2020 Communication Fellows
Nine teachers were selected for the third annual Communication Fellows program in Ohio University’s Scripps College of Communication. Focusing on curriculum development in communication across PK-12 levels of instruction, the program provides funding and mentorship support. Participants develop and implement a communication-related classroom project over the one-year course of their fellowship.
It is a vital goal of our college to foster communication education among the state’s youth and support teachers in innovative and dynamic projects relating to communication. My hope for the Communication Fellows program is to increase our impact on the state by bolstering the communication expertise of PK-12 teachers and enriching the education of their students.
Scripps College of Communication Dean Scott Titsworth
Communication Fellows attend a half-week summer residential experience at Ohio University’s main campus in Athens and receive free tuition for a graduate-level online course, a $1500 stipend and $1000 classroom stipend. Fellows also work with college faculty mentors and college leadership to achieve their project proposals. The COVID-19 crisis may necessitate adjustments to the residential experience for the 2020 cohort.
Elizabeth Crawford
Elizabeth Crawford is a social studies instructor at Collins Career Technical Center. Crawford graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in secondary education social studies from Marshall University, where she also earned a Master of Arts in school library media. She has been the social studies instructor at Collins Career Technical Center since July 2017 and was previously a social studies and science tutor at Dawson Bryant Middle School.
What interested me the most in applying for this program was taking my subject area and getting more technology involved. Government can be very lecture-based, but the skills I will learn through this program will help make it more interactive.
Elizabeth Crawford
Crawford’s project will enable her American Government students to produce videos and podcasts to discuss current government policy and issues while referencing information they have learned in her class.
Students will share factual information with watchers/listeners about current events within our country. They can then make informed decisions about candidates and policies happening around them. Providing students with an outlet to talk about what is happening in their world gives them ownership of producing something others can use.
Elizabeth Crawford
Amanda Fountain
Amanda Fountain is a language arts and communications teacher at Upper Arlington High School. Fountain graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in journalism from Ohio State University where she also earned a Master of Education in secondary integrated language arts. She has been teaching broadcast and communication courses at Upper Arlington High School for 15 years.
Having participated in Ohio University's High School Journalism Workshop a few years ago, Fountain said she appreciated the fellowship it provided high school advisors and the direct connections with Ohio University's faculty.
I witnessed firsthand all of the learning possibilities for students, and it also provided valuable insights that helped me see why Ohio University has a widely recognized reputation for its communication related areas of study. I was excited to learn about the Communication Fellows program and the possibilities it offered K-12 educators to connect with professors while enabling me to pursue a communication passion project that will ultimately enhance student learning at my school.
Amanda Fountain
Fountain’s project involves learning how social media is being leveraged as an effective communication tool among media professionals so students can intentionally harness its capabilities to support newsgathering, reporting and audience research.
Students will have the understanding, tools, and connections to navigate the modern media as consumers and producers. Students will be college and career ready with skills that support cooperation, interdisciplinary human connections, grit, resilience, and success. It is invigorating as an educator to imagine possibilities and then have direct support to develop these aspirations into a tangible outcome that benefits students. I can't wait to learn, connect, research, develop a deeper understanding, and implement strategies that enhance my abilities as a communication educator.
Amanda Fountain
Fountain said the possibilities to develop progressive and relevant learning experiences for her students under the guidance and leadership of OHIO's Scripps College of Communication is “a dream.”
Ryan Novak
Ryan Novak is an English teacher at Kenston High School. Novak graduated from Ohio University in 2007 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in adolescent to young adult education and earned a Master’s degree in curriculum and instruction from Cleveland State University in 2013. He was an English teacher at Brecksville-Broadview Heights High School for two years before he began teaching at Kenston High School in 2010.
