Making College “Worth It” – Season 1, Episode 9

In this episode, we visit with Jennifer Eidum, Associate Professor of English at Elon University, and Laura Lomicka, Professor of French and Applied Linguistics at the University of South Carolina, who co-edited The Faculty Factor: Developing Faculty Engagement with Living Learning Communities. They share how living-learning communities can inform students’ college experiences, and they examine the impact faculty can have in campuses’ residential spaces.

View a transcript of this episode.

Meet our Guests

Jennifer E. Eidum (PhD, University of Washington, Seattle) is Associate Professor of English at Elon University. Her teaching focuses on academic writing, Teaching English as a Second Language (TESOL), and sociolinguistics. She has published and presented research on facilitating metacognition in writing classrooms, integrative and experiential learning, and pedagogies supporting language diversity. Her current teaching and research projects focus on integrative reflection in experiential education and anti-racist pedagogy. Until recently, Dr. Eidum served as the Faculty Director of Global Neighborhood, living in a residence hall with her family on the Elon University campus. Dr. Eidum also coordinates the Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) minor and leads the Peace Corps Prep program at Elon University.

Lara Lomicka (PhD, Penn State) is Professor of French and Applied Linguistics in the Department and currently serves as the Interim Vice Provost for Undergraduate Studies at the University of South Carolina. Lara recently served as Faculty Principal of Preston Residential College (2016-2022). In 2020, she was awarded the John N. Gardner Inspirational Faculty Award and in 2011 was honored by the French Government as a Chevalier dans l’ordre des palmes académiques. She is Past President of the American Association of University Supervisors and Coordinators (AAUSC), the Past President of the Computer Assisted Language Instruction Consortium (CALICO), and Past President of the National Federation of Modern Language Teachers Associations (NFMLTA).

Episode Credits

This episode is co-hosted by Jessie L. Moore, Director of Elon University’s Center for Engaged Learning, and Nolan Schultheis, a first-year student at Elon University, studying Psychology with an interest in law. Nolan Schultheis and Jessie L. Moore also edited the episode. Making College “Worth It” is produced by Elon University’s Center for Engaged Learning.

Episode art was created by Nolan Schultheis and Jennie Goforth, managing editor for the Center for Engaged Learning.

Funky Percussions is by Denys Kyshchuk (@audiocoffeemusic) – https://www.audiocoffee.net/. Soft Beat is by ComaStudio.

Learn More about Research Featured in this Episode

The Faculty Factor

Receive a 20% discount on The Faculty Factor at the Routledge site, using the discount code AFL04.

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