Tag: communications

Interpersonal Communication

For the first time at JMU, I found a 9:05 class that keeps me truly awake without any head-bobbing or heavy eyelids.

Introduction to Interpersonal Communication with Jennie Rosier. To be honest, at first I chose this class because I needed another 300-level SCOM class to fulfill my graduation requirements. However, I am beyond happy with my choice in picking this class.

The class started with discussing the personal self and then moved onto attachment styles in children and adults, experiencing and expressing emotions, communicating non-verbally, communicating verbally, and listening actively. Currently, we are discussing relationships with romantic partners and I have never learned so much about relationships in my entire life. In fact, I’ve never learned so much about interpersonal communication during my time as a SCOM (School of Communication Studies) major.

Jennie is real. She uses anecdotes of her own family to help explain the concepts we are talking about. Not only that, but she is also incredibly passionate about what she does. It is obvious in her teaching style and her demeanor every morning. I wish I had discovered her classes earlier and not as a second semester senior because I would have definitely taken as many as my schedule would have allowed.

But the class isn’t just useful and fun for me, it’s also incredibly useful. As a future PR professional it is important to know how you are communicating with others non-verbally and what unintentional messages you may be sending out during a meeting with a client. Of course knowing how you are communicating verbally is important as well and I believe I have learned valuable advice and lessons from taking this class.

If I could give any SCOM major any advice it would be to take Intro to Interpersonal Comm with Jennie, not just because she’s an amazing professor, but also because the class is incredibly useful for whatever field they may be going into.

The Final Lap

Having my first last day of classes ever was a weird feeling. With a month-long break I feel like it should be fall semester because I haven’t seen campus in so long. Spring semester always goes by much faster than fall semester for some reason and I hope this year it could slow down for once. I’m excited for my classes to begin even though this semester will be a lot of hard work.

Of course, in all my communication classes we went around the room and introduced ourselves and talked about interesting facts or what we are interested in within the communications major. That didn’t happen in my 70+ max capacity psych class, though. Being a double major is always interesting. I get to see how two different departments work and see the differences (and similarities) between the professors. I’m fortunate in the fact JMU has amazing professors in every department. I am biased towards the professors in SCOM and psych though, because the professors are truly phenomenal.

Yesterday in my psychology of learning class, my professor spent a good chunk of time going over his history with school and how he got to where he is today at JMU. He story consisted of not doing so well his first few years as an engineering major, finding a love for psychology and changing his major. At JMU, he teaches psych of learning, research methods and a senior seminar class. He also has the opportunities to conduct research he is truly interested in. After finding his own passion for psychology and teaching, he studies what makes other people passionate and why they are passionate. He also strives to instill a sense of passion in his students and after one day in class with him I already know it is going to be an inspiring semester to say the least. His enthusiasm for psychology of learning made me interested and focused, even though classical and operant conditioning are not my favorite subjects in psychology.

Today, I had a SCOM professor give similar advice to the class. I feel like passion and enthusiasm are strongly emphasized senior year. It is not that in previous years professors haven’t talked about being passionate, but I’ve noticed as we get ready to leave the JMU nest professors are trying to get us to get over grades and lean more towards actually learning the material and wanting to know more. I have had numerous psychology professors say “If you focus on learning the material, the grades will follow.” Because ultimately, my grades won’t matter one day. People will want to know what I learned, not that I got an A in advanced public relations writing.

So this semester I’m going to focus on learning as much as I possibly can from my classes as well as my professors. This semester I also want to get to know my professors better than I have in the past. Especially my professor studying passions, I hope he can help