Recently we caught up with MPA Fellows alum Beverne Cordner, who serves as a Developmental Services Case Manager at the Connecticut Department of Social Services. Last semester Beverne served as an instructor with the University’s First Year Experience (FYE) program. Learn more about how Beverne ended up teaching at UConn Hartford below!
After expressing future desire to become a university level adjunct instructor to my advisor, Dr. Mohamad Alkadry, he connected me to the FYE program at UConn Hartford. I jumped at the opportunity to volunteer and start building my teaching experience.
I had one of the 1800 sections of FYE. While there are some mandatory FYE course outcomes instructor must present, I reviewed the units, activities, and lesson plans and decided to focus my course objectives on topics that promoted critical and creative thinking skills, self-awareness, and development of time management skills and personal strategic planning. These 3 themes then comprised 3 units divided over the semester.
Teaching was a tremendous experience, although sometimes challenging. I learned a lot about myself and developed my teaching philosophy. I have 3 highlights, one from each unit. I was surprised by student feedback that they enjoyed the personal finance activity and truly appreciated the assigned group activity designed to address inherent biases and develop networking skills. I was thrilled by their response to time management and SMART goal setting.