As a graduate of Ohio University, I regularly integrate what I learned as a student in communication, English, and journalism classes at OU into my teaching. When I became aware of the opportunity to network with current faculty and continue my professional development, I jumped at the opportunity. In order to truly prepare my students, I think it is important that I continue to stay up to date with the ever-changing media landscape and to interact with as many experts and professionals as I can.My project is a step toward building a media program that allows students to create just about any media product they can imagine. I hope to use the classroom stipend to upgrade the equipment my students use to produce video content. I am especially interested in the opportunity to participate in the residential experience, the opportunity to take a graduate-level course, and to work closely with a member of the Scripps faculty
Ryan Novak
Gary Rogers
Gary Rogers, a computer science and English teacher at Elder High School, was one of the nine teachers selected for the third annual Communication Fellows program in Ohio University’s Scripps College of Communication. Rogers graduated from the University of Cincinnati with a Bachelor of Science degree in graphic design. Before joining Elder High School, he was a graphic design project manager for over 27 years.
As an educator, I am most interested in preparing my students for life after school whether it involves a career in communications or not. Because of my experience in the business world for most of my adult career, I believe that the ability to organize, write and communicate clearly is invaluable in positions across the business world. Besides the immediate experience in researching and producing a project of this scope, especially for my media/communication students, I think that producing a permanent record of the school and its relationship with its neighborhood (that has lasted 100 years) will produce a positive effect in the community. The students themselves will learn more about the development of urban neighborhoods in cities and the changes and stratifications that have occurred over a long period
Gary Rodgers
The project Rogers designed gives his students the opportunity to research, write, edit and produce a documentary about the 100 years the high school has been in existence. The documentary will also give the history of the neighborhood where the school has remained for nearly a century, Price Hill.
Jennifer Rue
Jennifer Rue is an interactive media instructor at Wayne County Schools Career Center. Rue has an Associate of Arts degree in technical study from Kent State University and a Bachelor of Arts in organizational management and leadership from Malone University. Additionally, from Kent State University she earned a Masters of Education in career technical teacher education and is currently enrolled in a Masters of Journalism and Mass Communications program. She has eight years of experience as an interactive media instructor and said she is passionate about preparing students for the workforce through exposure to photography and video production and new technology in the lab setting.
I am a strong believer in fostering growth and development in both myself and my students. This intrinsic desire to grow, combined with a recent conversation with a fellow Business Professionals of America advisory board member, inspired me to apply (for the Communication Fellows program). Working with Scripps College of Communication is an opportunity I would cherish through the rest of my professional career as I assist students in developing authentic podcasts.
Jennifer Rue
Rue’s project involves her junior and senior interactive media students creating weekly podcasts to share with the student body and staff and showcase on the interactive media website and in the schools’ digital yearbook.
With the recent rise in podcast popularity, it’s no surprise that audio narratives are making their way into classrooms. Teaching with podcasts is a fun and engaging way to teach media content, script writing and to sharpen the students’ listening skills.
Jennifer Rue
Tim Ruoff
Tim Ruoff, an English teacher at Norwood High School, earned a Bachelor’s degree in English literature, a Bachelor’s degree in education, and a Master’s degree in secondary education from the University of Cincinnati. He has taught high school English for 17 years, College Composition at Cincinnati State College for ten years, and has been an instructor at Cincinnati State’s Writing Center for 17 years. For the past five years, Ruoff has been teaching AP literature at Norwood High School, and he said he is looking forward to teaching College Credit Plus for the first time in Norwood’s history.
Since I teach mostly juniors and seniors at Norwood High School as well as English Composition, mainly research writing, at Cincinnati State, I know the importance of teaching students media literacy and the ability to complete valid research, as well as integrate it effectively into their writing. The Communications Fellows program gave me an opportunity to put a school-wide media literacy unit together, and I'm looking forward to connecting with faculty at Ohio University and using their guidance to help implement that unit next school year.
Tim Ruoff
The goal of Ruoff’s project is to provide students with the tools to think critically about the media they encounter, use, and communicate with each day and to give them autonomy to conduct research and report their findings in writing and with online presentation software.
