Please share a brief introduction with the cohort, including your role in the project and the vision you have for it. Thanks!
Hello, my name is Yolanda Savoy, Assistant Professor, College of Health Professions at Coppin State University (HBCU). I am elated to be a part of this cohort. My role in the OER project is co-author to create a robust OER for Health Research and Statistics. My vision is to create a robus, interactive OER textbook that is free or low-cost to our students. This is a general vision, as I am quite sure my vision will continue to evolve throughout this project.
Hi, I’m Elin Waring from Lehman College. I am a sociologist who also works in data science, and currently am co-directing the Step Up program for first year students. I’m working with Bridget Lepore who is the person with the big idea for this project of producing a different kind of college success book.
I think my main vision is that we have a book that faculty at Lehman can use for our new course LEH 250 which is a liberal arts general education course as well as a first year seminar/college success course. We have faculty from many different disciplines and I want them to feel empowered to make the text their own while still having the basic framework that we know students need.
Hi, my name is Regina Castro McGowan. I am a Doctoral Lecturer of Spanish, Portuguese and Black Studies and the Director for the Portuguese Language and Lusophone Cultures at The City College of New York. I am excited to be creating an OER for the Portuguese Language sequence (3 semesters) to be adopted at CCNY. I would like it not only to be free of cost to our students, but also to replace the outdated textbook that for years we have had to use in our PORT classes. I want the book to use the communicative approach of language teaching and to be inclusive of the Brazilian and the European varieties of the language. I also want it to be aware and to culturally represent the rich and varied Lusophone cultures that exist in the Americas, Africa, Asia and Europe.
Hi, I’m Bridget Lepore and an adjunct from Lehman College. I split my time between teaching and supporting first-year students and their faculty and designing learning experiences for non-profit, higher education and workforce organizations. I have been teaching first year college students for nearly 15 years and have found it a bit frustrating how dry and academic college success courses can be- and how little support we offer to faculty teaching students at what should be the most exciting moment of college (ok, graduation is too!). Working with Elin Waring and others who are devoted to building a program to support our students has been wonderful and we’ve begun the process of revamping the first semester experience for our students AND our faculty. My vision is to provide our students and their instructors with the framework for a really engaging learning experience, focused on building reading skills. In many ways, I’ve written this book in my head, in my classroom, and in my dreams and am excited to finally sit down and start.