News & Updates

from PCU_May_2023

The Gladish Community and Cultural Center May/June Events

The CCS Annex hosts a Composition Photo Exhibit from recent English courses at SFCC and WSU. Dr. David Martin asked his students to choose a key term – challenge, epiphany, and happiness – and illustrate the term with an original photograph and a short text. The work was first shown at WSU’s Bundy Hall and is displayed at our Annex through June 16. We had a chance to dive deeper into the project with Dr. Martin, who has taught English and ESL faculty at SFCC, UI, and WSU for over two decades and serves as the President of the Washington Association of the Education of Speakers of Other Languages.

What is a primary learning goal of this project?

There were two goals, actually. One was to compare experiences between the WSU and SFCC students on the campus we share. The second was for students to be able to see their work in a public space and communicate their stories visually and succinctly.

What inspired you to design this instructional project for your classes?

I have done work with image-based assignments for over 15 years and have seen the value of the image as a starting point for discussion. It is a way for students who struggle to initiate writing to start with a story they have already documented through pictures taken and stored on their phones. For this term, I had students do

I enjoyed reading as they practiced descriptive writing, analyzed the messaging of their lived experiences, and engaged in storytelling. I got to know them better than through essay writing. This is definitely an approach I will use again.

Were there any surprises as you saw and responded to the students’ projects?

A handful of students reflected on experiences I had not anticipated. One student used the assignment to get to know his co-workers at his new job. Another student used it to unpack and process some really challenging emotional experiences, while others focused on making meaning out of regular, everyday life events. Most surprising was the amount of agency students took regarding the structure and development of the journal assignments. It wasn’t an exercise in arm-twisting as journals sometimes can be (chuckles).

What insights and ideas are you taking away from this project?

I am impressed with how readily students got on board with the imagebased assignment. The gallery also provided an exciting opportunity for students to see their work displayed in public rather than viewing their writing and image-taking as assignments done in isolation. The storytelling students produced with the simple parameters of taking images that represent their happy moments, challenges, and epiphanies still amazes me. I am grateful we learned so much more about each other and our different experiences through this project.

Valda Black, WSU Ph.D.c. Anthropology, secured a sizable project grant from the CCS Foundation to support student-centered teaching and learning. Her proposal focused on student engagement in anthropology education and the critical tool of objectbased learning (OBL) to promote interactive and applied learning, critical thinking, and student success. Black acquired for our Center a suite of anthropological objects, including cast skulls, to look at the physical evolution of humans, and stone tools, to look at human technology through time.

The content and volume of scholarship by Kyle Serrott, SFCC faculty and WSU Ph.D. student. in American Studies and Culture, has inspired colleagues and students. In March, Serrott gave a presentation” at the annual Indigenous Research Conference of WSU’s Center for Native American Research & Collaboration. In April, he presented a “Abolishing Prisons, Abolishing Hate: An Abolitionist Approach to Hate Crime” at the 7th Annual International Hate Studies Conference in Spokane.

Congratulations to Angela Tower, SFCC faculty and WSU Ph.D.c. in Mathematics! Angela won a prestigious Mathematical Sciences Graduate Internship with the National Institute of Health. The internship is part of the Big Data T35 program at the University of South Carolina, bigdata.sc.edu, where Angela will work with Dr. Monique Brown’s public health group on the socialeconomic effects of HIV and intervention research.

CCS Pullman is hiring! We are inviting applications for a full-time Center Manager and we look to fill adjunct teaching vacancies in Biology, Economics, Environmental Science, and Physics for the academic year ’23-24. Most deadlines are in May, so apply asap at: bit.ly/ccspullmanjobs.

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Sep 20 - Dec 15 ....................

Summer Term '23

Fall Term '23

Centre for the Arts at Gladish: Buy-a-seat Campaign

Pullman is blessed to have a number of performing arts organizations but is lacking a truly professional space to perform. This new Centre gives our organizations that performance space and also opens the door for all our organizations to collaborate and grow together. It will be a place for our community to enjoy the arts and where our arts professionals can grow and thrive!

Being able to bring more events to the local community is something that Pullman has wanted for a long time. With the Centre for the Arts we will be able to provide that to the community through music, performances, plays, and many more. This in turn will allow us to provide more community minded programming and events that get our town involved and at The Gladish.

Our team is planning a full remodel of the Richard Domey Auditorium, The Little Theater, and an expansion to The View Room, to create performance spaces for concerts, theatrical productions, and more!

With the remodel of the spaces, the Gladish’s new PAC will partner with our communities arts organizations, like The Washington Idaho Symphony, Palouse Choral Society, and the Community Band of the Palouse, to create a home for our thriving arts community. This is where you, our community come in, and we have an amazing opportunity for you. We are pleased to announce our Buy-a-Seat campaign! The Buy-a-Seat allows you to have your name, or memory/honor of a loved one added to a seat.

Buy-a-Seat is available at www.cftagladish.org, or by following the QR code to the left!