Every semester, when course evaluations are released, I feel a mix of anticipation and curiosity. I genuinely enjoy reading them. It is meaningful to see how students describe their experience and what they took away from the course. Those comments remind me why I am an educator. And then something predictable happens. I can read 20 positive comments and feel encouraged by them. But one critical comment will often stick with me far longer than the rest. For a long time, I tho

A few semesters ago, a confident young man sat in the first row of my introductory management communication course. He was a valuable contributor to the class and, like most of my students, he was a motivated high-achiever. However, when it came time to deliver his first graded presentation, he froze. He appeared anxious from the start: the way he walked to the front of the room, his body language as he held index cards in his hands, and the uncertainty in his voice when he b

Young people have a sea of college advice available from friends, family, websites, and “expert” coaches. But conventional advice seems to drown out some important points that I wish more young people (and parents) would consider when making the choice about life after high school. If you’ve decided higher education is for you, spend the time to consider what is best for you and resist the urge to conform to external pressures. Select a major and university where the rigor ma

Learning to write well and speak well requires learning a process - sometimes a process very different than the process we currently employ. When helping my students make the transition from academic to business writing we discuss a variety of writing processes. One of the models suggests procrastination is the first step. I’ve never had a student argue this point, and more often than not, students comment that they have trouble getting started on writing tasks. Neuroscientis