobs better. She hopes that her study will bring awareness to the deficits in academic advisor pay, the lack of training and professional development opportunities, and the overwhelming advisor caseloads. Alicia hopes to present her dissertation research at the NACADA National Conference hosted in Portland, Oregon in October. In addition, Alicia was awarded the NACADA Global Awards Scholarship to attend the Administrators’ Institute in Albuquerque, New Mexico. She will present an action plan on advisor training and professional development using her dissertation research to support her presentation.
Despite being an online student, Alicia and Dr. Channing have formed a close relationship. Dr. Channing has taken the role of a developmental advisor by not only holding Alicia accountable for her work and research, but also by caring about Alicia’s well-being. Alicia stated, “Dr. Channing has really taken the time to get to know me, and she’s listened to my project ideas and talked me through how they can be accomplished.” After graduation, Alicia plans on teaching at the college level and becoming a director of advising. She wants to be a part of the training and development of academic advisors on her campus. Ultimately, Alicia wants a position that allows her to advocate for students.
Alicia’s phenomenographic study helps reveal the resource deficit in academic advising. Advisors serve an important role in improving student retention and completion rates at higher education institutions. In order to perform their jobs effectively, advisors need lower caseloads and better access to professional development and training. By giving advisors the resources they need to perform developmental advising, more students will succeed in college. While no amount of advising will prevent a student from failing, Alicia’s work brings hope that there will always be a qualified academic advisor to help the student back on their feet.
