To Communicate Well is to Celebrate Life!
November 20, 2007 | 
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Constance Courtney Staley is a consummate communicator and has been since she was a little girl. She quickly learned that one must connect with people. A self-described army brat who studied in 10 different schools in a 12-year period, she believes that the cornerstone of communication definitely lies in one’s background. "No talk. No go. No future."
Professor Staley’s academic career began with a B.A. in education and a M.S. in linguistics. Her doctoral work bloomed as a result of her innate passion for understanding how words and thoughts intertwine to make sense and meaning of the world. However, her university career flourished because she "grew" the meaning-making/sense-making concept into a success-making concept for her university students.
"Learning and living are what students need to know," Professor Staley told us. Thanks to the collaboration of her husband, Professor Steve Staley, and her colleague, Professor Tim Tregarthen, she has succeeded in creating "a learning community the likes of which I never had in my classes."
Professor Staley began her Freshman Seminar model with one initial course, "The Mating Game", in 1992, the first year she taught with Professor Tregarthen. From this initial enrollment of 16-18 students in "Introduction to Intellectual Inquiry", she has developed an academic conglomerate of 750 students, 14 core themes, and 54 sections led by faculty, staff, and teacher assistants from across the university campus. The definitive roadmap of success for her Freshman Seminar model is the interaction of student-created personal goals, academic goals, and community goals that lead to college success for undergraduates and positive academic involvement for those who teach them.
Professor Staley points to the importance of "flesh and blood activity," the hands-on, kinesthetic approach that explores human activity from the beginning of life until its end. She suggests that students focus upon their major areas of interest while in the Freshman Seminar course, but she also encourages them to explore areas outside their key areas as well. The key element of success for this program is "being in focus." End-of-semester student and faculty evaluations validate that the success rate of Freshman Seminar is commensurate with the reality-base of its content. Participants in the Freshman Seminar program report that their academic success during their beginning college experience is directly related to what they learned while participating in the program.
Professor Staley reaches out beyond the UCCS classroom to establish connections with faculty and staff who wish to establish programs of this kind. Since completing her doctorate, she has written texts that allow teachers and students to explore unique academic paradigm changes. Among them, "50 Ways to Leave Your Lectern" and "Focus on College Success."
Her international bent has taken her and her husband to Kyrgzstan, where they received Fullbright fellowships to teach in the most prestigious university in the former Soviet Republics. Her work is showcased in: http://academic.cengage.com/community/staley and she has presented in myriad national and international conferences.
Professor Staley, "Connie" to her friends, has created an academic legacy that surpasses national boundaries. One of her most treasured experiences is that she presently teaches in Freshman Seminar with a faculty member who is also a graduate of the Freshman Seminar Program. Among the most treasured of her life experiences is the joy she shares with Steve, her children, and their families. If you wish to see Connie Courtney Staley radiate pure energy within and beyond the room, mention her two grandchildren, Aidan and Ailie, and you will not be disappointed. For Connie, the life force is sharing success, and she celebrates it in her professional life and with her "babies". Accolades to Constance Courtney Staley, a master communicator, and a celebrated academic in her field. Brava!
- M
An Interview with Professor Constance Staley
CSR: You have been involved with the field of communication for the past thirty years. How has the discipline changed between then and now?
CS: The roots of the discipline are in rhetoric, espoused by Aristotle. So, there is an underlying constancy to the field. However, over time, the focal issues have changed. Now the emphasis is on specializations such as public relations and global communication.
CSR: What has been the most valuable learning experience of your life?
CS: I enjoy teaching and research. However, a turning point in my life came from my employment at Raytheon in Rhode Island, many years ago when my husband was stationed in the military. I designed and managed their employee-training program. It opened my eyes to how the world outside academia operates.
CSR: You are well known to the academic world for your pioneering work on developing a series of classes called "Freshman Seminar" to introduce college to incoming university and college students. Many universities in the US and around the world have adopted your ideas. What is the genesis of the Freshman Seminar idea?
My husband, Steve, who is a retired Air Force pilot, had worked in the Student Advising Center at UCCS. He also taught a class and used to invite his students to our home for breakfast on the last day of classes. I saw him and his students talk, laugh, hug and cry together. I saw that Steve was able to create the best learning community I have ever imagined. I wanted to formalize and institutionalize what Steve had created.
This led to the development of a class I called the "Mating Game". Professor Tim Tragarthen taught the class called "Introduction to Intellectual Inquiry". The name of his class was long and difficult. We worked together to develop interesting and fun names for classes, but the underlying idea was the same. Freshmen students are often overwhelmed as they move from high school to college. They need to know how to succeed in college and internalize the methods to achieve success.
CSR: When did the Freshman Seminar classes start?
We started with one section in 1992. When I took over the program in 1994, we served 80 students. This year we have more than 700 students with 14 topic areas and 54 sections. More than 75% of the incoming UCCS class is taking a Freshman Seminar section.
CSR: What has made these classes so successful?
A college student has three sets of goals: academic goals, community goals, and personal goals. The students who succeed in college are able to integrate the three sets of goals by focusing on the intersection of the three. I created an activity called "Roadmap to College Success" that requires students to find for themselves what their individual roadmap to college success is. Each student builds a roadmap for him/herself in the beginning of the class and reevaluates the improvements after sixteen weeks of classes. By the end of the class, we hope the roadmap is internalized.
CSR: How do you make the ideas learned by the students more permanent so that they can use them for success in college and life beyond college?
CS: The topics we choose are interesting and are potentially life-changing. For example, in "Life and Death", each student works with an elderly person in the community for the whole semester. The student could help the elderly individual to write a memoir. In "Trial and Error", we have had the District Attorney and a prosecutor come to the class and work on a real robbery case where the students become jurors. We have recreated the Nuremburg trials and the Salem Witchcraft trials as well. We work tirelessly to create a love for learning and to develop balance among the three competing goals I mentioned earlier.
CSR: Please tell us about your published work.
CS: I have written several books, but I am most proud of my latest one. This book, "Focus" contains thirteen chapters, each devoted to an actual UCCS student. This format allowed me to interview these students and discover how they measure their success in terms of their Freshman Seminar experience. Like "Inside the Actors’ Studio" on HBO, I concentrate upon individual students as they experience university life and beyond.
CSR: Tell us about your consulting activities.
I have spoken at hundreds on universities around the world about the Freshman Seminar classes and how what we have achieved at UCCS can be adopted and adapted at other institutions. Many have attended my seminars on how to enable college students achieve their full potential. I believe that making the connection between real life issues and academic success is the key to students’ university success.
CSR:Thank you for taking the time to talk to us today.
CS: I enjoyed it!
- J
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