All American citizens, not just students, need to think critically about the media that they encounter, use, and communicate with on a daily basis. Providing students with a toolkit in which to think critically about media is essential now in 2020. By giving students autonomy to guide their own research while also teaching them how to conduct research effectively, how to synthesize varied sources of information, how to integrate research into their writing, and how to cite that research correctly – these are all skills that will prepare students for their work they will encounter in college.
Tim Ruoff
Tanner Salyers
Tanner Salyers is a 9-12th grade world history, US Government, and economics teacher with Newark Digital Academy. Salyers graduated from Mount Vernon Nazarene University in 2017 with a Bachelor of Science degree in education and earned a Master of Public Administration degree from Kent State University in 2019. He is a Mount Vernon City Councilman, the assistant director for Knox County Youth Works and the co-founder and director of Knox Summer Manufacturing Camp for middle school students interested in the STEM and manufacturing industry.
This sounded like the perfect opportunity to develop a program around personal and professional mentorship for students that I feel is critical for the successful development for our young people. I’ve worked with at-risk youth as a high school teacher, managed summer work programs, and developed a manufacturing/STEM camp for middle schoolers, and through these experiences I’ve identified this significant need, which is why I proposed the ‘Next Door Mentor’ project.
Tanner Salyers
The podcast project Salyers proposed will give students the opportunity to produce short interviews with local nonprofit leaders, government officials, business owners and people from the community who have experienced success.
The interviews will focus on the journey of the individuals and their path to success and, most importantly, advice that they would offer to students on how to succeed. Students would then develop associated websites and social media accounts to host and publicize the episodes.
Tanner Salyers
Tiffany Scanlan
Tiffany Scanlan is an art instructor at East Guernsey Local Schools. Scanlan graduated from Zane State with an Associates of Science degree in multimedia. She completed her Bachelor of Fine Arts in art education from Ohio University and earned her Master of Science degree in instructional design and technology from Full Sail University. She was previously a substitute teacher in Muskingum County Schools and an art instructor for Tri-Valley Local Schools before spending the last six years as the art instructor at East Guernsey Local Schools.
The goal of my project is to empower our students to achieve their goal. We are working on soft skills with junior students once a month. By incorporating the topics into an existing class, we would be reinforcing and expanding the scope of that project by reaching a wider range of students on a more consistent basis. One class period a week would be set aside to work on the topics, moving forward once the students are comfortable and proficient with the topic, with practice events scheduled once a quarter.
Tiffany Scanlan
Scanlan’s proposal includes eight objectives for her students to expand their soft skills, such as interviewing etiquette and technique, how to give constructive criticism and look at projects from multiple views, personal empowerment/confidence including practices for students to see the best in themselves, and how to market themselves to potential employers. Two others include empathy, teaching students how to connect with people and situations that are different than their experiences, and public service, showing the value of participation.
The students who participate in the class will gain valuable skills that can be used for the remainder of their lives. This should also give them confidence to go after their goals while presenting themselves in a professional manner creating a domino effect of positive change. I am super excited to watch the students gain and strengthen their confidence levels and then apply that to what they want to achieve.
Tiffany Scanlan
Kayla Theis
Kayla Theis is an English III and American literature teacher at Circleville High School. Theis earned a Bachelor of Arts in English and theatre and a Master of Education with a focus on integrated language arts from Ohio State University.
I applied for the Communication Fellows program because I'm always looking for new exciting methods to bring into my classroom. I am thrilled to learn how to incorporate podcasts in my English curriculum in order to increase student engagement.
Kayla Theis
Theis plans to enhance her English class by giving students the opportunity to create podcasts for class assignments.
Students struggle to know how to properly form and communicate their ideas. Argumentative writing is one of the core standards for English, and by creating content for a podcast, this would help students form arguments in a way that is applicable to the real world. By building podcasts into my curriculum, the students’ engagement will increase, and they will see how these skills can transfer to different jobs or skills needed in the future.
Kayla Theis