Faculty Spotlights: Melissa Fickling and Dean Paul Kassel

Melissa Fickling

Erin Wallin

The University Honors Program is pleased to name Melissa Fickling, Ph. D., assistant professor of the Department of Counseling and Higher Education, this year’s Rachowicz Honors Faculty fellow. Fickling will be teaching the Work, Meaning and Wellness (HON 310) seminar in fall 2022.

EW: What are you looking forward to in teaching this seminar, and how might it be different than other classes that you have previously taught? MF: I’m looking forward to digging deeper into the sociological and philosophical aspects of work. This course will be different from my other courses I have previously taught because this seminar is outside of my department. I will be able to work with students from “all different majors, [asking them questions such as] ‘What is work?’, ‘What do they already know [about work]?’ and how it connects to their lives.”

EW: What does it mean to you that you were selected as the Rachowicz fellow this year? MF: Encouraging and validating. I did not know how my expertise would be received. “It is humbling. The people who reviewed [my seminar proposal] saw the deep connections between community and work and one’s own personal life. Careers are much more than an individual [entity], as families and communities are impacted, and benefit from it as well.”

EW: How does receiving more funding impact you and your teaching? MF: The funding from the Rachowicz Honors Faculty fellow award allows me to prioritize my time appropriately and know what is exactly being valued through my work. It allows me to know where to focus through clear direction and support. The support I am receiving “…clarifies and validates my work and that is not always something that [professors] get.”

EW: Is there anything else you would like others to know about this new seminar? MF: The seminar is interdisciplinary focused. Students will be reading material through not only a mental health lens but also the lenses of history, sociology and philosophy. “Students do not need a foundation in any of these areas to be able to engage with the course [content]. Everyone has enough experience by being a worker, student [or volunteer] and will be able to access this course. It is justice- and equityfocused because work touches so much of our lives, paid or unpaid, and has deep, long impacting effects.” There is an infusion of gender, race, disability and class imbedded into the seminar, which allows students to see how each social determinant is relevant to the world of work and wellness.

Melissa Fickling, Ph.D., assistant professor of Counseling and Higher Education.

Dean Paul Kassel

Connie Storey

Paul Kassel has been the dean of the College of Visual and Performing Arts since 2015. He manages operations within the Schools of Art and Design; Music; and Theater and Dance. In addition, he oversees the NIU Museum and Community School of the Arts. This was his first time in the role of an Honors Faculty fellow.

CS: Why were you attracted to offering an Honors seminar? PK: Teaching honors students is very gratifying — they tend to be curious, motivated and challenging! I always learn a lot; both as a teacher and as a researcher and artist.

CS: How do you teach your subject or specialty to an interdisciplinary group of Honors students? PK: I designed the course specifically for interdisciplinary groups and not specialists. But my working assumption is that everyone knows a little something about the arts and we start there. It allows students who do have experience in a certain area to take the lead in discussion or in peer learning groups. But I treat everyone as an explorer who may have almost no experience in the arts. A basic principle for any artist is to “keep a beginner’s mind.” That suspends judgment and assumptions that might preclude discovery.

CS: What’s the best thing about teaching Honors students? PK: As I said, curiosity and an eagerness to learn. That makes it fun. The challenge in my course is to help them release the “need to get it right.” There is not really a “right” or “wrong” in the arts, so it gives me joy to help students let go of aiming for the “A” on the test and instead, go for the gold of creativity!

CS: Any other overall insights on your experience teaching an Honors seminar? PK: The course has also allowed me to work across colleges. We have all sorts of experts at NIU and I’ve been fortunate to collaborate with a few outside my college. Professor Leila Porter (chair of anthropology), has lectured the class on the limits of evolutionary theory as well on her own research. And Professor Amy Newman (English) led a session on poetry, which resulted in all the students writing an original pantoum (a kind of poem). We had some read their poems aloud and everyone was quite moved by the pieces: Open, honest and filled with deep feeling. These are the kinds of experiences that stay with a student for a long time. And with teachers, too. It’s the reason I teach, and I’m grateful to be part of the Honors Faculty Fellowship program.

Dean Paul Kassel, College of Visual and Performing Arts.

New Honors lounge in Campus Life Building Room 110 replacing the Capstone Library.

Honors Advocacy Initiative: Current Work

Grant Goral

Drawing on inspiration from last year’s Honors Advocacy Initiative (HAI), Grant Goral has continued building HAI in the mold of Huskies Helping Huskies. For fall 2021 and spring 2022, Goral has worked with a cohort of Honors students to further shape the environment of the Honors Program as one of openness, success, and belonging. The fall 2021 cohort focused on creating an action plan in which students believed the program should be moving in order to best support those from a wide variety of backgrounds. Since Honors students may be coming to college from a range of life experiences, the fall cohort wanted to work to ensure the success of all students in the program. One of these action plan ideas centered on better mentoring and advising for first generation college students. In spring 2022, HAI worked to implement those plans that were developed in the fall in conjunction with the Honors staff. One of the key tasks that the spring cohort will complete is enhancing the new Honors lounge space with exhibits that build the diverse community of the Honors Program. Students in the lounge will have access to an array of resources from the many diversity and cultural centers on campus. HAI strives to make the Honors Program a place where all students have the resources they need to succeed. Goral, a junior, is hoping to establish HAI as a permanent facet of the Honors Program that will live on even after he has graduated. “I see this is an opportunity for students to build the foundation of a necessary resource for every new Honors student in the future.” He is hoping that his senior year will see results that are even more fruitful with a larger HAI cohort.