Cedars, March 2018

March 2018 6 CAMPUS by Zach Krauss P rofessor Jennifer Brown has been teaching in the communication de- partment at Cedarville since the fall semester of 2014, and since she began, she’s been giving students with a fear of public speaking unexpected confidence. Brown gained her experience in speech from Liberty University where she studied communication as an undergrad, and public address and interpersonal organization as a graduate student. She began teaching as soon as she left graduate school and joined Cedarville as an adjunct after hearing about an opening. Brown teaches Fundamentals of Speech online and in-class at Cedarville. She also teaches interpersonal communication and business communication at Sinclair Commu- nity College and at University of Cincinnati. For the three years that she’s been here, Brown has enjoyed the opportunities she has had to further herself as an educator. She said she has a passion for improving herself professionally, and said Cedarville offers great opportunities to meet that end. Brown said she’d love to finish her doctorate sometime in the near future, and she’d love to be able to become a full-time professor soon. She’s had her eye on Cedar- ville since she was in high school when she had a desire to go to Cedarville for college, and she’s extremely glad to be able to pour into students now. “In contrast to a lot of my other expe- riences, there truly is a positive spirit here, and I assume that goes back to our shared faith, but there’s just a camaraderie and a baseline of respect that I’m not accustomed to,” Brown said. “I get to learn about each student individually; I get to see their writ- ing and also hear them speak each day.” Students who have taken Brown’s class say that she makes them feel comfortable with public speaking when they wouldn’t have expected to enjoy the class at all. Sara Mitchell, a freshman geology major, said that Brown’s class structure and style helped her to become better prepared for classes in her major and for later presentations. “Going into the class, I was really ap- prehensive because I really don’t like speak- ing in front of people,” Mitchell said. “I think being in the class with Professor Brown has truly helped me to become more confident in my abilities.” Caleb Pene, a sophomore sports busi- ness management major, also said he dreaded speech class when he entered into college life. “I hated public speaking and I wasn’t looking forward to the class,” Pene said. “She made us comfortable by getting us to introduce ourselves and keep getting expe- rience through impromptu speeches, which made things easier.” Pene said Brown reminded him of his high school English teacher, who made him love English even though he hated it at first. Kaylee Tice, a freshman early child- hood special education major, felt similarly in regard to Brown’s classroom. “I felt like Professor Brown made it eas- ier for each of us to relate to speech in our own major,” Tice said. “She tried to relate to each of her students and let us know how we could use our skills for our best, and I really appreciated that.” Tice said Brown was a truly caring per- son who also made herself available to each of her students no matter what. She said Brown was always there and did her best to understand her students where they were. Brown said she enjoys working along- side students on their advocacy presenta- tion, which is a group presentation required of those who are enrolled in her class. She encourages students to pick their own topic because she said having a passion for what you’re speaking about is extremely important. “I think it can be really eye-open- ing to see what it’s like to be non-white, non-Christian and non-privileged in the United States,” Brown said. “It helps stu- dents to understand how much need there is in the world and what they can do about it.” Because of the nature of her class, Brown interacts with students from all dif- ferent majors, most of whom are new to col- lege life. She enjoys being able to see how students grow over the semester and being a small part of their college background. “Most of all, I want the students to be able to grow in their self-confidence,” Brown said. “I think there’s so much we learn that the students can already inherently do, and I just want them to be more comfortable do- ing those things.” Zach Krauss is a junior pharmacy/music double major from central Texas and cam- pus reporter for Cedars. He loves music, theatre, biology, community, and meeting new people. Speech Professor Gives Students Confidence Photo by Eman Nagib Jennifer Brown has been teaching at Cedarville since 2014 as an adjunct professor.